X. Listen to the Rain/ Sacrifice

What can I say? Lindor is yummy :)

I hear screams all around me. Loud shouts of agony, ripping through the numbness. Hands. Lots of hands on me, pressing on my heart. Lips. Lips on my mouth, breathing air into me. Good, fresh air. So relaxing. So energizing. The hands are back. One two three. They push on my heart. I cough. Clouds of dust and ash rise from my mouth as I open my eyes and shut them again almost immediately. It hurts too much.

My eyes flutter open again, and I see blurry outlines of people. A warning might have been nice, but I welcome the embrace that follows, Ava's brown hair falling into my face. It smells like blood and dirt, and like smoke, as if it has just been burnt. Her charm necklace falls onto my neck, resting there, so cold, so refreshing; a salvation from this hell. I feel her tears fall onto my face; I am relieved. Tears. They're so human. So natural.

"Annabeth! Annabeth!" I hear a familiar voice in the distance. I turn away from Ava's hug, towards the left. Jackson is kneeling over Annabeth's unconscious body, screaming at her to wake up. I hear an audible sigh from Ava. She gets up and walks over to Jackson, pushing him gruffly aside and performing CPR on Annabeth. I close my eyes again. If Annabeth is dead, I don't want to see her. Never ever again. And the pain is back. Right in my chest, in my heart. I slashes and stabs, taking huge bights. I vaguely feel my body twist and turn on the sand where I lie; I feel it roll over, my hands flinging around me, trying to stop the pain.

I hear more shouts, and realize that they are coming from my own mouth. Suddenly, I feel Ava's hands on my chest again, pressing down, soothing the pain. I hear her gasp as her hands leave, and I open my eyes long enough to see her hands covered in red. Blood. "Jackson, get your useless backside over here. And bring some Ambrosia and Nectar while you're at it," she commands. It's definitely not a question. A command. The way she says it, I'm sure Jackson will make haste. Apparently Annabeth has woken up because I can hear her talking quietly to Ivan.

I feel something cold and warm at the same time applied to my chest, which I now notice is bear- the shirt has been singed off. It burns, it burns so bad. I scream, but it turns into a painful howl as some Nectar is forced down my throat. And then, everything is gone. Ava and Jackson and the world start to spin around, faster and faster, until it is all nothing but a blur of colors. I try to scream and shout, but I can't.

Black. Everything goes dark as I spin further and further, out of every known realm, out of every sense that I have ever had. Suddenly, it stops. My feet land on a hard floor, and my knees give away, letting me fall onto the cold marble. Only, the impact doesn't hurt. I stand up and brush my self off- or at least, I want to. I am still wearing my jeans and no shirt, but I also have on a dark grey cloak made out of some kind of fur. I wrap it around myself. So nice and warm. Then I look down at my chest and let out a small gasp.

There is a hole. Right through my heard, there is a gaping hole that goes straight through and out my back. I tentatively brush a finger alongside it; the blood is dry. Breathing steadily, I make my way down the hall and to the open doors ahead of me. My chest starts to protest, but I keep going, completely aware of the fact that I'm most likely dead, judging by my wound.

I enter a small room that is colored in nice, homey colors and reminds me vaguely of a home I Italy that Demeter and I once stayed in. My days with her seem so long ago. It takes every inch of self control I have not to start crying. I swallow, blink a few times, and direct my gaze at the person in front of me. He has dark grey hair, yellow eyes and more scars than I can count. My father.

"Son. I am happy to see you."

Yeah, right. I snarl at him.

"I can see you don't believe me. But isn't your spear proof enough that I care about you?"

I'm momentarily confused. Then I reach onto my back and for the first time, I notice the spear there. I pull it off, examining it closely- one end is still covered in wolf blood and moon energy. I hear my dad sigh, and I turn my eyes back up to him.

"That spear has a terrible history. It was my first spear, you know?"- No, I didn't- "Yes. It served me well, naturally. But a prophesy was made. My own spear would kill me. A curse was placed upon it by none other than the Oracle of Delphi herself. I decided to hide it. But it always found me, and I killed more and more with it. Eventually, I just learned to deal with it. But, the night you came to the world, another prophesy was made. 'Child of grey/ a plan with a flaw/ returns to day/ foe of the law/ beware the king/ of wolves will end/ at the dawning of spring/ on the cursed the child must depend.' Oh yes, I remember it well.

'The child of grey was obviously you. The plan with the flaw was mine. You returned to daylight when you made friends with Phil. The foe of the law was me when I ordered the killing of Phil. It foretold my end in the next two lines. The dawning of spring has yet to come and the 'cursed,' well, that must be the spear. How you will depend on it, I do not know."

We remain in silence, until my father speaks again. "Son, Seth. You probably want to know what happened back there with the explosion and your heart. Ugh. Only when I saw you had beaten me I had noticed that it had been my plan that the prophesy was talking about. I had thought that with my alliance with the Protogenoi, I would be stronger. But you were the flaw. I cared too much [at this, I snarl, but he just waves his hand dismissively]. Think what you want, Seth.

'Anyway, back to what happened. Seth, what I did is either the rise of the Protogenoi or their downfall and the end of the war. I exploded my soul into a million little pieces, making sure one part, the most important part, landed in you. It when right through your heart. Seth, to end this war, you need to kill that bit of soul. Your spear there has just enough to finish it. Yes Seth, that means a sacrifice. You."

Now I realize. I. Me. I am supposed to die at the end. This is why I was born. Well, maybe not exactly, but this is my purpose. To die to save the world. Oh yeah, it sounds all heroic when I say it like that, but really, I'm dead afraid. What if I don't go to Elysium? What if I go to the Punishing Grounds? What if….

"You need to go now Seth. Please, remember, if you destroy me, the only link the Protogenoi have to the gods on Olympus, they will cease. Please. As a terrible father and king of wolves, I ask you to make the simple sacrifice to end this torture. Yes, if you kill that bit of soul, I will be released from my prison here and I can go and take my punishment in Tartarus. Go now."

He speaks the last few words in Ancient Greek, and the world starts to spin once more. My feet lift off the ground, spinning out of control, faster and faster, until wham I hit the hard surface of the sand. Immediately, the pain returns and I scream louder than ever before. I hear hushed voices above me.

"Where'd he get the cloak?"

"Why does he have his spear?"

"What's wrong with him?"

"Can you shut up? He's trying to speak, look!"

I'm glad that Chelsea has caught on. I open my mouth, shaking, drawing deep, rattling breaths, not sure if I have much more time. "Rain… need water… rain… hear the rain… sacrifice," is all I manage to say. My voice is nothing more than a hoarse whisper, breaking the silence of the desert. I want rain. Rain is natural. I like rain. I need rain. If I want to die peacefully, which I know I won't anyway. "Rain…." And with this, I grab the spear and plunge it into the small hole through my heart.

It's like I'm on fire. Every inch of me is burning up, I want to scream, but it hurts too much. I writhe in the sand, convulsing as I feel the pain shoot through me, over and over, again and again. It's worse than anything I could have imagined. Then, all of a sudden, it's gone, and I am left with a strange empty feeling. The feeling of death.

I open my eyes one last time, fluttering, see the storm clouds. Ava begins to say something, but I cut her off. "Shh. Rain. Listen to the rain." And indeed, far above, rain drops are falling down to earth, in the middle of the desert. They reach my body, drenching it, leaving it sopping wet, carrying the blood out of me. Too much pain. "Kill me. Now." My last words. A gun shot. Darkness. The rain. Falling, falling, falling.

-Epilogue-

I must say, I was a tricky case. Hermes came to fetch my soul to take me to the underworld, but halfway there, I managed to struggle and get free. Now I roam the countryside as a ghost, the cloak around me, keeping me warm, the spear on my back, protecting me from shadows.

Over the years I watch my friends grow up. They cannot see me, but it is enough for me to see them. They are happy. I am there for Jackson and Annabeth's wedding. I am there to see Nico gaze longingly at a girl named Thalia, but he gets over her. He goes with a girl named Katie, Katie Gardner, I think, one of Sierra's half sisters. I watch Ava and Ivan's marriage. And I watch my funeral.

I stand there, watching them burn a shroud out of dark grey fur. Leigh stands next to it mournfully, but when she looks right at me, I am sure she can see me. She bounds right up to me and I pet her, almost as if I'm human again. A lot more people than I think come to the funeral. Even Jackson comes, grudgingly nodding his head and saying thanks. I smile, a smug smile. Serves him right.

Maybe death isn't so bad after all. I mean, it isn't like the world would be better with me, is it?

And whenever I want to, I can hear the rain. My salvation. The rain. I smile. Maybe I'll go jump off a cliff later, just for the heck of it. I turn. And I run, letting out a low howl of pleasure as I race through the trees of camp- my home. Past the den, past the cliff the moon spirit ran through. I hear the rain falling down- I am outside the boundaries. I run. I jump. And exhilarating flight.

Love it? Hate it? Mildly like it? Review, my friends, otherwise I will set Leigh on you! Haha, not really, but it would be nice to have some reviews. I know this wasn't exactly the best story, and I know the ending was just crap. But still.

You should check out my story 'YOU.' I am still debating if I should write my story called 'Players of the Game'. The summary is as follows:

They were the rejects. A new country. A new school. New parents. And world war III.

Till next time,

Akheilos, Official Demon Scribe of Olympus, Order of Laurel 2nd class, Official Liar. Have fun!