Chapter Text
Her mother always knew how to calm her. Every meltdown she had at the words of Gabe, or the endless fountain of tears that fell whenever the kids at school called her an ugly brute, Sally Jackson could solve with a simple hug, or a reassuring word, or a melodic hum. She loved listening to her mother singing. She remembered a time before Gabe Ugliano when every night her mother would soothe her to sleep with her favorite Beatles songs she inherited from her parents, long passed, or her favorite song from the Little Mermaid.
Now she would never hear that voice again. She tried to find someone to blame other than herself. It was not an easy task. Could she dump it on the parents that never came back from that flight one fateful day, leaving Sally in a world unknown all by herself? Maybe she could fault her great-uncle who, try as he may, was not able to care for young Sally either, sadly passing away shortly after her parents. She could of course blame her father, whoever he may be. But could she really blame the man she felt comfort from, despite his lack of presence? Even Sally said he would be here if he could, she thought him dead at sea. All Percy knew of him was a warm smile and a feeling of longing. That same feeling was now felt for Sally.
Percy took in her surroundings for what could be her final time. She crouched low in her closet, amongst the dresses and skirts and all the other clothes that came to die where she may any moment. Her face burned with tears and a slash on her arm gushed blood that stained every piece of fabric in the closet. She knew outside the folding doors of the closet lay a monster waiting to attack. Not one of the fabled monsters from the beloved bedtime stories her mom would tell her softly in the night, but one far worse, not representing glory but ruin. Gabe Ugliano lurked outside the relative safety of the closet. She heard him calling to her, voice ugly and ragged from the effort of destroying everything she had ever known. Her mother lay in a pool of crimson liquid on the tile floor of the small kitchen of the apartment. A gash the size of a pencil in her throat leaked a stream of blood that rivaled the rushing Hudson, a picture Percy was unsure would ever leave her impressionable mind (come to find out, it wouldn’t).
Gabe kicked the wooden door of her bedroom, shaking the whole apartment. “Get out here you little brat,” he dripped venom from his tongue, quiet enough that she was sure the scum of the apartment complex would either miss or ignore. She wasn’t quite sure how they had missed the bloodcurdling scream her mother had let out in death, Percy had it still ringing in her ears nearly an hour later, yet the police did not come knocking.
“If you don’t get out here right now, I’ll do much worse to you than your bitch of a mother, you little fag.”
Percy flinched, and somehow that was enough. Gabe Ugliano may not be anything more than a monster of humanity, yet he seemed to be a blood hound smelling the fear in the air, as he burst into the bedroom and broke in the door of the closet. Percy screamed at the sight of his ugly, far hand clutching the knife still coated in her mother’s blood.
The other hand snatched the frail arm of the still screaming child, a sound loud enough that not even the low life forms of the worst apartment complex in New York could ignore it. Gabe dragged her through the house, fracturing her wrist in the process, and swearing all the while.
He gnashed his yellow teeth at her as he turned to speak. “Listen here, boy,” which drew another flinch from Percy and a slap from Gabe. “You fucking freak. Why the hell can’t you be normal. Look what you made me do to your mother!” He grabbed her by the neck and smashed her face into the wet tile of the kitchen. Her pain tolerance was high from years of abuse, but the combination of the cut on her arm, the fractured wrist, and now-broken nose led to even more tears and more ire from Gabe.
“You think you can be something you're not. You think you can be the hero, just like your bitch-mom. That’s why I did this, and if you think you can be a fucking fairy, some queer, some fucking boy pretending to be a gi-” Gabe was interrupted by something unexpected, as the water in the kitchen sink rose up and flew down his throat.
Gabe’s hideous face was now red with anger and purple from choking on the filthy sink water as Percy stared in fear and disbelief. She didn’t know what was happening, but the sight of her mother’s cold body lying on the tile brought out an even deeper anger than Gabe’s insults. She felt a tug in her stomach, and all hell broke loose. The kitchen water had been fully ingested by Gabe and he charged at her with renewed vigor, but more liquids came to her aid. A wave came from down the hallway, blasting him into a wall and her away from peril. The feeling in her stomach continued as the milk in the fridge somehow blasted off the door and continued drowning Gabe. Every drop of liquid from his discarded beer cans rose up to punish him.
Gabe continued to fight back, and Percy felt a growing weariness that she could not fight off. He drew closer and closer and her injuries were at a critical point. The wave of liquids from around the house seemed at an end, and Percy didn’t really know what was happening with them anyway. When the monster finally reached her, raising the fat paw holding the kitchen knife into the air, another tug was felt, this time at a larger scale.
(A thousand miles away, Poseidon shuddered. He felt a disturbance in his domain that he hadn’t in nearly a millennium. What was going on?)
The hot, thick puddle of her own mother’s blood engulfed the man. It forced itself into every hole in his face, filling the room with sounds of choking and unimaginable horror, as the monster choked on the blood of the women he had murdered. Percy vomited out the meager contents of her stomach and felt seconds away from passing out. She was not really conscious mentally anymore, but instinct told her to pick up the discarded knife and hurt. Gabe was already dying, but the firm stab of the knife Percy unleashed confirmed the kill. Everything and everyone hit the cold tile of the room in a hard thud and wet plop, and for Percy the world went dark.
}-{
When she awoke she was inexplicably in the woods. The ground was cool and soft and wet with morning dew, meaning she was out for many hours. Sounds of insects and the rustling trees were unfamiliar but not unwelcome. Her mother and her were more of a beach family, never vacationing away from their favorite cabin at Montauk.
Thoughts of her mother brought a wave of despair. The events of the… well she wasn’t sure when it had occurred seeing as she was at least a few days away from her home on foot, but what had occurred was definitely fresh on her mind. She curled up on the soft moss of woods and cried for her mother. The process of lying down once again returned feeling to her body, noticing things were definitely off. Nothing major was wrong, which was the issue. When she had fallen asleep (rather unconscious she supposed), she had been in a bad state. Now the gash on her arm was not detectable other than a small white scar and her wrist and nose felt good as new. Her clothing was also new, not tainted with blood of her own and her mother (and Gabe, but did that monster even bleed?). She was wearing a modest outfit, a set of new blue jeans, a warm grey jacket, and some hiking boots. All of this information made her situation even more impossible to puzzle out.
She looked up to see that as she suspected it was indeed sunrise, with early morning rays painting her face and reflecting off her necklace. This caused pause. Since when did she have a necklace? Percy glanced down at her neck and spotted the item. It was her mother’s, the one with the small seashell that she had said was given by Percy’s father, but now it was also adorned with two other charms. The image of a small metal snake, inexplicably hot around her neck as she gripped it, sat next to a golden sun, which reflected the sunlight coming through the canopy above her. She removed the necklace and noticed a feeling of danger creep into her mind as she stared at it in her hands. She threw the jewelry a few feet away, but the feeling only worsened. She fell backwards onto her palms and quickly crawled toward it, still brightly reflecting the sun. As it returned to her person, she felt better. Placing it back around her neck she took in her surroundings.
The forest stretched was clearly thick, as she saw no signs of human life anywhere she turned. The sun was slowly climbing toward its apex and the sky was so clear that she even saw the visage of the moon in the sky. It brought her a sense of comfort, she often stared at the rock on their trips to Montauk, but then she blinked. She had seen the moon in the day anywhere near New York. Now that she was thinking, she didn’t even know of a forest anywhere near this size within miles of the city. Where the hell was she?
}-{
She had been walking for hours now, and grew hungry. Whoever had brought her here may have saved her from whatever hell awaited her after the death of her mother, but they were not so kind as to leave her a single morsel of food, or anything other than the clothes on her back really. Her endless hike didn’t guide her to her guardian angel either. Instead she was but a small girl wandering through an endless forest in search of a life that did not even exist anymore.
The place was quiet, which led to time to think. She was lost, very lost. Her mother was dead, gone forever. She was in a place she had never seen before and she knew in her gut she wasn’t in New York anymore, at least not near the city. Despite her situation, she felt safe in these woods, and even more so when she clutched the necklace. She walked for what felt like a whole year, but was closer to three hours as the sun showed (how could she tell what time it was, she wasn’t a girl scout?)
Percy reached a calm stream with a fallen log sitting nearby that offered the perfect resting place. She sat on the log, surprised by the lack of wet dew on it. The scene was calm, perfect really. She temporarily forgot about her struggles, and was even able to ignore the hunger in her belly and the rumbling of it.
She felt her eyelids flutter. What was a few more moments of sleep when she was already royally fucked?
Her nap plans were cut short by the feeling of something cold against the back of her head and the sudden realization that she was not alone.
“Don’t even dare move, boy.” The voice was soft and beautiful and yet it dripped with the same contempt Gabe’s had. The only movement was the small flinch the child let out and the removal of the arrow from the back of her head. Soft hands grabbed hers, but not without force. She felt her hands being bound by a rough rope, and her capture made herself known.
The girl in front of her (woman she corrected herself in her head, despite her only appearing around 16) was tan with beautiful dark hair that seemed to capture the essence of the night sky. She was lean looking yet Percy had felt the strength present when she had been bound. Her eyes were a beautiful brown as they pierced into her soul, searching for answers to questions that had yet to be asked. Percy felt an odd sense of comfort in her gaze despite her mind telling her to fight back and her eyes brimming with tears.
The girl frowned at her tears. “And what is the problem? I have yet to castrate thee. In fact I hast been kind so far if anything, boy.”
The tears spilled over at the word and she felt eyes look deeper into her. “Are you alright?” She checked over Percy head to toe, nudging her with her boot as if she were an animal. The girl scoffed at the whimper Percy let out when she ran her fingers through her hair, oddly reminiscent of Sally. “I suppose thou art quite cute, for a boy anyway.”
Percy sobbed. “ ‘M not a b-boy,” she was able to slur out through the tears.
The girl studied her even deeper now, brown eyes meeting deep blue. “Thou appears very male to I, yet it is strange… I detect no lie in thy speech.”
Percy tried to wipe the tears from her eyes, but remembered she was tied down. “Because I’m not lying!” She cried out. “I’m a girl.”
The girl laughed and let out a smile at the girl's outburst. “I suppose I shall believe thee. Thou does not appear as a threat at the moment. In fact, thou does not even give me the feeling that a male usually would in mine presence.”
Percy frowned in confusion.
“Ah, my mistake, thou does not know the ways of this world yet. Well know this bo-” she cut herself off and cleared her throat. “What is thy name child?”
She smiled. “I’m Percy, ma’am.”
The girl grinned back. “Such manners from one such as thyself, Percy. I am certain M’lady would be pleased to meet thy acquaintance.” She moved to untie the child. “As I was saying earlier, thou hast not yet learned the cruel ways of men.”
At this statement Percy teared up, remembering the face of Gabe hovering over her, of her mother’s body lying in the kitchen, of the sounds and smells of her last memory of the place she had known as home.
She felt a soft hand wipe the tears off her eyes. “What is wrong, child?” The girl was kneeling in front of her, one hand combing through her hair.
Percy choked out a response through the tears, comforted by the woman’s presence. “My mom, she- she’s dead.” The tears were flowing now. “This ma- monster took her from me. He would have done worse to me but something happened.”
The woman held her gently. “What happened child?”
Percy struggled to find words. “It’s like- well- uh…”
“Thou need not tell me now. Thou hast gone through much more than a girl your age should have to bear. I apologize for assuming thou unfamiliar with the cruelty of the world, thou know it better than most.”
Percy smiled up at the warm face of her savior. As they met eyes once again, both took in each other’s appearance more deeply. Percy saw the silver crown laced in the woman’s dark hair and reached to touch it. She was allowed to, but the other girl locked onto something else with a look of confusion. She took a hold of Percy’s necklace with a frown.
“Where did thee acquire this, child?”
Percy shook her head. “I don’t know. I just woke up with it.”
The women studied the space around them. “Where did thou sleep, Percy?”
“Uh, the ground?” She replied with a sheepish grin.
“Are’t thou alone?”
Percy nodded, which brought a scowl on the woman’s face. “How have thee survived alone out here?”
“I’ve only been out here for a few hours, or at least I think so. I just woke up here after…” She stopped as she felt the tears approach. The woman hugged her again.
“Come with me child. I can not allow thee to be at risk anymore. M’lady will know what to do,” and she reached for the necklace again. “And perhaps what this means,” she mumbled.
Percy ignored the last bit and instead asked, “What’s your name, miss?”
The dark haired woman smiled warmly and responded. “Zoë Nightshade, my little one.”