Luke Castellan xOC
Once I had wondered what was holdin' up the ground
But I can see that all along, love, it was you all the way down
(completed 10/2/24)
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august slipped away
into a moment in time
⋆₊ ⋆☼ ⁺₊⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆
Andromeda
Andromeda sat on the jagged rocks of Zeus's Fist, the wind tugging at her hair, carrying the familiar smell of pine and damp earth. The sky was a bruised shade of purple, the rising sun casting long shadows across the camp. She barely noticed the cold bite of the stone beneath her, lost in her own thoughts. Her backpack sat a few feet behind her, half-open, its meager contents spilling out.
It had been weeks since Luke had disappeared through that tear in the sky, since everything had changed. Since she let him go.
The soft crunch of footsteps on the gravel caught her attention. She didn't turn. She knew who it was.
Chris Rodriguez lowered himself onto the rock beside her, his movements slow, deliberate. He didn't speak right away, just sat there, looking out over the trees, like he was trying to see what she was seeing. He held something out to her, wordlessly.
A cigarette.
She stared at it for a moment, then took it with a sigh. Chris lit it for her with a flick of his lighter, then lit his own. The first drag felt harsh in her throat, and she coughed, but the burn was strangely grounding. The smoke curled into the air between them, hanging like a fragile veil.
"You all packed?" Chris asked, his voice rough but soft. He never was one for small talk, always cutting straight to the point.
Andromeda nodded, gesturing vaguely to her backpack. "Didn't have much to take," she muttered. Her voice sounded distant to her own ears, like she was speaking through a fog. She felt like she hadn't spoken in days. She had been isolating herself. She didn't want to be around others. Maybe it was her imagination, but she thought she saw people staring and whispering about her. Luke's girl. So she stayed away. She took another drag, feeling the tension in her shoulders ease, but the weight in her chest remained.
Chris glanced at the bag, his brow furrowing slightly. "You're really doing it, huh?" he asked. "Leaving camp."
She didn't answer right away. She wasn't sure she had an answer. After everything that had happened, leaving felt... inevitable.
"Yeah," she said finally, staring at the horizon. "It's time."
Chris exhaled a stream of smoke, watching it swirl and dissipate into the breeze. "You think you'll come back?"
Andromeda shook her head. "Not for a while, at least. Not after..." She trailed off, the words hanging in the air between them, unfinished.
