The Next Great Prophecy

PERCY XVIII

Percy woke up with a sense of déjà vu. He was in a bed that felt strangely familiar, looking up at a cave ceiling. A pot of something boiled over the fire, and he inhaled a spicy scent. It all felt strange, like a memory he could barely find in the back of his head.

            “I didn’t expect to see you again, Percy.”

            Percy turned to face the source, and finally realized where he was. Calypso’s island.

            An hour later, Percy felt somewhat better. He had his fill of stew, and finally decided to ask a few questions that had been bothering him since he woke up.

            “Calypso, how am I here? I thought no man could come to the island twice.”

            She smiled. “I was trying to figure that out while you were sleeping. I found you on the beach, much like I did last time. I brought you up here, and started dinner. That’s when I noticed you had far too many scars. Has there been another war?”

            Percy nodded. “We won against the Titans. Not too long after, there was another war with the Giants.”

            “Besides the war, has anything else happened?” asked Calypso.

            “Well, we found out about a Roman camp similar to ours. Hera put me to sleep and switched me with a Roman. She took both our memories.”

            “Even in two wars, you should not be as scarred as you are. You’re too good of a fighter. What else happened?”

            “Well… I went to Tartarus,” Percy muttered.

            “You went to Tartarus? How in Hades…” Calypso stared at Percy in silence for a long while, making him uncomfortable. Finally, she said, “I know it must be difficult for you, but how did you end up there?”

            Percy explained Annabeth’s quest, and Arachne, and falling into the pit. Without thinking about it, he continued, telling Calypso about the monsters they faced. He stopped short when he got to the aria, the curses.

            “Calypso…” he started, trying to figure out how to ask the question that had been bothering him since he woke up in Damasen’s house. “Did you… did you curse Annabeth?”

            Calypso looked down, and the look of shame on her face was enough for Percy. “How could you?” he raged. “You nearly got us killed! If Bob hadn’t been there to heal her, I would have died from gorgon blood? Why would you curse her, especially for something I did? I was the one who left you here, she barely had anything to do with it! I had to go save freaking Olympus, I couldn’t stay here with you, no matter how much I wanted to!”

            Calypso head rose slowly, looking the demigod straight in the eye. “I want to make one thing perfectly clear, Perseus Jackson. I will admit, after you left, I cursed your precious Annabeth. And I regretted it almost immediately. But you can’t take a curse back. You have no idea what it’s like, being here by myself. You have no idea how it feels to have heroes choose someone else over you, time and time again. I understand your anger. I know that you have every right to hate me, and you probably should. I prayed to the gods that my curse would never affect her, but they have once again ignored me. I am beyond sorry for what happened to the two of you down there, and now that I know what I almost caused, it will haunt me for the rest of my life. I am sorry.” A single tear slid down her face.

            Percy’s anger disappeared. She was right. He didn’t know what it was like to be alone on the island, to never get to leave. And while he wished she hadn’t made the curse, he realized that the anger would help no one. He had wronged her in more ways than one.

            “Why are you still on the island?”

            “I suppose the gods didn’t bother to grant your wish.”

            “Well, I’m sorry. I should have kept up with what they did and didn’t do.”

            “Percy, you aren’t to blame. You did what you could, and I am thankful for that.”

            “You never did explain why I was able to come back.”

            “Finish your story, and then I will.”

            So Percy continued his story, explaining how he and Annabeth managed to get to the Doors, how they battled giants and destroyed Gaea. He explained how he and Jason had been kidnapped, and how he had summoned the hurricane.

            “…and then I woke up here,” Percy finished.

            “Well, I think I know how that is,” said Calypso.

            “How? No man can come here twice.”

            “That’s just it Percy. What you’ve been through, what you’ve done, it’s changed you. You aren’t the same man who showed up here after blowing up a volcano.”

            Percy contemplated this for a moment. “So, doesn’t that mean you’ll fall in love with me again?”

            “I don’t think so. Something is different this time. I still love the last man who arrived here. He swore to come back for me, and I believe him.”

            “Who was it?”

            “His name is Leo Valdez.”

The longest chapter in quite a few, and I think this was one of my favorites to write. Let me know what you think, and I would love to see some votes come in! -T