Hi! This is really short, but it came to mind and I just had to write it down. :)
They say that Immortal beings can fade if they lose the will to live. Sometimes, Calypso would wonder if that was the case for her. She never felt truly in one place, as if half of her soul had already sunk through the Earth into the Underworld.
Her flowers were her company, as were the animals. But, not unlike the heroes who washed up on the shores, they always left her. Everything on the island of Ogygia could fade. Except for Calypso.
At least, that was what she'd thought until Lord Apollo came to visit her.
"Lady Calypso, as beautiful as the stars in the night sky." He grinned at her with a smile that was blindingly bright.
"Thank you, Lord Apollo. That is very kind of you," Calypso replied. But her face was solemn, and he could tell.
"You're sad," he noticed, and the glint in his eyes disappeared.
"Of course. My heart is broken in many places, and I must live every day to face it."
He narrowed his eyes, as if to avoid saying what was on his mind. "But Calypso, there's a way."
Her mouth opened slightly in shock before he continued. "Dearest, only one Hundred-Handed One remains. There were three. This is also the case of the gorgons. If we lose the will to live, we can give up our immortality."
She couldn't bear to look into the pain in his eyes. "Thank you, Lord Apollo."
He nodded, and took off for the heavens, flying up to Olympus.
Calypso couldn't bring herself to fade, not yet. Perhaps there was a hero out there somewhere, meant for her. He would stay with her forever. Surely the Fates were not completely cruel. After all, she hadn't done anything wrong in many millennia. Perhaps her curse would be lifted.
And when she met Percy Jackson, she truly believed that. When she saw him shoot into the sea, she ran down the beach and dove into the water to save him.
They spent more time together than Calypso usually got to have with heroes on Ogygia. Two whole weeks, in fact. Even though Perseus was asleep for at least half that time.
She enjoyed nursing him back to health. It made her feel as though she were impacting the course of history, just by helping him. She also loved his stories of the magical world of Manhattan. It was like learning about a different planet. She couldn't imagine herself living in such a place. It seemed so far-fetched and too different from her little home. But the stories pleased her.
Calypso tried to act as if his presence didn't matter, but she could tell that he knew something was wrong. He was too young to know the stories of the heroes who visited her, and she didn't want to be the one to tell them. She knew he had a prophecy to complete and she didn't want to stand in the way. But sometimes, your heart just doesn't agree with your brain.
She did believe that he may be the only hero who would stay with her, though. And so she told him that he had a choice.
But that was the day that changed her mind. He would not help her; she could tell that he needed to go home before even he knew that this was the case.
She had sent Perseus Jackson off on a raft after he made his decision. They both had tears in their eyes, and he held a sprig of moonlace in his hands. Calypso knew that he had made the right choice to leave her. From the fondness with which he talked about his friends, especially Annabeth, Calypso knew deep down that he would leave. She only hoped that he could save his friends. He would be needed elsewhere, that much was certain. He could change the course of history. But in the pit of her stomach, she still felt terrible that she had been left once again.
Even though she fought it every time, Calypso kept falling in love. And she was tired of it. Her curse made her tired. Sometimes, she would lie in bed for days after a hero left her. She was alone for far too long.
When Percy left, Calypso couldn't even make it back to her cave before she collapsed. She lay in her rose bushes, looking up at the grape vines growing all around her. She did not cry; for if she could, she certainly would have by now. But the years of being left alone had taken away her tears. Now, she simply felt hollow.
A bird flew down next to her. It landed, and hopped over so she could see it in front of her face. The little robin chirped sadly.
"I am sad too, little one," Calypso sighed. The animals had all liked Percy's company, even though he slept most of the time. Sometimes she would catch the birds watching Percy as he slept, just to make sure he was alright.
She lay there for a long time. Much longer than usual, in fact. Calypso didn't move for many weeks.
These were the times when invisible servants came in handy. They did not hang around her – they simply brought her meals and left as quickly as they had come. If they did linger, it did not bother Calypso. They were a sort of company. Occasionally, Calypso would reach her hand out to one of her servants, and she would feel a warm wind on her fingertips. It was a kind of comfort.
She wasn't sure when it happened, but at some point, Calypso made a decision. This would be the last time that her heart was broken.
It started in her feet and her fingertips. She no longer had the willpower to move them, so she let them simply disappear. It was a strange feeling; she could look down and her feet just weren't there anymore. Calypso looked along the length of her legs and found that the further down they stretched, the more faded they became. It wasn't gross. She simply looked like a ghost. Translucent.
It came to the point where she could no longer walk, or even hop around. She floated, just like the servants on the island. Calypso realized that she could see them better now, because her existence was closer to theirs. She moved far slower than they did, though.
After about a week of slowly fading away, Calypso was nothing more than a shadow and a face. She missed her brown hair, but she had to control herself. If she thought too much about how she missed aspects of herself, they would reappear.
This was a hard process. She really had no idea that fading away would be this hard. She only wanted to stop her heart from breaking.
Finally, Calypso achieved her goal. The last piece of her was swept away by the wind, and she found herself in the realm of Hades. She could still feel the island, in a way. It had grown to be a part of her, so she could tell when the gods came to visit, found the island empty, and left. They all must have known what happened to her, and so she felt no distress on their part.
But that was why, 6 months later, when Percy asked for Calypso to be freed from her island, Apollo couldn't help but think about how naïve Percy was. He didn't realize that he had been the straw to break Calypso's back. And her heart.
No one would be freed from that island. No one was there.
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