Under the Water(Fem. Percy)

Chapter 7

The dark presses against me like a wet blanket. It's heavy, cold, lonely. My heart pounds in my chest and it seems to echo and hammer against the cell walls. I've already paced from wall to wall. Ten steps, but it feels like an abyss stretched out before me. Something stares. The gaze crawls up and down my arms, and whenever I turn my head I swear I catch a glimpse of eyes glowing in non-existent light. They're not real. They're hallucinations, because this is still part of Dad's palace and he wouldn't let monster in and out as they pleased.

Would he in the dungeons?

A growl echoes. I feel it in my chest and bones. Hot breath paints the back of my neck, moist like a gaping maw poised to consume me. Riptide's heavy weight settles into my palm. Golden light cuts through the darkness. I turn. Nothing. No eyes. No slobbering mouths filled with teeth. Water trails along my arms again. It's the only thing I have to comfort me, and it still sets me on edge. Dad can so easily control me. I'm a puppet dangling on tangled strings. I can do some of what I want, but a hard enough jerk will correct my motions.

I sigh and sit on the bench at the back of the room--perfectly placed to bust kneecaps. There's too much time to think in the empty cell, and that never ends well. My eyes drift to where I think the bars are. Would anyone hear me if I banged on it? Would they care enough to open it if I started screaming? Unease itched at my neck. Even if Dad said I'm safe here, he can't promise that in the dark. Inky, black shadows might as well be an entirely different realm. There's something that connects shadows together, whatever we pass through when Nico drags me through. Something that clings to him and drags him further and further away from the living. A shudder races down my spine.

Tonight's going to be hard. It'll be by the grace of the gods if I don't fall asleep, and it'll be a punishment if I don't. Fatigue weights my limbs, my eyelids, even my hair seems less lively, draping around my face like curtains instead of floating. My fingers curl around my toes. They're freezing. I'm freezing, actually. Cold water slips through the tattered fabric of my clothes.

A warm hug from Dad sounds amazing. He's going to get tired of me eventually, so it would be a good idea to take advantage of it before my novelty wears off on him. All it'll take is a soft prayer on a whispered breath, just his name, and he'll know. If he acts on it, that's a different matter, but in a fantasy world, he'd come get me and tuck me into bed. Maybe brush my hair away from my face the way that hasn't happened since I was ten. A lullaby would be nice too.

"A song of the sea, alight on a wave, little moon shine down. Thy blessing's good, light the path, and see us safe till we're harbor-bound," I sing softly. It's the ending of the lullaby Mom used to sing, everything else blurred from time except those lines and the tune. It wasn't a lullaby I'd ever been able to find; I can't help but wonder if Dad... A smile spreads on my face. No. He wouldn't have. He's not the type of god to do that. Only Apollo or Hypnos would do that sort of thing. But as I repeat the verse and it echoes off the walls and reverberates, water twines around me like soothing hands. Soft. Comforting. Urging me to relax into them, a baby in a parent's arms.

And despite my misgivings, I do.

Loud screeching wrenches me out of sleep. I'm on my feet in an instant, pen clenched in hand. Light spills into the cell. I squint against it, but a wave of relief passes through me. Light, sweet, brilliant light. Suddenly, the constant presence of it in the palace and in my bedroom doesn't seem so bad. When I get to go home, I'm making Mom drive me to the store to buy a nightlight. Or maybe one of those fake candles we have for when the power goes out. Anything to keep out the dark.

"Need to get that damned thing fixed," Triton mumbles. He's wearing different clothes than before, a blue tunic with gold trim and a heavily-stylized wave pattern around the wide sleeves. Glowing eyes fixate on me, immense and full of power and threat before all of that dissipates. "Percy? Why...are you in a cell?"