The fluidity of the sea and its people (Khr X Pjo)

chapter 16

The last few days were like a dream. It felt too good to be true.

Every day she could wake up with a smile, the looming fear Gabe’s presence caused now a distant part of her past. His shadow still lurked on the rare rainy day, but she has never felt more at peace.

She had been willing to tough it out for as many years as necessary, there wasn’t much she wouldn’t do for her son. Percy, her darling son, the pearl of her sea; he was the most precious thing in her life, and if it meant staying with Gabe would keep him safe, she was willing to stay with him, no matter how much his utter existence disgusted her.  

But as soon as he laid his hands on her son, Sally knew he needed to leave from their lives.

She wasn’t stupid either, Sally knew her new neighbor and friend, Tsuyoshi, was more than what he said he was. Sally didn’t bother to pry, she knew the importance of keeping secrets, she had a few of her own she needed to keep hidden. Everyone had their own little secrets, and the subsequent lies that followed.

He was like Poseidon in a way, appearing out of nowhere, every bit of movement filled with a kind of lethal grace, but both their eyes were filled with so much love.

Her time in Montauk with Poseidon were times she would never forget. Her lover had so much love and kindness in his hands, but Sally knew it was those same hands that cursed Odysseus ten years of relentless torment and suffering. The sea would not be restraint, and Poseidon was the God of the sea. But during the moments they were together, Sally could almost pretend everything was fine.

 In relationships, both past ones and possible future ones, Sally found she gravitated towards men who gave her a sense of security. When she met Poseidon, he was the one thing she could rely on. And sure, Sally didn’t know at the time he was the Poseidon, but when they were together, she felt like a weight had left her shoulders, like as long as they were together, nothing bad could ever happen to her.

(It was sort of similar to how she felt around Tsuyoshi.)

When the truth of who Poseidon really is, and the prophecy surrounding any of his children were revealed to her, some of the security she had initially felt around him dissipated. But she carried on. And when she told Poseidon her suspicions about her being pregnant, nothing could have persuaded her otherwise from keeping her child.

Even with the possibility her child could be the child of the prophecy, Sally promised herself she would keep him safe.

Sally never realized how much pressure and stress she had placed on herself, until she had allowed herself to relax. And by the time she did, Sally would often wonder how much of her ‘good’ intentions had led to Percy hurting in some way.

 Gabe was an ambivalent decision she had made. She knew his scent would cloud Percy’s demigod scent, keeping him from harm, but at the same time it was because of her actions, Percy would experience harm no child ever should.

Tsuyoshi helped mitigate some of her fears, taking care of Percy so she could take on extra shifts, giving him a playmate, and protecting him, even if he didn’t know it. No one’s past was perfect, and no one who’s aura was as bloody as Tsuyoshi’s could even think about claiming a life of innocence. And judging by his somber moods that would sometimes arise, Sally could deduce that Tsuyoshi knew very well his life was far from clean.

The only think she doesn’t know is show much blood one would have to have spilt in order for their presence to become as grime ridden as his.

Most people would be apprehensive at the thought of leaving their child with a murderer, but Sally felt oddly at ease leaving Percy within Tsuyoshi’s care.