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𓆩ꨄ︎𓆪
WELL, ELIA HAD DECIDED she was definitely not a fan of forced proximity.
The cell she and Percy were shoved into had no doors and no windows— just four walls and a ceiling, caging them in together. Alone.
"Shit," Elia grumbled, pinching the bridge of her nose to try and slow the bleeding. Her head was ringing and her ears ached, longing to breathe, so she reached up with her other hand and tugged out her hearing aids, shoving them in her pockets.
Percy looked like he wanted to punch something— he was staring at the wall like it might be his first victim. "I'm gonna kill that kid."
It was quiet enough in the cell that Elia could hear him well enough without her ears in. "Definitely," the blonde agreed, and the shadows in the corners flickered restlessly.
It was silent for a long moment, something tense sitting in the air between them. Elia slid down the wall to sit on the stone floor, feeling her nose slowly stop bleeding. She tried to wipe away the crimson on her upper lip with the sleeve of her hoodie.
Slowly, carefully, Percy sank to the floor to her right, pressing his back to the wall. He was a foot away from her, but the space felt like a mile as he began quietly, "What Hades said. About—"
The daughter of Apollo looked over at him, an ironic smile tugging at her mouth. "My Fate?"
Percy swallowed, fidgeting with the sleeve of his white long sleeve. "Yeah."
Elia breathed long and slow, mindlessly rubbing her thumb over the seam of her jeans. "I don't know," she admitted. "I don't know what it means, any of it."
"But you have an idea."
"One that scares me."
Percy leaned closer, his green eyes prying in that gentle way they always did— like he could tear open her ribcage with his bare hands and pull out all her secrets in fist-fulls. "What?"
Elia was quiet. How was she supposed to explain it? I think I'm going to die, and I figure I'll just let it happen? She'd sound insane.
"Elia?" he tried again, inching closer.
She ran her tongue over her teeth. "A couple months ago, I was out in the woods and Ethan found me." It was a deflection, in truth. A way to talk around it.
Percy tensed next to her, his jaw ticking slightly, but he didn't say anything, waiting patiently for her to continue.
The blonde gave a half-hearted shrug. "He gave me the usual bullshit. How I should join Kronos, how it's so fun being brainwashed. But he kept saying if I went with him, I'd be okay. Free from my Fate. It didn't tempt me, at all, really, but it..." She trailed off, frowning when words didn't come to her. "I don't know. I'm not making any sense."
