𝙄𝙉𝙁𝙇𝘼𝙈𝙀𝘿; heroes of olympus

dark river

HAZEL LEVESQUE
HAZEL is with Hecate, which is rather unnerving with the mist swirling around her feet and the guttering torches everywhere. Frank's firewood is heavy in her pocket.

She almost prefers to be here, though. The alternative is to be on the ship, to see the shadows in Leo's face or the deadness in Nico's eyes. Since Erith fell, he hasn't eaten. He refuses to let anyone change his bandages, either, as if keeping them stuck to his skin as they peel away will bring her back.

It hasn't yet. Hazel wishes it would.

She can't face Leo, either. He can't joke. Every time he opens his mouth he snaps it shut again, as if afraid he's going to cry out if he doesn't quiet himself. There's something frantic in his eyes.

Hazel knows her friends are trying their best. Their best is just simply bad right now.

Annabeth hasn't looked anyone in the eyes since Percy fell. Her hair is tangled and flat against her head. She seems as if she's forgotten how to take care of herself. Maybe she has.

Hazel doesn't know the full story of Annabeth and Percy, or Annabeth and Erith. What she does know is that Annabeth was the only thing Percy remembered when he showed up in New Rome with a goddess on his back, and that Erith was like the sun to Annabeth. The glances of affection the daughter of Athena gave that girl were something to rival the ages.

It makes Hazel's heart squeeze just a little bit. She feels a pain in her arms, as if something is going to come out and kill her now because she thought about Erith or Percy too much. 

Or even Annabeth. Annabeth isn't the same.

None of them are. Jason hasn't smiled. Hazel knows he's trying to be the leader, because that's what he needs to be, because it's all he's ever known. He's keeping it together better than most of them, but even then he's a mess.

And Piper looks like shadows have come and strangled her in her sleep.

Frank is better. He's probably the least affected―he didn't know Percy that long, and he and Erith were always rocky. That doesn't mean he's not hurting, though. Hazel sees it. It's subtle, but he's her best friend. She would know him anywhere.

Hazel has enough to deal with on the ship. It is her job, and Frank's job to keep them together, although Jason insists it's his burden, too. How is it supposed to be his burden when he was attached to Erith at the hip? Hazel can't remember a time that those two ever said a bad word about the other.

The Romans. Perhaps that was a testament to Hazel's character―is she cold-blood? Heartless? She isn't sure. Maybe that's good now.

Everyone on the ship would say otherwise. They think she's fragile. Frank is the only one that truly knows better, but she supposes the others are learning.

Then again, Percy knew better. He treated her like a little sister. She's always had Nico, but he's always been so brooding, so lost in his own memories.

She understands that. But they are very different. And she knows she's just a replacement for Nico's other sister―the dead one.

She misses Percy a bit too much to bare. She feels like she's being poisoned every time she thinks of him.

So when Hecate gives her those three pathways, she knows which one she has to pick. Because Percy, with his sharp eyes and sea salt smell and kind words could not die. And neither could Erith, with her brilliant smiles and her mess of hair and her green eyes that were so out of character.