Apparently, I'm Dead

Chapter Thirty-One

SAMIRAH

Percy stands over the body of the invincible Nemean lion. His chest heaves up and down, wracked with heavy breaths. He takes a step back, and then another, and then he's back quickly away from the corpse, almost running.
I start towards him hesitatingly, rubbing my wrist as I remember his frantic scream and how he wrenched his wrist from my grasp.

Magnus and Alex get there first.

Magnus wraps an arm around Percy's trembling body to keep him steady. It sort of works. Percy sinks into Magnus, dragging them both down to the ground. Alex crouches down next to them.

I walk over to help comfort Percy. He's babbling unintelligibly, his hands buried in his hair. "It's so easy. I could- so many of them- if I had learned this earlier!" His hands strain upwards, pulling at his hair.

"What are you talking about?" Magnus asks.
Percy flails his hand in the direction of the Nemean lion. "All I needed to do was grab the blood and pull. Would that work on other monsters? Would it work on Titans? Could I have stopped the Titan War if I knew how to do this? I could have saved so many people if I had known how to do this before!"

Oh, I think, more survivor's guilt.

Out loud, I say, "Percy, there was no way you could have learned those powers before coming to Valhalla. You aren't responsible for their deaths."

Percy shakes his head violently. "But I could do it before! In the pit, with Akhlys. Her tears! The poison! I saved Annabeth. Why didn't I do it again with the snake? Why didn't I-" he cuts himself off with a sob. I notice that he doesn't try to hide his tears, so there's progress, I guess. Now what was he saying about an Akhlys?

Magnus is on the same brainwave as I am. "Who's Akhlys?"

Percy closes his eyes. "No one. It was a mistake to even mention her."

"Percy," Alex admonishes, "That just makes us more curious."

"Please just stop asking," he pleads. "I really just don't want to talk about her."

Alex narrows her eyes. "You met her in Tartarus," she says slowly, "and you did something with her tears and poison."

Percy's face fills with fear. "Alex. Stop."

"You were talking about how you should've been able to save all those people, so she probably had to do with your blood powers."

"Alex," Percy demands, his voice draining of fear and becoming steely. "I told you to stop."

Alex keeps talking over him, ignoring his request. "Did you control her tears? Did you make them into poison? What did you do, Percy?"

I turn to Percy, realizing that I've been watching this argument as if it was a tennis match. Percy is holding scarily still, not answering to Alex's baiting. Then a slow smile unfolds across his face.

"Fine," he says, "okay."

The smile grows cold and feral. His sea green eyes grow dark. "Sit down, Alex," he calls. "Let me tell you the story of Akhlys, the primordial goddess of misery." He curls his pointer finger, a clear gesture to come here.

Alex walks over to Percy and sits down at his feet. But her movements are jerky, robotic, and her expression is panicked and uncomfortable. "Percy, what are you doing?" she gasps.

He ignores her. "Annabeth and I, we were in- in the pit." he starts. "We needed to hide from the monsters, and so we went to Akhlys. She had the Death Mist, and so she could make sure we were hidden."

Alex makes a move to open her mouth to say something, but it closes abruptly.

Percy tsks. "No interruptions, please." He sounds like a disapproving school teacher, which makes this horrifying scene even more creepy.

I start towards them, meaning to stop Percy, but I stop halfway to him. My eyes widen at the sensation of my body rebelling against me. I am forced to sit down in front of Percy, right next to my sister. I can feel Magnus sitting down on my other side. Percy smiles, but his eyes only show blazing anger, and a little bit of... is that fear?

"It looks like Ms. Al-Abbas and Mr. Chase want to learn about Akhlys, too. Please, have a seat. Join the class." He blinks a couple of times, and the emotions drain from his eyes, leaving them blank.

He continues, "Akhlys covered us in Death Mist, and we stood at the edge of Chaos. Annabeth looked like a re-animated corpse, and I'm sure I did too. And then she tried to kill us with poison." He takes a deep breath. "I turned the poison back on her and drowned her with her own tears and snot."

Silence.

Then Magnus shifts almost imperceptibly away from Percy, his eyes wide.

Percy winces, but the movement is almost unnoticeable. He struggles to keep his face free of emotion, but hurt and acceptance, as if he expected this reaction, flickers across his face.
"I hope you enjoyed your story, Alex," Percy spits. He stands up and whirls on his heel, stalking off in the direction of the Big Banana.

"Oh gods," Alex breathes. "What have I done?"

Hello everybody! I know it has been a realllllllllllllllly long time and I'm very sorry. I honestly don't know why it's taken this long, but I feel like my writing has been getting increasingly worse for a while. I'll still try to finish the story, but try not expect frequent updates. Hopefully something in my brain will get back on track soon, and things will go back to normal!

THANKS,
ATOTALMUSICALNERD