Annabeth's POV

April-

An untold amount of nights we have spent up together. These nights pass by in a flash.

I've lost count, really. Its easy to lose track of time when your brain is all fuzzy. These nights we spent hours upon hours pouring our souls and emotions out out to each other over Iris messaging.

But it still isn't the same as being together in person. There is something about touching him that brings me back to reality. Back to this life that we have someone been able to live, unscathed.

It was the fall that brought this upon us.

That one ungodly evening, when Percy made the choice to let go of the ledge and fall into the pit. I don't know why he would do that. He has told me many times before that he did it because he loves me. But the rest of the seven and I all know that it was his fatal flaw, loyalty, that persuaded him to do it. But maybe a small amount of love was mixed in to it.

I remember falling. I remember our bodies tangled together, our hair whipping in the wind. I remember feeling tears hitting my head, one of the few times I had ever seen him cry. Nine days. That is how long the Greek poet Hesiod predicted it would take for someone to fall from Earth's surface, to the bottom. Gods, how wrong was he. Or at least I think. It felt like eternity.

When we had finally escaped, stumbling out of the Doors of Death, our world had been flipped over on its backside for longer than we had known. As the sunlight stung our eyes, as our abused feet cried out some more, we both collapsed. Both physically and mentally, I guess. While our physical lacerations healed quite quickly, thanks to some godly techniques, our mental traumas would continue to haunt us for months, even years to come.

The first few days back on the Argo II felt, unbelievably, normal and peaceful. It wasn't until the five days after our recovery that things started to take a turn for the worse. Everyone on board the ship was woken up many times nightly to ear-piercing, blood-curdling screams from both me and him. Visions and hallucinations also plagued us during the day. It was like we couldn't escape.

It was like our brains had finally decided to give in, after all of the torment they had gone through over the past five or six years, give or take a few. We had been known as some of the strongest demigods. We had many times bore the weight of our group. But after this circumstance, everyone saw us break down. Our parents, mentors, peers, and friends, all saw our broken states. It wasn't like we cared much.

I remember the day Percy finally got to see his mom after his many month absence. As we walked into the so familiar apartment building in Manhattan, his nervous hand grasped onto mine. We opted to take the stairs instead of the elevator, for pronounced reasons, I hope. The fourteen flight journey was a long one, but well worth the flashback or two we prevented. I could feel his hand start to shake. He was apprehensive. I was about to comment on his demeanor, but I quickly withdrew that thought into the back of my brain. It wouldn't help. We knocked on the door exactly three times before the door swung open, revealing a very surprised Sally. With tears in both her and her sons eyes, the quickly enfolded themselves together. A smile spread across my face. A good minute passed before she acknowledged my presence and swiftly embraced me. I do not even remember seeing Paul's figure emerging from the dimly-lit living room. At first, he seemed astonished at what was before him. He almost instantaneously softened a bit and ran to embrace us both. What was to ensue after this encounter would be one of the best nights I had enjoyed in a long time.

I was expecting to be able to stay in New York with Percy and his family. Everything was in place when one day we got a phone call from my school district back in California. They said that they were unable to transfer my papers and records to the district office here in Manhattan, and that I would have to finish my final year of high school all the way across the country. Now, this isn't that long of a time period. We knew that. It was only a few months, and then we could be reunited. But whenever you experience visions, hallucinations, and shattering dreams nightly, it sounds like an eon.

And this is what brings me around to the beginning again. Percy and I spend many nights talking over Iris message. It's never the same. It never will be. But, on the bright side, only a month left until we will be reunited.