Ever since the battle against Kronos, Thalia had slowly started to forget Luke. It took her years until she started realizing it, but she knew it would only get worse as she got older. Well, not really older physically. But the years still passed.
The first was his voice.
The hunters of Artemis were in California searching for some magical artifact. They had fought off one too many monsters and Thalia was tired. She headed into her tent and waited for the bliss that only sleep could bring her now. It was the only time she could ever be with him.
But that night was different. His image appeared to her and smiled. The same crooked grin she had loved from the start. His blue eyes were friendly and the scar on his face only added to what made Luke, Luke. Thalia reached out to him and his mouth opened to say something.
His lips moved but nothing came out.
She could tell he was trying to talk to her, but something wasn't working. His eyes were still glittering and he was clueless that the daughter of Zeus could not hear him.
Thalia held onto his arm and she could feel a tear roll down her cheek. This couldn't be happening. The only time she could see him and talk to his image was in her dreams and now it was ruined.
She woke up to a fellow hunter shaking her with a confused and worried expression.
"I'm fine." Thalia turned away.
She no longer looked forward to seeing him in her dreams. She slept as little as possible so she could avoid looking at his shining blue eyes trying to tell a story.
And so more years passed. Thalia slept less and worked harder. If she was going to live forever, she might as well make it count, right? Then the little things began to fade from her memory.
Thalia was in the middle of a fight and noticed a thick, white scar on the arm of one of the hunters and suddenly she couldn't remember which side of Luke's face had the scar. It was such a simple detail, so why couldn't she remember.
She sunk down to the ground, gripping her head. Thalia screamed and the other hunters fought around her.
Later that night, Artemis called Thalia in to her tent to talk to her.
"Thalia," Artemis started.
"Yes, my lady." Thalia bowed.
"Felicity told me what happened in battle today."
Damn child of Apollo, Thalia thought bitterly.
"Is there something we need to discuss?" Artemis asked with an eyebrow raised.
"No, my lady." Thalia replied calmly.
Artemis stared at her for a moment before letting her return to her own tent.
Thalia looked blankly at herself in the mirror once she was back in her tent. She looked just like she had 254 years ago. She looked herself straight in the eyes. Electric blue, like always.
And then his eye color disappeared from her memory.
She knew they were blue, but it was a specific shade of blue. Not like hers, she remembered that, but she couldn't picture them.
How could she forget?
"I don't want to forget," She said pathetically to herself.
More and more years passed. Soon, when she tried to picture his face, all she saw was a blurred face with blonde hair. It was painful and she didn't enjoy her dreams about him anymore. She didn't save him and now she was forgetting him.
Thalia strolled down the streets of some city she didn't care enough about to learn the name of. She passed couples holding hands and small children giggling. She entered a coffee shop to get her morning espresso, but suddenly her mind went blank.
Behind the counter, taking her order, was Luke.
"No, it can't be Luke." She scolded herself.
But he could have been Luke's doppelganger. And all the memories came flooding back to her. She remembered the eye color, which side the scar was on, how he smelled, his crooked smile, and most of all, his voice.
With a huge grin on her face, she ordered her coffee.
Walking back down the street, drink in hand, Thalia flipped through all the memories. The boy at the coffee shop had written his number on the cup, but Thalia wasn't interested. She just wanted her thoughts and memories of Luke.
Those memories could keep immortality tolerable.