Percy Jackson's Death Bed

The Rescue

Nico stood in a place where no souls dared to go. Not just anybody knew about this hidden region in the Underworld. He'd only remembered his sister Bianca tell him a story about it once when they were still unknown demi-gods wandering in the human world. Even so, he'd only had a faint memory of it.

Nico remembered walking together with her right outside Westover Hall. "Nico, have you ever heard of the Silent Hill?" Bianca asked him with a grin painted on her olive-skinned face. She tried to fix the position of the floppy green hat she always wore on her head.

Nico's eyebrows furrowed. "I don't really like that game..."

"No! Not the game, silly!" She exclaimed as she messed Nico's head of hair. "The one dad told us about once."

"Huh?" Nico looked at her curiously. "To be honest, I don't remember anything about silent hills." No matter how much Nico tried, the name just didn't ring a bell. For the gods' sake, he didn't even really know who his father was back then!

"Ah..." Bianca looked down, but still with a smile on her face. After a few seconds, Nico realized that it was actually as if she was talking to the ground. Or maybe to someone below that... "Ofcourse. You were still very young back then. Even I don't remember it that clearly. But, if I'm not mistaken, it's where all the lost bodies go."

"What?" Nico said, confused. He'd always thought that the dead either got buried or burned to ashes. That was it.

"When a body goes missing and nobody can find it, when people get buried into a destroyed building and don't get retrieved- Where do you think their bodies go? Like... Let's say, Amelia Earhart!" Bianca asked curiously as she moved her hands around to help support her query.

"I don't know," Nico shrugged. He was honestly clueless. "Maybe they rot? Also, why on Earth are you asking your little brother about this?"

Bianca laughed. "I heard a story once. Those bodies don't just disappear out of the blue. They go to a mysterious place in the Underworld where not even really old textbooks in the library have documents of- The Silent Hill, Nico. It's a dark place in the Underworld where no person has ever gone to before." For a moment, it seemed as if Bianca wasn't joking. The conversation didn't seem like a light friendly conversation between two siblings anymore. In fact, she seemed dead serious.

"Underworld?" Nico repeated. At first, the idea seemed silly. But, in some weird way that Nico didn't understand, he felt attached to it. He felt a peculiar feeling of longing when he heard the word. "Oh, so you believe in mythology now?" He mocked her.

Bianca smiled at him. "Hey," she said, not minding what her little brother just asked her. "That reminds me." Bianca reached for something in the inside of her jacket. Her hat and untied hair made it hard for Nico to see her face. "Here you go!" Bianca held up something in the air. She smiled slyly at Nico and gleamed her black eyes at him.

"Are those... cards?"

"Not just cards. Mythomagic cards." Nico's sister said, handing the pack to him. "I bought them in the store down at the corner. I found them pretty interesting and I thought that maybe you'd like them too."

Nico opened the pack and scanned the cards. He read some of the cards out loud. "Zeus, 600 damage per lightning bolt... Dionysus, 500 attack points... Hades, 4000 attack power-"

"Actually, it's 5000 attack power if your opponent attacks first." Bianca corrected. Nico smiled at her and hid the cards in his pocket. "Thanks, sis..."

And now, here he was. Nico di Angelo, with help form his dark powers, made it to the very infamous Silent Hill. The son of Hades could barely see anything in the darkness. The place had an eery aura to it. The thick fog that surrounded it gave him chills up and down his spine. For a moment, Nico di Angelo just stood there at the foot of the hill. From there he could see the top. But beyond that, on the other side of the hill, Nico only saw darkness. Suddenly, voices spoke to him.

"Why have you come here, young hero? What do you seek?" The voices asked in a loud chorus. Nico couldn't find out where the voices came from, but they seemed to come from every direction. He felt surrounded by lost spirits that he couldn't see. He was scared to the bones. But, he didn't show them- or whatever they were- that he was afraid. He still had a mission. He still had to save Percy.

"I am looking for the body of Perseus Jackson, Son of Poseidon," Nico yelled out. For a few seconds, what he just said repeated for about three times, echoing all throughout the hill. There was a moment of silence. Then, the voices spoke again.

"To reclaim a soul that has passed on

And give a body back its breath,

In exchange must be the sacrifice

Of a soul that has cheated death..." The voices chimed.

"Sheesh... They sound just like the Oracle of Delphi," Nico grunted.

He thought for a moment. A soul that has cheated death, he repeated in his mind over and over. There was atleast 5 seconds of deafening silence. Suddenly, di Angelo widened his eyes in realization. He remembered how he and Bianca stayed at the Lotus Hotel to be hidden from Zeus's wrath.

"But that's... that's me," he muttered to himself.

Nico looked up for any sign that he was correct. But, the voices didn't speak again. And it wasn't like someone was going to pop up and tell him what was the right and wrong thing to do. So, he simply had to follow his guts. Di Angelo climbed upwards to the top of the hill. From there, looking forward, all he saw was a big pool of nothingness. It was all pitch black. Although doubts were running around in his head, Nico took a deep breath.

"Percy," he said out loud. "I know you're out there... somewhere. Hazel's having a hard time keeping your mistform in check. And... I don't want to lose another one of my sisters because of your stupidity, okay? So, I guess it's about time I rescued you." Nico closed his eyes and prepared himself for the worst.

"Here goes..."

Then, he walked forward into the blackness.