The floor of the cave was wet stone. Everything around me was stone. The air was stifling-humid and thick with the smell of death and monsters. I felt like I was slowly suffocating.
The cave was only lit by a tiny bit of light, so I had trouble seeing. That was fine. I didn't want to see everything. I didn't want to see the dead bodies of my friends lying around me. I didn't want to see the wound in Annabeth's stomach. I just wanted to sit here and pretend that everything was going to be okay, just for a little bit.
"Are you okay?" I whispered, tucking a strand of blonde hair behind her ear.
"I'm fine," Annabeth said, pain written all over her face. Even in death my Wise Girl was an awful liar.
I wished on every shooting star I'd ever seen that I'd suddenly turn into Hermes and whisk her away, across the ocean, back to camp where Mr. D and Chiron could heal her. Hell, if I was Hermes I would heal Annabeth myself. We sat there quietly watching each other. Her face was streaked with dirt and tears and her body was cold and lifeless in my arms, but her eyes were as bright and alive as ever and it tore at my heart to see the pain so clearly written there.
I wanted to say something to reassure her. I wanted to tell her everything was all right and that we'd live through this, but I couldn't bring myself to lie to Annabeth. We'd made it out of a lot of close calls together (monsters, evil Titans, angry gods, even Tarterus) but we'd always had help. Now all our friends were dead and we were alone.
I shook my head, gritting my teeth and blinking away the burning sensation behind my eyes. I didn't want her to die wjith her boyfriend breaking being the last thing she saw.
"Dammit, Annabeth, this isn't fair!" I said, my grip on her tightening. "I need you here. Who's going to yell at me when I'm being a show-off? Who's going to to go with me on quests? Who's going to help me with all my stupid problems? What am I going to do without my Wise Girl?" I peppered kisses all over the top of her head.
"I don't know, Seaweed Brain," she whispered. And I couldn't anymore. For Annabeth to not have an answer for something meant the world really was ending.
If I'd spoken I would've broken down, and I couldn't afford to do that so I stayed silent and kissed away the tears on her face. And kissed her nose, and bot h her eyes, and ever so gently her lips. She wound her arms around my neck and pulled me close
"I love you Percy," she whispered, her breath faint.
"I love you too," I mumbled, my vision blurring. She pulled back, and readjusted herself in my arms so she could see me better. A second later her eyes fell closed.
I leaned down and put my ear to her chest. After waiting for what felt like hours and not hearing a sound, not even a flutter of her heart beat, I buried my face in her stomach. It's better to scream than cry so I screamed.
We'd gotten so far, lasted so long, been so close to having a happy ending and then this hapoened. Why didn't we deserve the life other people had? Despite everything I felt tears leak out of my eyes as I rocked Annabeth's limp body, cursing every god I knew of, every monster ever created, cursing every fucking thing on the planet. I just wanted her back. I wanted her to be here with me. No, I wanted to be the one who died, so Annabeth could be the one who lived.
Hope you liked that. Trust me, it was painful to write. I started out making it just a sad one shot to depress one of my fellow PJ fangirls/my friend and then she gave me a couple of ideas on what should happen next so I might be continuing it. Give me some feedback and your opinion on whether or not I should keep going? It wouldn't be a whole story, just a longer one shot.