Broken

Trying

It took strength. And not the physical kind. Especially Piper. Annabeth was easiest to reason with, all you had to do with Percy was take him to the beach, Hazel- well, Leo wasn't sure about her yet. He gave coach hedge cupcakes, and, after some thought, gave Hazel some hair dye, and surprisingly she loved it. He also gave Nico some McDonald's.

It sounded lame, but every night Leo cried himself to sleep, know the girl in the Aphrodite cabin was doing the same, and he couldn't help her.

    He decided he would allow her to grieve on her own time, as he was doing, just, she was more open about it.

    Leo only mourned in the long hours of work alone in bunker 9. He kept making useless machines, only sometimes using scrap metal for helpful things.

      One day, he couldn't take it any longer. He stopped eating. He stopped drinking. He stopped sleeping. All he did all day and night was try to get his mind off Jason and Frank. After the fifth day of this, he got nauseated, and almost fell over from exhaustion.

     "Leo? Leo! Where have you been? You're pale as a ghost!" Percy said, running into bunker 9.
"I'm- no don't take me out" I said, struggling against him  as he dragged me outside.

     "You - you were too busy trying to keep us happy. You never thought about yourself." Percy said.

     I grinned a little. "Bad boy supreme is fine. No worries!" He said, which got an evil look from Percy.

"Bad boy supreme needs to admit that he's sad, and that he should have his own time to mourn. Like Piper. It's natural to be melancholy. You need to admit it."

"no! I'm- I'm fine, Perce. Now, leave me to my works" I said.

"No way, rascal. you're coming to dinner with us. you're white as a sheet." Percy said.

"fine, aquaman. as long as there's ice cream." Percy nodded and we walked out.

The majority of campers were staring. They pointed and said things like, "I heard he stuck himself in a bunker for days because of Jason," and "He's so dumb. He should be caring for his friends and not just himself."

"hey, Perce? I have a feeling they're all staring at me." I said, a little nervously.

Percy nodded and we continued towards the Hephaestus table. Percy sat with me today, because his table was still isolated, and he normally sat with Jason, because his table was also empty.

I ate quickly and then announced I was going to sleep. i snuck off to bunker 9 again, and right before I could go in, a voice said,

"Leo! What are you doing?" I expected it to be Percy again, but instead, I saw Piper.

"what are you doing here?" I asked, astonished. She looked down sheepishly.

"I-I needed somewhere-somewhere to umm cry." she said awkwardly.

"oh, okay. You can do that in there. Its isolated. Also in the two front cabins is really isolated, no one ever uses them. You could also go in the woods. There's normally only a few hunters in there."

She looked at me suspiciously. "How did you know all the places to cry?" She asked.

"um, just...Luck I suppose. Nothing to it. Now go run along." I said, nervously.

The next day there was a commotion. "Someone! Help! Sally Is dead!" A voice said, from beyond the borders.

I blew fire onto my hands, and ran toward Thalia's old tree.

I immediately saw the problem. There was a bunch of curses running behind a small boy, who was dragging a female satyr behind him.

I threw fire bombs at the curses, not hitting any, and then once other campers arrived, I helped the kid carry Sally to the hospital ward.

Will Solace came in, checked the satyr's pulse, and looked sadly at the boy.

"I'm afraid there's nothing we can do for her. She's gone."

The boy looked away, sadly.

I decided to help with the curses. I knew Annabeth and Percy had fought these in Tartarus, and that Percy had nearly died, but I had no clue what they were, (Percy and Annabeth weren't keen on talking about Tartarus, which is understandable,) or how to defeat them.

I threw a fireball at one, and it turned to dust. Easy, right? Not right. My vision went fuzzy. I assumed it was just the light, so I threw another. Ow. Why did it feel like I was suddenly being stabbed?

I assumed it was one of the curses. Maybe one had a sword? I threw another. Why was I flying? Another. Another. I was being pierced by swords in different places, I didn't know how high up I was now, but I suddenly dropped.

I threw another, blindly, as I fell, and hit the ground with a thud. Didn't hurt too bad. But as I threw another, it felt as though a million pound truck was on top of me, and I couldn't move.

"what's going on?" I shouted.

"Curses! After you kill a monster they can give you a curse, and if you kill one of these, you get that curse!" A voice yelled from...somewhere. I couldn't see.

"soo umm what now?" I asked myself.

"umm. Hey Perce, could you help me up?" I asked him.

"sure."

A foggy figure appeared in front of me, and grabbed my arm. He attempted to pull it up, and I came flying off the ground.

"thanks" I said and even though I kept getting stabbed, I continued fighting.

My vision got darker and darker till I couldn't see anything anymore. I blindly threw rocks and pieces of wood that I put on fire.

after every angry scream that signafied one died, I felt a new pain.

After killing another, I felt like I was falling. I screamed, when suddenly I was on solid ground again.

I continued fighting. Finally, after another curse washed over me, I heard the battle end. We had won, right? Or had we lost? I couldn't tell.

I felt the curses running through me, as I felt stab wounds, bruises, (Seriously. Who uses their final breath to say, 'I hope you get a bruise on your armpit'?) and different feelings throughout my body.

One felt like my entire body was immensely sore. Another felt like I had broken my ribs, another just oddly felt like I was swimming, and another made me feel like I was walking straight, but I ran into multiple trees trying to make it back to camp. (Although I wasn't sure if that was another curse, or that I just couldn't see)

Will took me in, and I passed out.

hello again! I hope y'all enjoyed this part!

Comment what your favorite part of the book is so far!