The Sun Without Stars Solangelo

The Deal

Nico's POV

Nico assumed that staying in hell would mean his dreams would go haywire but, for the first time in what seemed to be a millennia, he slept without a single disturbance.

Hypnos. 

Either way, he was thankful for the god. His only complaint was the buzzing in his ears.

"Will, would you stop prodding me," he murmured, swatting at his surroundings. "I'll get out of bed in a minute," he groaned.

Nico churned when the tapping on his back did not stop.

At last, awake, he came face-to-face with a single eye staring back at him quizzically.

"Where is Will?" Nico's voice felt desperate, but he wasn't in a state to care.

Will isn't here.

He abandoned you.

Leapt on the boat the first chance he got.

You'll always be alone with or without a jar.

 The memories came in like an unforgiving wave, leaving his mind muddled. The cliff, Nyx, and Will's horrified face.

Fully awakened, Nico gawked at the creature, its wolf-like paws clawing harmlessly at his shirt. Had the cacodemon just talked? That wasn't possible, considering it's maw hadn't budged. Instead, the words had reverberated through him like a one-way messaging system to his brain.

There was only so much strangeness he could take in one day (if it was a day, considering that you could not tell in Tartarus); he stood up and nudged the cacodemon with his foot like a dirty animal, causing it to screech frantically.

That was when he felt it or, for lack of better words, them.

Seeing it from afar without the mist  to conceal Nyx's abode was horrible beyond words.

Being in it? That was something he wouldn't wish upon his worst enemy.

The buzzing in his ears had not been from prior impact during the fighting. 

No, this was SO much worse. 

Beetles the size of rodents surrounded him, covering the bottom half of his body like a beaded blanket, clawing at his skin. On the walls around him, their heads focused on him, as if awaiting a cue, their mandibles clacking closed. He wasn't sure whether he was imagining it, but he could have sworn that the buzzing sounded like chorus of whispers.

Nico retched, his stomach convulsing violently. When he opened his mouth, neither words nor sound escaped.

Nico had never been too scared of bugs. Of course, Will would probably beg to differ considering that, one time (it was multiple times),  he found Nico standing atop a chair in his cabin screaming bloody murder because he'd encountered a spider.

Will.

Breaking from his stupor, he reached into the pool of beetles, their mandibles chewing at his arm, searching for his sword. When he caught sight of a dull glow, he grasped for the handle, thanking whatever unfortunate god down here that had answered his prayers.

He truly had not planned further than finding his sword. Was he supposed to become an exterminator? Could he even get rid of bugs with a massive knife? Either way, he felt he had to try.