The Sun Without Stars Solangelo

The Nightmare

Nico's POV

~

"I'm here Nico."

Will stood in front of him. Looking to Nico like a person would a diseased animal–pitiful.

"Why don't you come closer? You ruined my life because you couldn't get enough of my presence but now? You won't even greet me. Don't you...want me anymore?" Will's smile was eerie, and it made the hair along Nico's neck rise.

Will's body was lanky like a puppet's as he reached towards Nico's face.

"I can't. I won't. I'll go. I promise!" Nico stepped back, but he hadn't been prepared for his foot to fall through the floor, losing balance and falling.

THUD

He was back.

Back in Tartarus.

Nico searched his surroundings, which seemed to be oddly contorted as if he were looking at an aquarium tank.

Unless... he was the one in the glass prison.

He was back in the jar.

Nyx's figure formed itself on the other side from the murk, coiling her hair around her finger once again. From the pool at her feet, her beetles emerged, their mandibles clacking as they scaled the jar's exterior.

"Not again," Nico cried out. "Please not again!"

Nico screamed, but his voice was lost in the sound of buzzing. Their glistening bodies fell from the opening of the jar, clacking when they hit the bottom. Eventually, the incoming wave filled it, and he was buried beneath them, his chest constricted.

Nyx rested her hands on the other side of the glass, leaning forwards so that their eyes met. "Oh, Nico. I know you hunger for the darkness. You don't have to suffocate anymore. Just let them in."

Nico finally felt his vision blur and he gasped for oxygen, a surge of beetles entered his throat, clawing at him from the inside. He retched and clawed at his neck. When he saw that they wouldn't stop, he reached for his stygian iron blade and held it in front of his stomach, tears streaming down his cheeks.

It pierced through, pain erupting throughout his body.

He crumpled to the floor, his head falling onto something warm.

The scenery changed once again.

Nico was in pitch darkness, except for a dull glow emanating from the boy who sifted his fingers through Nico's wavy hair.

Will.

Nico wanted to push him away, but his body refused to cooperate.

"Nico. Your time comes soon. My father arrives on the day where he is no longer needed. On that day you will kill him, won't you?" Will's once soft blue ices were cold when he looked down to Nico, whose head rested on his lap.

"You must set your mother free. There is no other option. If you don't rid us of Apollo, her power will never return to her and you will consume everything with it," Will warned.