"Bitterness is like cancer, it eats up the host. But anger is like fire, and burns it all clean."
-Maya Angelou
Thalia raced through the dark forest, swearing in Ancient Greek. The black sky above burned red as she ran along the trail, panting for breath.
She felt as though she could run forever. Sprint off into the new moon's path and never stop again.
Run away, you mean.Just like she'd done when she lost her brother, and her mother was too much to bear. Just like every other time things went awry, Thalia wanted to turn tail and run.
A struggling, desperate wave coursed through her. The demigod swerved toward the nearest tree, and aimed a punch right at the trunk. Then again. Then with her other hand. The beat the plant until the waves of fury ebbed, and her brain registered pain again. Thalia brought a knuckle to her lips, tasting blood.
Shallow breaths forced their way through her. For a moment, the girl was lost. She forced herself to take slow, deep breaths, to let them course through her body before release. In... Out. In... Out.
The adrenaline disappeared. Memories of her night began to return.
The boy Percy had wanted to talk to her after dinner. He'd caught her on the way back to her cabin, pulling her aside. The boy told her about something that had had happened earlier that day.
Thalia squinted, trying to come up with what had happened. Oh!
Percy had been fighting with Annabeth. He knew he'd offended her, but wanted help figuring out how. So he'd sought out Thalia.
The girl vaguely remembered being tired at the time, but for some reason agreeing to hear the guy out. She knew she hadn't been fully listening to him until he mentioned Luke. She'd asked him what he was talking about. From the way Percy said it, he'd done little more than mention the name when Annabeth stormed off.
Thalia shook her head. At that moment, her memories lost clarity. There was the thick-headed idiot himself, not listening to anything she said. As for what she'd said... the words were lost on her at this point in time. That was when the burning feeling started.
Her entire body had been lit aflame. Her vision seemed to blur and sharpen at the same time, and red strobe lights flashed from all directions. An incredible surge of energy swarmed inside her limbs, like she was full of stinging bees. Then she'd started running. Wave after wave coursed through her. Slowly, the waves grew less and less frequent, leaving her to run on fumes. Then come one final spike, folllowed by an inevitable crash. Her fire went out, leaving Thalia all alone to pivk over the remains.
Unfortunately, holes had been burned in places memory was once stored, so Thalia had no clue what had caused her to ignite so thoroughly. Her only clue lay with Percy, and the things he said to her. But all she remembered him mentioning was Luke. Something about Luke.
Luke.Her guts twisted as the familiar face came into her head. She knew what the other campers said about her old friend, how the man had abandoned them all for Kronos, and ultamitely sought to kill her when he poisoned the tree she'd become. It made sense when they all explained it, but there was a part of Thalia that still didn't believe them.
Hot tears burned on her cheeks. She still felt like she knew her old friend, and the friend she knew would have never done that to her.
Over time, part of her had come to fixate on it. It had knawed at her mind like a dog with a bone, soiled her memories until all of them were muddled, soggy, and sad. In the end, she'd been weakened to tinder, and all it took was a single spark to burn everything to ashes.
That's all she was now. A pile of burnt-through ashes.
It was in that moment that Thalia knew. It might be true she'd been ignited by Percy, who was determined to write of Luke as a soulless monster. But in the end, it had been Luke who'd put her in this position. He'd converted her to worthless tinder by gaining such accusations. No matter which way one looked at it, the man had poisoned her.
She had grown bitter. At Percy, at Luke, at herself, at the world. Things at gone on without her, and now she'd have to sprint in order to catch up.
The demigod sighed, slowly rubbing saliva onto the back of each hand. One thing was for sure: things had changed in this world, for better or worse. The sweet Annabeth she'd known had grown into a smart, stormy eyed teenager, more guarded and wounded than Thalia had ever seen her. If it was possible for Annabeth to have changed that much... then Luke could've changed too.
And then there was that boy, Percy Jackson. Despite his thoughtlessness, Thalia couldn't help but compare him to the Luke she'd known. He'd been one of the only ones to reach out to her when her days as a tree were over. He was brave, and definitly kind. But most of all, Annabeth seemed to trust him, and Thalia most certainly trusted her judgement.
Maybe it really could be like Annabeth said; maybe they could all be friends. Maybe now that her confusion was gone, she'd see things differently.
Silently, she sat up and stroked the tree. She apologized for raising a hand to the innocent. Painfully, she began her walk back to camp. Once there, Thalia would apologize for whatever she'd done to Percy. Together, they'd find a way to help Annabeth.
Thalia paused to glance at the blank sky. A clean slate.
A/Ns: Finally an entry for this competition I'm proud of! My last entry was so bad, I actually deleted it from this site.
For all those unfamiliar with what I'm talking about, this fic was done for Capture The Flag Competition at Percy Jackson Fanfiction Challenges. I decided to also count this for The Random Quote Challenge, because that was where I got the inspiration for this (a quote in the list you can pick from in that challenge).
Anyhow, I'd like to dedicate this fic to PJFC, because without them, I might've never gotten into this fandom. I know for sure I never would've met all the amazing people frequenting there. Stay insane, everyone!
Lastly, please don't forget to review. I absolutely love getting feedback and want to hear everyone's thoughts on my work. Also, check out all the other fics done for this competition, if you can find them. I haven't read them all yet, but I know for a fact that everyone participating is an amazing writer. Other than that, I guess I'll see you on the far side.