PRELUDE: ALL BY MYSELF 

( seven months before the lost hero ) 

✲*'。

Taste 

You could practically taste the coppery, iron tang of blood lingering in the air as her breaths became shallow. She was bleeding out, losing the will to survive as her lungs struggled to continue their only job; breathing. You could taste the salty tang of sweat as the sweat coursed down your back from when you had tried to drag her to safety before your body gave out on you. 

The first thing you could taste after her body was pried from your arms was the ambrosia Percy forced down your throat to keep you alive so you wouldn't join her. 

Smell 

The first scent you registered was the petrichor of the rain as droplets coursed down on you both, hiding the tears that were beginning to fall down your face. The rain was a perfect cover, disguising the tears that couldn't stop falling as you were finally beginning to realise that this was the end. You were losing her. She wasn't come back this time. This was the end; she had sacrificed herself so you can life on. Why? Why did she think that you could survive without her? 

As she took her final breath, you inhaled in desperately, trying to cling to the strawberry scent you associated with home. 

The second thing you noticed when your body was pried from her arms was Percy's sea salt scent. Instead of comforting you, it forced body shaking sobs from your body. Instead of his familiar scent, all you wanted was to smell the vanilla- strawberries one last time. 

Sound 

The first sound you noticed was her pained little whimpers, her sharp exhales and inhales as she desperately tried to calm herself down. You both knew she was going to die. It was inevitable. She was losing too much blood to believe otherwise. The droplets of rain splattering against the grass were the second thing you noticed. It was the heavens were mourning with you. 

Good. It was their fault she was dead. 

The first sound you noticed when Percy pried from your body was his erratic breathing, his quiet murmurs of uncertain assurances that everything would be okay. 

The thing is, it would never be okay again, not with her dead. 

Touch 

The first thing you noticed touching was her chest, desperately searching for a heart beat when her breathing stilled. You needed to find one. She couldn't have left you, not now, not ever. You needed her, you didn't think you could survive without her. She had been your rock for years, the one true person you could depend on. As her breaths stilled, your hands desperately traced her delicate cheekbones, her button nose, her soft skin, all the way to closing her still eyes. 

When you first met her when you were ten years old, the first thing you had done much to her surprise and glee was trace her facial features. Then you had wanted to familiarize yourself with her face, try your best to paint a photo with your lack of sight to be what she looked like. 

Now? Now all you wanted to do was to try and memorize her face for the last time. 

The first thing you became aware of when Percy pulled you into his arms was the gravity of the situation. She was no longer here. She was dead, leaving you alone in this cold, desolate world. 

Voice

The first voice you heard when you had been shoved away from the killing blow was hers. Her grunt of pain as you both landed, her quite whispers of reassurance as she told herself this was the end. She was trying to convince herself that this was okay!

This wasn't okay at all. She was going to leave you, after she promised she'd never leave. 

"Ezra look at me." Even with the slight wheeze to her voice, she still commanded your attention like she did so many others. 

"It's okay baby. It's okay to let me go." She wheezed out softly, her warm hand leaning up to caress your cheek. 

"Please don't leave me!" You had begged, clinging to her body tighter as the thought of losing her haunted your very being. You didn't think you could survive living in a world that she wasn't in. 

She was your everything; your friend, your mentor, your sister, hell she was even your mother figure. 

You couldn't lose her. Not now, not ever. 

"I don't want to life in a world that your not in!" You whimpered into her shoulder as her arms wrapped around your body. 

"I don't want to leave you sweet girl but I --- I have to," She spoke weakly, her enegry leaving her body by the second. 

"My ... pin .. take it Ezra." She wheezed, using her remaining strenth to pry the ornament from her hair and into her sisters hand. 

"I love you." You cried, burying your head into her hair as her breaths became shallower by the second. 

"And ... I ... you..." She breathed for the final second, her body slumping in your arms to where your cousin Hea would greet her. 

The first voice you heard after a long, long time was Percy's shouts of your name. The next voice you heard was Apollo's, his cries for Penelope to come back. The next you heard was you heard was your other cousins Annais, her voice finally bringing you back into reality as she gently carried you back to camp. 

Penelope Min was gone, leaving you all alone for the first time in six years....

✲*'。