gone girl.
━━━ chapter thirty

❀

Chaos. Discord. Strife.

Deena was nowhere to be seen. Everything around them turned to black and they could only see that they were still in the throne room if they squinted their eyes and tried really hard to focus. It was all dark, like the five of them were standing in the middle of an eternal void. Amaryllis felt her mind blur, any kind of rational thinking disappearing. She hadn't even realised that she had drawn her two swords until she saw that everyone else also did. Her thoughts were venomous and anger had taken over her entire mind.

Those weren't her friends. She hated them.

Apparently, everyone seemed as confused as she was. Percy, who had previously helped Annabeth get up, now looked like a cornered animal. He drew Riptide and swang it around like a mad man, trying to get the rest away from him.

"No!" he screamed in agony. "No, you're not here! You're dead! You're. Not. Real!"

Grover brought his pipe to his lips and started playing a song. It gave Amaryllis chills, but not in a good way-it was slow and scary, like a war hymn. The satyr's eyes had turned gold, similar to how Luke's looked like when he was still possessed by Kronos. She looked around and she realised that all of her friends had the same golden eyes. Something was wrong, but she couldn't understand what it was.

Too scared to attract any attention to herself, Amaryllis took a few steps away from them, until her back hit a wall. She turned around to face it and she let out a shriek when she saw herself through a mirror. She had golden eyes herself and a scar identical to Luke's. Behind her was a pile of bodies and a pool of blood reaching her shoes.

"It's you who killed them," she heard Annabeth's voice. Amaryllis looked around frantically, but now she was all alone and she couldn't see anything but black. She heard a scream and it sounded awfully a lot like Percy, but it was far away from her, almost as if she was inside a dream.

"Percy?" she yelled. She still felt anger towards him; A part of her believed that she should leave him to die. Percy, Annabeth, Grover-they were nothing. They didn't understand her, they only wanted the worse for her. She didn't just want them dead, she needed to be the one to kill them.

And yet, the other part of her called out his name concerned. "Percy! Where are you?"

"Kill them," she heard Grover whisper in her ear. It immediately changed to Percy. "Aren't you tired of fighting for your murderers?"

"W-What do you mean?" Amaryllis asked the void.

She heard footsteps running towards her way. Out of the shadows appeared Annabeth. Wielding a dagger-that looked much different than hers-the daughter of Athena attacked Amaryllis. She managed to dodge it successfully, but Annabeth didn't give up. Her eyes were still gold; she looked at her with such hatred that it felt almost hypnotizing. Amaryllis managed to knock the weapon out of the girl's hand and it landed next to her leg.

The dagger was indeed not Annabeth's. It was black, as dark as her surroundings. There was something special about it, something godly. Amaryllis had a flashback of one of her dreams; the knife was Ethan's. She had watched him stab Annabeth with it during his attempt to kill Amaryllis. It was the same weapon he was wielding when he coincidentally found her mortal point, her Achilles heel.

But if there was one thing Amaryllis had learned, it was that there was nothing coincidental in a war like that.

"It's you," she said. Annabeth sweeped her off her feet and threw her in the ground, getting the dagger back into her hands. For a split second, the Mist disappeared and Amaryllis saw who really was behind the illusion-Deena. Then it was Annabeth again. "I know who you are."

"You, of all people, shouldn't be fighting for the gods, Amaryllis Kalomiri," Deena said, using her friend's voice. "You have met their cruelty. You should be on our side."

"I- No. I would have never."

It was a lie. There had been many moments when she thought that if things had gone differently, if she had never disappeared in Ogygia, Luke would most likely be successful in manipulating her to join him. Amaryllis never liked the gods. The gods never seemed to like her either.

"Do you really think that there will be peace after the war ends?" Her voice is mocking, laced with pity. Amaryllis wants to scream, to use her powers to suck the life out of her, but she's useless-so tired and wounded that she can barely hold her swords right. "No. The gods, your gods, have no mercy. They need you. They'll use you as their puppet until you become nothing. Until you become like them; you'll forget your promises, just like they will forget about theirs. Do you really want to die for them?"

"Shut up!" Amaryllis screamed. Her voice was becoming louder and louder, echoing in her head and giving her a headache. She's trying to create as much chaos as possible, she reminded herself, but it was really hard to ignore her words.

"They don't care about any of you. If they did, they wouldn't have manipulated you into fighting their battles," Deena continued. "You and your friends will die and the world will keep on turning. You won't be around forever, Kalomiri. You know what will be? Chaos."

"You've already lost!" Amaryllis managed to let out.

The enemy smiled. It caused the girl to wonder if there was a universe in which Deena Smith turned out good.

"I know," she said. "But if I must go down, I'm taking you all four with me."

Annabeth disappeared and Deena seemed to take Percy's form. He raised Riptide and brought it down with such force that if it had hit her, her head would have been split in half. She managed to roll away, but Katara was far from her reach and she couldn't take her hand from her wound, as she was trying to apply pressure.

Percy Jackson would be her executioner and she would let him.

Once again, he brought his sword down to her. The movement only lasted seconds, but it was enough for Amaryllis to think of all the people she lost. She would see them again, very soon. As a daughter of Hades, she could sense when death was approaching; Amaryllis knew she was going to die.

But then, she opened her eyes again. Percy was still in front of her, still stabbing and slashing her with his sword, but it just seemed to go right through her body. He wasn't even touching her-he couldn't. Her heart froze. That wasn't Deena.

Still shaking, Amaryllis looked around. The moment she realised it was all part of an illusion, she was able to see right through it. She was back at the throne room-though, she supposed they never really left. Her friends were there and she could no longer feel anything but love towards them. Whatever powers Deena's mother, Eris, granted her could no longer work for her.

All of her friends were still part of the illusion. She saw Grover cowering at the corner, trying to keep something away from him. Annabeth looked like a walking corpse as she screamed at no one in particular to leave her alone-her eyes were haunted, gods only knew what she was seeing. And then there was Percy, waving Riptide around as if he was attacking the illusion of someone. His breathing was heavy; the exhaustion of fighting and leading a war had finally caught up to him.

When Amaryllis saw Deena creeping up behind him, Ethan's dark dagger in her hands, she wanted to yell at him, but no sound came from her throat. Deena seemed to be targeting his head; and yet, as if the weapon was guiding her instead of her guiding it, she changed its direction. The small of his back. His mortal point.

Amaryllis had once promised herself that she would never allow Percy to die.

And she didn't.

❀

Suddenly the darkness dissolved and Percy could finally see again. The human form attacking him turned into thin air. It was never there in the first place. Amaryllis was never trying to kill him.

He looked around to make sure all of his friends were okay but all he saw was a terrified Annabeth screaming in agony. Grover rushed next to her, his eyes so wide that one would think he saw a ghost. Percy turned around and immediately wished he had never done it.

He saw Deena, pulling a dagger out of Amaryllis' heart.

"NO!" he wailed. The body of his best friend fell into him and he caught her, bringing him as close to him as possible. It's still part of the illusion, he tried to convince himself. It's not real. It's not real. It's not real. It's not-

Even Deena looked surprised by what she did. The dagger fell out of her hands, as if it had completed its mission, but Percy couldn't keep his eyes off Amaryllis. He heard Annabeth and Grover crawl next to them as he laid her on the ground.

"Her mortal point. The heart," Annabeth muttered and Percy remembered the myth of Achilles. He had bathed in the River Styx, making him invincible and immortal, just like them. But a simple arrow hitting his heel was enough to kill him. At the end of the day, nothing really mattered.

Deena was about to kill him when Amaryllis jumped and took the hit instead of him. The dagger found her Achilles' heel; according to everything Percy had learned, she wouldn't survive.

But it was Amaryllis. She had to.

Her head rested in Grover's lap. She opened her mouth to talk, but she coughed out blood. Annabeth cut off a piece of her Camp t-shirt under her armor and wrapped it around the girl's ribs to stop the blood loss on the other wound, but her expression betrayed that she knew it was pointless.

"Pray to your gods, Percy Jackson," Deena mocked him. "See if they'll listen."

"She will be okay," he heard himself say, holding back a sob. It's not real. "You, on the other hand..."

Percy could literally feel his rage surging through his veins. He saw red-he didn't even put effort into grabbing Riptide and attacking. His moves were quicker than ever before. He managed to disarm the demigod into seconds and the tip of his sword was pointing at her chest.

"Kill me then," Deena said. She tried her hardest to look cool, but her lips trembling betrayed her.

"How did you know where to stab?" Percy yelled at her. Her smirk enraged him even more and he applied a bit of pressure to his blade, until it went through her flesh. "HOW?"

"Ethan's dagger," she explained. "A deal with his mother-an eye for a... special weapon."

"Percy..." he heard Amaryllis' weak voice call him.

Nothing about Deena Smith's death should be merciful after what she did. And yet, Percy gifted her with a quick, painless one.

He didn't even look at the girl's lifeless body as she fell down. He ran next to Amaryllis, falling to his knees. She didn't look alive-her skin was ghostly pale and her breathing became more and more hitched, as if she was holding on life just so she could speak to him one last time.

"Stay with me, Golden Girl," Percy whispered. He grabbed her hand and blew on it-it kept getting colder and colder and he was getting desperate. With his other hand, he kept wiping the tears off his eyes. He couldn't afford to stop looking at her. "Hey. Hey, look at me. S-Stay with me, okay? You'll be fine."

"It-" She was clearly struggling to speak, but if there was one thing about Amaryllis, it was that she was a fighter. "It's okay," she managed to finally say.

Nothing about this is okay, he wanted to yell.

And then she did something that broke his heart even more-she smiled at them. That was how she wanted to be remembered, apparently. Percy would have never forgotten her smile either way. Even while she was dying, her smile was the prettiest thing Percy had ever seen.

Next to her, Annabeth started sobbing. Percy frantically searched for her pulse, but he couldn't find anything. Nothing about the scream he left was human-he was an angry animal trapped in agony. The sound bounced off every surface around him and left his ears ringing with a dull pain. The earth below them started shaking, until debris started falling from above. He was causing an earthquake, but he didn't really care. The war was over, but not for him.

How could he possibly be interested in a world without Amaryllis Kalomiri?

Someone wrapped their arms around him; it was Annabeth. She was whispering things to his ear, words that should be comforting, though nothing could heal his broken spirit. Eventually he managed to control the sudden surge of power and stop the earthquake; the only reason being he was scared of hurting her. Her body was right in front of him and as Grover gently closed her eyes, Percy couldn't help but wonder if she had ever noticed how starstruck he was by her dark brown eyes. It was his favourite color-he'd never love it again.

He moved closer to her, hugging her desperately, touching his forehead with hers, as if these simple little acts of love that he was too scared to show her before would bring her back. "Come back to me," he begged. "Please, Mar. P-Please."

He heard footsteps approaching, but his eyes were glued on her.

"Where's... where's my sister?"

Nico's voice caught him off guard. Three years ago-they were at Camp Half-Blood then, standing at the dining pavilion when Percy delivered the news of Bianca's death. And now he was about to do it again. Bianca and Amaryllis; both sacrificing themselves to save him. He was starting to wonder what was so damn important about him anyway.

Nico approached them slowly. He looked beaten up, but it was nothing compared to the sadness in his eyes. He fell to his knees, fists clenched as if he was fighting the urge to kill Percy right there. And then he took a breath. "Is Kronos...?"

Grover nodded. "He's gone."

His expression didn't change at all. The son of Hades simply touched the amulet Amaryllis was wearing around her neck, like it was his anchor. When Percy had first seen the crystal amulet, he thought it was a gift from Jake Mason and that it simply meant a lot to her. The truth was that he had never seen her without wearing it and the thought that it was a gift from Nico only made him feel more rotten.

More people started to walk up the stairs. When Will Solace saw Amaryllis' lifeless body in the middle of the throne room, he reacted the exact same way you'd expect a broken thirteen year old who had just lost half of his siblings to react. Percy was lost in all of the mourning that he had almost forgotten how much the girl meant to other people as well.

And she died to save him. Maybe Luke turned out to be the hero of the Prophecy, but Amaryllis still sacrificed herself for Percy. The Fates were cruel; Percy was starting to think that maybe Deena, as psychotic as she was, had a point.

He wasn't sure how long it had passed; it really felt like time froze when Amaryllis died and he doubted that it would ever unfreeze for him.

Suddenly, Will turned to Nico like he just had a moment of clarity. His face was puffy and tear-stained, but somehow there was still hope in his eyes. "Can you shadow travel?" he asked the son of Hades.

"What?"

"I need you to shadow travel," he said, his tone assertive just like he was in the Infirmary. "Can you do that?"

Nico stared at him dumbfounded. "I- I think so. Yes. But-"

"Take us to the Camp right now," Will said. "I'll..." he glanced at his sister. "I'll explain later."

The two boys disappeared inside a shadow. Time passed, but it was a blur. They came back almost immediately, with Will clutching a small bottle filled with gold liquid in his hand. He didn't waste no time before running next to them.

Instinctively, Percy moved protectively in front of Amaryllis. "What is that, Will?"

Will glared at him. "Step aside, Jackson."

One would think that it would be impossible for Percy to feel intimidated by someone like William Solace and yet, he did as he was told, though hesitantly.

"A week ago, I found this in my first aids kit," the blonde explained. "It's not mine. I have never seen anything like this before. A-And I can't really explain it, but I just know it's something a god sent me, most likely my father."

"It could be anything," Annabeth said.

"Or it could be exactly what we need," Will said and then sighed. "I have to try. We have... we have nothing more to lose."

Percy looked at Nico, who nodded in agreement. Then he turned back to Will. "Do whatever you need to do."

Will looked sick as he took the cork out of the bottle and opened Amaryllis' bloodied mouth. Then he poured it all inside, repeating prayers to the Fates. For a while, nothing happened and Percy couldn't believe he had actually gotten his hope up for something like that.

Until Nico's red eyes widened. "Something happened," he said. "There's, um... I don't know how to explain this."

Annabeth immediately looked for a pulse. She put her ear next to Amaryllis' neck and when she raised her head again, there were tears in her eyes. "I- Her heart is... it's beating. That's impossible..."

Percy bit his lip to fight back a sob. He did something he didn't think he would be doing any time soon-he prayed. His hands were shaking so bad that he truly believed it was a miracle he could even do anything. Please bring her back to me. I can't let her die for me.

Percy couldn't exactly identify the specific moment when he realised he was in love with Amaryllis. It was most likely a bunch of moments weaved together. He fell in love with the small things she did-she always reminded him to water the plants at his house, she spent an entire night basically teaching him how to dance while in the refrigerator light, she seemed to know the words to every song ever made and she nervously bit her bottom lip when she tried to hold back from saying something mean. She had this really weird fear of butterflies that he always made fun of, she liked to spend time cooking with his mother and she always got a bit too competitive when playing classic board games. The colour blue was literally made for her-he had given her one of his hoodies, hoping that she would wear it when he was around just so he could admire her.

And she had this annoying habit of insisting that, for some reason, his life was more worthy of hers. It's almost as if she never thought of how impossible it would be for him to move on from her. To live without her.

He closed his eyes and prayed once more.

𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐒.

▊percyllis nation... how are we feeling?

(i promise you there is a reason why mar died and it wasn't just for the dramatic effect)