Tartarus.

A place where fear envelops every fiber of your being, you have no safe place to hide, you're always being hunted, and no matter what you have to keep pushing through.

The memories of Tartarus torture Percy Jackson every single day.

Sure, Annabeth Chase fell in with him, and they pushed through together, but somebody had to close the Doors of Death from the inside, and Percy Jackson was left on his own in the deepest pit of Hell.

Annabeth healed.

While Percy was in Tartarus, she found comfort in Nico di Angelo, and he slowly but surely helped her heal.

Percy never did.

When Percy finally escaped Tartarus, he had changed.

His eyes were haunted, his skin was a sickly pale, a grin never made an appearance on his face, he never spoke, and he seemed to be lost in another world all the time.

Of course, finding out that his girlfriend cheated on him with his cousin didn't help.

But somehow, Percy Jackson still managed to defeat the Giants and Mother Earth herself, defeating the formers with only the help of a god and the latter singlehandedly.

You would think he would show a glimmer of pride and joy that the war was finally over, but he showed no emotion.

He was practically a walking corpse.

New campers wondered how he was ever the greatest hero.

Younger campers wondered how somebody could be so sad and empty all the time.

His old friends wondered if he would ever heal.

It was scary, watching the hero wither away.

But it was terrifying to wake up every night, hearing him scream in agony.

It came to the point where Percy believed he was a monster.

He was terrified to look in a mirror and see the monster that he had become.

Slowly, the Campers realized that there was no hope.

Their hero was beyond saving.

Oh, he knew it too.

He knew he would never be the way he used to be.

He knew that he would't get better, he would only get worse.

So all he could do was bitterly laugh at himself, stare at the monster in the mirror, and continue to wither away.

Yes, another short one-shot I wrote in the middle of the night. I know it wasn't very good, but I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for reading (:

Until next time! ~NikiD1233