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Darkness penetrated his mind like a wave of shadows. He lay in sunken sleep; living in his unconscious thoughts. Drifting through his unwanted memories and nightmares. He was no longer in control of his mind, the slumber encasing him in a sense of lost and wandering. Dreams surfaced and sunk into the gloom, but Percy could never hold on long enough to let a single one stick in his mind.

Instead he drifted among the darkness, no longer experiencing any thought or sense. Almost as if his subconscious was on break.

He was heavily sinking in the warmth and depths of nothing. Like a blanket had muffled his sense of awareness, and than suddenly he found himself someplace different.

His home.

She stared at him, her face warm and etched with radiating beauty. Her eyes were gray, bursting with knowledge, her hands were clasped on his cheeks.

Later he wished that he remembered her touch. Later he wished he could remember the dream at all.

It wasn't real.

But the deeper he sank into her touch, the more it felt real.

The more he wished it wasn't.

She brushed her thumb softly across his cheek. Her golden hair falling lightly upon her shoulders like a halo. Her smile lit up his heart like a burning candle.

Than she opened her mouth to speak, a sudden urgency taking over her features.

"Kill me...please."

Her voice was hoarse, her eyes turning wild and full of pain. The image seemed to flicker slightly, Percy felt his heart mutating to darkness.

"Um-what?" His voice was hollow and empty. The image of her smile seemed to fade away to nothing, like he had imagined it.

He knew he did.

Her hands suddenly clung to his cheeks like claws, it no longer felt warm. It felt cold and distant.

"Percy...You have to listen to me. You have to kill me."

She searched his face...but whatever she was looking for wasn't there.

"You have to let me go-You have to kill me off. They won't let me enter."

Percy stared at her, emptiness erupting in his stomach. He reached out a shaking hand, longing to touch her. Longing to kiss her. But his hand slipped right through her image, like she wasn't really there.

She wasn't really there.

She clung to him more tightly; the pain and urgency growing in her eyes. She needed him to understand; he had to understand.

He didn't understand.

"You have to forget about about me. You have to-Percy...listen to me."

Percy could see the desperation in her eyes; he knew she needed him to listen. But he couldn't.... He didn't understand. All the time he had waited, praying, screaming at her to come back. She never replied.

Why now?

His eyes were overflowing with stinging tears. His face morphed in pain. He stared directly at her, but his gaze was distant.

"Why did you leave me?" His voice was barely a whisper. The weakness that laced his tone dug into her skin. Percy could barely process her voice filtering through his mind like an echo.

"Percy I'm sorry." Her voice broke as she brushed a piece of hair off his forehead. "I-l just need to to listen to me."

Percy stared at her.

It wasn't real.

"Stop trying to hold on to me, my soul is fading. They won't let me into the underworld until the piece of my soul that your holding onto, is let go. Kill me, please. If you don't; I'll be lost forever."

Tears burned his cheeks, the dream flickered. Her voice grew more urgent.

"Seaweed brain...p-please...I-I love y-"

The dream flickered to darkness.

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It was all his fault.

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He awoke to the low murmur of chatter. His vision was slurred and mutated by tears; he couldn't see anything but the blurry outlines of unrecognizable people around his bed. His body felt heavy and woozy.

He felt like he was about to vomit.

And than he did.

Into the face of his cousin.

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