Chiron and Nico were talking in hushed voices. "We-Tell-Annabeth. Percy-Dead." She stopped still at those words. Then, ignoring all sense of rationality, she barged through the doors, looking like a madwoman. Maybe she was. Chiron and Nico looked at her, Chiron with grave sadness, and Nico with surprise and pain. He didn't look any better than she felt.
"What...did...you….say." She said, spitting out each word. She grabbed him and pushed him against the wall. He didn't even react. Chiron broke in. "Annabeth…" He said, and that one word was so full of pain, she knew. "No!" She cried. "He...said he wouldn't leave me." Her voice was a broken whisper. When he left for his quest, he left her and kissed her goodbye, his eyes twinkling. "I love you." He said. That was not gone, It couldn't be gone. "No.." She muttered, her eyes painful. "Stop!" She screamed. Make this feeling stop. She ran out, not caring where she was going. She ran through thorn bushes, embracing the physical pain to mix with the emotional. She collapsed a few meters farther. Clenching the dirt, crying so hard she couldn't see. She wondered what that horrible keening sound was, then realized it was her. She threw up three times. She crawled forward, then hit her head on a tree, so she just sat there in a ball, leaking vomit and blood and tears. The pain was so bad. So real. She fell asleep there, screaming at the gods and at everything. She knew blame was no good way to go, but she did it anyway. She had to stop the pain. Stop it.
She woke up in the infirmary, her head and legs bandaged and cleaned. They offered her nectar and ambrosia, but she refused it. They couldn't heal her heart. She stood up suddenly. No way Percy was dead. He wouldn't leave her. He was just out there. She grinned, a maniac smile on her face. She clung to this belief like her last lifeline. Maybe it was. The only line keeping her from plunging into the deep end, that is. Then Nico came in. His face was sad and pained, and he looked at her maniac smile like he knew what she was thinking, and his pained expression shone even more through his eyes.
He walked over and handed her a little bundle. "He wanted you to have this." He said, his voice cracking, and he left. She stared at the bundle, not wanting to believe what was in it. She raised one hand, and slowly unwrapped the blue cloth. Her hand brushed against the cold metal, and once again she ran, her tears clouding her eyes. She left the pen on the infirmary bed. It was proof. It made it real. The line snapped and she dove into the deep end. Her seaweed brain wasn't here to save her. Not today.