When The Villain Falls (Depressed! Percy) (Percy Jackson)

Chapter Ten

Percy

Hades had never called me back or anything about the whole Luke thing. So when Luke and every other dead demigod I know showed up at my cabin, I thought Grover put some fucking LSD in my breakfast instead of you, anything else.

Like I smoked before they showed up, sure. But that's weed, it's not like I was snoring Molly or speed.

Once I figured out this wasn't because I'm high and I talked to the others, everyone aside Luke left. And he still has his looks. 18 years old, thanks to Kronos and death.

He's been dead for like a year. I missed him, and I really don't know how I managed without him. He always kept me at Bay.

"Shit, are you okay?" Luke asked me when he noticed the bruising along my face and what not. He pulled me into an embrace and I smiled, putting my arms around him. He had one hand under my chin, inspecting, and the other around me.

"Yeah, I'm good." I assured him, nodding my head. "Paul was drunk, but now I don't have to go home, so it's a win win."

He rolled his eyes.

"Gods, is he still with your mom?" Luke asked, because Paul really was a controlling and not good dude.

"She'll never leave him," I reminded my boyfriend. "She's pregnant. Paul accused me of knocking up some kick and she took it as well as you can think, so I'm here now. And I'm about to leave with you."

"Oh yeah?" He shot me a pretty suggestive look.

"Yeah."

I really did miss the feelings of his lips on mine. And I mean, other places, but we weren't about to do that in camp. Especially when there's probably a price on his head.

We kept it PG-13.

Luke

A few weeks went by. We had a nice house out in New Haven. The one in Connecticut. And one day I was thinking about it, because I saw something on the local news about a kid I went to school with. He owned a company. Was just starting to take off.

Why don't I go visit Westport?

I mean, it was only a half hour away. So when Percy and I both had the day off, we headed to Westport. I wasn't sure about visiting my mom, but friends. I managed to get a bunch of addresses. They all still live in Westport. Or at least most of them do. Going to college at the local university there.

This included my best friend from school. Aksel Porter. He was the first person I went to visit. Percy as with, of course. To meet people, because I'm sure I'd be meeting spouses or girlfriend or for a few people, kids.

It was such a weird thought. But it's been... I mean, it's been just over 10 years. It's been 11 years, I left in '99. Almost 12 years. I left in like March. It's January. 2011.

Percy recorded this.

It actually took me a while. I figured they noticed that I pulled up. A random car in their driveway. Percy drove because I was nervous.

For a moment, I just sat there.

I never thought I'd do this.

"Are you going to be okay?" Percy asked me, noticing the nerves. "If you can't do this, it's okay—"

"I'll be fine," I promised him and he gave my hand a squeeze. "I just never thought I'd come back."

"Yeah," he could understand it. "I never thought that I'd walk out on my mom. But it'll be okay. The first five minutes are bound to be the worst five minutes."

I nodded my head and took in a breath.

We walked up to the front of the house. For a moment, I looked at the door before approaching it.

It took a lot to knock on the door.

After a few seconds, the door opened, and I knew it wasn't Aksel. Between the skin tone and gender, it wasn't him. Aksel was born in the UAE. He's not white.

"Hi!" She said, giving me a smile. "Can I help you?"

"Hopefully," I responded, returning a nervous smile. "Is Aksel here? Aksel Porter."

"Yeah, he's just eating lunch!" She assured me. "Hold on, I'll get him."

I heard then talk. She told him I was here and he asked who I was and she said she didn't know but I knew his full name.

So he came to the door. And shit, he grew up. I don't know what I was expected, I did, too. A lot sooner than planned.

"Can I help you?" Aksel asked me, leaning against the door. "I wasn't expecting any visitors today."

With how he was positioned, I could tell he had a knife in his back pocket in case we threatened or attacked him. His dad taught him that.

I guess I'm not that surprised. After 9/11, their lives must've been hell. His parents are Muslim. He used to study, but he hated the clothing. Got too hot. He wasn't wearing anything like that now.

"I uh... I didn't have a number or anything to call ahead of time." I explained. "Sorry. I did this kind of last minute hoping people would be home."

"So...?" Aksel said, waiting for something else. "Who the hell are you? You're sure as hell not Octavian, I know that."

"You're right, I'm not." I could agree to not being my other friend. Octavian was a family friend. A good guy. "I uh... I'm going to apologize in advance because I know you have a knife on you and you'll probably shank me with me."

"Why...?"

"I uh, Luke," it was so weird to have to introduce myself to him. This was Aksel. My best friend. "I'm Luke. I don't know if you care to remember me but—"

"Luke... Luke died." I guess he didn't like talking about me. He didn't respond to my name too fondly. "So why don't you actually tell me why you're here or fuck off."

"I'm not..." I don't know why I didn't consider that they won't believe me. I don't look like I did ten years ago. It's been, you know, ten years. "I see that you never did do anything about your crush on Jenny."

He gave me a weird look.

"It's been ten years since I had anything for her," at first he didn't get it. "The only one who knew about that was L..."

Yeah.

He looked away for a moment and just let that surface. That hey, I'm not actually dead. I mean, I was. But I'm back.

I'm here. Now. I'm back.

"Oh my..." Aksel remarked, covering his mouth for a second. "Yo... Luke?"

I nodded my head.

"Fiona!" To he fair, I didn't even recognize Fiona. She went to school with us. "Get over here!"

She walked over.

"Hm?"

"Luke's here." Aksel told her as her eyes went wide. "He came back."

I smiled at them.

"Hey."