If you're thinking "shegotofftheplane sucks at updating", you're totally right! i'm sorry! no excuse, but i'm hoping to get back into the swing of !


"Whenever you're ready to talk," Morpheus said, inspecting his fingernails. Did gods even have fingernails?

"You said it yourself. There's no such thing as time here, so there's no point in doing things to kill the time."

Having no such thing as time was...frustrating. Had it been weeks? Days? She had no clue.

She was lying on that mirror floor, glancing up at herself. She really was sick of looking at herself. Also, she needed a haircut- she made a mental note to ask Drew to cut her hair once she got out of whatever this limbo was. Her split ends were getting out of control.

"Your friends are worried about you."

"My friends…" She laughed. "I haven't seen most of my friends in months."

Two figures appeared in the mirror.

Percy was panting, clutching his side as he bent over. Nico was next to him, grabbing his arm with concern.

"Percy? How did you get here?"

"I had-" he broke off with a gasp. "The worst dream. Tell me she's okay."

Nico's face darkened. "Come with me. Camp's in trouble."

Normally, words like those would've jolted her into action. Now, she felt as if she could hardly move.

"It's always something," she said softly.

"Odd thing to say," Morpheus said.

Rosie laughed humorlessly. "You save the world...and it falls to shit two seconds later. It's nonstop."

"Wouldn't you say it's the life of a demigod?"

"It doesn't mean I have to like it." Nobody had asked for this, after all. And yet, it screwed her over again and again.

"You had a chance to leave."

"What?" She said, sitting up.

"The friends in LA- Piper McLean, Jason Grace. The satyr you had the empathy link with. They wanted to go with you, and you turned them down."

"Not initially," she said, feeling her cheeks heat up.

"Why did you decide to stay?"

Rosie shrugged halfheartedly, feeling a slight throbbing in her temple. She knew why- it didn't mean she had to talk about it.

"It just happened."

"A decision never just passively happens." The god took a deep breath. "It was about that boy? The one who sacrificed himself for your quest?"

"Leo," she admitted. "My best friend."

The god laughed. "Ah," he said. "But he was so much more than that, wasn't he?"

She glanced down at the floor, clearing her throat awkwardly. She could feel Morpheus' eyes on her, wearing her down.

The image appeared in her head, that clunky, red phone receiver.

"It's the same dream every time. It's the worst dream I've ever had."

The god had fallen silent, no egging her on or regurgitating her words.

"I'm standing there with a phone in my hand. I keep staring down at it, and I know I'm waiting for him to call...but I know he never will."

"Rosemary-"

"I guess I just thought...he's Leo, you know?" She began rambling, replaying the past few months in her head over and over again. "He always had a trick up his sleeve, he was always thinking two steps ahead. The amount of times I saw him pull these fantastic pranks off- I didn't think it was so crazy that maybe he was able to do it again." She swallowed hard. "But everyone else...everyone else had already moved on."

"You stopped believing."

"There was no reason to. He...he's gone." She gave up on him.

An image blossomed in the mirror, an image that didn't make sense to Rosie. A panicked Apollo and Meg, surrounded by flames.

Caves of blue.

Strike the hue.

Westward, burning.

Pages turning.

Indiana.

Ripe banana.

Happiness approaches.

Serpents and commotions.

The one of the oceans.

The word didn't make sense to her, and for a second, she was distracted and almost engaged by whatever was going on outside.

"We don't have much time left, Rosie."

"I stopped believing."

The flames she was seeing in the mirror were being doused now, as rain showered down.

"Leo isn't the only thing you stopped believing in."

She closed her eyes, ashamed by herself.

"I know."

She thought of all the dreams she had, the ones that were so entangled in Leo she couldn't bear to think of them anymore. Dreams she killed, unrightfully so.

She pushed the image of her Sanctuary away.

The rain had washed everything away.

"Please," Rosie said pleadingly. "I'll do anything to make this...this..." nothingness. She gulped. "Feeling go away. Help me make it better. I used to feel things, things that scared the crap out of me but were powerful. I could crumble buildings just from my anger, and I was so afraid of it for the longest time but...but now I would do anything to get it back. To...to feel something." To get herself back. She let out a shaky sob. "Anything."

"You have the key, Rosie."

"What does that mean?"

"Now, when you get out of here, promise me you'll take these words to heart," Morpheus' tone had become grave. "You didn't remember last time, so I can't promise you'll remember this."

His words sent a chill through her, and she opened her mouth, ready to argue.

Until….she remembered bleeding out on that temple floor, the rocks sizzling with every drop of her blood.

She felt herself dying- she was supposed to die.

There was no doubt in her mind that her father had done something that messed with the nature of this quest.

"I've been before, haven't I?" She asked quietly.

Morpheus nodded sadly.

"I told you," he said softly. "This is the After, the In Between, and the Before."

"And I went back." Somehow, she had made it out of that temple.

"And you went back."

"I thought it was my Dad." She had known in her heart that her dad had intervened in their quest, that she hadn't been supposed to survive.

"It was- but it never would have worked if you didn't want it. You chose life, Rosie, and life always involves pain. You can't have love without pain. Remember that, okay?" For some reasons, she felt that his words went beyond Leo. He shook his head. "Never stop believing for a second, Rosie.

She wanted to get herself back- for so long she hadn't recognized the person in the mirror.

"I have to go," she said, a certain clearness settling over her mind. "Camp...I need to help."

A small smile appeared on the god's face. "One more thing."

Something had materialized in her lap, and she gasped upon seeing it, feeling as though she was hallucinating.

Leo's tool belt was in her lap.

She instantly grabbed it- she needed to feel it, needed it to be tangible in her hands.

"How?" She managed to croak out. "I-I don't understand."

The glass next to her violently shattered, as pieces of the mirror began to rain down around her.

Morpheus' figure shimmered, like a weak signal on a television screen.

"Wait!" She cried. "I'm not ready!"

The glass continued to shatter, all while she clutched Leo's belt, trying to make sense of what was happening.

Leo's belt had been destroyed in the inferno, hadn't it?

The god was disappearing now, slowly into thin air.

"You have the key, Rosie!"

The room was plunged into darkness, and suddenly Apollo's face was looming over hers, looking extremely relieved. The doused forest surrounded them.

She looked down, seeing herself covered in stringy white bandage-like pieces, Leo's belt wrapped around her waist.

"Oh, thank the gods!" Apollo said. He nervously chuckled, using the back of his hand to wipe his forehead.

"We're having a slight issue."