BROKEN PIECES & GOLDEN SEAMS

III

05. your seventeen months old sister may not approve of you dying, Percy

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"You think it's a coincidence?" Percy asks as soon as she locks the door behind them.

Her parents shake their heads.

"Very unlikely,"

Sally nods. "Hecate has only started contacting you a week ago."

"And there's people from her pet world asking for me now," she concludes.

"This doesn't seem like such a bad idea," Paul trails off, alarmed by the horrified looks from everyone in the room. "Or maybe, it is?"

"It so is, Paul."

"Sure it's a possibility. But hear me out," he hastens to make his point, "Percy could use a change of environment, it wouldn't be too bad—" he cuts himself off at the deadpan stares of the mother and daughter.

"Dad, they have a war going on! A wizarding war!" She scoffs. "With wands, pointy hats and Hecate knows what else!"

Sally throws an amused look at her daughter shaking her fist at the ceiling. Paul shares her exasperation, exhaling roughly.

"Its a school, Percy! You can learn magic and be selfish for yourself and allow yourself to rest. We all know that that would not be possible if you stay here."

"Paul's right honey,"

He goes as far as to perform a fist pump at winning his wife's support.

"Mom—"

"You've been tied to the camps," she emphasises at the plural form with an inhale. "since—since everything."

Percy cards her fingers through her hair, her mouth twisting. "Mom, I'm working on it—"

"And we know that," Paul comforts her. "And we're proud of you for that."

"Yeah, thanks Dad," her troubled expression clears to continue earnestly, "and I can't leave the camps just like that especially after everything!"

Sally refutes her firm point, "You can, Percy," she plows on, shaking her head at her objections, "You've have done what you had to and now it's time to think about yourself."

"Mom, I have," she sits by her mother. "I'm studying social work. I'm in uni—by Pluto," she lets out an amazed huff. "and did we ever see that coming? No."

"You're not the person you were," Paul admits from his position by the door, hands crossed and gaze downcast.

Sally shuts her eyes, her hands on her lap balling into fists. Their child freezes.

"I've known you for considerable time now, Percy, enough to see you as my own child and you've been through things we can never hope to understand. But you've always gotten through it and you never lost yourself like now. Maybe its because of Ann—" he stutters when violent flashes of Percy's panic attacks appear in his mind.

"Her," Sally steps in for him, turning to her. "But something tells us that's not it."

Percy's stupor is broken at her mother's look, steadfast yet afraid. Her eyes fall to her fidgeting fingers. Her figure trembles.