Melpomene (PJO)

12. Kill your Past

TW: Gaslighting, emotional manipulation, forced assisted suicide. For those who don't want to read this kind of subject matter, you can message me (if you're comfortable) and I'll tell you what happens in this chapter instead. Happy reading.

On an unrelated note, I just want to say that I love my Mum. She helped edit nearly all of Kalliope and she rocks.

- Meadow

Mari tore her eyes open and groaned. She was in a tunnel with shiny tiled walls. The labyrinth. Why was she back in the labyrinth? Her head felt as if it had been peeled open like an orange and her brain had been all mushed around. She tapped her fingers to her forehead and was met with rough fabric. A bandage. What happened? The last thing she remembered was talking to Naomi, and then...

She shot up, looking around.

"Hello, Frankie."

Mason was sitting on the other side of the corridor, twirling Drys around his left hand. "This is very pretty. Didn't Oak give it to you? Oak was always good. Much better than Thistle, who let you die. Don't worry, you don't have to be scared of Thistle anymore. And I'll give this back to you, when I can know for sure that you won't try to hurt me with it."

Mari wondered if she was supposed to feel happy he was here. All she'd wanted last winter was the chance to talk to him. To explain what Luke had done. That had blown up in her face, but Mari would have sold her sketchbook for a single rusty penny if it meant she could talk to Mason last winter. But now all she could feel was tired. Of all of this. Of him. Of herself, maybe. And when she opened her mouth, it wasn't to talk about what Luke had done, or what could have made Adela hate Mason so much.

"How did you find me?" Mari asked. "What did you do to Naomi?"

"Naomi this, Naomi that," Mason sneered. "Stop talking about her. She never should have gotten involved. I promise you, she doesn't give a crap about what happens to you. She's probably glad you're here, and she doesn't have to worry about you bothering her anymore."

Mari looked down at her lap. He wasn't right, was he? Naomi had said she cared about Mari. She'd said it a whole bunch of times. Naomi had let Mari stay with her. She'd spent time with Mari. Actual, meaningful time. When she really didn't have to and Mari would have been just fine on her own. Naomi had stayed with her anyway, and was nice. But what if Mari was wrong? Maybe Naomi was just being polite. Mari was Will's sister, after all. Naomi would be nice to her son's sister. Was that all it was?

"I- people care about me, Mason." Mari wrapped her arms around herself, looking away.

"Of course they do," Mason agreed. "I care about you, Frankie. Now." He pulled Mari to her feet and brushed off her shoulders. "You feeling alright? The head doesn't hurt too much, does it? I don't know how long we're going to be walking."

Without waiting for an answer, he clamped an arm around Mari's upper back and began to walk, dragging her with him. It almost reminded her of how Lee would sling his arm over her shoulders during Capture the Flag. But that always made her happy. This made her feel trapped.

"Stop calling me that!" Mari snapped. "Please, stop calling me that."

Mason walked on as if he hadn't heard her. "If your so-called friends cared about you so much, then wouldn't they be honest with you? I heard what you were saying to that Naomi woman in the Iris-message, Frankie. You had no idea where I was, did you? Or you would have been running out of there with all of your little friends. You thought I was on the Princess Andromeda the whole time. But I was in Texas. And your idiot brother and your little death-spreader friend-"