"Let Poseidon Drown Me." A PJO Oc Fanfic.

[15] Mortality is a Joke.

— August's POV —

I slowly felt sun rays hit my eyes directly, and the feeling of a blanket covering my body went noticed. It didn't feel like the typical sleeping bag I regularly was accustomed to, I felt myself lying on an actual mattress this time, which made slightly sigh in a mix of relief and worry. Maybe Luke took me with him and was waiting outside for me to finish the job hopefully.

I opened my eyes and instead of the sight of a damp basement or anything, I was met with the familiar blue hue of Poseidon's Cabin, Percy's Cabin. I couldn't even bring myself to get out of the bed, but I did notice that my jacket was hanging from the edge of the bed. I gently reached for the old thing and brought it towards my body, digging my hands into the pockets of it to search for something I had left in there... Until I noticed that it wasn't even inside of the pockets.

I sat up urgently and looked inside of my other pockets in hopes of feeling something, anything, but all of them were empty. As much as I wanted to keep lying down in the bed and let myself rot, this item was much more important. I left the comforting bedside and began to search for it, running through drawers, cupboards, even under the bed, but nothing could be found.

My breath quickened again as I ran a hand through my mess of a hair. This can not be happening. Please, for the love of Gods, I've already gone through enough to deal with any of this right now. I rummaged through more inspectable things until the sound of a door opening caught my attention. I whipped my head around and spotted Percy looking down at my most prized possession.

I stormed up to him and snatched it right out of his hands before looking down at it to see if anything had changed or if he had damaged it. The belonging was a photograph of me and Marceline as kids, probably around five or six at the time. Marceline as a child had a small afro before she gone for braids and a half-smile on her face whilst I had knotty and lighter hair back then, a worried look on my chubby face. We were in front of the foster care building in that photo, and this was just moments after we found out we were being sent off to our first home. The social worker had made us pose despite the fact that we only had a small school bag worth of clothes and a death wish. As depressing as the sight was, it brought comfort knowing that I didn't suffer alone.

However, my attention was brought back on Percy as I realised that he had taken the photo from my clothes, "What the hell were you doing with this, Jackson?! Who gave you the fuckin' right to take this?!" I yelled as both anger and grief filled my body. This was the last thing I had left of Marceline, and I almost lost it to some scumbag who probably thought it'd be funny to take someone's stuff after they lose the only person who loved them.

Percy backed away as he realised how pissed I was, his stupid blue eyes softening at him. I hated whenever they did that. He brought his hands up to prove that he wasn't holding any more of my stuff, "It fell out of your pocket when I was carrying you back— I didn't want you to lose it." He explained softly once he noticed how much I've valued the old photo.

He carried me? Well, that made sense. I didn't faint in his Cabin, after all. I was too tired to even be mad anymore. As much as I wanted to rip this place brick by brick, my bones were giving up on me. I just turned around and flopped onto the bed I was previously lying on, holding the photo closely to my chest. At this point, I didn't want to do anything at all, I didn't want to talk, nor move. I just wanted to cry my eyes out again until I couldn't speak.

Soon, I felt the mattress dip as Percy sat on the edge of the bed I was lying upon. I could just feel his soft eyes attempting to look into mine, but I didn't want to move at all. I felt the blond's hand hesitantly rest on my arm as he tried to show me that he was there, but I didn't really want him around all that much. I just wanted Marceline back, but that was basically impossible at that point. She was probably dead, and I failed to save her.

"I thought you didn't own any photos? When did you take that one?" Percy cut through the depressing silence with his soft voice, his hand gently rubbing my arm in hopes of lifting up my mood. I had to admit, at least he isn't mocking me for acting so ridiculous like mum or dad did whenever things like this happened, but I still felt like crying my heart out until I couldn't breath. Poseidon's son continued to try to slowly get me to look at him, but all I was doing was staring at the photo the social worker took of me and my sister.

"... When we were adopted by our first ever family together. They forced us to smile for the photo, but I didn't. We were six back then." I answered with a broken voice when I kept staring at the polaroid. With all the things me and Marceline shared, that photo was the last thing that survived our adventures, for all the bracelets we made, necklaces we've bought, toys that we stole, they all eventually got burned or broken during our stay in the mortal world

I eventually closed my eyes again as Percy continued to try to comfort me, but all it brought was the reminder that I had no one else left. Marceline was the last person who knew who I truly was, and now she was gone. Luke was right, the Gods were cruel, they were cruel by answering my prayer that I didn't need Marceline. I wished the Gods just struck me down instead of taking away the only thing that I gave a shit about.