Black Magic - Behind the Scenes, Pt. 1

• there are movies, they say. you do not believe them. you watch the movies. you shake your head. the movies do not exist.
• it is 2009, and percy jackson is sixteen. 2010, percy jackson is sixteen. 2011, he is sixteen. 2012, 2013, 2014, sixteen. he turned seventeen in the last book, they say. you do not believe them.
• “grover underwood,” someone whispers. it makes you feel happy, though you do not know why. you wonder if you knew him, once. you cannot remember.
• percy jackson will retire, he says. you ask when. he begins to laugh.
• this is the end, you tell yourself. but you do not believe in endings anymore. there are no endings, only more books.
• you are a child. you are a teenager. you are an adult. you wonder why you are still here. you look for the exit. there isn’t one.
• there are ten books about percy jackson. they should know him by now. you see a post calling him a lovable goofball, and begin to scream. you never stop.
• you want to make an annabeth edit. your computer begins downloading pictures of skinny blonde girls. i have enough, you scream. i don’t need anymore. but it doesn’t stop. it never stops. your computer crashes, but the blonde girls remain.
• hazel comes back. leo comes back. gwen comes back. you rush home, looking for silena and beckendorf and michael and lee and zoe and ethan and luke and bianca. you are met with an empty house and deafening silence.
• this is calypso, he says. you are confused. it is not calypso. he insists that it is calypso. you shake your head. you do not know who this angry, sassy woman is. it is not calypso.
• no one will read a book about characters being happy, he says. you look online. fanfiction, fan art, headcanons about characters being happy. you try to show them to him, but they slip through your fingers like water down a drain. there is only angst now.
• the seven are a family, everyone insists. you look for a passage where piper and percy talk to each other, and find nothing. you look for a passage where frank and leo forgive each other, and find nothing. you look for the passage where hazel and piper became friends, and find nothing. you do not understand.
• the book ends. you flip the pages, searching for the battle with gaea. you must have missed it. you flip more desperately, searching for a sentence about percy coming home. there is nothing, nothing, nothing.
• reyna and nico are side characters. no, minor characters. no, main characters. no, narrators. you do not know anymore.
• a new series is coming. you are filled with fear.