𝕚𝕧𝕪; annabeth chase

ix.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

madelyn was no stranger to grief.

of course, who was? no one person in the world can truly say they have never felt sad. the fickle feeling seeps its way into everyone, after all. whether it's small, the type that makes you feel down, but disappears after a while. sometimes it blossoms into something bigger, where even the sun feels sad. where you wonder if life is truly worth living, if this is what it is all about.

grief was the base of all things. in all the greatest love stories, tragedy is always the secret to it's famousness. the story of patroclus and achilles wouldn't be so popular if it wasn't so gut wrenchingly heartbreaking. 

up until now, maddie had thought that she knew what sadness felt like. what it felt like to lose, to give up hope. clearly, she was wrong. and losing bianca made her realize just how much a heart could break.

they hadn't know each other long, and yet, losing bianca felt like losing a very close friend. when maddie realized that the girl was well and truly gone, she didn't know what to do with herself. zoe had collapsed in tears, thalia had stormed off in a rage, percy kept insisting that she wasn't dead, that they had to keep looking, but maddie just stood there, lost. her systems seemed to have shut down.

she felt numb. 

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

it was stupid. so stupid maddie wanted to laugh. one shall be lost in the land without rain, the prophecy had said. and yet they had stayed in that damn desert, and low and behold, bianca was gone.

it took them a while to carry on. zoe had cried for a while, until maddie had taken the initiative to wrap an arm around the girl and gently lift her to her feet. they had held onto each other as they walked to the edge of the dump and found a tow truck. 

thalia drove. she seemed the less stunned out of the five of them. zoe sat up front, leaving percy, maddie and grover to squish onto the pickup bed. maddie sat in the middle, her head resting on her brother's shoulder, staring straight ahead and sniffling every so often.

"it should've been me," percy whispered suddenly, his voice cracking. "i should've gone into the giant."

maddie wanted to yell at him, ask him if he had gone delusional, but she couldn't find the strength to move. 

"don't say that!" grover spoke before maddie could. "it's bad enough annabeth's gone, now bianca . . . do you think i could stand it if . . ." 

he sniffled. "do you think anybody else would be my best friend?"

"ah, grover . . ."

"i'm . . . i'm okay."

they relapsed into silence again. maddie's eyes were fixed on the hazy blue sky. she wasn't usually one for praying, but she found herself beseeching to the gods with everything in her. she prayed that hades would grant her into elysium. she prayed to athena for guidance towards annabeth. she prayed to hermes for a safe travel. she even found herself praying to ares, in hopes that they wouldn't have to fight anything as big as talos.

at the edge of a river canyon, their truck ran out of gas. just as well, because the road had cut off completely.

just as thalia jumped out of the car, one of the tires blew. "great. what now?"