Percy was drowning.

Every memory that slammed against her heart felt like a wave of vengeance, plunging her still deeper into the whirlpool of her emotions.

Slam. Her father. Trauma had erased everything else from her mind, but she could still remember the warmth, the love. And the abandonment.

Slam. Calypso. Her love – and her murder. She was too old to forget that. The way the blood coated her fingernails, the way everything on the island turned dull when she died, the way the crimson liquid flowed through the white sand-like veins, her screams taunting Percy's helplessness.

Slam. The city. The beach. The cops. When all that mattered was running away from people. Seemed so much better than now.

Slam. Luke. His arms around her, pulling her close, hugging her –

No. No more. Percy wouldn't remember anything more. Everybody she'd ever loved had abandoned her in some way, and it physically hurt her to think about it.

Lying on the frayed campbed on the barren ground, all she could think about right now was Luke. And it hurt. And if she drank a sip of beer for every time she'd thought about Luke within the past half-hour, she'd be dead in 15 minutes because of alcohol poisoning.

Percy had never been one to reminisce. Staying stuck to what happened had never gotten her any relief from pain. And anyway, all the "quests" she'd ever done in the past needed her mind there, and not anywhere else.

But now, it seemed as if she'd strayed too far away from made her, her, and she was drowning in the consequences.

Percy gripped the grass under the campbed to ground herself.

She was supposed to be asleep. But she couldn't close her eyes to that darkness, she couldn't, no matter how much she tried. The truth was, she was scared – scared of those visions that followed her day and night, that haunted her and distracted her. The worst part? They weren't even those cursed prophetic dreams every demigod had; they were the mortal dreams – the ones that conjure up hauntingly weird images from the deepest, darkest corners of the mind.

So, what better way to ward them off than to not sleep at all?

Percy sighed; her logic was flawed, and she knew it. Fighting on this quest was doing weird things to her mind. She feared being awake, because of all the monsters and constant reminders of what she'd lost and failed to save. She feared being asleep because of those… things.

And so, she'd been spending the past few days of the trip running on caffeine, a pounding headache and bleary vision, and a mere amount of nearly 2 hours of sleep per day.

Percy's mind strayed to nonsensical thoughts, nonsensical memories, and the most random of things, like how Bianca's light snores filled her ears with white noise, how the trees were swaying in the roaring wind, their branches cracking off, the sweet sound of a person singing, singing a song filled with longing and heartbreak.

Wait.

Singing?

Before she could dwell on the fact that the singing was soft, calm enough to lull her to sleep and take away all her nightmares, but sad enough to keep her awake and sympathetic, there was a loud crunching sound right next to her spot in the tent. Her mind immediately strayed to Lisabelle.

Percy had been forced to tent with Zoe and Bianca that night, and Lisabelle was in the other tent with Grover – which meant that Lisabelle was free to do whatever she wanted when Percy wasn't watching. But she couldn't do any funny business if Zoe was on watch, right? But what if the singing outside had blocked Zoe's senses? What if Lisabelle was off to betray them once again?

The overthinking and the panicking had caused Percy to sit up straight on high alert for any other suspicious sounds. The crunching sound was back once again, louder. The singing seemed to turn more intense. The world was filled with noise, and now it was invading Percy's space, her ears were buzzing, and her head felt like a 10-pound iron weight was being pressed on it.

The panic heightened, and she felt as if she was going to die. Her palms filled with sweat, and she felt hot and cold at the same time. She was hyper-focused on every detail that surrounded her, yet everything felt so… blurry.

Suddenly, the sound of zipping broke through her reverie. Zoe was back, her night shift had ended. Percy got up, breathing heavily, ignoring the questioning looks of red, puffy eyes on Zoe's face, or the extra-silver aura surrounding her head, she went out through the opening, zipping up the tent as she left.

It seemed that the cold night air was enough to cool down her clammy hands and panicked state. As she sat on the log near the makeshift fire pit, the air got colder, and she wished she would have brought her Hunter-lent parka along. She pulled her arms closer, humming that sad song that wouldn't leave her mind now.

The more she hummed it, the more it seemed sad, and Percy couldn't help but wonder that maybe it wasn't just the sadness of that singer amplified through her voice. If it was Percy's longing, longing for that hope, longing for a future, a happy one.

She hummed it for a while more, as snowflakes began to fall on her skin, the pure cold of them stark against the heat left behind from the sweat.

And Percy sat there wondering, not caring about any potential monsters, nor any sort of distress. What would life be like if she hadn't gone through what she did? Would she appreciate these tiny joys of life, these snowflakes, sitting next to a warm place just the same?

Would she feel the same love from her friends that she feels now?

The figure was blurry, but the fierceness of the girl was still visible. Raw fear and desire emanated from the body, and Percy could feel it even in her dreams. The girl was riding atop a huge animal.

This vision was different. It held a secret message – one that seemed more urgent.

The forest. The crunching of those twigs.

The forest.

Her destiny lies in the forest, among the spines and thorns.

But is she brave enough to follow her path?

What a stupid question. Of course, she was brave enough to "follow her path" and do all that nonsense her weird drunk dream self was telling her to do. Anyway, she wasn't stupid enough to leave her post while she was supposed to be watching and making sure nobody was killed by rabid bears who decided to declare a feast. Right?

Okay, maybe she was stupid enough. That dream told her something about the forest. Maybe she was supposed to follow that trail that goes in, but something inside her told her that maybe a rabid huge animal wouldn't be polite enough to follow a trail and be a gentleman – citizen. No assuming gender.

She stuffed her hands into the surprisingly warm pockets of her half-tattered pajamas and stomped over to the edge of the clearing, hesitating for a second and finally, overcome by curiosity, ducking out from under the tangled tree leaves.

Percy was a nuisance. She knew that. Leaving her friends to die employing a potentially rabid animal while she was supposed to be on watch and sleeping in the middle of it was not something a morally strong person who cared about people was supposed to do. But they'd left the 'care about people' part behind when she died.

Suddenly, she heard a soft crunching noise. And another. And another. As if a monster was walking slowly to determine its prey and get close enough before it pounces.

Oh shit.

Percy was pretty sure that was exactly what was happening, but before she had time to pull out her sword, the rabid monster from her dreams jumped through the bramble, and landed right on top of her, like some abominable action movie.

And Thalia looked at her from above, with sunken, dull grey eyes and hair sticking out in all directions.

-X-

I am back! I know I'm not a very reliable author, and I'm so sorry for it, and I would love to thank you all for waiting for me - it means a lot. But now, I'll be back every Tuesday and Friday because I've managed to upload all these already. My writing is just deteriorating at this point, and I'm very grateful to all of you who can stomach it. Thank you all for reading!

AarBeaZ, out :D