Beep…
Beep…
Beep…
He heard a strange sound.
He didn't know where he was, but he was sure of it.
What else was he sure of?
His feet felt wet.
Was he barefoot?
Beep…
Beep…
Beep…
There it was again. A distant but distinct sound.
A stream flowed through his feet. He was barefoot.
Where was he?
Beep…
Beep…
Beep…
"I'm so disappointed." The voice echoed in front of him.
"The moment she flashes her pretty eyes at you, you go running back to her." She sighed loudly. "I wish you would see her for what she really is. A hoe."
The word caught him off guard.
He opened his eyes towards the voice and asked, "What?" But before the voice could answer, he took the scenery in.
A soft light shined under him. He was standing on a glass structure of sorts. But the pictures were blurry due to a thin stream of water flowing on its surface.
He looked up, towards the voice. But no one was there. The glass platform was larger than he thought, encompassing a space large enough to fit a gymnasium. However there was no ceiling. Only darkness. He looked around. The light from the platform was the only source of light in the area.
He looked back towards where he heard the voice.
Where nothing had been earlier, a small vehicle of sorts lay at the center. Curiosity getting the better of him, he decided to approach it. The more he walked on the glass platform, the more he recognized the images.
A circle of circles with familiar faces on them. A blond haired boy on his knees, reaching out for a star. Grey storm clouds. A golden sword. They were all painted in stained glass. He had been here before. He couldn't remember when, or how, but he knew this place.
As he inched closer towards the vehicle, he was starting to realize it was in fact, a small RV. The doors to the grey vehicle opened. A voice came out.
"I mean, I'm not shocked," It was a girl's voice. No not a girl, she sounded older. Maybe his age? "Every time you get a cool moment, it's ruined by that cardboard cutout. You would be such a cool character, if you weren't infected by Piper's stupidity."
He took a step into the vehicle. It looked like any normal RV. Large windshield, and empty driver's seat. And an interior. He turned inwards. And then he saw her.
He was right, the girl looked to be about his age. She had olive colored skin, a large forehead, and dark black hair held by a red checkered bandana. The boy had never seen hair that dark before. It was put up in a braid that ran all the way to the back of her knees. She wore a white t-shirt smudged with what he assumed was peanut butter, and a plain pair of skinny jeans. Her flip flops were green.
Her dark red eyes looked at him when he entered. She pointed a knife at him, "That girl really needs to die. But no…" She made a mocking face, "Mr. Riordan had to keep her alive for some unknown reason."
She returned to her work. She was in the small kitchen area of the RV, cutting up some vegetables.
"What are you talking about?"
"You know what would have been more interesting." She ignored him. "If Percy had been sent to the world of AOT instead. I mean, your interactions with Levi have been fun, but imagine Percy meeting Levi." She stopped chopping, "OR, what if Nico met Eren? Or Reiner? That would be hilarious. Imagine the three of them in a room together." She laughed at the thought, "They'd have a contest on which one of them is the most tragic." She said that last part with a deep melodramatic voice.
The more she spoke, the more he couldn't understand what she was saying. He decided to ask some questions.
"Who are you? And why do you know those names?"
Still chopping up her vegetables, she asked, "Hmm, what do you mean? I'm just imagining what it would be like. But all I'm stuck with is you and your bland story. I mean really. Out of everyone that could have dropped in the world of AOT, it had to be you. The dullest, most uninteresting character from Percy Jackson."
"Excuse me." Jason didn't understand some of what she said, but he knew an insult when he heard one.
"Oh come on, it's not your fault. It's only because you're so close to the worst character in the series that you're like this." Her red colored eyes were narrowed in anger, "You were supposed to be Percy's foil. His opposite. That fight you had with him in The Mark of Athena was supposed to come naturally. But Piper ruined all that. She took all that character right out of you when you became her love interest." She made a sucking sound.
Jason was starting to get upset. "You're speaking as if I'm not real. As if not of it is."
"I mean yeah. You're just a story."
Just a story!
Jason stomped towards her and yelled. "I'm not JUST a story! I'm a human being! With thoughts and feelings and a life! A life that's been taken from me! Ever since I was born! Until my death… hell even after my death my life doesn't feel like my own!"
The look of shock on her face calmed him down. He took a step back.
"But then I met these people. People who aren't ruled by fate or destiny. And they fought, just as hard… no, harder than I ever have. Just to have the life they want."
He pointed at her angrily, "And the fact that you have the gall to insult their effort as a mere figment of imagination is…"
"What are you talking about?" The girl interrupted him. "Of course you're not real."
Jason couldn't believe what she was saying, "Of course I'm real! I'm…"
He wanted to continue his rant, but he couldn't. The girl was looking at the ground, her face contorted in confusion. The knife she held in her hand collapsed to the floor and she took a step back.
"No. No. Nonononononono. You can't be real. You're just a story. Just a lame character. You can't be real."
Jason heard the door to the RV shut. He looked behind him. The water from earlier had reached half the height of the windshield. When did that happen?
He looked back at her. Eyes closed, her hands were pounding her forehead. "You can't be real. You can't be real. If you're real then…" Her eyes opened.
She looked up at him. "Get out of my head." She said.
"What?"
"Get out of my head! You're a bad dream! A figment of my imagination! You're not real! You're not real! YOU'RE NOT REAL!"
At the last yell, she pushed him towards the windshield. Millions of glass pieces stabbed and scratched all over his body as the water came flooding in. He twisted and turned and tried to breathe but couldn't.
As the dizziness consumed him, he remembered two things.
He was being tested by Gaia.
And the girl's voice belonged to the voice he heard when he died.