The Sun Without Stars Solangelo

The Return

Will's POV

After a month without a single news of Nico, Will was doing just fine.

By remaining in denial about Nico leaving him on his own accord and the whole "leaving his boyfriend in hell," Will found a new way to ease his despair–avoiding thinking about it entirely!

Not facing reality seemed like the only way he could hold it together before anything progressive came about.

Chiron kept the situation under wraps. No one in the camp other than Will or Dionysus knew about the situation's cause. However, whenever Chiron tried to get a hold of Will, the boy was conveniently nowhere to be found, as if consciously avoiding the centaur.

Three weeks after Will's departure, the snow hit Manhattan in full force. It was then that half-bloods began returning in a steady stream and all for the same reason: the monsters were getting rowdy.

Rowdy wasn't the right word; instead, it seemed as though they were looking for something but, because they consisted of mostly lower-grade monsters with minimal intelligence, they had decided to use the process of elimination. LITERALLY.

Will couldn't help but wonder if the recent increase in attacks had to do with a certain someone, but he immediately shut down the thought. There was no point getting his hopes up, he'd learned.

The influx of campers were mostly younger or non-fighting based campers to which the elimination had caused the most trifles. This meant that most of the younger Apollo kids who didn't specialize in archery were right back in their bunkers.

You just couldn't sing or heal your way out of a monster attack.

Whenever Will wasn't in the medical wing, organizing and reorganizing (repeatedly) the ointments and such and healing minor wounds, he would go to the archery classes. He was mediocre at the sport despite his lineage, but it did a good job distracting him. 

 Kayla had a good laugh at him, though. Will, of all people, try to shoot things? Hilarious! However, she, too, arrived with Austin after a particularly vicious harpy attack, so she didn't have room to judge.

Birds really are the worst.

Honestly, Will had worried most about those two coming back to camp because he knew that they would be the first to notice that something was off. As if on cue, when they first entered the cabin at 4 am in the morning, the first thing Austin said was "you look awful."

"Seriously? You're the one with chicken feathers up your shirt," Kayla chided.

"I think I also got some up my–" Kayla was quick to cut him off.

"Will, did anything happen here while we were gone? You go on some cute dates?" She was giddy despite the early hour.

"We broke up." Will didn't even know why those words left his mouth but, when they did, they provided a pretty good excuse. At least, he thought it did until Austin butted in.

"How?! You both were all lovey-dovey when we left! It was like no one could pull you two apart." When Will didn't react, Kayla got the message and clasped her hand over Austin's mouth, causing him to choke on a couple of stray chicken feathers.

They didn't talk about it again, although Will did catch Kayla and Austin exchanging glances when he reorganized the cabinets for the twelfth time.

It didn't help that he was plagued with the same nightmare every night like a broken record. It would almost always look the same as if it had been imprinted in his memory.

~

The air is suffocating, so smoggy that it is practically impossible to see his own feet. Will wants to call out a name. It's a name he knows as well as his own but, for some reason, he can't seem to remember it.

 It remains dormant in his chest so, while Will knows it is there, he just can't quite grasp it.

He can't hear screams, but he feels them. He feels them rippling from the soil beneath his feet and pulling him towards them like a magnet.

That's when Will sees It. But something is different about the creature.

The thing reminds him of a rabid animal. Something so far from what it once was; something cruel yet pitiful at the same time.

When it approaches, darkness clinging to it like a blanket and oozing from its limbs, its eyes glazed over, he can feel its everything: especially, its suffering.

When the monster meets his eyes, everything in Will is telling him to run but, even if he wanted to, his feet have sunk into the creature's murk like quicksand.

Will reaches out and caresses its jaw, amplifying the shrieks and, for some reason, no matter how much he tries to emit a glow as the darkness encases him, it never comes. It feels as though his entire being is being dragged into the creature.

That's when it bites.

~