Percy blinked.
The light shifted.
Percy blinked.
His stomach was warm. The whispers were back.
"Thank you," someone said. He tried to respond but couldn't. They were gone.
Percy blinked.
The Burden was showing him the sea this time. He missed it. The demigod's vision was nothing but deep blue, but when he squinted there was a tiny black dot in the middle. There was a flash and the black dot was gone.
Percy blinked.
There was a fiery heat in his core, reaching further than it ever had before. The Burden screamed. So did Percy, but this time it felt like he was winning.
Percy blinked.
Atlas was on the dais. He was scowling. "This will not stop me!" he thundered. The floor shook beneath him. Percy didn't listen.
Percy blinked.
Atlas was gone. Something was different. Was it him? He didn't know.
Percy blinked.
Someone was humming, low and hurt. The demigod's joints ached. The Burden was leaking into his ears.
Percy blinked.
Luke was there. It took Percy a moment to remember that it was actually Kronos. The Titan trapped in a boy's body said nothing. He just stared. That horrible face was even more misshapen than the last time.
Percy smiled at him, baring all of his teeth. The son of Gaea clicked his tongue and disappeared.
Percy blinked.
The void was darker, so full of shadowy figures they filled his vision on every side. They were watching him.
Percy blinked.
His stomach was warm, and the sky felt lighter. He could make out the whispers now. Something was crackling. A fire, maybe.
"This is for Percy," a girl said.
"To keep him strong," another voice was praying.
"For my son." That was his mom. Even if it was just his imagination, it made Percy feel relieved to hear it.
"I'm here," He tried to say. "I'm listening." They didn't hear him. The warmth faded.
Percy blinked.
The light had shifted again. The teen's skin itched where his hair found the gap between his waistband and the bottom of his hoodie. Or was he even a teen anymore? The Burden tilted to the right dangerously. Percy moved it back. It didn't like that, and he disappeared for a while.
Percy blinked.
He was real again. How much time had passed? Too much. It was always too much.
Percy blinked.
Would he ever be free?
Percy blinked.
This was all Artemis' fault. She was weak, so the demigod was forced to be strong. She had doomed them, Percy and the other people who swam around his brain without faces or names. Atlas had kicked one off a cliff - that he recalled with increased clarity.
Percy didn't remember much of Artemis. He knew her name, her hair, her promise. Her broken promise.
Sometimes he hated her, her and Atlas and Kronos and Olympus and everything else but his mother. Sometimes he begged and pleaded, swearing to worship her and the gods forever if they came to relieve him from The Burden. Sometimes he understood that he deserved this - that carrying the sky was the goddess' punishment for crimes he could no longer remember. He must have done horrible things.
The worst was when the three emotions collided in his head. They exploded together spectacularly in mutually-assured destruction that left him feeling as if he was tearing in half.
Percy blinked.
His face was raw. He had a beard.
Percy blinked.
The void was empty. So was he.
Percy blinked.
Percy blinked.
Percy blinked.
Percy blinked.