Mrs-diAngelo25: Your review made my day. I had a huge smile on my face. I hope this chapter lives up to your standards!
SummerSpirit18: I took algebra last year in 8th grade, and it was literally the bane of my existence. At least my teacher was better than the one I have now. And I feel your pain with exams. Who the hell decided it was a good idea to make kids take huge fucking tests right before summer?
Radiogirl12: I meant to update sooner, but I didn't get a chance. Sorry.
Black Sea Mistress: I think I talk about school because I literally do nothing else with my life. My weekends are devoted to playing dumb games and lying in bed reading fanfiction for hours. I don't plan to give up on this.
IamAphroditeDaughterofUranus: I'm glad you like it, this chapter is slightly less realistic. I'm not going to quit on this story, promise. Thank you for the congrats, I don't know if I'm going to make high honors this quarter. I have a 77 in one of my classes. I think it's just because I was missing one of my assignments and I passed that in, but I'm still worried.
magicchalkdust: Thank you. The plot gets even more interesting in later chapters. Actually, it gets more interesting in this chapter.
infinity heart star lightning: You are officially my favorite reviewer. I'm going to make you a plaque or something. I would never give you guys anything crappy, although I don't know if that was my best chapter. I think this one is pretty good, though. Thank you. Again, you are my favorite reviewer. I'm going to go work on your plaque now.
ThalicoXTratieFan4Ever: I'm really bad at telling whether or not a chapter ends in a cliff hanger, but I've always wanted to write one so I'm happy now. I feel like a cliff hanger wouldn't feel final, but I always know when it's the end of the chapter, so I never think that it's a cliff hanger. Anyway, I hope this update was soon enough, and I'll try not to take forever for the next one. And I know this might be mean, but I'm glad you're sad. That means I'm writing well.
I don't own Percy Jackson or Imaginary by Evanescence.
Chapter 12 – Imaginary
watch?v=IQFzzIGrsWs
She could hear them. She could hear the paramedics talking to each other, telling the others to check her heart, check her respiratory rate, check her pupils, see if they respond. She could see lights, blurry and bright, so bright they hurt her eyes. She wanted to close her eyes, but she couldn't force them shut.
She felt like she was underwater.
She heard the doors of the ambulance close, and then it went dark.
She woke up with her eyes close. That was her first thought – when had she closed her eyes?
Her second thought was that it was quiet. There were no more yelling paramedics, no more sirens. She couldn't hear anything.
She opened her eyes.
She was in a field of grass and white flowers. The sky was blue with a few white fluffy clouds. She was wearing a white dress that came down to her knees, her hair was braided, and her feet were bare.
It was beautiful.
What the fuck?
She reached up and tugged on the braid, trying to get it undone. It wouldn't budge.
"Get out, goddamn it!" she snarled.
Suddenly her fingers were tangled in her hair. Her braid had come undone.
She ran her fingers through her hair to make sure that that had really happened. It had.
She looked down. She was wearing white.
"Could I have some better clothes?" she asked tentatively.
Nothing happened.
"Jeans? T-shirt? Anything?"
The dress disappeared and was replaced by a white blouse and a pair of blue jeans.
"Ah. Gotta be specific," Thalia muttered. "Okay," she said, raising her voice a bit, "how about a black t-shirt and black jeans?"
Her clothes changed.
"Green Day converse?"
The shoes appeared on her feet.
"That's better." She looked around. "Uh…turn this grass into a parking lot." The field turned to pavement. "And make it start raining." The sky turned dark and it began to rain. Thalia threw back her head as the rain soaked into her skin. Then she thought of something.
She held out her hand. "Give me a mirror."
A full length mirror appeared in front of her, just inches from her outstretched hand.
"I need to work on that," she said to herself, leaning forward to inspect her face. As she'd expected, she had no makeup on.
"Mascara, eyeliner, eyeshadow, concealer, lipstick," she said, holding out her hand.
The makeup appeared on her face. Light mascara, light eyeliner, light blue eyeshadow, concealer that matched her skin tone, and pink lipstick. She growled.
"In my hand," she snapped, looking up at the sky. The same makeup appeared in her hand.
Thalia let her head fall back.
"Just give me my makeup bag," she sighed. "And stop the rain. But keep the clouds," she added as an afterthought. The black makeup bag appeared in her hand.
After applying her makeup (heavy mascara, heavy black eyeliner, heavy dark silver eyeshadow, concealer a few shades lighter than her skin, and dark tinted lip gloss) and specifying that she didn't want it to fade or get wiped off, she sent the mirror away and looked around.
Where was she?
She was alone.
Then she realized. She was inside her own mind. And she couldn't get hurt here. No one could tell her that she was leaving, she couldn't be thrown around from home to home. She didn't have to worry about someone breaking her trust.
There was just one problem. A never-ending parking lot wasn't particularly interesting. Better than a never-ending field of flowers, but still…
She was missing something. The one place she felt at home.
"Turn this place into New York City," she said.
She felt like the world tilted for a micro second, and then she was standing in an alley in New York. She knew this place. It was just a few blocks from where she and Nico had first kissed.
She ran to that alley. She could almost see them together.
She sat in the back of the alley, rested back on her hands, and told the rain to start again.
As she threw her head back and let the rain soak her hair and face, she knew that this was what she wanted. A place where she was alone.
A place where she was safe.
Thalia's eyes were open. She was staring at the ceiling blankly. That was the worst part, that blank stare. Her eyes had always been Nico's favorite.
He sat by her bed, just looking at her. She was hooked up to two IVs, one for food and one for fluids. The doctors said that she wasn't in a coma because her brain was still active, and all they could do was wait for her to wake up. They had moved her to a mental hospital.
That was a week ago.
Nico hadn't gone to school since then. He blamed himself for Thalia's current state. The psychiatrist said that she had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from being raped, and Nico had always blamed himself for that. If he had just talked to her after Rachel had kissed him, she wouldn't have left. She wouldn't have met Luke again.
"Hey," he heard behind him. It was Bianca. She pulled up a chair and sat next to him.
"Hi."
They were quiet.
"Dad wants me to get you to go to school," she said.
He gave a half-hearted laugh. "I stopped caring what Dad said a long time ago."
"When he married Persephone."
Nico shook his head and looked down at his hands. "Before that."
Bianca put a hand on her little brother's shoulder. "When was the last time you slept?"
"Couple days," Nico said, shrugging.
"Nico…"
Nico cut her off by shrugging her hand off his shoulder. "I'm fine."
"You're obviously not." She laid her hand on his wrist. "Nico, look at me."
He looked up at her. He had dark circles under his eyes. "I can't sleep."
Bianca didn't say anything, waiting for him to continue.
"Every time I close my eyes…" he sighed, turned towards the bed, scrubbed his face with the palms of his hands, and leaned forward. "I see her lying here, and I feel like I'm doing something wrong, caring about myself while she's here, like this."
Bianca stood up and held out her hand. "Come on." Nico looked at her hand, then up at her face. "I'm not taking you to school, I'm not taking you home, just come with me."
Nico took one last look at Thalia and stood up. He leaned over and kissed her forehead, then followed his sister out to her car.
They stopped at a drugstore and Bianca told Nico to stay in the car. She came out ten minutes later with half a gallon of lemonade (his favorite), a box of microwave popcorn, a bag of cheese puffs, two packages of cream-filled chocolate cupcakes ("One for each of us," she said), and all four Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
They drove to a tiny motel, and Bianca went at talked to the man at the front desk. She came back with a room key. She told him to grab the food and the movies as she went to the trunk and pulled something out.
When they got into the room Bianca tossed the thing from the trunk at him and told him to go get changed in the bathroom. He realized it was a pair of his pajama pants.
While he was in the bathroom, Bianca put the popcorn in the microwave. Then she crushed up two of the sleeping pills and put them in one of the glasses of lemonade.
Fifteen minutes into the first movie, Nico was asleep.
He was in New York. It was dark and raining. And empty.
He thought he was dreaming, but it felt so real.
It was central park. His family's apartment was across the street.
He walked to his building and took the elevator up to his floor. The apartment looked exactly the same, if neater. There was no one there.
Except he heard something from his bedroom.
He went to his bedroom. The posters were the same, everything was where it was supposed to be, but there were no clothes on the floor and the bad was made.
Thalia was lying on the bed.
"Thalia?"
She looked up at him. She was wearing his shirt. It was too big for her.
"What are you doing here?" she asked.
He looked around. "Well, I think I'm dreaming, but I'm not sure."
She laughed. "This is real. Well…" she frowned, "it's not actually real, it's in my head, but it's not a dream."
Nico blinked. "So, you've been here for a week? While you're in a hospital?"
"Has it been a week? I can't really tell. There's no sun here." She stepped forward. "You look awful."
"You're in the hospital. I haven't slept in three days."
Thalia was silent. She hadn't realized she was that important to him.
He shook his head. "It doesn't matter." He grabbed her wrist. "You have to come back."
She stepped backward, pulling her wrist out of his grasp and shaking her head. "I can't."
"Why?"
She looked like she was going to cry. "I can't, Nico. Please don't make me."
Nico stared at her. Then he moved forward quickly, taking her waist in his hands and kissing her.
She put her hands on his shoulders. He slid his arms around her waist and moved his hands up her back to cup her cheeks. She felt his tongue against her lips and opened her mouth.
She pulled back when she needed air and looked into his eyes.
"I need you to come back," he whispered. "I can't go back there without you. But if I'm asleep, and this is in your head, then I'll have to go. You have to come back because I can't stay."
"But you don't need me…" she started, but he shook his head. His hands had gone back down to her waist.
"I do. It's you and me. Together."
A tear rolled down her cheek and she pressed her face into his chest. She felt the vibration when he spoke again.
"It's been you and me since the alley, Thals. It's always going to be you and me."
I love the end of this chapter. By the way, yes, you can get Green Day converse. I have a friend who has them, they have the American Idiot symbol on them. You can also get them with the Uno! design.
I actually finished this chapter on Thursday last week, but I couldn't upload it. I asked my parents about a year ago if I could have an account of , and they said no. They know what I do on our wi-fi, so I can't upload at my house. I have to wait until I get to the library. The library isn't open on Fridays, and I was busy on Saturday. If my parents found out that I have an account I would be in huge trouble, and my mother is a judge, so huge trouble with her is really, really, really bad. So I'm sorry that this chapter took a little longer than I think people would have liked, but that's why.
I have a job! I'm excited, I'm working at our local amusement park this summer. Actually, I start next weekend. I'm working in Food Services. We had orientation last weekend, and yesterday we had to learn how to do the soft-serve ice cream. We spent five minutes learning how to do the swirlies and the other twenty-five minutes we had were spent "practicing" and eating the practice cones. It was awesome. I can't wait for next week.
Does anyone else love Dippin' Dots as much as I do? I'm hoping to work at the Dippin' Dots stand at some point during the summer. Yes, I know I can't eat them, but I want to serve them so badly. I think it'll be so much fun.
If anyone has not voted on my poll I would love it if you would, please. I think I've come to a conclusion, but I'd like a bit more input.
I'm working on the next chapter, I'm not very far in, but I'll keep working. Review!