For as tall as the mountain was, Percy had almost no trouble climbing it. He and Calypso, well mostly Calypso, decided to race up to the top. She sprinted a head, laughing in a way that reminded Percy of someone, the laugh was almost blissful yet at the same time reserved. He didn't know weather or not he could trust Calypso, but at a time like this, he didn't even know if he could trust himself.
When he reached the top, all there was to it was a patch of grass like a garden, and a large oak tree. There were stones that surrounded the tree, in a circle there was so many it didn't make sense to him why someone would put so many like this in order.
"I always love coming up here with you Seaweed Brain." He heard Calypso say, almost making him jump. He didn't know how she got up here so fast. Last he saw here she was still not even half way up the mountain. She must have noticed the reaction she gave him, because she just giggled and placed her head on his shoulder. She was taller then he had remembered.
They walked to the center of the garden and found a large cloth with food placed on it. Sure enough it had to be one of the invisible servants that fallowed them.
"Come on, Percy." She grabbed his arm and dragged him to the picnic. He looked at the food that was around them.
There was some fresh hot dogs, that you could see the steam coming off of them, a long sub-sandwich that looked almost as long as one of Percy's arms. There was a Coca-Cola machine that stood on a rock, and Percy could see all the different flavors of soda it dispensed. However, the thing that really caught his eye, was the blue ice-cream cake that was sitting inside the basket, just waiting to be eaten.
"Hard to believe this place could be a prison isn't it?" She said as they sat down. She was still holding his hand and Percy could feel the warmth that came off her body. Even though she felt real, this whole place felt real, Percy couldn't shake the feeling in his gut that this wasn't to be trusted. He caught him self looking back at the rocks around the tree again. He didn't know why they interested him so much but he just felt knew that they were important. A closer look showed him that they each had something on them, like a picture or some words.
"What are those?" He asked pointing, to the odd stones behind them.
Calypso looked back, the at Percy, she looked concerned.
"Are you sure you are alright, did you hit your head or something?" She asked, placing the back of her hand on Percy's head.
"Why wouldn't I be alright?" He said in a serious tone, not looking away for the rocks. Still trying to see what was on them.
"You should know what those are Percy, you put them there." She said, she was still looking at him, trying to get his attention. "They are the graves of all of your friends that died in the Titan War." That did it.
He jerked his head, now looking directly at her. Her soft eyes showed sadness for him, she placed her hand on his check holding his head in her palm.
"What do you mean graves?" He said, suspicion of her statement, "There is so many of them." He said barley able to fight back the emotions that were going through him at this moment.
"Ill show you." She said, standing up and guiding Percy over to the circle of stones. As he looked each stone, had a name of someone on it, and a picture of something that must have represented them. There was, Michael Yew on his stone showed a picture of a man shooting arrows off a flying chariot. Charles Beckendorf's was a picture of a young man forging together an impressive suite of armor. Clarisse La Rue was a large rock almost larger then most, hers showed a large girl, taking on an entire army by her self.
Percy saw many, other names, Travis and Connor Stoll, Jason and Thalia Grace, Zoe Nightshade, Grover Underwood. With each name was like a punch to the stomach for Percy he could feel the tears forming up behind his eyes and he was fighting his best to stop them from showing.
"How did they die?" He barley said it, he wasn't sure if Calypso would be able to hear him or not.
She knelled down next to him and put a comforting arm around his shoulders. "They were all killed in the battle over Olympus." She said trying to calm him down, "those that weren't were trailed and sent to execution." She said, not helping him at all.
"This is all my fault. I should have been... I needed to..." He was panicking now.
"No it is not Percy, you decided that you weren't going to be part in the god's game. You chose love over war, how could anyone blame you for that?" She was holding him close to her chest, now with her chin on top of his head.
Percy, still continued to look at all the stones, large and small and in different colors. There was so many of them he was surprised he had that many friends at all if he just left them to die.
"How did the drawings get there?" He asked, still looking at the stones.
"You picked the rocks." She said, "Then you told me the names and how the pictures should look like and I drew them." She said, " We both agreed that they all needed an proper resting place."
He could tell that she took a lot of time on each and everyone of them, making sure to get the details right and not make a mistake.
As he looked he saw one stone, smaller then the others and it was plain. He couldn't see the name but he could barley make out the drawing on it. It was only a single heart shape right underneath the name. He walked over to the rock, with each step he got closer his anxiety built as the words go more clear. He reached down and picked up the stone.
All the other stones had no where near the effect that this stone had. He instantly fell to his knees, not able to hold the tears back anymore. The wave of emotions went through him, as he held the stone close to his chest, hoping that it wouldn't be true, preying to what ever god was still left alive, that it was a false lie and trick. As he looked at the stone one more time, it didn't change, and he couldn't stop the sobs. As he looked at the name just above the heart.
Sally Jackson.
That was all the words that were on the stone. He noticed that the words were, scribbled and the heart was badly scribbled not like the beautiful designs on the other pieces of art.
"You wanted to do that one your self." He heard Calypso say behind him, her voice trailed off in a sad tone.
"How?" Percy barely croaked out.
When Calypso didn't say anything he only got angry.
"GODS DAMMIT HOW THE FUCK DID THIS HAPPEN?" He screamed at her, now standing up, still holding the stone.
Calypso jumped at his sudden rage, but she didn't look surprised buy it.
"Kronos ordered her to be killed because of her relationship with Poseidon." She said, looking directly at him, "but you begged him not too, so he gave you a choice, either have her killed, or have her be placed on an island like this one and be married for the rest of her eternity." She said, trying to walk towards him.
"Then why is she in this pile of rocks?" Percy demanded, his anger still present and not going away anytime soon.
"Kronos didn't tell you who her husband would be, and he made her live with your old step-father Gabe. Soon she couldn't take it anymore with out you there, and she jumped off the tallest mountain on her island." She said, looking at the sand around her feet.
"No, that is impossible, my mother wouldn't do that. She would never do that Annabeth." The name that just escaped his mouth, hit him like the bronze bull. Annabeth Chase, the girl with blonde curls like a princess, the girl that Percy would die for. The girl that he threw on top of a cliff to save from falling into Tartarus. Everything came back to him all at once from recovering Zeus's Lightning bolt to the dinner with Annabeth on the river in Rome.
"Percy, are you okay?" Calypso or the Calypso's imposter said.
Not saying a word to her he ran and pushed her to the ground, then sprinting for the edge of the cliff hoping that this would work. When he got to the edge he jumped for whatever reason he could think, and hoped he knew where he was going.
Hope you guys liked this one, I don't know who is going to tell the next chapter, but I do know that the next time you see Percy he will be at the doors to get out of Tartarus. Don't forget to review or add suggestions on who's point of view you would like to see. Also thanks to everyone who did review always good to know that someone likes your work.