Gone Girl.¹

𝟬𝟭𝟳. the big prophecy

gone girl.
━━━ chapter seventeen

❀

Annabeth handed Percy the parchment and he began to read the Prophecy. Around him, everyone went quiet. "A half-blood of the eldest dogs..."

"Er, Percy?" Annabeth interrupted. "That's gods, not dogs."

"Oh, right," he said. He was clearly so nervous that it affected his reading. It happened a lot to Amaryllis as well, one of the many wonders of being a demigod with dyslexia. "A half-blood of the eldest gods... shall reach sixteen against all odds..."

He hesitated. Amaryllis remembered how she felt the first time she heard the Prophecy. Hades insisted that she should know what she was dealing with from the start, so he had shown it to both her and Nico. It wasn't one of the good memories.

"And see the world in endless sleep... the hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap."

"Percy," Chiron urged. "Read the rest."

"A single choice shall... shall end their days. Olympus to per-pursue-"

"Preserve," Annabeth said gently. "It means to save."

"I know what it means," he grumbled. "Olympus to preserve or raze."

The room was silent. Finally Connor Stoll said, "Raise is good, isn't it?"

"Not raise," Silena said. Her voice was hollow, but Amaryllis was startled to hear her speak at all. "R-a-z-emeans destroy."

"Obliterate," Annabeth said. "Annihilate. Turn to rubble."

Percy looked like he wanted to throw up. "Got it, thanks."

Everybody was looking at him - with concern, or pity, or maybe a little fear. Amaryllis thought it was cruel to make Percy read the prophecy that they all thought meant that he was going to die in front of other people. When Amaryllis had first read it, she remembered sobbing at the realization that she was going to die. Of course, time had passed, so she had accepted it. She was a daughter of Hades after all, what kind of fate would be more suitable for her rather than death?

But Percy didn't know anything about Hades' plan. He didn't know that Amaryllis was planning on being the hero of the Prophecy. He thought he was the only child of the Big Three that it could be referring to, he thought he was going to be the one to die.

Chiron gazed at him sadly. The guy was three thousand years old - he'd seen hundreds of heroes die. He might not like it, but he was used to it and he knew better than to try to reassure him.

"Percy," Annabeth said softly. "You know prophecies always have double meanings. It might not literally mean you die."

"Sure," he said. "A single choice shall end his days. That has tons of meanings, right?"

"Maybe we can stop it," Jake offered. Amaryllis looked at him curiously. "The hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap. Maybe we could find this cursed blade and destroy it. Sounds like Kronos's scythe, right?"

"Perhaps we should let Percy think about these lines," Chiron said. "He needs time-"

"No." He folded up the prophecy and shoved it into his pocket angrily. "I don't need time. If I die, I die. I can't worry about that, right?"