That's Not My Life Anymore | Percy Jackson Chaos || COMPLETE

Chapter 9

"Go back to bed," Alpha ordered the minute I walked out of my room. I couldn't blame her --when I had looked in the mirror that morning, I nearly had a heart attack. My hair looked like a rat's nest, I had huge bags under my eyes, and my eyes were bloodshot. I literally looked like a zombie.

It had been two nights in a row that I hadn't gotten any sleep. I didn't tell her that though.

"I'm fine," is what I said instead. It felt like I had been saying that a lot recently. I walked to the counter and poured myself a mug of coffee. Everyone had been complaining about not having coffee in the morning, so the day before I'd asked Chiron if we could have a coffee machine in the cabin.

I turned around to face Alpha, with my back against the counter. I brought my mug to my lips and looked at her over the rim of the cup.

Alpha threw her hands in the air. "Stop saying that, Omega!" she exclaimed. "It's clear you're not okay. Stop pretending you are."

"Why does it matter?" I asked.

"Why wouldn't it matter?"

"Look, I appreciate that you're trying to help, but don't worry about me. I can take care of myself."

"I have to worry," Alpha said. "Who else is going to? Someone has to take care of you."

"I don't need taking care of!"

"Clearly," she said dryly. "When was the last time you slept?"

"I slept last night!" I said defensively. What I didn't say was that I only slept for half an hour, and has monster-filled dreams.

Alpha raised her eyebrows, "Really?"

"Yes!"

She crossed her arms, "How much sleep?" I didn't answer. I turned around, and put my mug in the sink.

"Why is it so hard for you to accept help?" Alpha asked from behind me.

"Because anytime someone tries to help, they just make it worse!" I finally snapped, turning back around. "Because no one has ever cared enough to truly help me!"

"Everyone should have someone in their life who cares enough," Alpha said.

"I know," I replied. "Annabeth was that for me."

"You just need to find someone else who can help..."

I shook my head, "No one can replace her. Not you, not anyone else. I loved her, Alpha. It would just never be the same. I can't love anyone else, not the way I loved her.

"You can love more than one person."

"Not true love," I heard someone say. I turned and saw Forgotten leaning against the wall, in the doorway that lead to the hallway of rooms. "Sorry to interrupt, but you were being a little loud."

"What do you mean 'not true love'?" I asked.

"True love is rare. If you're lucky, it comes along once in a lifetime." She paused. "But once should be enough."

"How do we know true love exists?" Alpha asked. "A lot of people think they're in love, when they really aren't."

Forgotten took a deep breath, and walked into the kitchen. She sat down on one of the bar stools by the counter and started talking, "There's this story that someone told me: In the ancient times, humans had been a combination of male and female. Everyone had two heads, four arms, four legs. Supposedly, these combo-humans had been so powerful they made the gods uneasy, so Zeus split them in half- man and woman. Ever since, humans had felt incomplete. They spend their lives searching for their other halves."

"Their soulmate..." I whispered.

Forgotten nodded her head, "Some people find the person they were destined to be with. Others aren't so lucky."

"That's amazing," Alpha murmured.

"Yeah, it is," Forgotten said. She stared me right in the eye, as if daring me to disagree.

***

Eventually (after a lot more arguing), we agreed that I wouldn't go to training today. However, I wasn't going to just stay in the cabin all day- I did have ADHD after all.

When everyone else went to training, I decided to just walk around camp, and see what's changed over the last couple of years. I hadn't gotten much time for exploring since I arrived, so it was kind of nice to have a day off- don't tell Alpha I said that though.

Anyway, I was kind of just walking around aimlessly and somehow ended up in the forest, near Zeus' Fist. I thought I saw something colourful out of the corner of my eye, so- being me- I turned and walked over to it. Pushing a branch out of the way, I looked into the clearing and gasped. Right in front of me was a huge shrine. There was a long piece of paper on each side, with a bunch of flowers and cards and stuff like that scattered in between them.

I walked to the shroud on the right first. It was grey, and had some owls on it. In the middle it read 'Annabeth Chase'. And underneath it said 'Daughter Of Athena'.

I walked to the paper. This one had a painting of the sea on it. In the middle there was a blue trident, that looked like it was made of water. Over top, written in black paint, was 'Perseus Jackson'. Underneath the trident was, 'Son Of Poseidon.'

I kneeled down in front of the shrine, and looked at the cards. There were small little notes and wishes, and some people wrote R.I.P. I blinked back tears. This was all for Annabeth and I.

I didn't completely understand though. Why would they dedicate a shrine to me? Everyone at camp hated me, and my father disowned me. It didn't make sense.

I sat on the ground, in front of the shrine. I don't know how much time passed before someone found me.

"Oh, look at that," I heard a sarcastic voice behind me say. "The leader actually cares about something other than himself." I stood sand turned around to see my half-brother Hayden standing behind me.

"You're one to talk," I said as greeting. I turned back around to look at the shrine, that I had been staring at for what seemed like hours. "This is a beautiful shrine."

"You don't even know who it's for," he said.

"Why does that matter?"

"Because you don't the truth about them." I felt my stomach drop. What secrets did Annabeth and I have that Hayden was so eager to share?

"What truth?" I asked carefully, looking at him.

"The truth of their deaths," he said.

I thought my heart stopped beating. I couldn't breathe. I just stared at him in shock. What could I say to that? What did he know about my time in Tartarus? Why did he think I was dead?

"How'd they die?" I managed to choke out after a few seconds. Hayden leaned in, as if he were about to tell me a secret.

"He killed her," he whispered in my ear. "Perseus was the reason Annabeth died." I felt a chill go down my spine. I heard him walk away, but I just stood there, staring at the shrine. I was stunned. Was that really what he thought? Was that what everyone thought happened? And deep down, did I think that?

Did I kill my girlfriend?