A Second Life

4. The Final Straw

Percy

I took Nico to a place on the beach where I'd been meaning to take Annabeth. Me and her had been drifting apart and I thought a date would be able to fix it. I was wrong.

Me and Nico were just playing with the water, trying to stop ourselves from falling apart - hopelessly trying to stay put together when our minds were breaking us, when we heard it. A group of campers. I recognised quite a lot of the voices. And they were talking about us.

I sent Nico away immediately, telling him I'd pack up and bring the rest of the stuff.

"They need to be put back into their places." An Ares' camper.

"I agree. They are too powerful. Logan coming here was a gift from the Fates. We need someone we can trust. If we can control Logan, we control Percy and Nico." A Hermes camper.

"Percy mistreated Annabeth so much. She looked half-dead until yesterday. Until Logan." Drew spoke up.

"Now it's equal. We have 3 children of the Big Three at camp. We are safe."

I felt my heart shatter. Slowly, but surely. I couldn't listen anymore so I got up. I stayed behind the tree line, in hopes I could sit at the edge of the shaky boardwalk like I always do.

I looked up to see Annabeth and Logan sitting on the edge. Their legs were slightly above water, just about skimming it. His hand was around her waist. She didn't protest. He pressed a kiss into her temple, and although I couldn't hear her, I could basically picture her giggle as I stood there. And the funny thing was, Drew had been right. Annabeth's skin was practically glowing, and she looked young and happy and not at all like she had been through 2 wars. She looked like she once had, a long time ago. Maybe back when we started to date. I can't remember if I ever made her that happy.

Watching them just hang around, watching the sunset, where I would be, hurt. It hurt seeing her happier without me.

I felt loneliness trickle deep into me. I felt pieces of me start to break apart; the mirage of being completely put together started to fade. I was barely holding on as it was, how was I meant to hold myself together? I was like one of Gabe's broken beer bottles. I felt like I was glued with some cheap glue he had got. He made me take that as a water bottle to school until one of my teachers asked me about it at a Parents' evening which Gabe had been forced to go to. I promptly got expelled for some reason that week.

A sort of floating hysteria bubbled up inside me. I wanted to cry and scream and throw a tantrum. Yet I wanted to curl up into a ball and take a vow of silence.

I made my way to the Hades' cabin, the sound of sobbing growing louder with each step I took.

I saw why as soon as I entered his cabin.

It must have been the Hephaestus kids. It couldn't have been anyone else. There was a huge hologram projecting from a cylindrical gadget of sorts. In the middle stood Bianca.

The hologram scoffed, Bianca's delicate features twisted into a dirty sneer. "Did you ever think I loved you? What a joke. Why do you think I chose the hunters? You were suffocating to be near. I had to fucking babysit you for almost a century. I was sick of you."

Then Reyna spoke, "You don't deserve to live." Her voice held so much venom I'd have been fooled if you told me it was real. "You had my help and couldn't shadow travel only 40 of us. You're the reason I died. You are the reason all of us did." Then blood curdling screams of pain and torment were played again and again, as the final cries of, our friends, of Reyna, Zoe, Bianca, Luke, Ethan, Beckendorf, Silena, Michael voices I knew but didn't know the names of were played - the last few probably because of my appearance. It hurt much, much worse than most pain I had felt.

I held back tears as I grabbed a duffel bag, stuffing anything remotely useful inside. I grabbed a piece of paper and Riptide, scribbling some final words furiously. There must be someone out there who would care enough to check.

Nico

I could barely register Percy barge into my cabin. I could hear my soul mourning, the very essence of me shattering in despair as I sobbed, tears streaming down my face. I grabbed at my ears but they wouldn't shut up. There were so many voices, each one screaming at me, each hand clawing at me, blaming me for their deaths. Each one holding me accountable for all their pain.

I fell into unconsciousness after that point, the pain overwhelming my senses, the deaths too much for me to bear alone. I hadn't carried the world on my back like Percy had, but the burden of death was crushing me too.

But I should have noticed. Even while floating through stages of consciousness, I should've known leaving camp we would have enemies. That the border was our only protection. I should have noticed the moment I saw Percy's eyes glaze over. I didn't. I was so stupid.

But it hurt so bad. We had fought wars with these campers, we had mourned over our best friends, our families' blood being shed on this very ground. We had held funerals and burnt shrouds of our loved ones here. This was my home. The only place where I would ever belong.

I was a coward. I was leaving before they even did anything remotely bad. All I had heard so far was a few schemes, and this hologram. I heard the rumours of Annabeth and Logan. It had only been a week. What had we done so wrong? My thoughts blurred into a incoherent mess, drowning me in a sea of darkness.

'I feel like I'm drowning, being pulled under by waves. Except this sea isn't made of water. It's made of hopelessness and despair, and no matter how fast I swim, the dark flood always pulls me back in.'