Melpomene (PJO)

24. Bury what's already dead

The next month and a half before the Camp Half-Blood summer session ended were some of the worst days of Mari's life.

She'd been on Circe's island for five years. That was saying a lot.

She woke up. She had breakfast. She trained with her siblings. She had lunch. She missed Lee. She trained with the mist. She hung out with Drew. She had dinner. She missed Lee again. She played capture the flag (although the camp had taken up an unspoken tradition of avoiding Zeus's fist like a deadly plague). She went to the campfire, where nobody from her cabin could bring themselves to sing. Rinse and repeat. Mari didn't have a birthday but the anniversary of her escape from Circe came and went. She barely noticed other than a passing comment from Clarisse. She'd been free for a whole year. She hadn't even got to spend a year with Lee before he was dead. It didn't feel real. Just last winter, she'd felt slightly less broken by everything that had happened to her.

She felt broken again. Beyond repair.

Mari didn't see Adela again for the whole summer. The girl had slipped away back to the big house once the fighting was over, and hadn't returned.

Nico Di Angelo was another no-show. He snuck away from Camp sometime around the 4th of July, and nobody had seen him since. Will seemed particularly put out about that.

The camp bead that year was painted a metallic bronze, featuring a complicated maze pattern that shifted in the sunlight like paths changing on each-other. It was a miniature labyrinth. Mari had scarcely had time to hold her bead before Michael was snatching it out of her hand. He confiscated all of the cabins' beads, too. When he handed them out again, there was a light purple LF carved into the other side. Michael's hands had shook as he gave them back. They all pretended not to notice.

On the last day of the summer session, when everyone was scheduled to leave, Michael woke them all up early (sans Mari and Will, who were already awake and playing mythomagic on the bottom bunk - Mari was losing), and dragged them to the top of half-blood hill for a picnic. Early morning picnics had been a tradition of Lee's, but they hadn't done it since his death. Mari rubbed her eyes so she wouldn't cry again and grabbed her sketchbook and a couple of pencils. She still had to finish that drawing for her Dad.

Apollo! she'd begged as Lee bled out. Father, help him, please!

Mari's hands shook around her sketchbook. Maybe - maybe there was a reason. There had to be a reason. Please, gods, let there be a reason.

They made a pit-stop along the way.

"Why are we at the Hermes cabin?" Sean asked.

"Just give me a minute," Michael said. Then he kicked the door open, leaving the rest of them to wait awkwardly outside. Mari was pretty sure she knew why Michael was there, anyway. There were a couple sounds of outrage coming from inside the broken-down cabin, and a thump which sounded suspiciously like Mari's brother had tripped over a sleeping bag. After a couple of minutes, Michael emerged from the cabin. Miraculously, nobody had stolen his picnic basket, which was still in his left hand. With his other, Michael was dragging a half-asleep Casper Hillow along with him.

"Look who decided to join us," Michael said.

"'Decided'?" Casper yawned. "You're so lucky I love you."

It wasn't out-of-the ordinary. Michael used to drag Casper on their picnics when Lee was still alive, too.

They set up the picnic at the top of the hill, about five meters away from the treeline. Predictably, Casper dozed off with his head in Michael's lap after about half a minute, but Michael didn't seem to mind. Mari pulled out her sketchpad and started drawing.