Warnings for suicidal thoughts and mentions of abuse.

Blackness.

As he stared up into the dark abyss dangling over his face, that was what he saw. What he felt.

Blackness.

He knew it wasn't a word. Annabeth would say the proper word would be darkness. And she would be wrong. What he saw wasn't darkness. It was blackness. Complete, utter, total blackness. But that wasn't what scared Percy. What scared Percy was the fact that it was there every night. And even during the day, when the light of the sun drowned out the physical blackness, it was what he felt.

One thing was certain: Tartarus had left its mark on Percy. And not for the better.

After what felt like an eternity, he realized he wasn't going to fall asleep. So he made up his mind. He swung himself into a sitting position with his feet resting on the cool wooden floor, and changed his attire into something more appropriate for an midnight stroll than a pair of boxers. After said change, he made his way over to the the front door of his cabin, turned the knob, and slowly pushed. He winced slightly at the noise the creaking hinges made.

He gracefully slipped outside of his cabin and shut the door behind him. This time, however, the hinges made no attempt to annoy him, allowing him to hear the satisfying click of the door being fully closed. He tiptoed down the steps on his porch, careful not to make much noise. He didn't want to become the harpies midnight snack, after all.

After successfully evading the harpies, Percy arrived at the edge of the forest. Continueing his walkabout, he plunged into the collection of trees. After a few minutes, he arrived at his destination. A cliff.

It was his favorite spot in the entire camp. The moss on the ground was never to dry or wet, the breeze was calm and refreshing, and the view was certainly a sight to be seen. The miles of forest that expanded beyond the eyes reach were just plain beautiful.

Today, Percy noticed none of that. Instead, he noticed he was tired. Not physically, but.. emotionally. He wasn't entirely sure why, but it all just felt like too much. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Percy took one step forward and raised his arms sideways, so he was standing in a t-pose. He could feel the cool breeze rushing against his closed eyelids now. He knew he could fall right now. Lean forwards and wait. Strangely, the thought didn't scare him. In fact, it seemed to calm him. Maybe it was bittersweet.

He knew he wasn't going to jump. He had too many reasons not to. Annabeth. His friends. Camp. His family. But still...

"Hey."

Percy turned, surprised that someone was up this late, and worried, now that someone had seen him in such a vulnurable state. It was Nico.

Nico spoke again, the worry clearly present in his voice. "Uh, I'm gonna ask you to step away from the.. you know.. cliff?"

Only now did the realization of what was going on truly hit percy. Nico had just seen him ready to kill himself!

"Oh!" Percy's eyes went wide. "Uh, yeah.." He ackwardly dropped his arms back to his side and took a few steps away from the edge of the cliff. Desperately trying to convince Nico that the whole scene was being entirely misunderstood, he clumsily tumbled over a few more words. "I was just, uh, taking in the scenery! Yeah! And-"

Nico cut him off. "I know how you feel."

At the sudden remark, Percy's shoulders instantly slumped and he walked back to the edge of the cliff and sat down. Nico followed.

Nico's voice cut through the akward silence. "Just.. Can you promise me you won't try anything?"

Percy nodded glumly. After a few more minutes of tensed silence, he stated what was on his mind.

"It just, feels like so much. So many people died. So many people died because I couldn't save them! And then I lose my memory and fall into Tartarus and the nightmares and Gabe and-"

Nico tentivley cut him off, surprising both of them considering he usually was extremely introverted and rarely spoke to people. "Gabe?"

Too late, Percy realized his mistake. "Nothing!"

How could he have been so stupid?

"It's clearly not 'nothing', Percy."

Instead of angering the son of the sea god, The comment actually seemed to drain him. His arms fell limp at his sides. "Yeah. Sorry. I'd just.. rather not talk about it right now."

Nico nodded understandingly. "You'll have to tell someone eventually, you know."

"Mmm."

The calm that followed their short conversation was incredibly peaceful. Just sitting next to each other in the dark was the best thing two friends could ask for. Eventually the two leaned back, laid on their backs and gazed upon the starry night that eliminated the dark abyss Percy had been so hard trying to avoid. His eyes fell on one constellation in particular: Zoë Nightshade. The granddaughter of a certain Titan he had met in a certain place.

He whispered three words before he dozed off.

"Bob says hello."

A/N:

That ending though! Stay tuned for another chapter, I might even turn this into a full-on story.

That's got to be my best work. Which is really saying something about the quality of my writing...

Review! (no srsly pls review)

-teamleothebest