Prompt #003 - Endings

Prompt # 003 – Endings

Truth
Time Frame: Beginning of The Last Olympian
Pairing: None

**

“ ‘Tell me a story...’
‘What kind of story, child?’
‘A story with a happy ending.’
‘There's no such thing in all the world.’
‘As a happy ending?’
‘As an ending.’ ”

- Lighthouse Keeping By: Jeanette Winterson

**

Nico understands the meaning of an ending.

Being the son of the god of death, you understand death…you appreciate it. That doesn’t mean Nico isn’t afraid to die—oh, he is. Thirteen years is much too short. It just means that he isn’t afraid of death itself; the dark taboo that has been placed around the concept in others' minds does not cloud Nico’s perceptions. He understands the ebb and flow of life, that endings are necessary.

And for this knowledge—the non-rejection of death in life—he is forced into the life he is now living. He’s the “Goth” kid, the death kid, the one that throws Happy Meals into graves. He is the kid who survived the Labyrinth, he is the kid who has tremendous and terrible power. He is that kid that dresses in black and is never at camp and doesn’t belong there anyway.

And it is because of these things, brought on by his bloodline and understanding, that Nico is an outsider.

Because everyone is scared of what he stands for.

But it is not dark, it is not evil, it is not wrong, Nico knows. Death is natural, and even beautiful in its own way. The end is not indeed an end, but essentially just another beginning.

Death and life are one. Every ending is just another door opening. It is not good, it is not evil: there are no sides in life and death.

There is only balance.

There are no true endings.

~fin~