Try To Be Okay (Perleo) (LeoxPercy) (PJO)

Making Wishes In The Dark

Lucia

We tracked the call. At grandma's for the weekend for her birthday. California.

He was about a 5 minute drive away.

So Mom, Grandma, Grandpa, Dad, and then Uncle Steve, along with myself left and got there. Luke was on his knees, trying to talk to a guy that was 18. I've seen him on the news a lot. Percy if I remember right. He went missing a few times. But this guy was horrible. Scars covered his arms and legs all I could see. He had a single tattoo on his forearm I couldn't make out totally. He had a split lip and he had clenched his fist with enough pressure that his hand was bleeding along with having bloody knuckle. But Luke was right. It was terrible. This guy looked like he was already dead. But he was breathing sure enough.

And then it hit me.

He's 18.

What the hell could happen that bad at such an age?

Luke didn't look too bad. He had a nasty scar on his face but that was about it. I imagine he got into a street fight on the run or something like that.

"Breathe." He calmly told this guy. How he's calm is beyond me. "It'll be okay. I'll bring you home or to camp or wherever the hell you need to be. Because chained up here you'll go mad, and we don't need that. We've had enough of that for a lifetime."

He found the key and goes to unlock it and he touched it and if burned him.

"Shit!" Luke said. "They seriously... Wow. Okay, great. I have to do this without touching the metal."

A few years ago, looking for Luke, I got into a fight with somebody. And they lost.

I killed them.

They ruled it out a suicide. Nobody knows. That guilt alone... I haven't dared try to anger or upset anyone since.

Eventually he got it undone with a few burns. Not huge of anything. And he picked up this guy, walked right past us, put him in shotgun, and came back to grab a few things.

He was walking out and I said out of nowhere. Nobody else in the room. Mom and everyone else already gone.

"I killed a man once."

It was silent for a moment.

"I stopped counting."

And he walked away.

°^°
Luke

He never said where he wanted to go, and I have no idea where his mom lives, so I brought him to my place. I've been back like a month. Got my life together before I dare showed my face to anyone at Camp. It was about a 18 hour drive. He was up about 12 hours of it. Passed out by the time we got there. Up in Montana. A couple acres, it was a really nice place.

I slept for about 6 hours when we got back and he woke up not even an hour after I did. Not really saying anything. Or doing anything. Nibbling on what he took for breakfast. It was better than not eating. But it wasn't anywhere close to even considerably enough. But baby steps, right?

Most of that day was spent in the living room, on the huge ass couch. He was nuzzled into my chest. Didn't really say a whole lot but. If it kept him calm of whatever, I don't know. But it worked.

I was awoken the next morning by my phone.

Lucia.

I did answer.

"H... Hello." I answered and looked at the time. About 9. I went to bed around 2 so.

"Hey..." He sounded worried. And a bit scared. And also nervous. "I know that we've only really talked once but you deserve to know."