anti hero - percy jackson ²

ix. night (and posse)

Dear Reader,
You are only haunted by the
things you refuse to accept
—

Cassandra can admit that she used to be afraid of the dark. The dark was when the nightmares plagued her mind. When the monsters came out. When lightning would flash outside her bedroom window.

But she'd left that behind. Now, she loved the dark. Now, she could realize that the dark hid the ugliness. The dark kept secrets locked inside.

The dark was wonderful.

You know who is not wonderful?

Nyx.

The goddess was forty feet tall and had black wings, a whip made of stars, and a shadowy chariot pulled by vampire horses.

She was almost too much for her to take in. Looming over the chasm, she was nothing but a churning figure of ash and smoke, as big as the Athena Parthenos statue, but alive. Her dress was void black, mixed with the colors of a space nebula, as if galaxies were being born in her bodice. Her face was difficult to see except the for the pinpoints of her eyes, which shone like quasars. When her wings beat, waves of darkness rolled over the cliffs, making Cassandra feel heavy and sleepy and her eyesight dim.

Her chariot was made of Stygian iron and pulled by two massive all black horses, besides for their pointed silver fangs. The beasts' legs floated in the abyss, turning from solid to smoke as they moved.

The horses snarled and bared their fangs at Cassandra. The goddess lashed her whip—a thin streak of stars like diamond barbs—and the horses reared back.

"No, Shade" the goddess said. "Down, Shadow. This little prize is not for you."

Cassandra eyed the horses as they nickered. She was still shrouded in Death Mist, which must've been working since Nyx didn't seem able to see her. She wished for Percy's ability to understand horses, but it didn't take much to guess what the horses wanted.

"You aren't going to let them eat me?" She questioned. "They seem like they...really want to eat me."

Nyx's quasar eyes burned. "Of course not. I would not let my horses eat you, and more than I would let Akhlys kill you. Such a fine prize, I will kill myself!"

What would Annabeth do?

"Oh, please don't kill yourself" She said, with fake concern. "I can't be that scary. I mean, I'm only a demigod."

The goddess lowered her whip. "What? No, I didn't mean—"

"Well, I'd surely hope not." Cassandra forced herself to laugh. "I wouldn't want to scare you or anything."

The vampire horses seemed confused. They reared and snorted and knocked their dark heads together. Nyx pulled back on the reins.

"Do you know who I am?" She demanded.

"Well, I'm assuming that you're Night" Cassandra said. "It's quite easy to tell because you're dark and everything. But the brochure didn't mention you much."

Nyx's eyes winked out for a moment. "What brochure?"

The blonde patted her pockets. "I had one somewhere...I know I did. Where is it?"

She sighed. "I can't find it. But that doesn't matter. My point is, I'm pretty sure that the brochure didn't say much about you because you weren't spotlighted on the tour. I got to see the River Cocytus, the Phlegethon, arai, the poison glade of Akhlys, and even some random Titans and giants. But Nyx? Hmm...no, you weren't featured."