Dealing with Drama

A Moonlit Monster

AN: Hehe, sorry for the late update again. As I keep saying, real life is really killing meeeee.

Time: Night Before Last Chapter

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow would mark the third anniversary of Annabeth's death, just another one of his endless list of failures. And his biggest failure.

Percy drew his knees closer to his chest, staring out of the open glass door at the world outside, wondering where everything went wrong.

It was not like he hated his current life, far from it, in fact. It was just that... he had all these duties and burdens just thrown on his shoulders without a moment's notice, like a giant curveball life decided to pitch at him. With every passing day, with every nightmare some mortal had in the world, every time anyone died of despair, just more was added to the emotional burden he had to carry, making his heart grow heavier, colder by the day.

He didn't want to be like that.

He wanted to be just Percy. The little abused boy who was lucky to survive another day, the little boy who lived for his mother, the boy with only one friend. The boy with more problems than anybody else in the world, the boy who went unnoticed everywhere.

Percy rested his chin on his knees, trying to derive some warmth as the cold, nocturnal breeze buffeted him, ruffling his messy raven hair.

He didn't ask to be this. Being Percy Jackson was good and all, but it took away the charms of living, when you had to be there for the entire world. When everybody looked up to you, even your lovers. Nobody understood.

They said they did, but they didn't. Nobody ever did. You can't understand something like that unless you live through it. They meant well, but they couldn't offer a shoulder to him.

Not that Percy ever asked them for their help, either. He was too proud to even reveal any of his weaknesses, even to his own family. No, he was their dom, they accepted him as their master, and he had to be strong. For their sake. He had to protect them.

He was a Dark god, made to destroy.

Fuck.

Percy wiped the lone tear that rolled down his cheek, leaving only a damp smudge on the back of his hand.

His sea-green eyes wandered back out to the world outside, bathed in moonlight. Beautiful and serene, asleep and quiet, without any of the worries that tortured Percy every waking moment, like an endless fever dream that made him feel like everything was far away, as if life was a third-person RPG he was cursed to play eternally, with no sleep not rest, no wakefulness nor any consciousness about himself.

He watched the calm waters of the pool glisten silver under the full moon, gentle ripples caused by the slight breeze and the occasional leaf falling in the water. The leaves of the shadowy palms rustling and swaying with mysterious, soothing whisperings, standing guard over vacant deck chairs placed around the pool, eternally holding an umbrella over whoever decided to take a swim. In the distance, the ocean reflected the bright silver orb of the full moon in frothy waves that crashed on the sandy beach, creating a white haze of noise that only added to the surreal feeling, the endless stretches of ivory sands not too unlike the endless plains of glass that Percy had encountered in Tartarus.