gone girl.
━━━ chapter three

❀

The god of fire walked and Amaryllis followed. She was becoming increasingly nervous by the minute, especially because they were having a walk five minutes now and Hephaestus hadn't said a word yet.

"So. What did you want to talk about?" Amaryllis finally asked, tired of the excruciating waiting.

He grunted. "It's not my place to do this, you know. And before you get any ideas, I don't know anything other than what I'm about to say right now. But you are to leave the island."

Amaryllis looked at the man confused, her heart beating so fast that she almost couldn't hear herself. "I- I don't understand."

"You are free to leave the island, child. He said it's time."

"Who said?" she insisted. If she was being honest, she didn't believe him. It had to be some kind of sick trick. She looked around, half expecting an audience that was laughing at her.

"Ah. As I said, it's not my place to have this discussion with you. You have a choice - you can leave the island or stay." He stopped walking, grunting in pain, perhaps due to his leg injury. "Do you know how long you have been here for?"

She tried to calm herself, even though the intrusive thought of throwing rocks at the god until he told her everything would't leave her mind. She hoped he couldn't read minds. Then again, if he could, she'd probably be dead by now.

"Four years, I believe."

"So you're aware of what's happening in the outside world? I see," Hephaestus said. "Amaryllis Kalomiri, the choice you'll make will determine your fate, the path that you will follow." He held his hand up high to stop her from talking the moment she opened her mouth. "I can't tell you which choice is the right one. I suppose that is something that will be revealed later. All I can say is that... I sense you'll be quite important in the future."

"I can't say I understand, sir. Do you know why I was brought here? Why can I suddenly leave? I-"

"Your questions are valid. Yet, I cannot answer them," he started coughing and it reminded Amaryllis of her aunt Evaggelia, a smoker since the age of thirteen. "If it provides you any comfort, I can say that from my experience, secrets never stay hidden for too long."

She couldn't say that she appreciated how cryptic he was being, in fact it was infuriating that he was just standing there, talking her about her own life like it was nothing that important.

"And what about Calypso?" she finally found what to say. She crossed her arms in front of her chest, looking at Hephaestus with the audacity of a person who was sure that they couldn't be killed. "She's free too, I assume?"

"You assume wrong." He continued walking, now returning to the table where they left from. "Calypso is still serving her punishment."

"But that's so unfair!" she yelled at him, running behind him like a little child. "I can't- I can't just leave her alone!"

"Then don't leave the island," he replied, after muttering something in another language. She was pretty sure he called her annoying in Arabic or something.

"I can't not leave the island!"

"I told you you'd have to make a choice. I never told you it'd be easy." He made his way towards Percy and Calypso, who were talking with each other, every once in a while throwing a glance at the god and the girl. Hephaestus grunted. "Calypso. Beautiful as always. Would you excuse us, please, my dear? I need to have a word with our young Percy Jackson as well."

Ignoring Amaryllis, who was still behind him and demanded answers, he took Percy and made their way to the dinner table. Calypso held her hand, sensing that whatever they had talked about wasn't very easy to fathom.

"You seem a little pale. What did he say to you?" she asked Amaryllis.

"I don't really want to talk about that right now."

She seemed like she wanted to ask more, but instead she nodded. In a weird way, Amaryllis felt like she knew what Hephaestus told her, but that was impossible. "What do you want me to do to cheer you up?" Calypso asked, trying to appear as cheerful as she could. It was really sweet how she wanted to distract her from the news, but it still wasn't working. "Oh! I know. I'll make you a necklace!" she clapped her hands enthusiastically.

She looked at Hephaestus from afar, as he was sitting opposite to Percy, drinking a cold Pepsi. She wanted to scream at him.

What was she supposed to do? She dreamt of leaving the island ever since she was brought there. Sure, she didn't have a miserable time, but still, she missed her old life and wanted to return back to it more than anything. On the other hand, even the idea of telling Calypso that she was simply thinking about it, thinking about abandoning her like everyone else had, made her physically sick. Unlike the rest of the visitors, Amaryllis had grown attached to both Calypso and the island. She had taken care of her ever since she came to Ogygia at the age of twelve, she cared for her like an older sister and how would she repay the favour? By leaving?

"A necklace would be cool actually," she said, smiling at the older girl. Once again, she felt the need to start crying. She realised she did that a lot ever since that son of Poseidon came into her life.

The girls watched as the god erupted into a column of flame and left just like he appeared. Amaryllis stared at Percy, he looked conflicted as he looked into the view.

"He's going to leave," Calypso muttered, looking down. "I know that look. He misses his home."

Amaryllis selfishly wished he stayed, so she could leave knowing Calypso was not entirely alone. But he was the child of the Prophecy, the future of Olympus. He couldn't just abandon it all and he surely wouldn't. Both of the girls knew what his decision was already.

"Have you given him the offer yet?" Amaryllis asked. Calypso always ended up giving the heroes a chance to stay with her in Ogygia forever, becoming immortal in the process. So far no one had accepted it.

"No," she sighed. "I- I don't know if I will. But even if I do, now it's not the time." She started playing with her braid, a nervous habit of hers. "You know what, I'll start making your necklace. I have to find a crystal-"

She needed to make this necklace more for herself rather than Amaryllis. She needed a distraction, so she left and went to the beach, supposedly looking for a crystal but Amaryllis was pretty sure she'd start tearing up any minute now.

She didn't even realise Percy was approaching her until she heard his sigh. "What did Hephaestus tell you?" she immediately asked him, not caring if she was being nosy.

"Well, nothing important. Just that the explosion that I caused almost freed the most powerful Titan of all Titans and people got injured because of me. You know. Typical things."

He seemed ready to start punching stuff, which Amaryllis seemed to relate to. Despite him pretending to be nonchalant and calm about this, she could see how hard he clenched his jaw. She felt bad for him, until she remembered how much worse the decision she had to make was.

It was his turn to ask. "What did he tell you?"

Normally, she wouldn't tell him. They barely knew each other and it wasn't like they became friends or something like that. Yet she needed to talk to someone about it, or she'd literally go insane.

"Well. He told me I'm free to leave Ogygia if I want to." Just the thought of it made her nervously bite her lips so hard she was pretty sure there was blood now.

"Oh," he muttered. He seemed to immediately pick up on the reason why she was so conflicted and unenthusiastic. "That's great. For you, at least."

"Yeah."

"I'll be leaving too."

"I know."

He didn't seem to know what to say and Amaryllis didn't really blame him. He couldn't offer any advice, considering both options would hurt her. Strangely enough, just his presence was a bit comforting. At least there was someone who understood her, even a little bit. He understood how difficult that was for her and she could tell.

"Are you feeling better?" she tried changing the subject. "With your injuries, I mean."

Percy smiled in a way that she was sure he'd say something stupid. "Yeah, why? Are you planning on fighting me?" he joked.

She decided to go along with it, since she needed to distract herself. "It wouldn't be much of a fight. I'm pretty good with a sword," she smirked as she tilted her head, pretending to check out his form. "Shame I don't have one."

"You know, children of Apollo typically use a bow and an arrow," he said, but before she could answer he took a pen out of his pocket and threw it to her. The moment Amaryllis caught it, it turned into a shimmering bronze sword with a double-edged blade.

"Ανακλυσμός," she read its name. She looked at Percy, who seemed to be quite impressed by her reflexes. "Μιλάς ελληνικά;" she asked him.

Most demigods' brains were hardwired to understand Greek, especially ancient Greek, so Amaryllis would often speak in her native language. The truth was she was a bit scared that she'd forget it, because it was the only thing she had left of her mother and her old life, as strange as that sounded.

He shrugged. "A little. I read and I understand it better than I speak it."

Amaryllis started spinning his sword fast. She was glad to see that she could still handle a weapon as comfortably as she used to, though it did help that she practiced a lot with a wooden sword during her time on the island. Of course, Riptide was a bit heavier, but she could get used to it. She used to have her own sword back in Camp and for a moment, she wondered whether they had kept it or thrown it away.

"Okay, I get it. You haven't lost your form," Percy said, though he looked amused.

"That's right," she said as she threw the sword back at him. He caught it with the same ease she had. "I kind of missed fighting, if I'm being honest. And Capture the Flag games. You're still having those, right?"

He nodded and although she could feel that she was going down a dangerous road, she kept going. "Ha! Is Annabeth still as competitive as she used to be? You know, during one game she had completely disarmed a son of Ares, who was, like, sixteen. We were ten at the time. It was the coolest thing ever."

"That sounds like Annabeth indeed," Percy chuckled.

"How is she?" Amaryllis finally asked. She couldn't ignore the pain in her chest when she thought of her old best friend. Nostalgia really was a bitch.

"She's, uh, fine. I mean she's not dealing with Luke's betrayal very well, but other than that, she's great."

She could understand why. She remembered that Annie always had a soft spot for the older son of Hermes, he was probably the person she looked up to the most. Him turning out to be the villain couldn't have been easy for her, for anyone in the Camp. Luke was the kind of person that everyone liked and relied on. Amaryllis adored him when she was younger, especially after he was the one who taught her how to fight. Everything she knew was thanks to him.

"It seems like you also knew him pretty well," Percy commented, though he sounded quite annoyed about it.

"We weren't that close, but yeah," she muttered, finally realising what she'd return to if she left the island. There was a war brewing and although she didn't plan on fighting in it, she still felt a bit stressed about it. People would die, that was how wars worked. She thought that Ares would be having the time of his life if the war wasn't also affecting him.

"Look, I obviously can't tell you what to do. But I think you should come back with me," Percy said and when he finally realized how that sounded, it was too late for him to take it back. "Uh, not with me like- I didn't mean it like that, I just-"

"I get it," she interrupted his stumbling over his words. "I- I'll have to think about it. Give me until the daybreak, okay?"

He nodded. "Okay. I need to talk with Calypso too."

That wouldn't go well.

❀

After a while, she walked to the gardens. Amaryllis knew Percy had already talked with Calypso by the fact that she found the Titaness with swollen eyes that indicated she had been crying for quite some time. Her first instinct was to go hug her, although that just broke her heart even more. She got down to her level and held her as the older girl broke down once again.

"I don't know why it hurts so much," she managed to say through her tears. "I- I knew he wasn't going to stay. They... they never do."

Amaryllis didn't say anything for a while. She held her until she calmed down, wiped her face and took a big breath. "Do you feel better now?" she asked and the other girl nodded.

"Yes, thank you. I'm sorry, did you want to tell me something?"

The timing couldn't have been worse and she was well aware of that, but she had to tell her. It would never be the right time to announce something like that. "Yeah. It has to do with what Hephaestus told me," she started. She had been practicing how she'd say it, but now her mind was completely blank and she was just improvising. "He, uh, told me I'm free. I can leave the island now."

She almost winced at Calypso's expression, she was going through the five stages of grief in flashes of seconds. "I- I don't understand. How can that be?" she asked, voice small. "Did he explain why you got here in the first place?"

"No. Hephaestus told me it's not his place to tell me." She hadn't realised she was fidgeting her fingers until she saw Calypso look at her hand. That was the moment when it dawned on her that Amaryllis had already taken the decision. "Look, I-"

"You're going to leave, aren't you?"

It was the hardest thing Amaryllis had ever done, but she nodded.

"I should have known," Calypso's voice was cracking. "I was always wondering how the Fates had let me have some actual company. Now I see that it was just temporary. It's probably really funny to them. Just... just another person who'd eventually abandon me. But now it's even worse. You're- you're like-"

By the time she broke down, Amaryllis was already there. She couldn't stop her tears from falling as she heard the desperation, the heartbreak in Calypso's voice, but at the same time she was frozen into one place. She wanted to hug her, to do something, anything, but she couldn't move.

"I have to leave, C. I need to go back to my family," was all that she could say as she watched her get up.

"I thought we were family!" Calypso yelled.

It was the first time she had ever yelled at her, the first time Amaryllis ever saw her angry. Though it wasn't pure anger, it was just... disappointment, which was somehow even worse.

"What do you want me to do, C?" she somehow found the strength to scream back at her. "I can't stay here forever! I'm not freaking immortal like you are!"

"You could be!"

Amaryllis shook her head. "I don't want to be! I miss my mother, my old life. You, of all people, should understand how exhausting is to stay here!"

"You're just like all the others," she replied coldly and it was probably the most hurtful thing she could say at that moment. "I should have known," she muttered and took something off her neck, before throwing it in front of Amaryllis' legs. "Here's your necklace! Have fun."

She stormed off, leaving the blonde wiping furiously her eyes. She pressed her lips together as she got down and took the necklace in her hands. A crystal at the shape of a heart and a rope around it. The crystal was almost cracked by the force in which she threw it down, but it was still good. Amaryllis wore it around her neck.

Even if Calypso hated her now, she still wanted something to remember her by. It was final now – she'd go home.

❀

She found Percy sitting alone by the beach. Both of them had barely gotten any sleep, presumably for different reasons and it was obvious by the dark circles under their eyes. It was dawn now, the rising sun cast a rosy hue across the morning sky as Amaryllis sat down next to him.

He must have noticed her puffy eyes, but he didn't say comment on it. "Have you decided on what you'll do?"

"I'm coming with you."

"Calypso said she'd come to say goodbye," he said. She was surprised to see that he looked sad that he wouldn't be able to see her one last time. Amaryllis couldn't help but wonder if he had caught feelings for her, like she had for him, but she didn't want to ask.

"And I intend to keep my promise," they heard a voice and both of them turned their head in the direction of Calypso approaching them. She looked much calmer than the last time the girls talked, like she had accepted her fate.

The demigods stood up as she approached them. Amaryllis was very nervous now – she didn't want their last word to be them fighting. She already felt guilty enough.

A raft appeared in the water, seemingly from nowhere. It didn't look like it would be very seaworthy, or even lakeworthy. Two people would barely fit in it. "This will take you wherever you desire," Calypso promised. "It is quite safe," she added, like she had read their minds.

Percy took her hand, but she let it slip out of his. "Maybe I can visit you," he said.

She shook her head. "No man ever finds Ogygia twice, Percy. When you leave, I will never see you again." A little trace of her smile returned. "Plant a garden in Manhattan for me, will you?"

Amaryllis didn't know where that came from, but it was obvious the two had bonded quite a lot since Percy came on the island. "I promise," he nodded and although he seemed like he wanted to say more, he didn't.

Calypso turned her head towards Amaryllis and her eyes immediately went to the necklace around her neck. She thought she would comment something snarky about it, considering he was quite mad the last time they spoke, but instead she wrapped her arms around the shorter girl.

"I'm sorry for my behaviour," she said as they were hugging. "I was wrong to lash out on you. You're right. Keeping you here would be unfair. It's my punishment after all."

When they broke the hug, Amaryllis felt herself tear up again. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. As long as you remember me, I'll be happy." She touched the necklace. "I'm glad you kept it."

"C?"

"Yeah?"

"I swear on the river Styx that I'll find a way to free you."

She chuckled when both Percy and Calypso gasped. "Stupid girl," she scolded her with wide eyes. "Do you understand what you just did?"

Making an oath by the river Styx was a huge deal and Amaryllis was fully aware of it. Not fulfilling the oath would lead to a fate worse than death, according to the stories. "Yeah. I said what I said," she smiled.

They hugged again, this time so tight that she was pretty sure her ribs should be bruised by the time they let go.

When both Percy and Amaryllis stepped onto the raft, it immediately began to sail from the shore. She couldn't help but stare back at the figure that waved at them, until the island of Ogygia was lost in the mist.

"Camp Half Blood," Percy's voice interrupted her thoughts. "Sail us home."

𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐒.

▊what's life without a bit of angst? and yea, as you've probably guessed, the calypso storyline will be different than canon. first of all, as much as i love calypso and leo, i don't really ship them. so i decided that calypso will be saved by the power of female friendship and platonic, not romantic love 💅

▊oh and also please don't ship calypso and amaryllis because they met when amaryllis was twelve and also calypso is like 4000 years old... it's a bit icky. their relationship is purely platonic!! we need more platonic female friendships in media ngl. amaryllis is still a bicon though <3

▊also me everytime i write amaryllis and percy interacting:

❛ gone girl. ❜
( part 𝒐𝒏𝒆 of gone girl series )
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