Dear Reader [1]

05 - This Time We Blow Up A Train

"Can I ask you a question?" Percy sat up, looking at Corey seriously. "Of course" She answered with a mouth full of chicken nuggets. "Who's Elise? You snapped at Medusa when she mentioned her" He recalled the first time he had seen Corey angry, but it wasn't real anger. Corey choked down her food before taking a gulp of water. "Are you sure kid? 'Cause if I tell you, it's not gonna be pretty" Corey warned him.

Percy thought for a moment before nodding at her. Corey took a deep breath, "When I was your age, I pissed off Aphrodite so she cursed me. A mortal man took a liking to me. I hated it, my aunt not so much" Corey began to explain, watching as Percy soaked up whatever she said. "Elise was my daughter Percy. That's how it was like for me when I was your age" Corey knew the world had changed, she might not know how much but she knew.

Percy looked at her, unable to voice his thoughts. "What...What happened to her?" Percy managed to say, trying not to cause Corey to cry. "She died at five" Corey sniffled, crossing her arms. "Hera was angry that I, a child of a god, had a child out of wedlock and cursed my motherhood. Elise couldn't leave my side without having a tantrum, so I had to bring her on quests. She was killed by a monster" Corey elaborated, keeping details away from Percy the best she could without lying to his face.

She waited for his reaction, scared about his opinions about the worst and best things the fates had thrown her way. Percy stood up and left the booth. Corey was waiting for him to turn his nose like everyone else. What she didn't expect was Percy wrapping his arms around her as if she was gonna disappear at any second. She felt her heart climb to her throat as she let out a broken sob. Percy held onto her tighter, his head hidden in her shoulder.

In that moment Corey knew two things. One Percy Jackson was one of a kind in this world. Two, she will never let him go.

~Ψ~

"Hey, you asleep?" Percy whispered from his mattress on the floor. Grover took the top bunk, Annabeth on the bottom with Corey and Percy on the floor. Corey had gotten two mattresses from staff and placed them under the bottom bunk.. Corey had curled into a ball, sleeping soundly as she drooled a bit onto the pillow.

"Yes" Annabeth seemed annoyed but answered him nonetheless. "You and Thalia were really close, right?" Percy asked her, trying to collect his thoughts. "Yeah" Annabeth seemed more comfortable, knowing she could trust Percy. "What was she like?" Percy asked. "Why?" Annabeth furrowed her eyebrows. "She was the last forbidden kid before me, right? She must've dealt with the same kind of stuff" Percy explained his intentions, looking over at Corey for a moment. He thought about how the Gods seemed to hate her, what did she do to deserve all that.

"She was tough. I mean, she knew she was a forbidden kid, she just didn't care" Annabeth told him, looking up as she remembered her fallen friend, her sister. "When Luke and Thalia found me, Luke cared for me right away. But Thalia...she made me earn it" She told Percy. "Is that why you give me a hard time? I gotta earn it with you too?" Percy asked her, seeing how Annabeth treated him from the start. Annabeth sighed, "Yeah. Maybe" She admitted softly with a smile.

Percy thought back to what Medusa said about their parents, her words ran through his head "I gotta say, that doesn't make a lot of sense to me" Percy admitted out loud. "What doesn't make sense to you?" Annabeth asked him, curious to what he was referring to. "The way you guys all talk" Percy spoke out, not thinking before he spoke.

"The way the gods want us to think. Gotta burn an offering to get a parent's attention. Gotta beat up on Clarisse just to get my father to admit he's my father. It isn't supposed to work that way" He told Annabeth. "People who are close to you aren't supposed to treat you that way" Percy thought of his mother, who loved him no matter what he did.