{Present day}
Madeline stared at the pyre with a stony expression on her face. Katie stood next to her, silent as well. In the ring of the crowd closest to the burial shroud, Madeline stood erect with her hands held in front of her, matching the rest of her body with their stillness.
The pyre was only for ceremonial purposes, since there was no actual body to burn. It was nowhere to be found.
All of Camp Half-Blood was gathered around the funeral of the son of Hermes.
"Because of this brave, heroic young man," Chiron spoke boldly, his strong voice breaking the silence of the demigods, satyrs, nature spirits and everyone at Camp Half-Blood, "we are spared from a great war that would have undoubtedly lead to the deaths of countless innocents. He gave his life to save us all from destruction. His death is a seal that no more blood will be spilled. With this tragic, Pyrrhic victory, there is now peace among the Gods. We have him to thank for the lives of us all."
There was more silence, the only noise being the faint rusting of the trees in the light breeze of the bright day.
The pyre in the center of the amphitheater stood strong and handsome, built from dark wood by the Hermes cabin for their sibling and co-head counselor. On the top of the pyre, a can of shaving cream rested oddly, but everyone knew why it was there; filling campers' sleeping bags with shaving cream had been his favorite prank.
Dionysus cleared his throat beside Chiron and spoke calmly.
"Heroes have may flaws. But there are a few, I will admit, that even I cannot deny are admirable. This hero indeed had many flaws, but lack of heart or courage or loyalty were never any of those. For that, this young man will be remembered as a true hero. I myself will remember him as a good man. His death is regrettable. But it is a reminder to me of the good that is inside some of you, a great truth."
Chiron nodded at the other son of Hermes. The remaining brother looked back at him and spoke up.
"Connor will always be my brother," Travis said, his voice crashing over the ceremony. The whole Camp listened, remembering the lost hero. Madeline felt a wretch in her heart as he spoke, but no tears came to her eyes. She had cried enough in the past few days that she didn't even know if there were anymore tears left inside of her. She felt greater sadness and pain than she had ever felt in her life, but she could not cry.
"I can say without a doubt that things will never be the same without him," Travis continued sadly. "He was my partner in crime. You can all thank him for every prank we ever pulled off together."
Sad smiles came to the faces of many in the crowd as they remembered the many pranks of the infamous Stoll brothers, along with the disturbance of peace that had come with them. No one would've ever thought it before, but those disturbances would actually be missed. There would be an empty feeling at Camp Half-Blood without them.
"I mean, it was a party trick made for two. He was my little brother, but I'll say now that he was the brains of the scheme. I know everyone can say that it annoyed them a bit how smart-mouthed he could be sometimes- all the time, actually- but I wouldn't have had him any other way. I would've never been me without him by my side all our lives. This is the first time that he's not here. I never thought I'd say goodbye to him, because he's my brother and it just isn't something that seems meant to be, but I guess that's what I have to do now. He died a hero's death, but he deserves more than Elysium. Even though I'm saying goodbye now, Connor will always be here. He'd never let any of us forget him if he was here, and I don't plan on forgetting him now either."
Many people glanced at Madeline now as Travis finished. She was expected to speak. She should say something, shouldn't she. She was, in fact, the girl that Connor had loved, the girl who he had fallen head-over-heels for in his last summer. And Madeline had so much to say, she really did:
That he was the best person she had ever met in her life, and no one would ever be able to be to her what he was to her. You only had one other half, and he had been her's. She knew that.
But she couldn't bring herself speak.
Instead, she lifted the golden necklace that had been with her her entire life off her neck and over her head and stepped up to the memorial pyre of Connor Stoll, the best one she had ever did or would have, and she hung it gently on the wood.
She stepped back into the crowd and didn't say anything, hoping she hadn't disappointed anyone by doing so. It was just that nothing she could say could even come close to the words that Connor deserved. The best thing she could do was give him what was his, her heart, as they all said goodbye.
Suddenly, as Chiron lifted the burning torch from its spot and was about to touch it to the pyre to complete the ceremony, a strong wind blew and extinguished the flame. Many people gasped as they watched the smoke that coiled off the blown-out torch.
'What kind of sick omen is this?' many campers thought.
Gasps rippled through the crowd to where Madeline, Travis, and Katie were from the direction of where the wind had come from. They pushed through the crowd as they bulleted to the where everyone was turning to.
Madeline was the first to reach the edge of the crowd, followed by Travis, Katie, Chiron, and Dionysus, who all stopped dead in their tracks at what they saw.
{4 days before the ceremony}
Travis, Connor and Drew all stood, side by side, facing the entrance to the lavish hotel, their weapons concealed by their sides; they couldn't just enter a hotel full of mortals with their swords drawn.
The trio cautiously walked through the front doors and stopped when they saw what was inside.
Right in front of them was what looked like the entirety of Nemesis' army. Dozens of minor gods and creatures were walking around the hotel lobby. That issue of alarming any civilians was evidently no longer an issue.
"I guess Nemesis really knows how to keep a low profile," Drew said with disdain.
Trying not to bring attention to themselves, they all inconspicuously gripped their weapons and began walking forward into the crowd of their enemies. Many of them turned and watched the demigods with threatening looks, but none moved to attack. Instead, they actually made way for the young fighters to the elevator doors.
"We've been expected," Connor said simply, cautiously scanning the room.
It was obvious that the soldiers were under orders to not harm the trio -at least not yet- but he still kept the hilt of his sword in his hand.
'Soldiers can be rebellious,' he thought to himself, taking into account the belligerent looks he received from the still, silent room.
The only noise was the faint sounds of the three teenagers' footsteps as they walked across the marble tile to the gold-plated elevator doors. Travis pressed the elevator button and the cheery ding! as it got closer floor-by-floor felt extremely out of place in the hostile room. The doors slid open for the three demigods and they slowly stepped forward, turning around as they closed. A young, blue-skinned goddess caught their eye with her sly smirk just as the elevator doors closed and sealed their fate.
"What do you think happened to all the people in the hotel?" Drew asked as they ascended to the top floor.
"Let's hope they were all let out for vacation," Travis answered sullenly.
They stood in silence as the elevator got closer and closer to the penthouse suite, where they knew Nemesis was waiting for them.
Finally, the elevator stopped and after a moment, the doors slid open.
The penthouse suite was very luxurious, complete with a goddess of revenge lounging on one of the rich couches, a fancy bowl of grapes by her side on the coffee table.
"A bit cliche," Connor said casually, "don't you think?"
"Maybe," Nemesis said, not moving from her relaxed position on her sofa, popping a juicy grape in her mouth. The goddess had porcelain skin, black hair, and even darker eyes. She was dressed in a traditional Greek chiton, made of beautiful fabric.
"But I do love grapes. Now, while you're here, there will be no weapons," the goddess continued. With a wave of her hands, all of their weapons disappeared
"That's not very fair," Drew said boldly. "We're in a building full of armed soldiers. Aren't you supposed to be the goddess of balance?"
"Young lady," Nemesis said in a calm tone, "you will watch your tongue. You are in my territory now. I do not plan on harming you, and my soldiers are under those same orders. Therefore, weapons are not necessary On another note, this building is guarding by heavy magic. None of your lovely parents can see us in here, nor do they know what is here. We are 'under the radar', as you young mortals say."
"Because you know what you are doing is wrong," Travis replied. "You're hiding, because you know you have to."
"The Olympians do not deserve to win this fight!" Nemesis replied, anger blasting through her calm exterior.
She stood from the lounge she was resting on and took a few steps towards the demigods. They instinctively reached for their weapons before remembering they were gone. Nemesis smiled coyly at the trio.
"I will do what I must to win. It is in fact called "war," something you children do not understand. You shouldn't get involved in affairs you know nothing about. Just another example of how they are abusing their power. Look: they're using their own children as battle pawns to save themselves because they are too cowardice to face their shame themselves! They wouldn't want anymore blood on their perfect hands. Instead, they use you innocent children to their dirty work. It's a shame, really. You do not have to fight me. I am doing this to make things truly right. As you said, I am the goddess of balance."
"We're not pawns," Connor spoke sternly. "We know what we're doing, and we're here by our own choice. We're here because this war needs to be stopped."
"Regardless of who you gods think is at fault, we're here to stop a war for the sake of our own people," Travis continued. "You know, the little people. We're not here by the orders of any gods. We're here to save the world that all you seem to forget about in your selfish, petty problems. We don't care about you, but we do have to deal with you."
"This is not selfish nor is it senseless," Nemesis replied, ice in her voice and eyes. "You have no idea what they've done."
Before Travis or Connor could retaliate, Drew held up her hands to them.
"Lady Nemesis," Drew said respectfully. To everyone's surprise, she got down on one knee.
Reluctantly, Connor and Travis followed her lead. They knew they had to make Nemesis hear them, and they trusted Drew knew what she was doing; she was a master of persuasion.
"Please," Drew continued, "hear us. We are not here to fight you. That is the opposite of our intentions. We are here to stop this war before it begins. To help everyone."
"And how do you believe you will do this?" Nemesis asked calmly, taking a step back from the demigods as they knelt down to her. "You have no right stopping a revolution. This needs to happen for the greater good."
"We know you truly believe that," Drew continued. "We know you have righteous intentions, but the truth you think you know, the reason for your rebellion, is not reality at all."
"You do not know what you speak of, Girl," Nemesis spat.
"But we do," Drew replied. "You feel the Olympians need to be punished because they abuse their power. You deem them corrupt by... by the death of the man you loved."
"How do you know that?" Nemesis asked, outraged.
"As I said," Drew continued, "we are not here to fight you, nor are we here on the side of the Olympians. We are here in the name of peace. To do this, you must know the truth. Your mortal lover was never killed. He was-"
"Lady Nemesis," a man interrupted urgently. He entered the room from another area of the penthouse suite and stood beside the goddess.
In a hushed voice, he continued; "These children have been sent here by the Olympians. They mean to kill you, and I will not have that, my good lady. My job is to protect you, and that is what I will do."
The man turned and stepped forward towards the three young demigods.
"Dolos," Nemesis said sternly, holding her hand out to the man. "I promised these children no harm. You are under orders as a soldier to not attack."
"I'm afraid that is not your decision," the god of trickery said, a wicked smirk growing on his face right before he closed the distance between himself and Travis Stoll, the one who just happened to be closest to him. In his hand, a celestial bronze sword materialized, the blade that he impaled the older Stoll brother with, causing him to fall to the ground.
"No!" Connor yelled in terror, running to catch his older brother. Travis lied on the ground, holding his chest over his heart where he had slipped off the celestial bronze sword. Connor knelt beside his brother and held up his head.
"C'mon, man," Connor said, fear in his voice. "Just stay with me."
Connor pressed his hands over Travis', applying pressure to the wound as he had been taught to do. But there was so much blood. Too much blood.
"I'm right here, dude," Travis said faintly, managing to offer his younger brother a small, crooked smile. His words were interrupted as he coughed, the action feeling as if it were ripping him in half. Blood spurted from his mouth, pain replacing his weak smile.
"Tell her!" Connor shouted, looking up at Drew, who had run to the side of the completely shocked Goddess.
"Dolos!" Nemesis screamed in alarm. "Stop!"
Turning to Dolos, Drew drew a deep breath and desperately poured all her strength into her special ability.
"Reveal yourself," she said to Dolos, her voice reverberating in the room. "Reveal who you once were!"
Dolos quickly turned away as he realized what the young demigod was doing and pressed his hands to his ears, the blood covered sword falling to the ground. It slipped across the room over the smooth tile floor, slick with blood.
But he was too late; he had already heard Drew's charm-spoken command.
The minor god dropped onto his knees, holding his head, and changed form before everyone's eyes.
After an excruciating moment as he tried to fight the transformation, he weakly stood, facing Nemesis.
He was now a completely different man.
"Impossible," the shocked goddess said quietly. "She killed you. Aphrodite killed you! And you were mortal. This is all lies. It has to be."
"This is what we've been trying to tell you!" Drew said urgently, painfully aware of the bloody Stoll brothers on the other side of the room. "You are starting this war in the name of your fallen lover, for justice. But he tricked you! He was never a mortal. That was a fake identity. It was him, Dolos, the whole time. He manipulated your love for him and turned it inside out into wrath to destroy Olympus. He knew you were capable, and he used you to do exactly what he wanted, what you're doing right now."
"This isn't true," Nemesis said in disbelief, looking at the man she loved. "You're dead."
"Hello, Love," the man said darkly. He had changed back into his godly form. "Unfortunately, the girl speaks the truth. The mortal you fell in love with was a disguise I created. My apologies. I suppose now I have to kill you, too. I was hoping I could simply rid of these three, but plans change. All is well though. It's too late to stop the war. You've already started it, my dear Nemesis. Just as I knew you would. Such a passionate one you are."
"How dare you?" Nemesis asked Dolos in outrage, her voice bellowing.
"Kronos fell," Dolos replied simply. "His work needed to be finished. I'm proving that he foolishly relied so much on that cursed son of Hermes when he should've trusted me. He should've believed in me, not that coward of a demigod. And now I am showing everyone. The Olympians will fall, and all by my plan. I will be even greater than Kronos ever was."
"You will not succeed," Nemesis said venomously. "I will tell the Olympians what you've done and end this war, and you. You will not use me anymore. I see my foolishness now."
"That will not happen," Dolos said. "You are the only ones that know the truth. And I will make sure it stays that way."
He turned to the Stoll brothers and reached for Connor as the young demigod stood up to put himself between the raging God and his wounded brother. Nemesis ran forward and put her hands on Dolos' back, just as Dolos reached Connor and got his hands around the young brother's neck and snapped it, twisting it in his hands.
In a blinding light, Dolos and Connor disappeared.
"Connor," Travis said weakly, reaching for where his younger brother just been. Drew ran over to Travis and his bloody place on the floor. The sound of Connor's neck snapping rang in their ears.
"What have you done?" Drew asked desperately, pressing her hands to Travis' wound as she spoke to the shocked Goddess.
"I stopped Dolos," Nemesis said quietly. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to send the boy away, too. Dolos had already reached him. It had to be done. But now Dolos is gone. He will do no more harm. And I will end this war I created. I'm sorry your brother had to be lost for my mistakes. Now be gone."
With a sad look to the two demigods on the floor, Nemesis waved her hand, and then they were gone.
Back at Camp Half-Blood, Drew, Travis, and a bloody sword appeared just beyond Thalia's Pine.
{3 days before the ceremony}
Madeline woke up, slowly opening her eyes. The sunlight was so bright. She was in the forest, she realized. There was a light cotton blanket draped over her. The dryads must've put it on her. She was hungry. She felt exhausted.
These were the only thoughts that lethargically moved through her mind, then she remembered what had happened and felt her heart sink.
Madeline had been sitting on the porch of the Big House. She was helping a younger camper weave a crown of wildflowers. Suddenly, there was a scream that could be heard all the way to the canoe lake. Everyone turned towards the sound. Many people ran towards the noise that came from Half-Blood Hill, including Madeline.
A few dozen people were gathered at the top of the hill to see what was happening by the time she got there. Only one person, Katie Gardner, moved forward to meet the pair of people a few yards away. Drew and Travis. Katie could be seen sobbing over Travis, but he was alive, everyone realized with relief, as he lifted his hand up to her's and sat up from the grass. The couple hugged. Drew held her hand in her face and appeared to be crying. Madeline broke away from the crowd and slowly walked forward to the three of them on the grass. She just stood, frozen, standing a few feet away, looking down at them with a blank face. She saw the bloody sword lying in the grass, the blood shining menacingly in the sunlight, and looked away.
Travis saw her first, just standing there, as he held Katie tightly in their embrace. Drew was facing the opposite direction, like Katie. Madeline locked eyes with Travis and he nodded solemnly. She opened her mouth to speak, but had nothing to say. She felt like her heart was collapsing.
She turned and walked away. She walked past the growing crowd at the top of Half-Blood Hill that was gathered to see the returned heroes.
"Oh my gods," could be heard from the crowd as all the campers realized what this meant; Connor Stoll was the brother who didn't return. Some of the campers watched the touching scene past Thalia's Pine of the returned son of Hermes and his girlfriend hugging as the daughter of Aphrodite cried beside them. A few others, only the few most observant people at Camp Half-Blood, glanced back and watched the other silent daughter of Demeter walk away, emotionless. It was a good thing only a few campers looked back at Madeline, because it was a devastatingly heart-breaking sight.
As Madeline walked past the canoe lake, all alone, she began to run.
Everyone was back at the hill, no one there to stop her. And that was fine. No one would have been able to stop her anyway. In that moment, not even the fast-footed dryads would have been able to catch her. She would have finally won one of those races.
It was beginning to grow light out, the stars fading in the sky, and Madeline laid in the forest, her cheek pressed to the cool earth at the base of one of the tall trees. She stared, her eyes open and empty, at a small wildflower a few inches away from her face. It was so small and simple, and she wondered what it was like to be that flower.
She had cried for hours, sobbed painfully, screamed, until there was nothing left in her. Then she realized she couldn't breathe. She was hyperventilating, and she let herself fall to the ground where she was now.
Since then, she just lied there on the ground, thinking and, even better, not thinking.
He was gone.
That's what it all came back to. After long extents of thinking and then slipping out of consciousness only to wake up confused and drained to start it all again, that was what it all came back to, over and over again.
She had made space for Connor in her life and her heart. Now he was gone and what was left was that same space, only now it was big and emptier than she had ever thought possible.
"We were supposed to spend our lives together," Madeline said quietly, to no one or nothing. Just speaking because she finally could.
"I have my whole life ahead of me," she continued, maybe to the little wildflower, she decided. "I can't breathe without him, but I guess I have to. Now I have to do it without him. We were supposed to be forever. What am I supposed to do? I'll just keep going, and I'll let myself grow around this. Because I'm not allowed to be sad for the rest of my life, right? People will be okay with it at first. But then they'll stop understanding, because by then, he'll just be a memory of some boy from when we were teenagers. They won't care about how I can't just move on, because after all, it's not like the world ended, right? But he's not supposed to be only a memory for the rest of my life. He's supposed to be there. The life that we almost had together is gone. I'll live the life of a girl getting over some summer romance she had when she was sixteen. The life of a girl growing up and getting old and then being done. At least I can tell stories about him when I'm old, right?"
Then she stopped talking and let her exhausted body and mind finally sleep.
She woke up several hours later and picked the small wildflower. Walking back to Camp, she went to the Demeter cabin and showered. It was past early morning and the cabin was empty. No one noticed her.
Then she silently made her way to the infirmary where she figured Travis would be.
'He's lost him, too,' Madeline thought to herself. 'I'm not the only one.'
Swallowing with her dry throat, Madeline stepped into the infirmary. Travis was lying in a cot in the far end of the room, Katie by his side. They were holding hands, talking about who knows what.
Madeline wanted to smile at the heartwarming sight, but she didn't. It didn't feel right.
Again, Travis was the first one to see Madeline. Following his stare, Katie turned around to look at her sister, too.
Madeline slowly walked forward, past many stares from other campers. She ignored them and sat at the end of the cot on an empty stool.
"Are you okay?" Madeline asked Travis blankly. "I...I thought I saw blood yesterday," she added, unsure, thinking back to when he and Drew had arrived on Half-Blood Hill. The memory was very vague. She hadn't taken much in.
"I'm fine," he answered, looking at Madeline with a sad expression. "I got stabbed, but when Nemesis sent us back, I guess she healed me."
"That was nice of her," Madeline said awkwardly. After a long pause, she looked down.
"I'm sorry," she continued, looking down at her hands and shaking her head slightly. "I just don't feel well. I don't know... what to do now. I'm glad you're okay, Travis."
"I'm gonna go," Katie said gently, standing up. "You two can talk."
Katie left the infirmary, leaving Travis and Madeline to talk.
"What happened?" Madeline asked, deciding they had to start somewhere.
"We found Nemesis," Travis answered simply. "We got there, and we tried to talk to her, but before we could finish, Dolos showed up. Nemesis had no idea who he was or what he was doing, that he was using her. Then he attacked to stop us from telling Nemesis anything. He said we were only there to lie and kill Nemesis, so as a good soldier, he tried to kill us. He got me with a sword before Drew charm-spoke him to make him reveal who he was. Then he was furious, and he was going to kill us all to make sure we didn't stop the war. Connor got in the way to stop him, and Dolos...he," Travis stopped talking. He took a deep breath and looked down.
"He snapped Connor's neck."
Madeline closed her eyes and looked away, clenching her teeth.
"Where is he?" she asked after a moment of silence between the two as they painfully thought of their lost hero. "We -we should go bring... bring his body back hom-"
"He's gone," Travis interrupted her, shaking his head. "Nemesis had to stop Dolos, so she sent him away. Tartarus. He still had a hold on Connor at the time, so he was sent away, too."
"So that's it, then?" Madeline asked quietly. She stood to walk away, nothing more to say.
They had both lost the boy they loved most; his brother, her one true love. And they both knew that. And that was it.
"I'd trade with him if I could," Travis said as she began to walk away. Madeline stopped and slowly turned around, looking at Travis for a moment. She sat down in the spot Katie had been before and didn't speak for a long time.
"I miss him," Madeline said. "And I know you do, too. I know it hurts. I don't think that's ever gonna go away. And I want him back, too. But don't think like that. I would never wish you dead instead of him, and neither should you."
Travis looked at her intently.
"It should've been me, though," he said quietly. "He's my little brother. I should've protected him."
Madeline looked at him with sad eyes.
"Connor knew what he was doing," she said, sure of what she was saying for once. "He made his choice. He did it to save everyone, including you. So don't let his death be in vain. And what if it had been you instead? Nothing would be better. Katie would miss you. We would all just be missing you instead of him. So just don't wish things to be different. You can't change anything. Connor didn't make sure it was him who went for no reason."
Travis looked at Madeline, furrowing his eyebrows lightly.
"He loved you," Travis told her. "I know he did. Deciding to leave you must've been one of the hardest things he ever did."
Madeline took a deep, slow breath before speaking.
"I don't think he made his decision because he didn't love me. I just think he made his decision because it had to be done. Him leaving me, leaving all of us... that was just an unwanted consequence."
Madeline looked Travis in the eye's and said one last thing before she left.
"He didn't save us so that we could be sad that he's gone. He did it so that we could live happily. So let's just try to do that. For him. We owe him that much."
Then she walked out of the infirmary.
Later that day, Madeline was sitting on the front steps of the Demeter cabin during her free hour. It felt so quiet without him beside her, joking and laughing together. Now she was alone.
Then a girl walked up the steps and sat beside her. Looking up, Madeline saw that it was Drew. Drew Tanaka. The girl who had been her enemy only a few weeks ago.
"Hey," the pretty Asian girl said. She looked out into the distance before looking at Madeline.
"Hey," Madeline said back. She would have usually questioned the resident mean girl's motives, but not anymore. Everything was different now. Drew wasn't even the camp mean girl anymore. Now, she was just another beautiful daughter of Aphrodite.
After the quest, she was different. She had grown as a person.
"Connor gave this to me to give back to you if he didn't make it back to give it you himself," Drew said softly.
Madeline looked up and saw that the girl was holding her golden necklace with the charm of wheat sheaves on it. The necklace that Madeline had given to Connor before they left on their quest, for whatever reason. Maybe as a small attempt to make sure he came home somehow. Madeline reached out and took the necklace from Drew's hand.
"I guess now this necklace has come full circle," Madeline said lightly. "It was mine, then you stole it at the beginning of the summer, then Connor stole it back and gave it to me, then I gave it to Connor who gave it to you, and now it's come back to me. It sure knows how to get around."
Madeline looked up and smiled very faintly at Drew. The daughter of Aphrodite couldn't help but smile back.
'Here's Madeline,' Drew thought, 'the girl whose boyfriend just died, and she's joking about how I used to torment her.'
"How are you?" Drew asked casually, both of the girls looking out at the lively camp around them.
"Alive, I guess." Madeline replied placidly. "But the thing is, Connor's gone now. So it's gonna be like how it was before I met him. But not everything's gonna go back to the way it was, because now I'm here. So it's like my whole world changed, and it's never changing back, and that was fine before, because I had him. But now I'm stuck here in this world without him, and it just feels wrong. It's not supposed to be like this, but it is. So I don't know how I am."
"Do you know who Silena Beauregard was?" Drew asked softly, frowning at Madeline. She could almost feel her pain, a tangible essence around the daughter of Demeter. Madeline just looked at her blankly before answering.
"She was a girl at camp before I came here. A daughter of Aphrodite, like you. Connor told me about her, once. And Charles Beckendorf. They're both dead now."
Madeline felt like she was being very blunt, but her word's didn't seem to be able to come out any differently. The world just seemed blunt now.
"Everyone says she was a hero," Drew replied. "She was a traitor, though. And she got Beckendorf killed, and then she got herself killed. I guess the reason I never agreed that she was a hero was because I never forgave her. She was an older sister to me. And I never told anyone, but I really loved her. Her death... it broke my heart a little. And I guess I've always been angry with her for what she did. Maybe that's why I was always such a bitch. Sorry about that, by the way."
Madeline shrugged. "It's okay," she replied nonchalantly. It didn't seem to matter anymore.
Drew continued: "I kinda hated her for what she did, actually. Leaving like she did. She'd been there ever since I came to camp, and she was pretty much my only friend. I called her a traitor, but I never thought she was a bad person. She was one of the best people I ever knew, actually. She was good. You remind me of her. I think you remind everyone of her, too. You both just have really good hearts, and everyone knows it."
"This is nice and all," Madeline said, looking at Drew with a small smile. "It really is, but I don't know why you're telling me any of this."
Drew cleared her throat.
"Okay. Yeah, I know I'm rambling. I'll get to the point. I know we're not really friends, and that's my fault. This is kinda out of nowhere, but I felt like I had to talk to you. Like I said, I never forgave what Selena did. And I've been angry ever since she died. My problem was that I didn't understand. Until now. Connor sacrificed himself, just like Selena. And I saw that, and then I finally understood; they didn't do it because they didn't care. They did it because they cared. And I just want some good to come out of all the bad, I guess. Especially for you, Madeline. Because you don't deserve all this sadness."
Madeline didn't speak for a while. She looked down at her necklace in her hand, then up at Drew. Before she could be sensible about it, she threw her arms around Drew and began to cry. She knew Drew was crying, too.
After a long time, both of them were done and they pulled away and looked at each other. They both smiled pathetically and laughed, wiping their faces. Drew's makeup wasn't ruined at all, Madeline noticed. Must be an Aphrodite thing.
"Thank you," Madeline said sheepishly. Drew smiled, nodding at her, and stood up, about to walk away.
"You said that we're not friends," she quickly called out to the girl. Drew glanced back at her. "But...stranger things have happened."
Drew laughed, a tired grin spreading across her face.
"I'd say so."
