Together we are Unstoppable

Chapter 13

Artemis POV

I guess at some point I fell asleep, because I woke up to the smell of Mom making her homemade pancakes. My eyes slowly opened, but they were all crusty because of how much I'd been crying, I wiped the stupid gunk out of my eyes and stood up out of bed. I couldn't just lay around and do nothing. Scarlett and Elise wouldn't want me to do that.

After wiping the gunk out of my eyes, I plopped back into bed. I don't wanna get up.

I heard a soft knock on my door.

"Come in," I barely managed to say.

Percy wheeled himself in with a plate of Mom's pancakes on his lap.

"How are you holding up?" he asked, concern thick in his voice.

"Eh," I said, yawning.

I looked at the pancakes. Dang, did those look good. Nope. I couldn't eat them. If Elise and Scarlett couldn't have my mom's delicious pancakes, then neither could I.

"Just put them on my dresser," I whispered to him through my hoarse voice from crying.

"Hey, Old Ironsides, you good?" Percy asked (Old Ironsides was a nickname Percy gave me after I did a project on the USS Constitution in 7th grade).

I nodded my head and put a fake smile on. He wheeled over close enough to the bed and tried to hug me. It was extremely awkward 'cause he's in a wheelchair and I'm laying on my bed.

He wheeled out of the room and left me alone with my thoughts. I left the pancakes to get cold and went back to staring at the ceiling.

I still couldn't believe it. They were gone. I pulled out my phone and texted Scarlett's number. Apparently, her grandparents hadn't deactivated the phone yet, probably because they didn't know how to.

Artemis

i miss you

life is empty without you

i wish you were here

i love you

i can't go on without you

I couldn't help but think of the lyrics from that Kenny Chesney song.

It ain't fair you died too young

Like a story that had just begun

But death tore the pages all away

I just hoped Scar's grandparents never saw those texts. Then they might come and tell Mom about it and then I'd have to go to some stupid therapist that wouldn't be able to help me.

I remembered something I read once. It was that people who die young were souls that were so pure that angels fought over them. One group of angels said that the soul was too perfect to be sent down into our world. The other group said our world needed the pure soul to bring a little bit of light to our world's darkness. So God decided that the soul would only stay here for a little while and then be brought back to heaven.

I liked the thought of that.

I just laid there for the rest of the day. Percy would bring my meals in and set them next to the pancakes, but I wouldn't eat them. He wouldn't say anything. He would just come in, put the food on the dresser, and leave.

It wasn't until that night that I really believed they were dead.

Mom came into my room. She sat down on my bed and helped me sit up.