The Beast with Sea Green Eyes

Chapter 3

Percy pov

It's official. I've lost all hope. Who in their right mind would ever love a creature like me. I'm hideous, inside and out. The grey rose has a mere 20 petals left, at this rate my fate will be sealed in a matter of 2 months.

I deserve my fate. 3 years ago I could have let that girl in. But I didn't, I was cruel to her. She seemed harmless, just a tired girl no older than myself, with fiery red hair and green emerald coloured eyes. I think she said her name was Rachel. She was simply seeking shelter from the thunder storm that night. I had no reason to do what I did.

My name is Perseus Jackson, son of Poseidon and Sally Jackson. King and Queen of this land. But I hardly deserve the title of prince. I was heartless, cruel, and bitter. Now looking back at it, the most unsettling part wasn't my behaviour. It was the fact that I enjoyed doing it. I had found pleasure in doing what I did to people. I would treat them like objects. Like their one purpose was to serve me and nothing more. They were my friends, the closest people in the world to me. And I treated them like dirt.

I hadn't always been like this. I was a kind and funny person. After both my parents passed away, something snapped in my brain. I couldn't find it in me to be kind. I guess you could say I never truly learned to process my grief. I started lashing out at my friends. They were simply trying to comfort me. They had always been good to me, and I drag them down with me. What type of friend am I.

I looked outside the window to see the sun starting to set. Thank the gods.

I walked to the spot on the balcony. The sun had finally set and now some of my friends had shown up as well. Piper, in the form of a hand mirror.  Leo in the for of a blacksmiths hammer. Hazel in her form of a jewel, similar to the ones in the family treasure. Frank in the form of a suit of armour Jason in the form of a golden spear. And Thalia in the form of a silver bow.

They had a greater punishment than me. If I couldn't break this curse, they would become ordinary inanimate objects. The people I once knew gone forever. And I would be the one responsible.

I looked at myself in the reflection of Piper's mirror. My soul was not half as ugly as I looked now. The only thing the enchantress let me keep from my human form was my eyes. They are sea green, they used to be vibrant and full of life. Now they are just dull orbs staring back at a man who might never truly be complete.

I was a greenish blue colour covered in scales on my back and limbs. I had fins instead of normal ears. My feet and hands were webbed. I looked like a sea monster.

But as the moonlight hit my back I felt a familiar tingling sensation. I started to glow a bonze-ish colour, as did my friends. I felt the scales retract into my body and the webbing on my hands and feet felt like it was separating.

My friends were slowly changing too, one by one they all regained their human form. It felt good to see them like this, but at the same time it felt terrible.

Possibly the cruelest part of the curse was that we would change back to our human selves every night, but by the time the sun rose we would all change back. It was the enchantress's way of teasing us.

I looked in my bedroom mirror to look at myself, I was me on the outside once again. My messy black hair. My tall stature, lightly tanned skin.

I liked looking like me but at the same time is brought back a lot of sad and painful memories.

I walked back to my friends and to see them all hugging one another.

I wanted nothing more than to free them and take the full weight of the curse myself. But I guess the fates had other plans for me.