They'd been going there since she was a baby. Sally Durand-Jackson had been going even longer. She never exactly said it, but her daughter knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met Persie's father.
Persie could see it as they got closer to Montauk, her mother seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.
They got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through their usual cleaning routine. They walked on the beach, fed blue and green corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on green jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples her mother had brought from her work.
Persie always loved blue and green. Blue, because it's the color of her mother's eyes. Green, because her mother said that her father has sea-green eyes. Persie found blue to be beautiful and green to be vibrant. She loved the colors so much and wondering if there are foods with these colors; her mother went out of her way to let her able to eat blue and green, like Persie always been given the green vegetables and blue fruits in her meals. She baked blue and green birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies and green apple juice. She bought blue and green-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue and green candy from the shop.
When it got dark, they made a fire. They roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Her mother told her stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told her about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.
Eventually, Persie got up the nerve to ask about her father.
"He was kind, Persie," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."
Sally fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Persie. He would be so proud."
Persie, who was five back then, always happy when her mother described what her father looked like. She also wished that she could make her papa proud.
Is it strange that every time she tried to remember her father, she remembered a cold breeze and darkened glares?
It's been years since the last time she visited Montauk with her mother. Their usual rental cabin was still on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. Little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. She remembered that there was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets, and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.
She remembered why she loved the place.
She remembered why the place always make her mother seemed younger. She remembered how happy she was, spending time with her mother.
She fondly smiled as she remembered how her mother went through all effort to color every food with blue and green. Her two favorite colors.
And then she stared at the sea and frowns.
She remembered what happened after that trip. A cyclops raging throughout the beach, killed her dear mother. A cyclops that was sent by Poseidon to supposedly eliminate her—his own daughter.
Poseidon. The same father she wished to make him proud of her.
Poseidon. The same tall, handsome, and powerful man described by her mother.
Poseidon. The same person she got that accursed sea-green eyes from.
Poseidon. The God of the Seas who refused to claim her.
Poseidon.
The same monster who ruin her life by turning the seas against her.
She knows that she shouldn't visit Montauk, as it will bring nothing but misery to her. But, the place is also the only place where her memories of her mother are. Montauk brings horrible and beautiful memory.
She could see the sea waves in front of her, swirled around as if mocking her inability to enter the sea. She could hear ridicules directed to her from hundreds of sea creatures that were swimming near the beach.
She clenched her fist as she swiftly turned away from the beach and headed out of Montauk. She bit her lips as she fought hard not to let tears spill out from her now-ordinary blue eyes.
Persephone Andromeda Brimstone née Durand-Jackson turned her back from the cruel seas, the grim place called Montauk, as she makes her way back to her vehicle.
She may love Paris, she may enjoy Monaco, but Montauk is the only place remain and stuck in her heart and no matter what she did to forget about it, it will always haunt her.
AUTHOR NOTE: Yes, this is a side story for my other story 'Sea Anomaly', which featuring fem!Percy Jackson.
Yes, in my story universe, said fem!Percy Jackson is Persephone Brimstone from AoM. And thus, the reason of my plan to crossover it.