Nico
Sally was pronounced dead on sight. Said that she was dead as soon as she hit the ground. There was no chance of survival.
It destroyed Percy. Because an hour later, they found Paul. Dead. In the school.
He killed himself after finding out about the accident.
I um... Percy stated with us that night and I made sure we didn't have razors, I took Riptide from him, and I hid any and all forms of drugs in our house. Mostly medication.
Because I had to talk him down twice that night. I made sure my door was locked from the outside so he couldn't get out and do anything while I was asleep. I just...
He was trying to get better. He tried therapy, he talked to his doctor about his medication not really working.
But now everyone but his sister and step brother are dead. Which means his sister is under his care now. He's 18.
The first time she cried after she woke up from her nap, he freaked the fuck out. I had to drag him off into my room to calm him down. As calm as I could get him, at least. My mom took care of Susan. Bianca wasn't home.
Grover
What happened to my best friend?
We had gotten back to camp, and probably 20 minutes later it was night and day. He went from doing okay, like I was used to, to just suddenly becoming devastated and, soon enough, suicidal.
He spent most of his night like that. Devastated, freaking out, and suicidal.
But I can't tap into his actual thoughts. So I had no idea what was wrong.
"Hey, Grover, you okay?" Clarisse asked me as we all had dinner and I was just a little slower about eating. Distracted by this.
He's never been this intense before.
"I am, yeah," I assured my friends. "Mental link. Percy isn't."
"How bad?" Thalia asked me.
"There's a risk of both of us dying tonight." I assured them. If one of us goes brain dead and dies, both of us do. That's the risk of the mental link.
"Really?" Bianca questioned, sounding like that seemed off. "He was perfectly fine in school, according to Nico."
Shrugging, Chiron walked over and said I was needed in the big house, along with Clarisse, Annabeth, Thalia, and Jason.
Thinking it's a weird combo, considering Jason was added, we all headed to the Big House. An IM had been up on the screen they built for it, and Nico was there. And he looked tired. He had a baby in his hands. Couldn't be too old. A couple months.
Now, it was 8:30 right now. We had a little late dinner.
"Nico!" We all said, excited to see him. He hasn't been here and nobody has seen him since the war, really. Right after it, when he left.
"Hey, guys." He said, sounding almost as tired as he looked. "Grover, have you gotten any shitty feelings yet?"
"Yeah," I assured him, nodding my head. "Make them stop. Please. I don't want to die yet."
"Well you almost did twice." Nico told me, which didn't help this. "Um, Bianca. Percy and Susan are going to be living with us until Percy gets his own place. Neither of us have a say in it. He's asleep now, though. So you can't talk to him. But you guys can talk to her. She doesn't say much. But you can talk to her."
"Okay, I don't really care." Bianca told her brother. "But what about his parents? Susan? Paul? Poseidon?"
"Poseidon didn't sign his birth certificate, so there's nothing about him." The son of Hades explained to us. "Plus, Percy would like himself before staying with him. And Sally um... She came to pick up Susan today and got into an accident. And died. Paul found out, and he killed himself on the spot. He was still at the school. It was... I mean, probably 4:30 by the time we found her and figured out she was dead and went to the apartment and figured that out and got back home."
"And Percy?" Clarisse asked, figuring he'd do something of the same sort as to what Paul did.
"Fine." Nico assured us. "Devastated and suicidal. But there isn't a thing in this house that he'll be able to kill himself with. Without waking someone up. But I figured you guys should know just because I think it's safe to assume that you'll need to elect a new leader or however that works at Camp. It'll take him a while to get out of this, sorry Grover. But even after he's back, he'll have Susan to take care of."
Taking in that information, Nico assured us that he had told Chiron everything beforehand and that he said he would figure out something. Make an announcement tomorrow about Percy's withdrawal from camp. For good. Not just for the summer. If he visits, he visits.
But nothing more than that.
We thanked Nico for telling us and told him to make sure to keep an eye on Percy. To just help him. And get some sleep.
The next day was a dreadful one. Nico forwarded Percy's dismissal report to Chiron.
Normally, Percy would be here and read it to us. A form of goodbye.
We didn't get that.
We got Chiron to read it.
"Attention, everybody," he said, stepping up to a little podium we have here. "An important announcement is to be made."
Everyone fell silent, looking at the centaur. Who pulled out a sheet of paper.
"A letter came in this morning," he informed camp. "From Percy Jackson. He has asked me to read it all off to you."
Everyone thought this news was going to be good. Not the definition of depression.
"Dear Camp Half Blood," Chiron recited. "It is with great difficulty that I must tell you all this way that I am withdrawing from camp indefinitely."
The shock hit you like a wave.
"I'm sorry," he went on. "But after a few events over these last couple days, I have worse problems in my life that need to be out first and can't be ignored anymore. As some of you know, but most don't, I struggle with depression and tried killing myself twice last night. Had it not been for Nico, I would have bled out and died."
Of course, that's even worse for people to hear. Especially Clarisse and everyone who knew him really well. But had no idea he had problems like that.
"You guys deserve better than to have a leader that you have to worry about if he's going to wake up in the morning." Chiron read off. "If I ever return to camp, it's unlikely but there's a possibility of me visiting in the future. Given a few months or years, you guys might see me there again to visit and say hi. But for now, I need to come up with the money for however much a funeral costs and figure that out before I do anything else. If you want to visit, I'm not stopping you. I will be living with Nico and his family until further notice."
Chiron took a breath.
"Thank you for being some of the most amazing people I have ever met." Chiron concluded. "Your former leader, Percy Jackson."
