(Fem.) Percy meets Fablehaven

17

"So, did you have a good night's sleep?" Amphitrite asked, barely looking at me.

"Better than I've had lately." I mumbled, pushing around the food on my plate.

We sat in silence, Dad staring at me as I continued to not eat.

Triton glared at me. "What? Is our food not good enough for you?"

"I'm just not hungry." I said, still pushing the food around my plate. "Why are you guys even eating anyway? It's not like you'll die without food."

"But you will die without food, so eat." Dad crossed his arms.

I stared at him as I took a small bite of food. I sat my fork down.

"You know that's not what I meant."

"Yeah. And yet you didn't explicitly specify that." I chuckled. "I'm related to fairies and now I've met a bunch of them. Did you think I wouldn't start doing what they do and look for loopholes?"

Actually I've always done that. I mean when you're a demigod, you have to look for openings like that.

Water pressed against me and I tried to lift my hand only to find I couldn't move.

"Perseus, either you eat your food by your own will or so help me I will force you to." Dad said.

"Why do you care so much about what she does?" Triton asked. "She's just going to die."

"And that day can't come soon enough." I smirked. "If it comes before school starts that's just a bonus."

"Percy." Dad glared. "Don't speak like that."

I rolled my eyes. "With my mouth? I would say how else am I supposed to talk, but I do have that underwater telepathy going on."

"Do you want me to ground you?"

"What are you going to do? Take my sword? It's not like there's much to take away, my girlfriend's dead, my friends are also dead, I can't play video games, and if you take away my sword or anything relating to me being a demigod, I'll probably die."

The water around me loosened until I could move again. But I didn't get a chance to escape. Dad grabbed my shoulder and we appeared in my room.

"I'm not getting out of this am I?" I sighed, looking up at him.

"I told you, we are going to talk about this. You, your nightmares, everything. And you need to talk to me. You can't sit here and say you don't want to talk about it or you don't know."

I looked at my hands, pressing my lips together. "And what if I really don't know?"

"If you say you don't know, I am going to wrap you in a blanket and feed you a bunch of cookies, because that's the only logical response I can come up with."

Dad pushed me so I fell onto the bed. I didn't bother sitting up, instead choosing to lay back and stare at the ceiling.

He laid beside me, staring up at the ceiling too. Water moved me so I was propped up against him, my hands on top of my stomach.

"What are your nightmares usually about?" He asked.

"My friends blaming me...hurting me. There's not much else to it than that."

"And how do you feel after them?"

"Um...why are you-"

"Talking like I'm a therapist? I talked to Apollo and asked for some help. I really shouldn't have. There were so many haikus. But answer the question."

I sighed. "I feel like I deserve it."

"Why?"

"Because I couldn't save them. Because I let them die."

"Percy, you didn't let them die."

"I could have saved them. I know I could have, but I didn't. I didn't save them because I was too scared to try."

If I had used the powers I had used in the Pit in front of Zeus and the other gods...

"You did everything you could without sacrificing your own life."

"Exactly. I should have sacrificed myself to save them. I mean Athena said that I would sacrifice the world to save someone, so sacrificing my life shouldn't have been hard."

"You shouldn't be talking about your fatal flaw like it could have been a good thing."

"It's all about perspective Dad." A smile tugged at my lips.

He sighed. "When did you start feeling like this?"

"I don't remember. I've been like this for a while but...I can't say when it started."

"Percy-"

"I can't tell you Dad! I don't know when I started feeling like this. All I know is I either eat a little or a lot, I'm constantly exhausted, and I don't care about myself."

He snapped his fingers and the next thing I knew I was sitting up, wrapped in a blanket. And Dad was holding a plate of cookies.

"I thought you were kidding." I said, struggling against the tightly wrapped blanket.

"Not with this. And you're not getting out of that. Here."

He held a cookie up to my mouth and I refused to take a bite.

"Percy, you need to eat something."

I didn't respond, knowing that he would force me to eat the cookie if I opened my mouth.

We stared at each and Dad eventually sighed. He pulled me towards him, pressing a kiss to my head.

"I'm worried about you. So is your mother, and your stepfather. I just want you to be happy, Percy. And I can't help you be happy if you don't try to help me help you."

It's close enough to Monday

How'd you like it?

Anyway, I should have my first match of the season on Tuesday weather permitting

First singles woo!

Anyway

Let's hope I get the other chapter done tomorrow

See yah