HOO and PJO one shots

Delve Into Death pt. 2

Every time it happened the emotions would hit me like a tidal wave. Every time I was crippled with feelings. I had felt enough to last a lifetime, to last ten thousand lifetimes. This time was more than extraordinary.

I was busy that day. The Earth had cracked and exploded, erupted and caved in. Destruction rained around me, and she was back. Last time I had seen her influence among the humans a young girl died. This time it was a boy.

I was everywhere and nowhere. Collecting souls, digging them out of their death beds and lugging them off to the river. I had been doing this since the beginning and should probably have been used to it, but every time the emotions hit me, I felt it like a mountain crushing me. There was a woman whose last thought was hate. She hated the things her daughter had done, such as fall in love. With a girl. She would regret that in the afterlife. A man who thought only of his love for corn. How strange these humans can be. A young boy's last emotion was terror. Terror, right before a sinkhole opened up below him and swallowed him whole.

The Earth was destroyed and simultaneously brought to life. I felt the energy rolling off in waves and saw the destruction which I cleaned up with my own two hands. I guess it was more than two hands, for I was everywhere.

When I came to him I didn't know what to expect. He was brave and relentless, unforgiving and forgiving. He was strong. Skin dark and tanned, his eyes were deep and held sorrow of great depths and happiness of unsurmountable heights. He was everything and nothing. Just a man who will once again remind people of their mortality.

I had seen it all, gruesome manslaughter to peaceful sleeping ends, every situation possible, every size, colour and shape. Felt it all, anger and sorrow, fear, remorse and pity, content and contempt, happiness and love. Each time was no less painful than the last. I felt pain for every terrible man, woman and child and for every wonderful woman, man and child.

This boy was there, ready and accepting. His gleaming steed knew what was to come, continued on anyways. He rushed to his death knowing full well that he was to meet me at the end. He held determination and anger all at once. I had never felt such strong emotion before. Just a glimpse into his soul showed me the calamity of his decision. He had accepted me so easily, even welcomed me. But I didn't know why. I only got a fleeting glimpse into his emotions, but there were so many, swirling through him like a tornado that only a few were distinguishable. When the almighty Earth swallowed him up and burned him to nothing, he died.

He so clearly and plainly died. She was there too, but she was not my job, he was. I had felt his emotions, so overwhelming and abundant. He was full of feelings and I had never experienced such a powerful man. This was someone who would accomplish great thing just by feeling.

I knew briefly of what he had accomplished; defeating a titan, reuniting the greeks and romans, building remarkable structures that will be remembered forever and now killing her. Of course she wasn't really dead, just so far past gone that she would never be again.

I made my way to him, picking my way through the rubble. Dust billowed up around me, but it made no affect. He stood there, calm and peaceful as his dragon was blasted so far off to sea he was gone in an instant. The body and the bronze happy were gone before the explosions light had dissipated. I stood before him and puzzled over his feelings.

But then he was gone. He disappeared with a small smile and I didn't see him for a long time. I was confused. Was this why he had accepted me? Because he knew that I would not get him, at least not yet? He will forever be remembered by me as the man who outsmarted me.

The man who outsmarted death