Outcast (a Percy Jackson AU)

Living On Ice

Thalia
My mom kicked me out of her house when I started to hallucinate. At first, I just saw little things that no one else noticed. When I told people about what I saw and they looked at me with confused expressions, I learned to be quiet. Then, the hallucinations got worse. Sometimes, I can't tell if I'm awake or asleep. I'm scared that I'll do something and be killed, but it would be easier that way because all I see around me is killing me.
The day is was cold with a wind that bit through my gaunt, stick-thin frame like a knife carving a pumpkin. My skin stung from the flays of the harsh, bitter cold and I squinted my eyes to try to forget this. It's just a nightmare; it's just a nightmare.
I gasped as I opened my eyes. I saw my brother, Jason, who I haven't seen in the ten years I've lived on the streets. He's was being mugged by an angry man. I hear his high pitched screams and I flinched at the sight of blood blossoming from his back. "No!" I scream. "Let him go!"
I ran at the angry man and tackled him. I must protect my brother. All I can think of is saving him. I can't let him get hurt. I felt the whip cutting into my shoulders, but I gritted my teeth and bore the pain. I've felt worse pain than this. I have gone weeks on barely anything more than air. This is nothing.
The pain in my shoulder blades reached a heightened frenzy and a loud scream flies out of my gaping mouth. My lips were chapped and bloody from the cold air and the only warmth I feel is the sickening embrace of blood. "Jason," I said as I ran up to him. "Jason? Are you alright?"
I touched my fingers to his neck and I felt nothing. I started to sway in panic. It's too much. The pain is too much for me. I felt like the weight of the world is crashing onto me. "No!" I scream. "I'm sorry, Jason. I should never have left."
I woke up in a pile of soggy leaves. My hair is tangled and my eyes stung. Suddenly, the memories flooded back to me in a torrent of rain. Was it real? That was the problem with hallucinating: you couldn't trust yourself anymore and that was truly terrifying.

Frank
I woke up in my bed. The day was gray and stormy like the music in my heart. I did not see a reason for getting up. With my mom gone, there is none at all. All I can do is try to act like the pain doesn't exist, but it always came back to bite me harder than ever. I must have eventually fallen asleep again because my nightmares were plagued with my mother's death.
I was walking with my mother to the marketplace. "Are you ready to bargain for our dinner tonight?" my mom asked me.
A smile rose onto my face. "Of course, mother," I said in a giggling voice.
"Your father would be very proud of you," my mother said.
I looked at my muddy shoes that were falling apart. My father had been a village hero who had died in a battle with a rival village. His life was taken from us way too soon. My mother said he would have wanted to die that way, in battle, but I sometimes wonders if she said that to reassure herself or I.
I looked at my mother and gave her a faint smile. It was the last one I'd ever give her. The calm, busy air of the marketplace have way to fear and panic as a bomb exploded. I screamed as I saw a stall turning to dust. The crowd ran in panic like stampede of wild zebras.
In panic, I realized that I had no idea where my mother was. "Mom!" I screamed.
I whipped around to the sound of my mother screaming. I saw her in an instant and locks gazes with her. Her eyes seemed to say "I love you." Then, she crumpled, blood gushing from her neck.
I woke up with a blanket of sweat enveloping my body. With a pang, I remembered my mother's death. I knew it was my fault. I should have stayed by her side. I sighed and buried myself into the covers, trying to forget reality.

Nico
   I remember when I first told my sister, Bianca, about my sister. She looked at me with huge, scared eyes that resembled a deer that saw a hunter with their pack of dogs. She gently wrapped her arms around my shoulders and leaned in. Her warm breath was hot against my ear. "Don't ever tell anyone that again," she said in a voice that was filled, not with disgust and anger, but with fear at the thought that she might lose me.
   I was young then; at only eight years old I realized I had my first crush. The problem was that I liked a boy: Percy Jackson. In our country, that was not only unthinkable, but also illegal-and the punishment was death. To make it worse, my dad, Hades, was the local executioner. He would have to kill me if anyone found out. Bianca never told him.
I remember crying for days in my room when I realized that what I was was forbidden-a curse to be ignored and shunned. If I let my temptations take over me, I wouldn't have a future because my voice would be silenced from a bullet to the head, a noose around the neck, or at the hands of an extremely violent and blood-lusty crowd. I learned to bury my urges and hide them, but they never went away.