Forced to Love

Eliza
Tears ran down my face so much I couldn't tell my tears from the water. I just couldn't do this anymore. His death was too much to bear. I did my best to hide the tears as I stepped out of the shower. I put on the only all black dress I owned, something I never did. Before, the dress was just there. It didn’t serve any purpose. To most funerals, I would wear a black and white patterned skirt and a deep blue top, but this funeral was different. I wrote down my speech so far on notecards that I knew that would prove useless when I gave my speech. Percy knocked on my door, and slid it open.
He walked up behind me and put his arm around me. “You ready?” he asked even though I could tell he already knew the answer.
“As ready as I’ll ever be.” I replied with a sigh allowing him to drag me away. We met Nico just outside of his cabin. He grabbed my hand and gave it a small squeeze for comfort. The last few stragglers trickled out of their cabins. Percy and Nico followed leaving me alone. Even though it was only for a few seconds, it allowed me to realize the full reality of the event I was about to attend. I took in a deep breath and strode in between the benches to stand by the fire hoping I didn’t look as distressed as I felt. “I must stay strong.” I whispered to myself.
“Leo Valdez,” I spoke into the wireless microphone that was attached to the collar of my dress. I let my voice echo for a bit before continuing. “His name is etched into our minds.” Even with my speech beginning, I could feel my ADHD kicking in. I wanted to pace. Normally, I would have, but, now, if I even shifted, I felt like I would collapse from sorrow. “To most of us, he was a jokester, someone who could laugh in the face of death. Someone you could go to if you needed someone to make you laugh. To others, he was a brilliant inventor. He could create anything out of stuff he had around him, even without his magic tool belt. He could create things worthy of Olympus. He deserved to be called a child of Hephaestus. I’m sure he made his father proud. All of us, I’m sure, looked up to him in one way or another. To most of us, he was a role model, the Savior of Olympus. He sacrificed his own life to save the world. He was a faithful friend. He would die to save his friends. He did.” I couldn’t hide the tears that slid silently down my cheeks. “Leo died saving me. He had been mad. He had rigged some chemicals to combine and explode, and kill him by exploding Bunker 9. I talked to him, and he talked out his feelings. He remembered his explosion at the last minute. He ran over to the other side of Bunker 9 trying to stop the explosion. He managed to keep ALL of the chemicals from mixing, but the explosion of the ones that did mix….” I tried, yet failed miserably, not to choke on my tears. I paused before I continued as more tears streaked my face. “sent him flying backward. The impact upon him hitting the floor shattered his ribs,” I choked on every word. “Killing him.” I choked some more. “His last thoughts were of friends. His last wish: ‘Say bye to Jason and Piper for me.’” My eyes scanned the crowd lingering on the crew of the Argo II who were all in tears, including Jason. “His last words and thoughts were of friends. If I were asked to give him a title I would not hesitate to say Leo the Selfless. He was always thinking of others, even when no one thought of him. We miss you, Leo Valdez.”
With this, I stepped away from the fire a bit. Two of Leo’s siblings picked up the flag. The front of the flag looked amazing. It was a charcoal gray material. The edges were a delicate flame design. In the very center of the banner, there was the symbol of Hephaestus: a flame design inside of a red triangle. In the bottom right corner, there was a carefully stitched outline of Festus. In the bottom left, a small picture of a girl in a pink blanket symbolizing Astrid. At the top of the banner was a stitching of the Argo II sailing over calm waters. It wasn’t the front that caught my attention, though. It was the back. On the back of the banner, where they thought no one would see it, were heartfelt messages. On the left was a crudely sewn infinity with the words ‘Live forever, Leo Valdez’ underneath it. On the left was something I had wanted to ask Leo myself. ‘You saved the world, Repair Boy,’ it read. ‘Why couldn't you save yourself?’ Underneath it was a carefully stitched earth.
I looked away unable to stop the tears. After the shroud had been burned, the crowd left, most of them crying. I found Nico. He didn’t say anything. He just put his arm around me and walked with me to the beach where we sat, him holding me as I cried. “Why did he die?’ I asked myself repetitively. Then, I did something I hadn’t done for real in a long time. I prayed to God.

Notes