I'll be here forever

chapter 49 | Percy

I woke up in a lot of pain.

How did I wake up? I have no fucking clue.

I was sure that I was going to die. There's no way in hell I could survive a fall like that. I don't think anyone could.

I didn't open my eyes, not yet. It hurt too much. Every part of my body felt like it was on fire. It burned much more painfully and much hotter than any real fire could ever burn.

Every shuddering breath I took felt like I was being stabbed, over and over and over again. It was agonizing.

It had to have been an hour of sitting there in indescribable pain, before I realized that it wasn't getting any better. That it wasn't going to stop hurting anytime soon. And I could lay here and let myself die, in a shit ton of pain, or I could get up, and find my way home.

Home. Home, to her.

Unsure if I was going to die or not with every trembling breath, I resolved to at least try to get up. If I didn't die on the fall down, then I sure as hell wasn't going to die right now.

I started by opening my eyes, and was startled. Which then set off a stab of piercing pain through my chest, but it didn't matter.

I was under the stars. Constellations glittered above me, clearer than I'd ever seen them. I recognized the ones Daisy had pointed out to me and named, and suppressed a smile. If I smiled, I'm pretty sure it would hurt. A lot.

My eyes darted around, taking everything in. I was in a forest, at night, on a riverbank, halfway submerged in the water. I couldn't feel it. I figured it was probably because every breath I took pained every nerve in my body, hurting worse than the last, so I wasn't focusing on whether I was wet or not.

I must have fallen into a river, and that was why I wasn't dead. Which didn't make much sense, but my dad was the god of the sea, so not much made sense.

Something else was strange, though; there was no sound. I couldn't hear a single thing. Not the sound of the water, not the sound of the wind, nothing.

Then my eyes caught on someone else, sitting on a rock near me, and I startled again. Not a good idea.

I gasped for air, sucking it in even as it pierced my insides, the only sound I could hear. The figure I saw got up, and walked closer, crouching down by me.

He had to have been the most handsome man I'd ever seen. With black, oil-tipped wings and a face that probably rivalled whatever Cupid looked like, as his eyes stared into mine. They were dark, too dark to see into.

"Perseus Jackson," he mused, "you should have died."

"No shit," I croaked out, but regretted it as a stabbing pain tore through me.

"Shh," he said. I shushed.

"I came here to collect your soul. You were supposed to die on the fall down. But you didn't. You lived."

I opened my mouth to speak, but he shook his head, so I didn't. I didn't know who this guy was, but I didn't want him collecting my soul, or whatever weird shit he came here to do, so I shut up.

"There was not supposed to be water at the bottom. Yet, there was. Your father didn't do it; he was forbidden in attempting to prevent your death. So the only explanation is," he looked at me strangely, "you summoned the river."

I shook my head slightly, ignoring the incessant pain in my neck as I did so. I didn't summon any water.

"And yet, you did. You should not have been powerful enough to do that."

I wanted to protest, and tell him I wasn't, that I didn't do anything, to leave me alone to die in peace, but I paused. That tugging sensation I felt, right before I'd hit the ground... it was familiar. It was the same thing I felt when I controlled water. I hadn't realized.

I hadn't wanted to die. The feeling was so strong, that the water had responded to me, saving me. If sitting here, agonizing pain ripping through me with every breath, was being saved. I couldn't decide if that was cool or terrifying, or just plain stupid.

The guy crouching by me, recognized the look of realization on my face, and nodded sagely. I figured he was probably a god. Only a god could seem so idiotically pretentious.

"You have changed your line of fate, I fear. Prepare yourself for the consequences. But no matter; I give you this, Perseus, as a gesture of gratitude that I was unable to express before, when you and the others saved me in Alaska," he said, placing a pouch near my hand. And then he melted into the shadows, and it was like he was never there at all.

Sound returned to my ears. I could hear the river gurgling, the wind blowing through the leaves of the trees, the crickets in the bushes.

I tried to sit up, for some reason forgetting how much pain I was in, and promptly fell back down, sending another jolt of pain through my spine. I gasped.

Holy hell, that hurt.

I gave up, instead trying to grab the pouch the black winged Cupid dude had left me. While I had no idea what I'd done for him in Alaska, I thanked my past self for not pissing him off, so he didn't take my soul, or... whatever.

(A/N: SURPRISE, BITCHESSS, HE LIVES. Was there really any question? I mean, it's me we're talking about here.

I love writing the reactions to my favorite character's deaths, yes. But I most definitely do not have the mental stability to actually kill them.

...Most of the time.)