Personae Non Gratae (a Percy Jackson AU)

The Drink of The Dead

***Thalia***

I had lived on the streets, endured hunger, and faced walking monsters that no one else could see. I thought that being with my family again would cure my problems, but after my mother died, all I felt was guilt mixed with grief. The memories I had of her never went way; they were like walking barefoot on broken shards of frozen glass. I couldn't deal with the memories-with the pain-so I did a Beryl Grace and drank the beverage of the dead.

I woke up with a pounding headache and a throat as dry as Antarctica. I wanted to fall back to sleep and I honestly tried to, but despite the weariness of my mind, I just couldn't fall asleep. Whenever I'd be on the edge of falling asleep completely, I'd be shocked out of my slumber by some annoying sound. "Shut up!" I finally yelled hoarsely and I heard a loud bang.

I sat up quickly, my mind fuzzy an my body groggy with tiredness. "Who is that?" I asked in a loud voice that verged on yelling.

I heard another crash and a voice cursing. I groaned and sat down as my pounding headache sharpened. "Leave now!" I screamed and the sounds stopped, allowing me to drift off to sleep.

When I woke up, Piper drew me a bath and helped me change into clothes that weren't sodden with my vomit. "Thalia, how do you keep getting alcohol to drink?" she asked.

"Castor and Pollux," I answered. "They sell me the bottles at a discount."

"It's not good for you," she said as she lathered some shampoo into my hair.

"Piper, you know nothing about pain," I said. "You have your perfect life-"

"I was your mother's slave!" she hissed, stepping back. "And you've changed Thalia. Ever since you've been drinking-"

"So what if I changed?" I asked.

"Look, Jason is worried about you," she said. "And you've been acting like your mother!"

I stood up and practically growled at her, my pounding headache urging me on. "I am nothing like my mother," I spat and she left me to dress myself.

I collapsed on the bed and stared at the ceiling, trying and failing to not brood on what Piper told me. Had I really become my mother-the woman I had hated so much that I lived on the streets to get away from? Was I just another hypocrite pretending to have pure intentions.

I shook my head. These bothersome thoughts clearly meant it was time for another drink. I walked over to where the floorboards had rotted and retrieved a couple bottles of alcohol. As I sat down on my bed and started drinking, I heard voices coming from the room next to me. My brother and his wife were in the midst of a huge fight. "I didn't know-" Jason said.

"Then, tell her to stop!" Piper retorted and I had a pretty good idea about who she was speaking of.

I took another gulp of the foul tasting liquid, hoping to drink until I passed out. The voices in the other room grew muffled, but then got louder again. "I said I love you!" Jason said.

"Just because you love someone doesn't mean they love you back," Piper said.

"Then why did you marry me?" Jason asked.

"I thought I loved you?" Piper asked, as if she was unsure herself.

"I-I d-don't know what to say," Jason said.

"I don't either," Piper said. "This isn't how it works out in books, is it? They fall in love and never fight. They never doubt each other. If that's what love is, then I don't love you."

Jason didn't say anything. I took another swig of alcohol and my pounding headache returned with vengeance. I fell asleep in a pile of my own vomit, unaware of the flames licking my bedposts and the smoke entering my nostrils.

***Annabeth***

I wanted to be an architect-not a stay-at-home mom, but we didn't have the money for me to go study at a university. We didn't even have the money to fix our leaky roof until next week. If I wanted to design buildings, then I'd have to teach myself how. Now that I had set a goal, it seemed more within reach than just a vague dream for the future. Sure, the goal might be far-fetched, but I could outline a plan and complete the steps one by one.

In the meantime, I had to feed Atalanta, who was hungry. Percy was out working in the fields an after nursing my daughter, I brought out a flask of water for him that I had drawn from the well. As soon as rain had come to our part of Folie, we had realized that we had holes in our roof. It wasn't so much a mixed blessing as a blessing with a couple drawbacks-mainly having water seeping into our house and being awaken in the middle of the night by drops of water falling onto your face.

Percy smiled as I reached him. "I'm going to help you," I decided then and there.

"But your'e-" he said before I cut him off.

"Pregnancy doesn't weaken a woman," I said, "it merely makes them stronger."

He shrugged, but didn't protest as I helped him weed our fields and water our peanuts. Tyson had gone to the village today to go to a bookstore, though he didn't have enough money to buy anything. He had confessed to us that a pretty redhead worked there and she let him browse the store. "Do you think our future will work out?" I asked Percy.

"As long as you plan it," he teased. "You'd plan out everything perfectly."

I rolled my eyes and we walked back to our small, dingy house that felt more like home than Gabe's mansion ever did. I shuddered just thinking about him. Gabe Ugliano was the most repulsive, horrible person I had ever met in my life and I'd met some pretty nasty people. He had taken me as a young bride only to hit me. I had been his plaything and he had been my personal, waking nightmare. Sometimes, I'd stare at my daughter and cry because she would one day ask why she didn't take after Percy and I'd have to tell her that I had hated her father. No child deserved to be told that, but I knew that when the time came, I couldn't lie to her.

I looked at my husband, who was smiling despite his worries and complimenting me on my rubbish cooking just to cheer me up. "What will I tell Atalanta?" I asked. "I don't want her to think that she's a mistake."

"She's your daughter," he said,"and mine in my heart. With you as her mother, she can't be a mistake."

***Jason***

I woke up on my couch coughing. Piper and I had gotten into a fight that still left me squirming with guilt. Had I taken advantage of her? Was it fair that I had married the former slave of my mother? Did she truly never love me and if she didn't anymore, what had I down wrong?

I had fallen into a troubled sleep that was broken by the acrid smell of fire. I bolted to my feet and practically sprinted upstairs. The smell of smoke was strongest in my sister's room and I barged in to see her passed out on her bed. The putrid smell of vomit made me gag and I covered my mouth as I inhaled smoke. Thalia wasn't aware of the intense heat permeating throughout her room, making me feel as if I'd been shoved into a walk-in oven.

I ran over to her bed and saw that the bedposts were curling with flames. I frantically grabbed my sister in my arms and turned towards the door. Thalia's was heavier than I expected considering that she had been eating close to nothing and I feared that we would both die in our burning house. I thought of Piper and felt guilt stab me in the chest. What if she died and it was all my fault? What if our last words spoken to each other were words of heated anger-not the love I wanted to show her.

I finally reached the door and almost crashed into Piper, who didn't say a word, but helped bear some of Thalia's weight. The fire had spread now and we quickly went downstairs and into the streets. I looked at the only house I had ever lived in and almost cried. The place that I had lived in for eighteen years, where I lost my first tooth and ate a stapler was burning to the ground. Suddenly, I couldn't stand it and I set down Thalia and ran towards my house, determined to fight the flames, only to black out as a brick fell onto my head.