Percy Jackson: Gods' Bane (DARK PERCY)

𝕾𝖒𝖎𝖑𝖊 𝖎𝖓 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖋𝖆𝖈𝖊 𝖔𝖋 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖉𝖊𝖛𝖎𝖑 PT. 2

* * *

I feel my head start to nod once again as I try to stay awake.

The bus l'm on hits a deep pothole, throwing my neck forward and giving me painful whiplash. That did the trick I guess.

I groan and look around the bus, rubbing the crick in my neck. Through bleary eyes I see a few tired looking passengers going about their business. Most of them are just on their phones.

And although I'm half asleep and can't fully trust what I see I think I notice a strange glimmer of light in the corner of my vision.
But when I turn it's just a tall girl with short hot pink hair smiling devilishly at me, a flirtatious glint in her brown eyes.

I turn away, but the same chill from before hits me in a nauseating wave. I quickly look back to the girl. She's still there, staring me down.

She flicks her long, curly blonde hair and winks one of her stormy grey eyes at me.

Grey eyes?
I blink and lean back in my seat, rubbing my temple. I thought she had brown eyes. I could have sworn she had choppy pink hair too.

I look back for a third time and there's no one there. I curse under my breath. There was definitely some one right there just a second ago.

Am I actually going insane? Am I just sleep deprived and delusional?

But the chill still haunting me challenges that theory.

Yeah, I don't think that's what this is.

Then what?

As I ponder I watch the dark streets fly by. I see a single person standing in to the side of the lane in front of us, just enough out of the way for us to not hit her. And although I can't hear her I can see that she's laughing maniacally.

She's standing in the middle of the street and laughing insanely. Okay.

My fear begins to grow.

Out of nowhere, a drunken laugh bubbles up from my lips uncalled for.

Why was I worried again?

Suddenly I can't even seem to remember at all. Was I scared for that girl? I can't remember why. It all seems so silly now. More laughter burbles out. I'm crying laughing now.

Everyone on the bus is looking at me and I feel the urge to give them all a hug. How could you not be laughing at a time like this? What worries exist anyway? Wha-

Suddenly everything snaps back into sharp focus and I'm not laughing anymore, I'm crying. Hot tears streaming down my face. Like a knife in my chest, sudden, heart breaking soul crushing loneliness pushes down on me.

I feel disconnected from it all, like I'm watching this all from somewhere far above, the strange unnaturalness of these emotions suddenly jerk me back into reality.

I gasp for breath, back in my own body now.
"What. The. -"
I hear a sharp giggle beside me and whip my head around to face it.

Aphrodite waves.

"Hello again dear!"

Oh gods.

She scoots closer to me, "I hope you enjoyed that little display as much as I did! It is so refreshing to see what love, what I,  can do, right?" She asks brightly. "Don't answer that," she snaps before I can speak. I don't even try, knowing that if I did try nothing would come out.

She continues perkily, "love can make you do all sorts of crazy stuff. Like looking at the face of your lover in the dead of night when you know it'll get you killed. Orrr it can make you throw yourself off of a cliff into LITERAL Tartarus in the name of love. And that's all cute but..."

Her expression darkens.

"You must understand me when I say that love is terribly poetic, Percy, but I am not. Love can literally make you do crazy things.
It can drive you to the very brink of insanity.

Hence, many have called me the goddess of madness. I'm afraid my madness has leaked into you. Figures, with all my dabbling. But I truly am sorry. This prophecy is going to force us to dabble even more."

Out of nowhere she grabs my arm, her eyes dancing on the edge of madness.

"Percy, every god has a side that we try to keep hidden, a cold, evil, ravenous part that we try to cover in glamour and jewels. But the shine of our deity only accentuates our darknesses."

"THINK PERCY!"

She shakes me violently. "Your father is the sire of monsters, the one who brings the hurricanes that kill millions, the one who pretends to abhor the altars of skulls made in his honor until a tsunami happens and it is he who adds to the pile. Your father has the deepest dark of us all."

"But he also has the brightest light in return. You are that light Percy. You are the balance.

"But no mortal can shine as bright as you and expect to not be the most bitter poison in the end. You're not a cure, Percy, you're the poison that will sink Olympus.

"But even the most potent venom can be made into its own antidote. I only fear that by time you realize, it'll be too late."

Aphrodite slowly begins to fade away and as she does I hear her whisper, "will you embrace your poison, or will you be the antidote?"

I look away before Aphrodite blinks out with a flash of white light.

And even though I know I should feel shaken, terrified even, I smile.

At least I won't have to pretend that I don't feel the poison in my veins anymore.

Her mad ramblings haven't stopped me yet.

Next stop: Olympus.

(End of chapter)