annais min was the god among mortals, the death that came along with life. now more than ever, she knew the cost of her existence, of what hades had done when he chose to pursue her mother. everything came down to her and the four other min girls, t...
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CHAPTER TWO: HOMEWARD
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IN HER DREAMS, SHE found Jason. Her mother and Ezra must've been taking a rest day, for Jason's sullen face was front and centre in the darkness. He was on the opposite side of her cabin, something bruised and ugly forming in his features. Annais' heart pounded desperately. She couldn't help but think of that moment before death, when she screamed for him over Tartarus.
"Don't you see?" a distant voice echoed, not quite close enough to piece together. Annais recognised it as her own only muffled, like the sound of her heart in her ears had drowned out everything else. "Nothing about this is okay!"
"I never said it was--"
"Then stop trying to make it better," she half-sobbed, half-shouted.
It had been three days since they lost Ezra, Percy and Annabeth. Mel was a complete trainwreck. Hea, on the other hand, didn't seem even remotely affected, as if Ezra was a stranger to her, nothing more. Annais felt frayed, pulled in every direction, and hopelessly scared about the devoted look in Jason's eyes. Like he'd tell her he loved her if he could get a single breath in. As if that wouldn't weigh Annais down more.
Jason Grace was golden, and Annais loved him, and she couldn't do this anymore.
"Look, whatever we are--"
"Whatever?" he scoffed then, jaw clenched. "Annais, you're my girlfriend. That's not just whatever!"
"Jason--"
"Hey, I know you're hurting right now and you're scared and I wish there was something I could do to take that pain away from you," he continued desperately; he knew if he stopped talking, there'd be no saving them. "But breaking up with me isn't going to change that. Okay? It's only going to isolate you from the people you love."
"Like you?" she said when he finally paused. "You think I love you, Jason?"
Jason's face suddenly dropped. "You don't?"
Annais shrugged. Every movement was robotic, rehearsed to the point she felt dead inside. No amount of pleading or tears would throw her off guard. She tilted her head, as if she was bored, and she could feel Jason's heart break from here. He didn't believe her. Still, it hurt.
A sadistic part of her brain seemed to awaken in that moment. Annais felt infinitely better knowing that she wasn't the only one in pain. That someone else also had to suffer with her. That she wasn't alone, hanging from a chasm, weightless with a tether reaching for no one.
"Whatever we are," she repeated, firmer this time. "It's over. I'm sorry."
This time, Jason didn't fight. When Annais turned her back and the door slammed, the world went quiet. Annais sank into the silence and decided not to find a way out.
