Her voice, he can't get her voice out of his head. It's as though it's stalking him, and when it's not her voice it's her. Everywhere he turns her sees her. Or, at least that's what had happened the one time he got out of bed to go to the bathroom. It is like Hades is mocking him, taunting him with images of the most beautiful girl in the world, but when he reaches for her she is dust.

He knows he should sleep, knows that Thalia left him here so that he could sleep it off. Like she was a hangover, as if. No, sleep would only make this worse. If he slept he would dream of her, would dream of her dying, of her face, of holding her in his arms as the light left her eyes. Or worse, he might dream about her smile, her laugh, that beautiful twinkle in her eyes when she teased him. He is choking up, even Nectar and Ambrosia can't fix a broken heart. Nothing can.

Her picture is next to his bed, she is young in it. Probably twelve, and wearing her signature baseball hat and Camp Half-Blood t-shirt, her smile is easy and her eyes are happy but shaded. He has spent what feels like decades staring at that picture, and the grief rolling off of it could rival even the strongest wave. The tears have long since stopped, he's pretty sure that he's run out of them. No, he has long since upgraded to dry-sobbing, kind of like dry-heaving, which he is more-or-less sure will happen soon.

He is going to get through this, however, because he has a plan. He's not exactly up-to-date on his history, but he does remember one story. One very true story that he is going to recreate, except this time he will win.

The story is something about a man who makes a deal with Hades, all he has to do to bring his beloved wife back from the grave, is walk. Walk out the gates of the Underworld; never once looking back to see whether or not she is following him. In this case the man lost his chance, he looked back, his wife was there, but she was lost to him forever.

Percy will recreate this story, except this time, he will leave with Annabeth, he will not succumb to desire, he will bring her back. He will make it right. He'll make sure of it.