Afterlife Anxiety (Annabeth Fanific)

Clarisse Smacks Some Sense Into Me

DISCLAIMER: INCLUDES SPOILERS FOR TRIALS OF APOLLO: THE TYRANT'S TOMB

I weakly jabbed at the practice dummy. The dummy just stood there. I imagined the dummy rising up and walking off. That would have been preferable, actually. But the dummy just sat there. I sighed and walked out of the arena. What was the use? It wasn't as if I would be going off to fight any wars anytime soon. And if a monster attacked, so be it! It would be some kind of excuse to get myself shipped off to Elysium so I could be with Annabeth.

I followed the well worn trail to the cabins, kicking a pebble and seeing how far it would go before I caught up with it. I was tired, so tired. Tired of love. Tired of everyone that tried to help me, telling me that everything would get better even though they knew it wouldn't - at least, not for me. Tired of everyone staring and whispering. I was just frankly tired of life. There was no point to it anymore.

I kept walking until I bumped into a large burly figure. I fell back, mumbling sorrys until I caught sight of who it was. Clarisse. She stood up straight and eyed me, probably wondering how I was faring with the loss of Annabeth. That's what everyone did, whether they knew it or not. They would look at me, see how I was dealing with the loss, as if I was some kind of specimen. I was tired of that too.

"Sorry, sorry," I mumbled trying to push past Clarisse to get to my cabin but inadvertently failing. In better times this would have been easy, but now, weak with grief, it was nearly impossible.

"I - I'm sorry too. You know, for everything," Clarisse said, clearing her throat. I paused, startled. Did Clarisse just say sorry to me? But it wasn't that unusual. Suddenly, everyone that had ever hated me at camp (which wasn't much, but still) suddenly was super sweet to me. I was tired of that as well.

"Um, yeah. It's fine. Can I go now?" I whined in an annoyed voice, but Clarisse wasn't finished.

"It's just, you're here moping about because of Annabeth," Clarrise began. I winced when she mentioned Annabeth's name. "See? This is exactly what I mean. You feel like you're the only one with grief and everyone should just back off. But literally everyone in this camp has fond memories of her. Everyone is dealing with her loss. Have you looked at the seven lately? First it was Jason, now Annabeth. They're going through some tough times. And Chiron? His eyes are bloodshot, he can barely manage his classes. What I'm trying to say is that you should open your eyes to everyone around you. You're not the only one who loved Annabeth."

I gaped at Clarisse. I didn't know she was capable of such a speech, and in a way she did make sense.

"I'm sorry. I - I'll call the rest of the seven today. We - we'll have a proper funeral for her."

Clarisse smiled. "Thanks. She would have wanted that."

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I stood in my cabin. It was messy, clothes sprawled everywhere. I tried to pick up a few pairs of pants off the floor to clean it up a bit, but my efforts were useless. I sighed and fished a drachma out from my pocket, then I made a rainbow from the glass of water on my nightstand. It was time for some hard talk.

"O, Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow, accept my offering. Show me Hazel Levesque at Camp Jupiter," I muttered as I threw my drachma through the mist. Sure enough, an image of Hazel showed up through the mist. The angle the Iris-Message came through in was awkward, giving me a plain view of Hazel's white Vans.

"Hey! Hazel!" I called, trying to get her attention. She jumped slightly, then looked down as she saw where the Iris-Message was coming from. "Oh! Hi Percy. What's up?" Hazel's voice sounded nasally and strained, probably from crying. Jason's death was hard on everybody, and now we had to add Annabeth.