Here is the next verse. I'm still loving this story. I think the song is so expressive. Especially the last couple verses. It's great.
Song: "The Last Song I'm Wasting On You" Evanescence.
"Give up my way, and I could be anything
I'll make my own way
Without your senseless hate... hate... hate... hate."
A few days later I was walking around camp rather lazily. Artemis had gone to Olympus to discuss something with the other Olympians. I wasn't exactly sure what it was, but I truly didn't care; it wasn't my business. I didn't have to know.
I couldn't help but to think about Luke. He hadn't popped lately like I had expected him to. He was good at that… the popping up out of nowhere. It was like magic though I knew it wasn't; it was just years of practice. The way he seemed to be a phantom of the shadows. He was suddenly there. It had been a good thing for fighting, but now it was used to hunt me down and I didn't care for it.
"Thalia," One of the girls called from the pack that had formed out of the rest of the huntresses. "We are going to go hunt down some heavily predator populated areas for when Lady Artemis comes back. Do you want to come with us?"
"I think I'll stick around so she knows where you guys went." I answered not really registering their words just answering with what came out of my mouth.
"Ok, we'll be back in a few hours." The girl said not noticing my distanced response. She rounded up the girls and pushed them out of the camp with bow in arms.
I paced a few more circles around my tent not noticing the path I had created. I heard a ruffle of leaves in the woods and ignored it. I noticed that I second set of footsteps had entered my circle and was stopped when I ran into the culprits chest.
Two steel arms wrapped around my pulling me close to the chest. The warm feeling of his skin made me feel at home and I didn't mind. I tried not to think about who it must have been, but it was nearly impossible as his slow breathing caressed the top of my head.
"This is what I remember…" He whispered his voice hoarse as if he had been yelling recently.
"We could have kept it like this." I answered trying not to ruin the moment with my facts.
"No, we couldn't have." I felt as his nose nuzzled into the top of my hair. I breathed in the heavy sent I had grown a custom of, the smell of monster and blue Axe.
"Why not?" I asked not moving from my spot. I was too afraid to. I didn't want him to either disappear or hurt me. It was a lose; lose, so I was simply not to move.
His breathing was still steady which meant he was keeping his anger in check. He had problems with that, but now he had quite a bit of control. "You left me before you even got to camp. You were gone before it could stay like this."
"I didn't want to leave you. But… you were gone when I came back. How was I supposed to keep it this way if you weren't there to receive?" I asked keeping my anger in check.
That had been the one problem with us traveling together. Somehow we always ended up in a fight. With poor self-control it was hard for us to sort anything out quickly. Usually, a monster would have to attack to bring us back together. That made it a very unrealistic and unsteady relationship, but we were still best friends.
"You could have come with me." He offered touching my hair softly with the tips of his fingers.
"I probably would have…" I admitted quietly though I know he had heard.
He took a deep breath letting his chest relax as he released it. "Then why won't you come now?" As I stiffened in his embrace, his grip slowly constricted around me.
"Because I can't; if I let this go then I'll turn sixteen and I…"
"You could be anything. You could be in my arms forever without the Huntresses looming over you. You could have the power in this world. You could be with me…" When he said it like that it did seem like if the war would just get over with then I would have no problems. I would be the one in charge and I would have exactly what I wanted… Him.
"Is that why you came again, to convince me to be with you and leave this behind?" I asked trying to push away and being held in place. His grip tightened further and I could feel as my breathing slowly became labored.
"Thalia what's so bad about it? I could help you." He tried to convince me. It was hard to say no. He was so trustworthy, or he at least sounded that way. The trusting reassurance in his voice was like a siren's call to fall into his trap.
"Because," I forced myself to muster up the strength and push myself from him. I stumbled back a few steps and then caught myself. "I can do this on my own without you this time. I don't need you as a crutch anymore." I was convincing myself more then him at this point. I had used him as a crutch for so long. He was my Luke. He was my life… So, I had thought. I thought differently now. I could handle myself. I knew I could. I just had to prove it to myself. That was the challenge of my life.
"Thalia, please, just give this up. You know you'd rather be with me." He took a step in my direction and I shoved him back forcing him to recede a step.
"I don't need you because you don't care for me anymore Luke. I'm just a pawn in this game you've started with the gods. I don't need this. It puts stress on me and I don't need that. I don't need your hate for the world. It's pointless." I threw my hands into the air as if to emphasize my frustration with him. The bliss of the moment had been ruined by his once again hasty want for me to follow the love I had once though existed between the two of us. "Luke, I need you leave. And, I don't want you to come back. I don't want you here anymore."
"Why?" He demanded grabbing my arms roughly and shaking me slightly.
"Because…" I thought about it for a second trying to come up with something good enough for this situation. "Because if I said I want you out of my life you would prove me wrong by saying I would never escape. I already know that to be true and now I just want you gone." I wiped a hand across the air as if to ward away his presence. I did the gesture and pushed out from my heart and watched at he stumbled back from warding off his evil that had over taken him.
"Fine Thalia, but don't think I won't come back. I will always be there may it be here…" He gestured to the camp and the ground and then seemed to vanish before my eyes and reappear behind me. His forearm held strong at my neck as the other hand touched the place on my chest where my heart was. "or here." His touch made my skin tingle and good bumps rose where his skin met mine.
Tears pricked at the corner of my eyes as he vanished completely. The sound of fleeting footsteps rang in my ears and I turned back to the campsite where Lady Artemis was standing and watching me. Her face showed that of sorrow and apology at the tear that slipped from my eye. She opened her arms to me gently and I ran into her hug letting myself cry to the goddess. It was the first day I considered myself happy to have a goddess always at my side.