pinky promise
"Please come home?"
"I will."
"Pinky promise?"
He lifts his hand and offers his finger with a smile.
He's not coming back.
She can see Connor running up the hill towards them with Percy close behind, but he is nowhere to be seen.
She can't even see the expressions on Connor and Percy's faces yet, but she can feel it deep in her chest, an aching pain radiating through her body.
He's not coming back.
The soot covering Percy's face and the burn marks on is shirt should reassure that at least the job was done, but she doesn't know who the blood on Percy's shirt belongs to and all she can see through her tears is red, red, red.
And all she can think is that he's never coming back. Ever.
She's a mess, and she knows it, but she pushes forward through the crowd until she's standing right in front of Connor and Percy, Annabeth having joined them mere seconds ago.
"Where's Charlie?" she asks, even though she already full well knows the answer to that question.
'He's dead.'
Percy doesn't say it, but it's on everyone's mind, hanging thickly in the air.
Silena can't even think at all anymore. Chiron opens his mouth and says something, but she doesn't hear.
Why isn't he crying? Why aren't they all crying?
She cries instead.
The tears roll down her face as she drops to her knees, hands pulling at her hair and nails scratching at her cheeks.
Her sharp nails actually cut long, bloody scratches into her flawless skin, and the salt from her tears stings.
She doesn't care.
She's muttering under her breath, pain obvious in every word.
"No, no, no, no..."
There's someone putting their arm around her, trying to help her up. She can barely make out Clarisse's features.
She doesn't care.
He's dead.
She lets Clarisse maneuver her into the Big House, lets her pull a chair up for her, lets her make a cup of hot chocolate and place it in front of her, but she seems to only vaguely register all this with a melancholy kind of detachment, and the only thing on her mind is that he's gone.
He's dead.
She reaches towards the mug in front of her, but drops it before it's even gotten halfway to her mouth.
The scalding hot liquid spills all over her, but she barely feels it. The pain outside is nothing compared to the ache in her heart.
He's dead.
And it's her fault.
She's going to get her revenge, now, whatever it takes.
The drakon's poison burns, but not as much as his death did.
And she didn't even kill it, in the end. Clarisse did.
Oh well. At least she tried.
And now, as she lies dying on the floor, she can't help but think that she's getting her revenge.
Not against the titans, but against herself. After all, it's her fault, her fault he's dead, her fault the titans are winning, her fault the gods will fall.
She's not going to Elysium. She knows it.
And as she feels her soul fade away, she hopes with all her might that the gods will win the war, and most of all, she hopes that Charlie will be alright.
And then she lets out her last breath.
She's standing in front of the judges now, impassible gold masks covering their faces.
"I can't help you anymore," the son of Hades had said. She doesn't mind at all. He got her all the way to the judges, saving her a few centuries waiting. It's enough for her.
She can feel it when the judges start judging her, feels tendrils of power creep into her fragile mind, poking and prodding and examining this and pushing that away and really, it's the most uncomfortable thing she's ever felt. Briefly, she wonders if Charlie had to go through this. Probably not. They probably sent him to straight to Elysium.
He deserved it.
"A traitor," the first judge says, and that sums it all up perfectly, she thinks with a bitter smile.
"Indirectly responsible for the death of her lover."
"She didn't know," the second judge says. "She thought he wouldn't be harmed."
"Doesn't change the fact that she's a traitor. I recommend Punishment."
"She redeemed herself. She lost her life redeeming herself," the second judge argues.
"Asphodel, then," concedes the first judge.
"She truly loved him," the third judge says, opening his mouth for the first time since she walked into the room.
The three judges stare at her for a few more moments, and then she feels their power release her mind.
"Elyisum."
And then two ghouls grab her and drag her towards the heavenly city behind the high white walls in the distance.
She can't help the small smile that creeps up on her face as she walks.
And then the ghouls push her through the gates and slam them shut behind her, and Charlie's standing right in front of her.
Finally.
There's no running, jumping or passionate kissing.
He just takes a step forwards, offering his little finger to her. She takes a step of her own towards him and hooks her pinky in his.
"I pinky promised," he says.
And then she kisses him.
"Please come home?"
"Pinky promise."
-fin-
(plot bunny adopted from achieving elyisum)