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The camp is particularly quiet and that sets off alarm bells in Piper’s brain that make up for the silence surrounding her. Grabbing her trusted Katoptris she slowly, cautiously makes her way out of the cabin. The ever-green fields spread out before her, looking undisturbed, but the quiet seems to get louder. Where is everybody? She checks the ridiculous Barbie watch Leo had bought her as a gag gift and frowns. It’s not meal time. The camp should be abuzz with activity, with people going to their various assigned camp duties. The panic increases, buzzes behind her skull, and all of a sudden she is sprinting towards the center of camp, the campfire, the dining hall, the great house. There is no-one.
Her breathing is hard as she stands in front of the great house doors and knocks frantically.
“Chiron? Mr D? Anyone?”
No reply.
She pulls Katoptris from her side and examines the shining blade, begging for something, anything that will show her what is going on. The only thing it reflects is the crease between her eyebrows and the grim line of her lips. Shit. She stumbles to the front steps of the house and collapses, head in her arms and shoulders shaking with fear. What is she going to do? How is she going to fix this? What is she even supposed to fix? Her panic borders on hysteria and it blocks out everything. All she can hear is the blood rushing in her ears. Her eyes refuse to open. She’s only half aware she’s hyperventilating. It is not a mystery then, when she doesn’t notice a being materialise before her.
“Why are you weeping daughter?” A voice like harps, and pianos sings at her.
Piper whips her head up to see the faces of her mother, changing every few seconds. Famous actors, iconic women, Jason, Annabeth, another lady Piper had seen at a mall and instantly fell in love with. The faces continue to shift and change but she is in too much shock to care.
“Mom?” She rubs her eyes, hoping she’s seeing something. It is never a good sign when any god shows up, especially her mother. “What are you doing here?”
“You summoned me, daughter,” The goddess smiles and Piper winces as it physically brightens the world.
“Where is everyone? Why am I alone? What happened?” A dam inside her breaks, hot tears streaking down her face.
“You’re not alone Piper.” That infernal smile is still on her face, “You have never been alone.”
She looks up, confused, incredulous, lost. “What are you talking about?”
“What are you planning daughter? Why do you feel so heartbroken?”
She glares at the goddess, “I’m heartbroken, Mother, because for some reason the entire camp has disappeared, all my friends have disappeared.”
Aphrodite considers her, head tilted, eyes calculating, and then she smiles again and it gives Piper a headache.”No little one that’s not it. There’s something else.”
The demigod growls in frustration and covers her face with her hands. “Please go away if you’re not going to be of any help.”
Her mother ignores her. How surprising. Possibilities run through her head at lightning speed, trying to figure out reasons and angles for this mass extinction. Every single one comes up blank. There is no way a monster killed everyone. This camp survived not one but two wars. Not even an army of monsters could wipe them out. Maybe someone was playing a trick on her. She pinches her arm. Nope she’s still here. Very much real. There is just nothing, and no-one and it is never-ending.
“OH MY!” Aphrodite squeals, clapping her hands as if she’s just won a trip to the stars. “You’re going to do it aren’t you? Well, I never Piper McLean.” She grins, “You’ve really surprised me with this.”
“Mom,” She growls, fed up with the goddess’ rambling, “What are you talking about.”
And completely on brand the goddess simply gives another of her neon smiles and says, “You best wake up now daughter. I think i’d like my week’s entertainment to begin.”
And then the demigod is screaming down a tunnel and jerking awake with her heart in her feet and her lungs in a knot. The faint smell of roses hits her and she knows whatever just happened it was not a dream. Quickly she scrambles out of bed, grabbing Katoptris from underneath and sprinting outside. The camp is a live and well and full of rushing demigods, harpies, and nymphs. She takes a deep breath and lets the sound of activity settle her panicked core.
“Pipes?” A familiar voice calls from somewhere. It takes everything in her not to cringe. Instead she takes another breath, this time for courage, and opens her eyes to see Jason Grace jogging towards her.
“You okay?” His brows knit in concern, and the little scar on his lip whitens as his mouth forms a hard line of worry.
“I- I’m good.”
“You sure? You seemed really scared. You burst out of the cabin like something was attacking you… or us.”
She puts on a pretty smile, one that most people fall over, “Promise, i’m all good. Do you want to take a walk to the strawberry fields?”
Jason stares at her for a second longer before nodding, almost to himself. “Shall we?” He holds out an elbow, like the gentleman he has always been.
She almost reaches out to take it, habit pulling at her muscles, but at the last second she steps away. “Uh, no don’t worry. I think i’m coming down with something and i dont want to pass it to you.” It is a flimsy excuse but her mind is still frazzled and she doesn’t have anything better.
They walk in silence for a while, taking in the world around them. The silence has never needed to be filled when they were together and although there are a million thoughts racing through every crevice of her mind, she is still comfortable. It’s a blessing. It’s going to make this a thousand times harder.
“Jase,” She says softly, and there must be something in her voice because his blue eyes flash and he stops in his tracks, turning to her.
“What’s wrong?”
So they’re doing this right here, right now. Okay, she had been preparing for weeks. Pulling an Annabeth with drawn out complicated plans and multiple backup plans just in case.
She takes a deep breath and looks directly at his golden face and lightning eyes. “I think we should break up.”
He blinks at her, blinks again. Stumbles back. “You want to what?”
“This isn’t working anymore Jason. Neither of us are happy.”
“No.” His voice is hard, “No. Do not speak for me. I thought this was working. I thought we were happy.”
She winces, “Jase we don’t even know each other. Not really. Our whole relationship is built on-” She is cut off abruptly as he looks at her, and she sees the soul behind his eyes cracking. It is a struggle to keep herself from splitting in half.
“I spent so long trying to figure out who I was and where I belonged, and the one place I felt myself was by your side.” And then he’s walking away, stumbling like his body is struggling to hold him up.
“Don’t you dare,” Piper starts, her voice soft; he freezes on the spot. “Don’t walk away from this.”
He whips around like she slapped him. “I am not the one walking away.”
It shoves a knife in her heart.
“And you know what the worst part about this is? It came out of nowhere. You didn’t even talk to me about it. We don’t even know if we could have tried to make it work.”
She doesn’t have anything to say, she has too much to say, nothing is coming out. He nods once. She makes a strangled noise. He walks away. She doesn’t say goodbye.
Piper Mclean sinks to the earthy ground of the strawberry fields and feels like her heart has a canyon sprinting through it. But there, rolling down the cracking walls is relief. And for this she cries harder.
‘I’m sorry Jase.”