Good morning,

Hope this bit of pure hurt makes you cry. Just read The Fault in Our Stars, and you can probably hear the John Green influence, but hey.

Enjoy!

It hurt to breath. It hurt to walk or talk or move at all actually. There were moments of pure, intolerable panic. Of pacing up and down, gasping for air. Drowning in the instantaneous realization that she was alone now. Alone in a world where everything that mattered was ripped away. A world where Annabeth Chase had been stripped clean of a future, her dignity, and the only person she truly loved.

It was a wonder that she was still functioning at all. An hour ago he'd been there. Standing next to her. Kissing her on the top of the head and grabbing the keys. And now… nothing. The place he'd been was vacant. An empty shell, bloodied up and lying in the hands of a man whose only care to was to make money from a grieving woman.

He hadn't died the way he'd wanted. Not bravely, at the hands of another idiot trying to take over the world. He'd died confident and sure on a clogged highway trying to move into an exit lane. And it hadn't even been his fault.

In those moments of panic, and jolting pain radiating all the way down a pipeline into her stomach, which heaved like the ocean, she imagined him. So focused and smiling. Telling her they were going to be fine. Promising to gods that he'd do anything for her. Swearing they would die together, that he would never, ever break her heart. And yet he had. Like every other sorry son of a bitch that she'd fallen in love with, he'd broken his promise. How could she forgive him?

But she already had. Nothing had prepared her for a police chief's phone call or his mother's frantic screaming over the other line. But she had always been prepared for death. Whether his or her own, Annabeth was hopelessly ready. Because Percy Jackson was dead… and nothing would keep her apart from him.

…

When they'd called the council, almost as if a war was on the table, Thalia had agreed it was a good idea. She hadn't yet seen Annabeth, she wasn't sure if anyone had. And getting together with all of her friends had seemed a good way to help her cope. Plus, it wasn't as if Thalia wasn't grieving herself, she was just pushing herself harder to forget. However, if Thalia had known at all what the War Council would truly be, she'd never have agreed at all.

The Ping Pong table party looked as pitiful as ever, complete with haphazard Santa hats on various statues in the rec room, and about a dozen cups of red Koolaid scattered around. The recent Christmas bash had obviously been a big hit. As more people filed in and sat down in the wicker lawn chairs, Thalia wondered if Annabeth would even show up. After all, he had died just yesterday. She probably needed more time to grieve alone.

Just as Thalia was certain she'd made a huge mistake by calling the meeting, Annabeth walked in. On time to the very second, her blonde hair curled impeccably, and wearing a puffy, short red dress. She looked like the embodiment of Christmas time. Thalia was very concerned. After all, Christmas was two weeks away, and Annabeth most definitely did not believe in early holiday celebration.

Chiron stepped into the silent rec room just as Annabeth fell into a chair, and said, vaguely cheerfully, "Good morning, everyone."

He then sunk down into his wheelchair, and pulled a blanket over his lap. A quiet sprinkle of good mornings echoed back at him, quickly silenced by the deafening fear and sadness held inside the tiny capsule of emotion that was, currently, functioning as the rec room.

Thalia waited expectantly, and then without further word from Chiron, "Well, I assume we all know why we're here. Last night, we lost one of- "

Immediately cut off by Annabeth who raised her hand tremulously , with a look of pure devestation, "I'm sorry, Thalia, but I was told that we would not be talking about that subject at all. Is this not merely a learning strategies meeting? I definitely have been having some serious learning difficulties with some of my campers and.."

Chiron closed his eyes and sighed, looking about a millennia older, "Now Annabeth, dear, surely you want to talk about… all of this."

Annabeth smiled softly. Thalia had never, ever in her life seen Annabeth behave this way. So restrained, so dangerously innocent. She looked like her whole life had turned out to be a misconception. That smile, it seemed, was the push off a fatal tipping point.

"I was a stupid little girl," she said softly, "I was a child who liked to read biographies so that by understanding the past, I could easily manipulate the future. I never spent any time reading fairytales. I never read anything that wasn't true. So my parents could never correct me, and I never learned to follow my heart, or truly believe in anyone or anything." She swallowed and stared blankly at a spot of wall just past Chiron's head. "And then one day, that stupid little girl who'd never been corrected fell in love. And she believed it, because she'd never read any of those fairytales. And her parents had never told her to stop believing when she got too old because she'd never learned the misconceptions, she just grew into them."

She paused, and for a moment Chiron started to speak but he was quickly silenced by Annabeth's gray eyes, dark as storm clouds, and devastatingly powerful, "And then that guy had to go and break her heart, and she swore she'd never love another man," Thalia could see the tears now, "But she did."

Annabeth's breathing turned ragged as tears snaked their way down onto her cheeks and onto her perfect red dress, and then very suddenly Thalia knew that Annabeth had never been stupid. She would never have come to the council without a motive. And no one had told her they wouldn't be bridging this subject. She'd done something horrible.

"And she promised that nothing else mattered, because it didn't," Annabeth scrunched her eyes as if she was trying to block out an image, "and she promised because she didn't want to live without him."

"Annabeth," Thalia yelled suddenly, "Someone get a medic."

Chiron grabbed her arm and forced her back into her seat, "There is nothing we can do now."

Annabeth grabbed at her stomach, her eyes clenching even tighter.

"You knew?" Thalia screamed, "You knew and you didn't do anything. You could have stopped this. You could have at least told me not to bring her here in front of everyone."

"They need to understand the consequences of…"

"She is not a lesson! She is dying."

Annabeth shook her head and breathed out slowly, "I'm sorry, Thalia… it's just…"

Annabeth looked beautiful when she died. How anyone could pull that off Thalia didn't know.

"It's just you love him," Thalia whispered, as Annabeth slumped back against her chair

"I know. But I loved you too."

You like? Review and story alert if you wanna. I do love your opinions(:

Much love,

Sofia