princess // percy jackson

i. nine - perseus puts his grief on a schedule

words : 8598

(lock in yall its a longass chapter...)

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"how could you let her die, alliah?!"

the familiar voice echoed and bounced around the walls of her mind, but her sight remained to be of nothing but darkness - her eyes were still closed and she couldn't open them, but she could've sworn she was awake and talking to the voice right then and there.

"she trusted you, i trusted you! how could you let her die?"

alliah felt her chest shudder and a pang of guilt struck her in the gut, her mind wallowing in sudden shame. the familiar voice repeated his words over and over again and with each repeat, alliah felt worse and worse.

"...alliah..."

"- trusted you!"

"mom!"

" -let. me. go..."

"...alliah..."

alliah let the uncomfortable warmth growing in her chest, take her in. when she realized it was beginning to drown her, she let it. she had no strength to fight back, and the guilt she felt stopped her from doing so. suffocating and drowning, ever so slowly but surely, she could feel herself slowly being overtaken in the heat, sinking as the pit in her stomach opened up even larger...

"...my mother!"

"why didn't you let me go?!"

"...alliah..."

"run!"

"...alliah...?"

burning, excruciating heat...

"...alliah?"

-

"...alliah!"

when alliah came to, her eyes fluttered open to the sight of a concerned grover, waving his hand above her face, his voice frantic.

"...alliah, are you awake? alliah? alliah, wake up!"

she swatted the hand away, annoyed.

she sat up and looked around herself, and to her relief, found her surroundings familiar.

she looked down at herself and realized she had been laying in a bed, the bottom half of her body covered with a scratchy old blanket. her shoulders sagged with utmost relief when she recognized the room - a place she'd found herself in before, countless of times actually. the amount of times she had visited the camp's infirmary was a concern to her own self and to her friends.

"i'm at the infirmary..." she spoke slowly, her head pounding. she hummed, delighted when she realized what being in her beloved camp's infirmary meant. "which means i'm back at camp...lovely...wait, how am i at the infirmary?"

grover fell back in his chair, relieved. he rose to his feet and rushed out the room before he could answer the girl's inquiry.

"guys, she's awake!" he called out to somebody, sticking his head out the doorway.

a few seconds later, two other people rushed through the door and raced over to her side and at the sight of them, the aching in her head subsided. all of a sudden, all that mattered was that her friends were with her once again - and she had missed them soooo bad.