Memories

The Deserted

A map of blood trickled from Percy's thigh, smothering every inch of floor as Gabe dragged him along. Flinging his legs as much as he could, Percy tried to kick Gabe away, but his grip was solid as an iron clamp. As soon as Gabe lay his next hit, a sharp blow to the side, Percy had given up his great escape. He twisted himself into a defence: hands over his head and knees tucked under his chin. At this point, defence and complacency was his only advantage.

Watching my stepfather curse the younger me with blinding pain hit something deep in my chest. Anger. For all those years, I put up with this. I taught myself that I was doing it to protect my mother, that I deserved it, that the only person in the world that was going to care about me other than my mother, was me.

Percy was holding in his grunts of pain, his face contorting in silent agony. Gabe exercised his abusive privileges by unhooking his belt and lashing at Percy, whipping the buckle between his shoulder blades and at his head. Upon the first hit, Percy's wayward scream sliced through the air, equal to the sound of the whip.

"Percy, I don't think I can watch this." Annabeth pressed her forehead against my shoulder. I pressed my hands against her ears to muffle the sounds for my screams for her as well. Sometimes I forgot that even though Annabeth was tough and strong, she had a lot of love and pain in her heart. In all of this, I never considered how hard it would be for Annabeth to experience everything I'd been through. Nico too, for that part.

Unexpectedly, the sound of a phone ringtone echoed throughout the room, pausing Gabe and silencing younger Percy. It was almost strange to watch the full physical change Gabe endured as he answered the phone. He dropped the belt to his side, stood up tall and even smiled, completely forgetting the broken boy, bloodied and bruised by his side.

"Hello?" He echoed down the phone. "Oh, Sally, hi. Did you pick up some more of that bean dip? You know its poker night tonight, and if the boys don't get their dip then they won't be happy with you."

Younger Percy sneaked a look between his arms of protection and looked up at his stepfather with a quizzical sullenness.

"Oh, Percy?" Gabe paused for a second and looked at his wife's son. In a blink of an eye, his expression sketched into one of something that could only be described as an attempt to look concerned. "Yes, he's here Sally. He's not in good shape- I think some boys must have mugged him while he was running away from that school... Christ Sally, he's not dying or anything he'll be fine."

Percy just looked sad now. There was nothing else to it; nothing angry or desperate or even anything of hatred... he was just fundamentally sad.

"Yeah, I'll let him know you're on the way. And don't forget the bean dip! You're not welcome in my house unless you have some in hand."

Gabe flicked the phone shut and shoved it into his back pocket. I swear that with every movement, more of his stench just billowed around the room. Even five years later, the smell haunted my dreams. That's one of the many issues of the vibrancy of demigod dreams- I'd rather leave the 4D to the cinema please.

Gabe leant down to Percy and shrugged in disappointment. "Well it looks like it's time to take you upstairs."

He pressed his thumb into the bullet wound on Percy's thigh etching out a long, agonising scream. "Remember, Brain Boy, that you were mugged. You tell your mom anything and I kill her."

As an adult now, I knew that those threats were empty- he would never have gone so far as to kill someone. He was too much of a coward. But as a kid, I was so convinced that my sole purpose was to protect my mom, and I'd be damned if I let anyone hurt her.

Gabe swept out of the room, chucking his bloodied belt to the floor beside Percy. Without so much as a glance, he stomped up the stairs and disappeared from view. We were left with a young Percy trying to stand but failing miserably.

"I'm sorry." I turned to face Nico in surprise, his words nothing I expected.

"What?" I breathed.

"I'm sorry that I gave you so much shit for all those years. I always saw you as this golden child who lived the demigod dream; mortal parent still alive, a godly parent who actually cared. I was always mad at you for not going through the kind of childhoods we had- I hated you sometimes because, no matter what, you had your mom. I never even thought-"

"Hey, it's okay," I reassured him. I placed a hand on his small shoulders and gave him a gentle squeeze. "I am luckier than most. I'd go through this a million times over to protect my mom."

Nico just nodded slightly with a tight smile. He was watching the younger Percy carefully, monitoring his movements. Whether he was pitiful, sorrowful or even slightly relieved, I wouldn't know.

Tentatively, Annabeth stepped forward. "Are you okay?"

I know that it probably sounded like a stupid question, but I knew that Annabeth didn't mean it as a surfaced blanket statement. She had been watching not my younger counterpart, but my facial expressions. She knew that I wasn't just hurt from relieving my experiences, but that re-watching had unsettled something new within me. It had rattled me.

Before I could even shrug off her question with a small nod, Annabeth butted in: "And don't just say yes because you don't want to talk about it. We're here for a reason, and that's for you to talk. We need to understand why we're being shown the things we are, otherwise, we won't be able to move onto the next memory."

I took a deep breath and pressed my fingernails into my palms. I felt anger rise within me, a hot air balloon of years of frustration suffocating my chest. If younger Percy was sad, I was simply angry. I clenched my jaw and breathed deeply, making sure I would censor any words that came out of my mouth.

"Tell me." Annabeth stroked a single finger down the back of my hand, making me unclench. Crescent shapes creases lined my hands.

"He left me." I muttered, shaking my head.

"Who?" Annabeth pressed.

"My dad. All these gods-damned years I spent being tortured and neglected, and he could have been there to stop it. He could have protected us."

"He couldn't, Percy. He would have endangered you."

"Well I'd rather face a million drakonae than face Gabe again. I am his son Annabeth; if he really cared he would have saved me. He told me that he'd always been watching over me, so does that mean he just watched? Did he watch Gabe lock me in here for days at a time and just do nothing?"

I felt so atrociously angry. I didn't know where the anger had come from. But just watching everything again, half a decade later, I felt pure hatred for my dad. He left me.

"The gods are shitty, Percy." Thunder echoed even in the dream as the gods responded, but Annabeth and I were far too used to that now to care. "But you've fixed that. No more demigods are being left to fend for themselves, alone. You've helped generations of demigods to come."

I nodded in agreement to Annabeth as the world began to shift.