The eighteen year old Annabeth had tears sliding down her face, caked with makeup. She couldn't figure out why; this was supposed to be the happiest day of her life. She was thankful for the floaty material gathered in front of her face. The crowd was all dressed up in their nicest clothes, and smiling at her as she strode down the isle. There he was, standing at the altar, his face lit up as she came closer. She knew what would happen, she wanted to run so badly, but she kept herself under controll. The blue sky was suddenly filled with clouds, and the gentle breeze became a strong gust that blew songsheets out of the hands of the guests. Percy was reaching for her across the chaos and she ran, disregarding poiliteness. She was inches away from Percy when suddenly all she held in her arms was salt water, salt like the tears that flowed freely from underneath her veil.
Annabeth woke up crying, as she did most nights since the horrible day.
The day could seem normal to most people, campers included, but Annabeth shone with exitement. She had not even slept the night before. It was the day they were coming back from the Argo trip. At the sight of the first of the seven on the top of Half-blood hill, all camp-goers dropped what they were doing to run to greet them. Annabeth, who had been studying the individual architexture that Demeter put into every flower, ran with the wildflowers still clutched in her hand. She was breathless, Percy had promiced that they'd get married once he came back, regardless of age. The crowd was oddly silent, and they parted to let Annabeth through. She looked oddly at their solumn expressions.
Piper stepped forward and simply stated the reason they were here, then.
'Zeus was insistant that this quest followed as closely as possible with the original Argo trip, kicking Medusa out of course.'
Annabeth felt her mouth run dry, she knew the adventure word for word but she couldn't make the sounds with her lips. They wouldn't form. She felt the flowers slip from her hand and hit the grass without a sound.
'Annabeth, Percy's not coming home.' Leo said, for once serious. Annabeth knew that her gray eyes were brimming with tears. This couldn't be happening to her. She had tried to not do anything wrong. It had to be a dream.
But the pain in her heart was too heavy. She couldn't seem to get a breath into her lungs. Why her, why HIM?
That night she was haunted with the first of the recurring dream. She woke up to Malcolm hugging her and trying to comfort her, but she was shaking and crying, and her tears were so true, that Aphrodite broke the rules of phisics and allowed them to be made of inigo, staining her bedspread and never allowing her to forget him. Annabeth chose to blame Aphrodite for the dreams, hoping that maybe they were caused by sleeping on the blue-spotted bedspread, but Annabeth still cryed those indigo tears.
She took a walk after making Malcolm go back to sleep. She ignored the pinpricks of thorns on her bare feet as she made her way through the woods and to the part on the beach. She was haunted by happy memories of kissing and swimming on Percy's favorite part of the beach. She felt something cold and metallic, and when she retrieved the item from the sand, she felt grief surge up. It was a bottletop from the day they had sipped diet cokes at that spot the day before he left. Near beside it, Annabeth knew, were scripts of the iris messages to one-another, Iris made them for her. She couldn't stand to be there anymore. She ran to the main part of the beach, her heels kicking up clouds of sand and her t-shirt billowing around her in the wind.
She was back in her cabin before no time, even more distraught then when she had left. She layed down on her bunk and slid into a short, dreamless sleep.
The next day was the day of the of Percy's flag burning. Annabeth had heard the slow music from the band that the Apollo cabin had formed overnight. The trumpets peirced her soul, she felt like they were sending it to be with Percy.
Chiron stood with a look of true anguish on his face. Although he tried to not pick favorites, it was well known that Percy was his favorite.
Once everyone had sat down, Chiron started the ceremony.
'Hades, please take this boy's soul and his heroic deeds into mind when you judge him. And please, please heal this hurt.'
Almost as if it was sceduled, the camp stood and started singing, quietly at first, a song about a hero who never returned to his lover. It got louder and Chiron lit the fire. To Annabeth, it was the song that fit her life perfectly, in the most tragic of ways. Chiron handed her Percy's emblem, and she wished she could just hold onto it forever, the last true thing she had left of him. The harpies had cleaned out his cabin the day before.
She tries to say something, but the words were torn off her tounge like Percy was from her life. She layed the flag gently on the fire and sobbed as it burned, leaving her heart feeling reduced to Ashes.
If only, oh if only it was just a dream.
"'"
Lyrics to Just A Dream by Carrie Underwood.
'
It was two weeks after the day she turned eighteen
All dressed in white
Going to the church that night
She had his box of letters in the passenger seat
Sixpence in a shoe, something borrowed, something blue
And when the church doors opened up wide
She put her veil down
Trying to hide the tears
Oh she just couldn't believe it
She heard trumpets from the military band
And the flowers fell out of her hand
'
Baby why'd you leave me
Why'd you have to go?
I was counting on forever, now I'll never know
I can't even breathe
It's like I'm looking from a distance
Standing in the background
Everybody's saying, he's not coming home now
This can't be happening to me
This is just a dream
'
The preacher man said let us bow our heads and pray
Lord please lift his soul, and heal this hurt
Then the congregation all stood up and sang the saddest song that she ever heard
Then they handed her a folded up flag
And she held on to all she had left of him
Oh, and what could have been
And then the guns rang one last shot
And it felt like a bullet in her heart
'
Baby why'd you leave me
Why'd you have to go?
I was counting on forever, now I'll never know
I can't even breathe
It's like I'm looking from a distance
Standing in the background
Everybody's saying, he's not coming home now
This can't be happening to me
This is just a dream
'
Oh,
Baby why'd you leave me
Why'd you have to go?
I was counting on forever, now I'll never know
Oh, now I'll never know
It's like I'm looking from a distance
Standing in the background
Everybody's saying, he's not coming home now
This can't be happening to me
This is just a dream
'
Oh, this is just a dream
Just a dream
Yeah, Yeah
I do not own this wonderful song or PJO. I wish i did, but I dont. :'(
