(Wonderwall) Epilogue.

Evanescence. Chapter 1 - Begin Again.

"If I'm such a legend, then why am I so lonely? Let me tell you, legends are all very well if you've got somebody around who loves you."

~Judy Garland

Thank you, my friends, for your constant support. You mean everything to me, and I needed every word of the comment you sent me. On April 22nd, I was delusional. He did not love me, and I later found (in the summer) that he had cheated on me just about 18-20 times. Sexual assault and abuse were something I was so used to that I internalized it, as well as emotional manipulation and control. I mourn for my lost time more than anything. I am upset that I was content in my discomfort when all I should have done was run. Seriously, readers, do not let anyone treat you any less than you deserve.

If they do not treasure you, leave. Leave for better things and leave for happiness.

Now that's concluded, please get ready for the last update (at least, in terms of new content) for this story. This chapter is an epilogue of Wonderwall, but also a new beginning for Evanescence. I'm coming back for you all because I love you all. Thanks for being here.

As I weaved through the streets of New York, I reprimanded myself for not teleporting directly to Hermes'. Although it has been three years since I said my goodbyes to Annabeth, the city has still stayed more or less the same. The Time Square. The Central Park. The coffee shop. Gods damn it all.

It's like I could see our shadows in the past-when she did not know what exactly I am-a stupid immortal boy, running around alone perpetually, all for what? I don't know, and I do not really like to think about it, either.

These three years passed faster than I would like to admit. I told Poseidon I would postpone my remaining nine years of break, but he granted me three more decades instead. I understood what he was giving me a chance to do-to live out these years with Annabeth, and maybe, start a family or something in the future. I also know that he was sending me another message: that I was independent, old and experienced enough to make my own decisions for when and how I want to work. After what happened in the Titan War, I had gained respect not only from the other gods but most importantly, from my father.

But he did not understand what happened. Why I did not end up with her even I love her. You see, my father does not understand (or believe) that mortals should have their opinions and free will. If he wants a mortal woman, he gets her. But I'm different. I was not different before, but Annabeth meant something more to me. She changed me.

She was something more than just a girl(friend). I really loved her.

I thought about going back into her life and begging again but got back to my post in the end. Nothing like this will end well-and Annabeth already made it clear that she did not want to have a relationship if it meant that any harm to her directly translates into suffering into the world. Her death will destroy me, and in turn, the world, too. We both knew that.

I was not strong enough to separate my state of being from my emotions, and I paid dearly. I know I can go back and try to present a case where I was stronger than how I behaved three years ago, but the reality is that another part of me was scared of what my enemies can do to her still.

It was only a few mortal thugs that assaulted her that night, but I did not dare to think of what my myriad of immortal, godly, supernatural enemies can do to her instead. Humans are so fragile, but killing her would not even be a fraction of what the worst they can do to her.

She could be tortured, she could die suffering, but worst than anything else, her soul could be destroyed completely and her essence could be erased from existence. I don't want to exist in a world without her, and as childish that may sound, I'd want to fade with her. The world and all the tides (and everything and anything else I was in charge of) can go to hell.

But alas, I'm a god. Not as proud and arrogant of that anymore, but I can see the bigger picture. Obligations and all that. Gaea and the Titan fight. Three years past, and it doesn't ever get easier.

Poseidon shuts down my scrying bowl upon my request. It is better this way, but I worry nonetheless. Annabeth still sends her letters, though, to my surprise. Sometimes she writes about Seaweed Brain, the new fish she bought (I wasn't sure if I were supposed to be flattered or offended); sometimes she writes about school and architecture. It's mainly idle one-sided chit-chat-I never had the heart to actually reply after the first year. It's not like she's really acknowledged what I said.

The battles, errands, meetings, businesses, and everything else completely overwhelmed me, and I welcomed the inundated sensations. It keeps me sane.

As for the letters: well, Hermes delivers them to me, and I'm grateful for his help.

When I finally arrived in the biggest USPS center in New York, I hear someone call my name.

"Perseus!" I looked to my side and saw the twin snakes.

"Hey Martha, hey George." I greeted, ready to receive my letter this month.

"Good to see you, cousin." Hermes nodded, acknowledging me and handing me a letter.

I took it gingerly in my hand, nodded back, and left the door to go back into the city.

It's winter. It's funny how fast seasons cycle through each other, but I never realized their beauty until Annabeth was introduced into my life. I remember her putting the autumn leaves in my hair, and pushing me into a snow pile in Central Park. I remember so many things, but all I have left is a necklace on my neck, made by the twin sand dollar of the one I gave her.

She never called in the last three years.

Oddly, the letters still came, but I did not question them. It was her handwriting, neat and slender against white, standard printer paper. It looked like the ones that we would use to take from Goode's printers so that we could pass notes against each other in the hallways and with our lockers.

I was the most human I ever was with her, and that beautiful girl reduced me from a thousands-year-old god to an awkward teen boy. I miss her.

"Dear Percy," she started, as she sometimes does (other times she'd call me by some other weird nickname she'd invented. Strangely, her handwriting is quite uncharacteristically messy on this, a contrast to her usual neat ones.)

"I love you." I nearly doubled over at this, as she seldom tells me this in the letters, perhaps because she'd already decided to leave when she wrote this. This... This killed me inside.

"You know I love you? I feel like I'd never really said this enough to you. If you're reading this, I'm glad that you've stuck with my adventures for the last few years... I've always been thinking of you, wishing you well. I hope that by now you've already let me go. I'm a mortal girl and you're a god, but you're the best god there ever was. For as long as I exist, you have a place in my heart.

"You are a good person, Percy. I know, before you argue with me saying that you aren't exactly a person, I need you to know that you're the best damn person out there. But understand how things are, right? You know how rough everything is, but Percy, listen to me. There were more. There were things - inexplicable things - going on back then. I could not tell you and I cannot tell you. But maybe a long enough time has passed since.

"Now, you need to promise me something. You CANNOT even TRY to find out what I meant unless everything is absolutely resolved. By everything, I mean every conflict/war/battle that you can possibly imagine in the Greek/Roman universe. If things are truly calm, if they really, really are, then I would request something of you. Find me.

"I don't know where I will be by then, but find me. A."

My mind went completely blank at the end of the note, thousands of thoughts racing through my brain each second. I felt my other forms all stopping in shock, even the one in Atlantis holding court. I could barely control myself, but I held my mortal form together, gingerly folded the letter and put it in my pocket, and started pacing down New York in search for an answer.

I'm not stupid.

Annabeth said she didn't know where she will be, which is an awfully weird thing to say if she wrote these letters just days ago. Is this letter preplanned? Had she been in danger? I was tempted to go to Hermes, but she would not have made it so easy for me. Hermes could not know, either. She would not have him know where she is before me.

But there are so many things that are questionable. It's been two years since troubles with Gaea has been resolved, but I haven't heard from her all along. If she wanted to find me, (or vice versa) why didn't she mention anything? Why didn't she pray?

I channeled my powers to find her, and the corresponding sand dollar necklace, but I couldn't even feel her presence. What is happening? Why is the connection broken? My heart sank. She must have taken the necklace off - I know I should not be surprised (can you really expect anyone to carry a souvenir from an ex you had three years ago?! She probably already found someone else), but I was still upset. It never seemed that real she left me, and for me, three years passed in a blink of my eye. Three years was nothing to a god.

Panicking and horrified, I called Iris directly with my mental link and ordered her to find Annabeth for me via the Mist network. I did not even care to be polite, she could get mad at me later, but if she found Annabeth, I'd give her at least a hundred drachmas.

By some cosmic justice or sheer luck, she did find Annabeth because a demigod in the area had just tried to use the Mist earlier (and I guess she stores all the video footage or something because she remembered seeing Annabeth in one of the Mist conversation surveillances) and told me to head for Crema Cafe on the 8th street.

I didn't bother and just teleported, tripping over my own feet and with my brain completely scrambled, hope and love spilling over me. Gods, this is going to be amazing. I never even bothered trying to find another girl, for physical pleasure or otherwise, I just wanted Annabeth. She even asked to see me, I want to build her the biggest palace anyone has ever seen, even though she probably isn't into living in huge palaces.

I'll buy her all the Frank Lloyd Wright houses, and I'll love her better than I have ever had before. I want to bring her to Rhodes again, and then to our castle where we had our first dance. And I want to let her be proud of me for all the reading I had done, and how I've controlled my temper so well that no hurricanes or earthquakes or really, natural disasters of any sort that can be traced back to my powers even threatened to surface in the last three years.

Gods.

Oh gods.

Right before I stepped into the cafe, I ran through the lines again. She asked me to find her, right? There shouldn't be any kinds of trick - Hermes delivered the letter to me. Just like he had in any week. But just last week she was still being aloft, just casually mentioning about her life in college, and how a boy (I wanted to zap him) tried to hit on her.

Normal mortal things, like how she deserves to live (just as she wants to; drama free, gods free), but god, all those lines before hit me, so casually cruel in the name of being honest. But now, I'm gaining more and more suspicion. This last letter seems to be more genuine than any of them, yet it does not mention the fish or college or Sam in her math section. It asked me to go find her if everything is peaceful. And gods damn it, I'll do it if it's the last thing I do.

Crema Cafe has a regular atmosphere just like any other - I navigated myself through the tables to the back, looking for her frantically. She must be at one of the tables, right? Maybe she's reading a book, or sketching, or talking to a friend, or something...

I could barely hold my form together, eager and nervous in anticipation, turning my head around wishing that she did not leave this place just yet.

Just then, someone tapped me on the shoulder - I swerved around, annoyed, nearly losing my temper. Can't whoever wait? I'm in the middle of doing something very important. "Please just wait-"

I turned around, stopped, and took a step back in surprise.

There she was, three years older, fully an adult. She's twenty. Must be at least in her second year of college if her letters held true. She's just as beautiful as ever, gray eyes lighter than I remember, a casual smile on her lips.

A smudge of cocoa powder is right by her brow, but her hair is still curly and messy, held up by a blue hairband. She was wearing owl earrings, and an apron that said "Crema Cafe." I realized that she worked here.

"Can I help you, sir?" She asked, a smile tugging her lips.

A few years back we'd joke with each other, but for some reason, I don't think she is pretending to not know me. I don't think that unrecognition is fabricated and it's breaking my heart. I have no doubts that this is (was) my Annabeth. I am too familiar with her presence to think otherwise.

But she does not seem to be familiar with me at all. There is no trace that she is the same girl who had just wrote me a letter days ago asking me to find her.

"Annabeth?" I tested. "Wise Girl?"

"Yes, Annabeth." She looked at the name tag on her apron, "Good thing that you can read, I guess. But Wise Girl? I've never heard of that one before."

My heart broke.

Bonus: Find author "Tales After Dark," my alternate account for M rated materials. The only story there is a deleted scene (Seaside Encounters) from Evanescence that will never be posted due to its mature content. Percabeth.

Welcome to Evanescence, everyone. It has been in works for 3 years and it had been affectionately dubbed as Project E.

Remember what I said and do things that make you happy. Leave things or people who make you sad. In high school, I thought my ultimate goal is to go to a good college. Well, I'm at Harvard, but I had been miserable because of an abusive partner. So I left. I'm only finally recovering enough to come back regularly.

And folks? I can't wait for another ride with you. See you at Evanescence.