❝𝙎𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙥𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙙 𝙖 𝙝𝙞𝙜𝙝-𝙛𝙞𝙫𝙚❞ 𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙢𝙞𝙡𝙚𝙙 - ❝𝙮𝙚𝙖, 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙖𝙘𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙖 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙞𝙧❞ 𝙨𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙙
In which Melanie carries a heavy burden. She holds it up like a crown on her head. She...
Melanie was honest with you. She was having fun. The first two seconds. In those seconds she had felt free. Released from the shackles of this world. There was only her....and Percy Jackson. But she didn't think it was a bad thing at that moment. She raced towards the river with him. Wind ripped the breath from their lungs. Steeples and skyscrapers and bridges tumbled in and out of her vision. Melanie couldn't scream anymore. It was as if the King of Heaven had personally taken her voice away. She narrowed her eyes and clung to Percy. He hugged her tightly, afraid she would slip out of his arms at any moment and be thrown away. Her father would kill him. Percy agreed that it was best never to tell Dionysus about this incident.
If we were to be completely honest, Percy's thoughts weren't exactly good. In contrast to reliving his most beautiful moments in speed gear, his only thought was: AHHHHHHHH!
And Melanie's was. WUHUUUUUU oh wait- this is not right - AHHHHHHHHH! And then: Flaaa-booooom!
A whiteout of bubbles. Air was forced from her lungs. Both sank through the mud, Melanie clinging to Percy tighter, sure she would drown at any time. She held her breath and closed her eyes tightly. Nothing could be heard except for the sinking of both their bodies.
Percy, however, was the first to notice that something was wrong. The water didn't hurt. On the contrary, it even seemed to welcome him. It closed around Melanie and him like a hug and they both slowly sank to the bottom.
Bubbles tricking up through their fingers. Percy felt Melanies grip loosen around him. He quickly grabbed her hand and pulled her close to him so that she wouldn't be pulled away by the stream of water. Her eyes closed tightly and her breath still held, she entwined her fingers with him. And that was the moment when Percy realized that Melanie Wyney couldn't swim. Dionysus' daughter could not swim. If she could, she would have tried it long ago. Both now reached the ground silently. Water surrounded them, earth was stirred up and swarmed around their feet like mist. A catfish the size of Percy's stepfather lurched away into the gloom.
Clouds of silt and disgusting garbage—beer bottles, old shoes, plastic bags—swirled up all around them.
At that point, Percy realized a few things: first, both of them had not been flattened into a pancake. They hadn't been barbecued. Percy couldn't even feel the Chimera poison boiling in his veins anymore. They were alive, which was good. Meant Mr. D wouldn't strangle him with vines since he had let his only daughter drown.
