[2] 𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐈𝐓 𝐃𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐘 , p. jackson , j. grace

xvii. i explode

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN ───────────
✧₊˚｡({  I EXPLODE  })

" bird set free SIA "

{ ROMA }
JULY 18TH, 2010
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THERE WERE A LOT OF terrifying things that Roma had witnessed in her life. A massive snake trying to bite her leg off, the Titan Krios trying to kill her friends and family, her best friend going missing during the night, walking in on her brother naked dancing in his room. But nothing will ever amount to the terror she feels just staring up at the humanoid form of Tartarus himself. The Death Mist had fallen from her form, revealing her true human self. But she doesn't feel human. This experience doesn't even feel real. Is she dead? That would make more sense than this.

          She's dimly aware of the thousands of monsters swirling around her. She can't find it within herself to care. The entire crowd has fallen silent, terrified of putting even a toe out of line. Since the Death Mist had dissipated, the monsters should have been swarming their carcasses by now. But instead, they wait for their master to act. They wait for their imminent death.

          But the odd thing is, she can't take her eyes off him. This large demonic swirling figure so sure to kill her and the one she might just care about the most in the world. She can't help but be amazed. Terrified but amazed. The thought that someone can hold this much power and that this form is only a small portion of that power is too much for her mind to comprehend. It rattles her to no end, sickens her to her stomach, trembles the very bones in her body.

          This whole place is him. There is no escaping him. Even if they tried.

          But would they? Roma likes to think she wants to. But then she hears the clatter of a sword. She feels it in slow motion. The way the blade slips from his hand so helplessly and lands with a foreboding echo on the rocks━on him. And with the bronze goes her courage, her pride, her reason for being. Her heart still pounding ferociously in her chest drops down the chasm of her body. She can no longer feel anything. She can't even look at him. If she sees the terror written across his face she might just die. She might fall to her knees, cower beneath the lord's wrath and presence.

          The nightmare becomes tangible, reaching forward with such violence laced in its glittering black blood that her entire body trembles with fear.

          Roma can't even let a sound be made. Even as he grasps for Percy━for her boyfriend. She can't move her stare from straight in front of her. It takes all her might to keep her sword from joining Riptide amongst the ruins of the rocks.