We Start Believing We Belong (Percico)

I Still Hear Your Voice

Octavian

Oh.

So that's why he never answered his calls. Why he stopped sending letters. Stopped everything between us. He never said goodbye.

Just stopped sending stuff.

"Hey, Octavian!" I heard Percy chase after me, and I stopped. I was just walking. Thinking. About everything we never go to do together.

Luke and I, we had this huge plan. When we graduated, we were going to go off together and tell the rest of the world to fuck off. Make our own world.

And now we can't do that.

Because he's dead.

"Hm?"

"Sorry," he said as we started walking together. "But did... Did you know Luke?"

I nodded my head, shoving my hands in my pockets. I still had the promise ring. The letters. Everything he gave me.

"Yeah, we grew up together." I haven't talked about Luke in a long time. To somebody that actually knew him. No wonder he thought I seemed familiar. People always mistook Luke and myself as brother. But we weren't. "We ran away together. We were boyfriend's. We had this huge plan to get the hell out of Westport, to go anywhere. And we got caught. They brought me home, but Luke got away. He sent letters all the time. He told me about camp. But my mom never let me leave the house. When we were 17, going into senior year, he just stopped sending stuff. I even came here after I graduated. The next summer. And I was told he wasn't there and that he was dead to them. That was all I ever heard of. I could understand if he ran from here, he fucking hated his dad. But that... When did he die?"

"Well, he was possessed by Kronos three... Three years ago." I don't think Percy realized how long it had been until he told me that. "But he lived, and he died two years ago. He could've left something for you. His room, to this day, has gone untouched. Annabeth, Thalia, Grover, me, we all have stuff from him in there. Nobody has the nerve to go in. Let the dead die. Let him sleep."

I noticed how deep this sunk into Percy. Luke's death. It was fucking tearing away at him.

"Do you miss him?"

His eyes watered over.

"Well yeah." He thought that seemed kind of obvious. "People think I'm insane for it. But I mean, he was the big brother I never had. The one I needed because when I met Luke, my life was absolute shit. And he did everything he couldn't make me feel not like I do most of the time. He was there for me and he left and my life fell apart again. I almost left to join. Then again, he wanted to leave Kronos. But it was too late. What happened happened and I just have to deal with being pissed off because of it. I mean, that's how I broke my wrist. I was pissed off."

"Seems fair." I responded, hearing running from somewhere nearby. "I just can't-"

"Percy!" Reyna yelled, getting the attention of both of us. "There's... There's a demigod here for you? Chiron told me to get you, the guy is in cuffs. That's all I know."

Percy

Luke.

Fucking.

Castellan.

He was sitting in the meeting room, and nobody else was allowed to go in. Chiron said he hasn't been harsh or anything. But, to be safe, he's cuffed up to the table. They messaged Olympus. They're debating whether or not to charge him with treason.

If he's charged with treason and found guilty, he's killed. It's pointless.

I closed the door behind me. He looked kind of bored.