DownPour

Sorry Charlie

The stars of the huntress glowed in the night, brightening the night sky around them. Percy lay on the sand beneath the constellation, watching it with sad eyes.

"How did you deal with it?" He murmured to her. "How could you deal with all of them dying around you? How did it not drag you down?" He watched the stars as if hoping for a response. "How could you be so confident knowing that you were going to die?"

Percy sighed, closing his eyes. "I hate this. I hate it. That was my first real battle, with two armies fighting. There were so many dead. I know it isn't my fault but I feel guilty. I feel like I could've done something. Could've prevented their deaths. They didn't have to sacrifice themselves but they did. I just . . . this is horrible. Help me, Zoë. How can I do this?"

He opened his eyes to look up at the constellation. He noticed that it seemed to be brighter than before. Odd. Then, before his very eyes, the stars dimmed to almost nothing then flared back up. Letting him know she was there. She was watching. She heard him.

"How could you live as long as you did without the guilt crushing you?" Percy said. "I feel like it's crushing me already." Zoë's stars dimmed before slowly growing brighter. He sighed. "It gets better?" Her stars flashed. "I'd hope so."

"Conversing with my huntress?" Percy tilted his head back to see the goddess of the hunt standing above him.

"Hello, M'lady," Percy greeted. "What brings you here?"

"I felt no need to sleep and spotted you down here. You seem troubled. What bothers you?" Artemis asked, sitting herself down beside the demigod.

"The Battle of the Labyrinth," Percy said. "All the dead . . . I feel like I'm somehow to blame."

"Can I assume that is what you were speaking with Zoë about?" Percy nodded. "She would know well. Better than I, at least. She dealt with it well."

"I've found her to be a good advisor," Percy said. "She knows more than anyone I know, though it can be hard to decipher her words at times."

"A consequence of speaking to the stars, it would seem," Artemis chuckled. "That would cause some troubles."

"Do you talk to her?" Percy asked.

"I do, but I try not to do it too often," Artemis replied. "She's a wonderful friend but I don't want to grow dependent. I can't always seek answers from the same person forever, I need to learn to trust the living."

"It must be hard," Percy said. "Your companion for thousands of years suddenly gone."

"Not gone," Artemis reminded, gesturing up to the stars as Zoë showed her disagreement. "Just farther away."

Percy sat up from where he lay. "That's how all the dead are, it would seem," he said. "Never gone, just away for a while. I hate that. It's degrading the sacrifices made in death."

"You're quite smart," Artemis praised. "That is correct. You must move on but not leave their memory behind. Forgive, do not forget."

"You make it sound so easy," Percy whispered. "I wish it was that easy."

"It will be easy," Artemis said. "Give it time. You'll learn to accept it as it goes."

"Thank you, Artemis," he said before raising his eyes skyward. "You too, Zoë."

"You know, you aren't as bad as I thought you'd be," Artemis smiled.

"You aren't as mean as I thought you'd be," Percy replied. Artemis gave him a nod of recognition before standing up and returning to the camp. As she left Percy looked up to Zoë once more.

"I'm sorry."

The original story won't be published for a while. I'm not planning on starting with chapter one and going on, I'm planning on starting by writing each plot point before filling in the middle parts and then going back and editing, rewriting some scenes, etc. So it'll be a while before that's out to the media.