Vicious | Percy Jackson x oc | PJO x THG |

Chapter Seven | I Kick a Tree |

    MY FEET MOVED WITHOUT ME TELLING THEM to. I ran full force towards his voice, stopping before a tree. I slammed my fist against the tree, crying out his name.

    "Percy!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. I sounded completely insane. "Percy!" I was pleading with whatever god chose to do this to him, to me, to us. Just fuck all of them at this point.

    A bird fell from the tree, landing before me. I stared at it for a long, hard moment. It wasn't Percy, but...it was worse. Because Percy had to have been hurt, and I had no way to stop it.

    I picked it up and snapped its neck.

    "It's alright, Althea." I winced. 'It's alright' went under the category of things I don't like people to say to me when I'm sad. If I'm crying, it's not alright, okay? "It's just a jabberjay. They're playing a trick on us. It's not your...Percy."

    "It's not Percy." I breathed out. "But his voice...jabberjays copy, Katniss."

    "Oh, Althea, you think they..."

    "That's obviously what I'm thinking, dipshit!" I yelled, tears sliding down my face.

    There's another scream. A male's voice but I didn't know it.

    Katniss goes to run towards it, but I clenched my eyes shut that were stinging with tears.

    "It's not worth it, Katniss!" I yelled, furiously. "He's not there! You can't save him! He's probably as good as dead by now!" At this point, I didn't know if I was yelling about the guy Katniss was hearing, or if I was just thinking of Percy.

    We started moving away, towards the beach to escape. Peeta, Finnick, and Johanna came into view. They're standing at the tree line, but don't come closer. We slammed into the wall. Me, face first, whereas Katniss just hit her shoulder. My nose was bleeding, and I leaned back against a tree.

    That is when all the birds came.

    Once upon a time, when I was having an episode and Percy wasn't there, Austin advised me to recite lyrics to try and keep me calm. Just to pick one song, one verse. The song I picked was Home. Y'know the one with Bebe Rexha, Machine Gun Kelly, and X Ambassadors.

Home.

    I mouthed the lyrics, but didn't sing them as I heard the people that I thought were my home scream in pain. Percy. Will. Austin. Kayla. Nico. Roman. Annabeth. Jason. Leo. Piper.

A place where I can go.

    I couldn't go there now. I was stuck here. Chances were I would never see them again.

To take this off my shoulders.

    I wish I could take this off my shoulders.

Someone take me home.

    I wanted someone to take me home so badly. I repeated the verse over and over again until the hour was over. I didn't notice when it was over. My eyes were clenched shut, my mind stuck repeating that one verse. I didn't even know when I started muttering the lyrics under my breath. Not singing them. Just saying them.

    I felt someone hug me, but I didn't open my eyes. Someone else hugged me as well, but I stayed in the same state.

    "Althea," I heard Finnick say. "It's okay." I winced again. Y'know what? I don't  think I like any of these 'cheer up' expressions. If you want me to be cheered up, stay quiet or try to distract me. I still repeated the lyrics over and over.

    "Do you believe it, Althea?" Katniss asked, but I refused to hear her. "Althea?" I lifted my head, gasping for air.

    "They could, b-but..." I trembled, and I couldn't say it aloud. The fact that President Snow wouldn't be able to have Percy interviewed.