I've recently received a request asking if someone could recreate the front cover of Percy's birthday card I described in the "Annabeth's Birthday" chapter. Unfortunately I suck at art, so if anyone thinks they could do it please DM me!

Percy POV

Chapter 8 - I Have Some Nasty Nightmares (Part 2)

Across the room, May Castellan sat near a large, open window. Through it, Percy could see the moon high in the sky. Unlike Bianca, the silver light seemed to reflect off her skin, resulting in a strange appearance of a ghostly aura. She sat in a rocking chair, holding a small doll, which she held close to her breast. May sang to it quietly, a spine-chilling melody that ran through my body like ice water. She looked up, noticing me standing in the doorway. She smiled, and motioned to enter the room. I froze in fear - her eyes were glowing green. They only turned that way when she had one of her 'fits,' as Luke called them.

"Come in, Percy," she said. "I welcome Olympus' greatest hero." She gave a great cackle, as if she had made a joke the rest of the world would not understand.

I walked into the room, and those eyes followed me as I found my seat at the foot of the bed. I tried my best not to make eye-contact, but it wasn't easy. The creaking had not stopped, as May had continued to rock back and forth, back and forth. The noise was incredibly unnerving in the darkness.

"Welcome, dear," she said to me. "Look, Luke came home after all," she said in a shaky voice, motioning to the doll in her arms. "I am so happy. He spends so much time with me now. My little Luke, always such a good boy!"

Percy stared at the doll. It did look vaguely like Luke - small yellow pieces of rope to serve as blonde hair, stitched blue eyes, and of course, no scar. The only change I would have made was the smile. The doll's face was stitched into a red smile, stretched far too wide across the face, almost reaching the ears on both sides. On the very few occasions I'd seen happiness in Luke's face, his smile was never that large. I doubted it ever had been.

I was still confused as to why May wasn't convulsing, shaking, and speaking in that haunting voice she had used when in her 'fits.' Her eyes were glowing, yet she seemed normal to me - or as near to normal as May Castellan could get.

"Hello, Mrs. Castellan," I croak nervously. "I'm surprised you remember me. I visited a pretty long time ago. How are you-"

"Don't try to placate me, child," she interrupts, her voice changing. "I know what you have done. I know what you did to my baby boy. I had a dream recently, a voice in the darkness told me all about how you killed him."

"Wait, , I didn't kill Luke!" I exclaim with exasperation. "On Mount Olympus...your son, he sacrificed himself to save us from Kronos. He-"

I'm interrupted again by 's angry voice. "Don't lie to me, boy! The voice in the darkness...it told me what you did. Killed my poor Luke in cold blood."

I don't understand anything about this situation. Why is May Castellan still like this? I thought the gods pledged to me that they would be better, that they would try to fix the problems they created with mortals. Now, Kronos was whispering to Luke's mother, and no one, not even Hermes, had raised a finger. In fact, May seemed worse off than the last time I saw her. I've never seen a smile that conveyed hatred so well, but with May's glowing green eyes, I felt as if this frail woman could easily reach across and strangle me without a second thought.

I couldn't stay here, under this accusing gaze - not after such an awful day. The accusations had hammered away, and I was at my breaking point. I rush to leave the room, where Luke is waiting in the dark hallway. He has a smile on his face more akin to after he betrayed us, cold and evil.

"How was your little talk?" he asked casually, leaning up against the wall, sword still in hand. He inspected it in the low lighting, checking for scratches or imperfections.

"I didn't kill you," I growl, angry. "That's bullshit. Maybe you should tell your old friend Kronos that, because he's talking to your mom in her sleep. Don't you care about her at all? She's-" I'm halted once again by the sword at my throat.

"Don't ever say I don't care about her," Luke said threateningly.

"Well, don't you think it's dangerous that she has Kronos talking to her?" I demand. "That doesn't exactly lead to great things! You should know!"

"What do you want me to do, Percy?" Luke responded angrily. "I'm a ghost. It's not like I can just walk to Olympus and demand they help her." His expression hardened. "And even if I could, it's not like they would ever help me. It's their fault she's like this in the first place. Actually, they're not completely to blame. If you had held them to their promises, maybe my mother would actually be ok."

He began to grow angrier as he talked. "She wasn't really wrong, you know that? About you killing me. You all did, by making sure I would never be able to go back to Camp Half-Blood." He advances towards me. I back up, but he drives me into the kitchen, where I trip over the fallen containers.

When I turn towards him again him, his blue eyes have been replaced by the golden pools of Kronos. Time slows down as the Titan Lord advances towards me, sword in hand. I can't get up. As he brings his sword down, he simply laughs, and uses his rasping voice to convey what I know Luke is thinking within.

"It is all your fault, little hero! Every loss, every failure, your fault! And you will live with that guilt for eternity!"

I awake again in my bed at Camp Half-Blood, tears flooding my face. I'm terrified to sleep, but the guilt I feel pressed down on me, into a state where I don't have the willingness or even the ability to rise from my bed. I can't even sit up. I sit for what seems like hours, as my body is racked by sobs. My mind is taken up entirely by their faces, the ones I've lost. Castor, Michael Yew, Lee Fletcher, Zoe, Beckendorf, Silena, Ethan, Luke, and most of all, Bianca. My mind slips away into the darkness again.