I was grasping him with everything I had. My arms trembled as I tried to hold his wait and pull us both up.
Everything could've been perfect had I not been weak. Maybe had I been good enough, date would've let me keep him.
But since when did I get what I wanted.
"Nico," I stuttered, tears streaming down my face. "Please don't leave me,"
"I'll be back. I swear on the river styx,"
All I remember was the feeling when his hand slipped from mine. It felt like apart of me was going with him and I was about to jump after him.
Then I felt the arms grab me. The arms that pulled me back from the one place I wanted to go.
Why couldn't they have been here a minute earlier? Then Nico would be be stuck and hell. Then I could've had a chance.
But I knew why.
They saw him as a disease. To them there was no reason to save him. Every day I heard the same thing.
"There's no way you can fix someone like him,"
"You need someone better, he deserves someone worse?"
"That freak is going to ruin you,"
But I saw it the other way. I was just as broken as he was. I needed him just as much as he needed me.
They would ruin me. They would be the reason I would be broken.
And they were.
Without him, the loneliness came like a plague. Parts of me wished to die, and only half of my heart remained. I knew more pain was coming, but i didn't how much pain I would have
But I waited. Every day I went to the same place. Every day, I looked at the edge of the cliff, ready to jump but being stopped.
The seven had our up a barrier. I couldn't jump into it. I couldn't go to hell.
If only they knew I was living hell.
Hades would often stand next to me. I had met him twice before that day, once with Nico and once without.
He seemed happy his son was smiling, and I thought he would blame me when nico fell. But he didn't. If anything, he understood my pain better than anyone.
When I wasn't in the underworld, I would be locked in bunker nine. I rarely ate, and my skin became sickly pale.
For the first year, the seven—or I guess I could say six—would stop by the bunker. They tried to help me for a while, tried to get me to smile.
But I don't think they realized how much them trying to 'help' had broken me.
The only shred of the old Leo I had was in six words. The last six words nico had said, his last promise.
Everyday, his voice echoed in my head. "I'll be back," he had promised "I swear on the river Styx,"
I was starting to doubt if that promise would ever come true. Who knows how long it had been for him down there, who knows how much he must've changed.
A knock on the door startled me, and I growled a small "go away,"
My voice was hoarse from the lack of speaking I did. And it was dryer than it should've been, due to the fact I barely drank.
"Leo," a small voice said. Little Harley has grown up a bit more, he had hit puberty more, which hurt me. He had grown up while I was stuck in some other body. Some distant reality. Some nightmare. "He's here"
I knew what that meant. The promise. Nico was back.
Stumbling towards the door I ran towards half blood hill, not letting anything stop me until I could see him.
Nico didn't look like he spent the last five years in hell. His hair was neatly groomed back, and his dark brown eyes scanned the crowd.
For a moment he met my gaze and I tried to smile but he just gave a grim look and looked away.
"My name is Nico Di Angelo. I am the leader of the army of chaos, and I have come to help you win the war,"
Chiron asked a few questions but they seemed like they were underwater. This wasn't nico.
And if he meant his promise, than he would be back. All I had to do was find him. But I will find him, I swear on the river Styx.
