Hey guys! Ok so this chapter was something that I cried while I was writing. So I hope you enjoy it!

Fire licked my face. I of course didn't feel it's heat, even though you would expect it from someone working in the forges non-stop for three hours. I had come here after I saw Annabeth Chase, my best friend ever since she came to camp, kissing -no sucking face- with the Percy Jackson.

It was too much for a girl that had just lost it all.

Last week, my mom had IM'd me. It was possibly the worst conversation with anyone ever.

She sobbed, and kept on sobbing, until I figured out what happened.

Before that let me tell you a bit about my family. I had my mom, a wonderful woman. She always made ends meet with her and I working in a machine shop and selling the pieces we made. It wasn't enough to make a big deal over, but it was enough that we could buy groceries every week. I also had a little half-brother, Dean Higgins. My step dad had died a year earlier in a car accident. My mom wasn't this hysterical when she told me about that.

My brother would never admit it, but he was gay. Homosexual. Liked boys. However you put it. I loved him just the same when he told me, but unfortunately the people on his football team had already figured it out, and punished him for it.

The day he told me, maybe a week after the car crash, I held him until he stopped crying. Then he showed me the bruises. These weren't football bruises, like the ones on your things from tackling someone, these were bruises on his shoulders, ankles, and back.

I was furious.

Who would do this to my little brother? My little baby brother?

He was strong, he went to school everyday and put up with the teasing and getting smacked around. I didn't like it, but he convinced me he was fine.

My mom wiped away her tears, and through the muffled sobs I could make out some words.

"Dean...rope...gone..." she said through the spray of water.

I didn't need to be a child of Athena to figure out what happened.

My baby brother, the one that I took grocery shopping, the one that loved football, the one that I loved... was gone.

He committed suicide.

For the next 2 hours, I sat with the image of my mother sobbing, in my childhood house, with policemen everywhere. I eventually ran out of tears and was reduced to saying goodbye to my mother and going back to my cabin in an emotional wreck.

Everyone in my cabin knew to stay away when something like this happened. It had been the same when my step-father died. The only one that actually knew me well enough to come within a 5 foot radius of me was Cynthia. She sat with me, in silence.

The funeral was tomorrow. I need Cynthia there, and Annabeth, and Tyson. I needed them all. I wasn't strong, sure I could lift 250 pounds of celestial bronze with one shoulder but I couldn't go through this alone. I needed my sister, my best friend, and Tyson and his bear hugs that always made me laugh.

()O()O()O()O()O()O()

I had been up since 5A.M. according to the watch Beckendorf had made me. I stayed in bed until 7, needing to take it all in.

I was going to my brother's funeral. I had dreaded the day for a week now. I yelled in my head as I pulled on my black dress. My sad depressing black dress. The one that my mother had mailed to me. I screamed at the world for taking away a wonderful person. I yelled at the gods, nobody in particular, I just wanted to wake up and have this all be a dream.

The rest of the day went by in a blur. I had gotten to my mom's house in my black dress and black flats, along with Annabeth in her matching outfit, and Tyson in a suit that I could have sworn Percy had worn once. There was a lot of black. I had noticed my mother, who had run out of tears, like me, and just looking like there was no reason to live past this.

The only thing I can remember is going up to his coffin, seeing him in the suit he had picked out to go to his winter ball in. I had helped him pick out the suit. He planned to go with friends, he planned to have fun. He planned to go to college, get a degree in creative writing.

He had his whole life in front of him, and a few words had taken it all away.

I hated the people who had done this to him. They had taken the happy, exited, and wonderful brother out of my life and the world.

I can clearly remember putting the heart I had made of wire, into the jacket pocket. It would help me, to let me know that I was always going to be with my brother.

The blur continued. Hugs from distant relatives, Annabeth holding me, Tyson's bear hugs, Cynthia's hand squeezing mine, and the pale face of my lost brother being lowered into the ground.

We had gotten back to camp around 6 in the afternoon, and I had planned to go into the forges and work with my siblings until the harpies came out.

()O()O()O()O()O()O()O()

Cynthia and Dino stood next to me from my station, pounding bent swords back into their original state. They took care of daggers and the breast plates, while I and some of the older guys took on the swords and shields. It felt good to be back in the forges, the constant tickling of fire licking my face, and the hot metal around me.

This was my home now.

I had danced around the idea for years now, but I had never told myself that I couldn't go back to my house in New York. There would be too many memories that opened wounds, and if I did go back I would have to leave my mom again. There would also be the bedroom where my little brother had taken a rope to his neck and ended his life. I would break down if I ever saw that room again.

That night I fell asleep to the sound of my own crying.

This chapter means a lot to me because one of my childhood friends committed suicide in the seventh grade because he was gay. So this is my tribute to him. I hope you liked it.

Stay posted for new chapters!