WARNING
SENSITIVE CONTENT AHEAD. IF YOU CANNOT DEAL WITH THE THOUGHT OF DEATH, PLEASE STOP NOW.
OTHERWISE, GOOD LUCK.
Two days later in a much cleaner hotel in Arizona, Nico’s POV
Why is he out here? I thought to myself as I cleaved through another monster, breathing hard as I tried to make my way to the blonde head of hair nearby. He should be back in the medic tents, not out here…
He was waving down some of the Apollo kids, trying to get their attention as he used his bow to keep the monsters away from the wounded body at his feet. He spotted me, smiling and waving as he called my name.
Just a few yards more… I smiled some to myself as I tried to clear the monsters that stood between me and him. In the back of my mind, I knew what was about to happen, but I couldn’t clearly remember it until the sickening sound reached my ears.
I looked up, watching as Will fell to his knees, blood gushing from an arrow wound in his chest. I heard as I yelled his name, I could see myself cutting through monsters, I could see the Apollo kids in the distance, trying to reach us, but all that I could actually recognize was the pain in my own chest as I desperately slashed through the monsters. They suddenly dispersed, and I fell to my own knees in front of Will, catching him as he fell forward.
“Keep living, Death Boy…” I heard a whisper against me. I could feel a warm feeling go through me as Will’s magic healed my wounds, something that I wished so badly I could do right now as the blood gathered on my hands. I heard sobs leave my mouth as the world slowly turned black…
I gasped for breath as I woke up, the cold room greeting me well. I closed my eyes again tightly, covering my head as the images taunted me. The blonde hair, the bright smile, they were all gone now, only to be replaced by fake people, those that resemble his looks yet weren’t him…
I laid there, gasping for breath as I forced the images back as much as possible, trying to come to my senses. I must have fallen asleep on accident. I was still on a quest with two numbskulls that have no clue what they are doing. I was in a nice hotel room, the bed feeling soft underneath me. My breathing was slowing, a good sign. I let out a deep breath, slowly opening my eyes as I looked around.
Light peeked through the curtains, landing on the two sleeping girls. At least while they’re sleeping, they aren’t quite as annoying. I got up, opening the small refrigerator and grabbing the soda I had left in it last night, downing the rest as I peeked outside. We were bound to reach San Francisco by the end of the day, where I hadn’t been since the war. Who knows who will still be there…
A buzzing in my pocket broke me out of my thoughts. I pulled out the flip-phone, seeing “Leo” on the screen. Sighing, I flipped it open, hitting answer.
“Hey man! How’s the quest thing going?!” I jumped, nearly dropping the phone.
“I just woke up, I do not need you yelling in my ear this early in the morning after dealing with two smiles all day.” I scowled at him, going out the backside of the room and sitting on the porch.
“Good to hear! Hey, you haven’t forgotten about my job offer, right? Leo’s Repair Shop will be up and running soon!” He chirped through the phone.
“Yeah, yeah I know. I told you, I’m considering it, but I have a lot on my mind right now.”
“Come on dude, you’ve had a lot on your mind for the past three years! Open up already will-” The voice was cut off as I slammed the end call button, throwing the phone at the concrete wall and curling up on the chair. Like he had a clue about what happened. Like he really understood what’s going on in my mind…
I heard a yell in the room, and I quickly turned to see Lia’s sitting up, eyes wide open as she slowly took a breath in. Seems like I wasn’t the only one that had some troubling nightmares. I turned back to the sunrise, watching the city bustle with life. Something I sure wish I didn’t have.
“Mornin’.” I heard the door opened, a loud yawn coming from the awakened female as she leaned against the wall, red hair a mess on top of her head.
“Hi.” I responded, slowly letting go of my legs as I leaned back in the seat.
“Oh, a ‘Hi’, that’s new.” She glanced back at me with a smile, picking up my phone and throwing it back to me “Does that mean we’re friends now?”
“Not even close, Lightbulb.” I scoffed, catching the phone and shoving it in my pocket.
“Oh, even a nickname?” She smirked as I scowled at her “So, tell me ‘bout these people we’re meeting. Do you know any of them?”
“A few. Haven’t seen them for a few years though, so I don’t know who’s still alive.”
“You say that like dying is a regular thing.” She raised an eyebrow at me.
“Oh, trust me, it is. People die all the time after all. Demigods more often than others. All the monsters trying to hunt us down and such.”
“Sheesh, well aren’t you just all doom and gloom?” She leaned her back against the wall. “You’ll get wrinkles if you scowl so much, you know.”
He used to say that… I glared at her more, getting up. “Come on. We have a big day ahead of us, so hurry up.” I could feel the shocked expression watching me, but I didn’t have enough energy to care. I just wanted this quest to be over with.
~~~ Poor guy needs a hug ~~~
When I imagined how Camp Jupiter would look, I thought it’d be in a much more developed state than I last saw it. So I was very shocked to see that the only development was rebuilding to only a portion of what it had been before.
After dropping off our weapons and getting some directions from Terminus, who was as grumpy as ever, I headed off down the street, the other two not realizing I had stayed with them while they asked the god questions until a few moments later.
“Hey, wait up!” Lia called as they jogged to catch up. “We don’t even know who we’re going to meet!”
“An old friend of mine.” I responded simply, walking up the steps to a new looking house. At least it still looked similar to their old house. I knocked on the door, hearing a “One minute!” followed by some stomping around and the ceasement of some voices, most likely a show.
“Who in the name of the gods needs me on my off da-” The door opened as a slightly taller women looked at me, eyes widening as she scanned me up and down. Before I realized what was happening, I felt a sharp pain in my stomach.
“You stop by with your blonde headed boyfriend before going back to that other camp again, an entire war happens, and then you don’t bother to visit again for three years! Do you realized how worried I was Di Angelo! You better have a good explanation for this!” Reyna yelled at me.
“Will… Won’t be visiting again… Ever…” I coughed out, the memories of last night’s memories coming back. I looked up, seeing Reyna’s face drop as she glanced at the other members as well.
“Oh… Well all of you, come in, I’ll make you all some tea. You and I have a lot to catch up on Di Angelo.”
~~~ Remember kids: Punching people is never a good way to greet someone ~~~
“Well, I suppose that it makes sense why you didn’t visit for a while.” Reyna sipped on her tea, looking at me from across the table. The two girls were sitting on either side of us, listening without talking for once.
“Seems like a lot happened here too. Want to explain?” I asked, stirring my own tea around absentmindedly.
“Well, that Perfection guy or whoever he is didn’t just attack you guys. Huge armies were attacking here for days before whatever it was that made the monsters all disappear. We couldn’t keep up, and by the time it was all over, we had a huge amount of casualties…” She sighed, looking down at her tea. “Many good people died in that war. I hope we can finally catch a break now.”
I nodded. “Well, it’s good that at least you survived that then. Do you know of any others that may have survived that I would know?” She took a sharp inhale in.
“I…” She gritted her teeth, her face turning to one of pure sadness as she got up. “I need to get something.” She walked up some nearby stairs, silence falling over the group until she came back, carefully holding two jars. My heart dropped as I realized what had happened.
Neither Hazel nor Frank had been returning my calls since the war. I thought they were just busy…
“I’m so sorry, Nico… I’m sure Pluto made sure that they went on to a good place. They both-”
“Enough.” I cut her off, getting up. “I need some air. Just put them with my stuff.” I quickly walked out of the house, accidentally slamming the door behind me. Shoving my hands in my pockets, I walked down the street, forgetting to look around as my thoughts attacked me.
They’re all dead. You couldn’t protect any of them. You couldn’t even be bothered to know about their deaths until three years later. I kicked a rock in front of me in anger, walking down another street. And another. And another. I finally sat down in a bench, pulling out a knife and playing with it some.
“It isn’t your fault you know.” A voice startled me out of my thoughts, and I turned to see some kid-shaped figure wearing a hoodie sitting on the bench that faced opposite of mine. He leaned back, red eyes boring into me. “Lots of people died that day. That’s just the order of things. People die, people are born, life moves on.”
I glared at him. “What do you even think you’re talking about, kid?”
“Oh, you know, when someone is muttering to themselves about how it’s their fault people died, it’s pretty obvious what happened.” I felt my eyes widen before I scowled at him, turning back to the knife.
“Who even are you? I’ve never seen you around before.” I muttered.
“Oh, no, you have.” The boy chuckled. “You just don’t know who I am is all.” The boy stood up, turning and smiling at me. “Try to move on though, ‘kay? The people who died wouldn’t want you to be so upset. They would want you to move on. That is the order of life after all.” And with that, the kid turned and walked on, whistling until he turned a corner and disappeared. I scoffed, turning back to the knife. What did some kid know about my life anyways?
Though maybe the kid did have a point. If I had tried to talk to people sooner, I would have learned about what happened to Hazel and Frank sooner…
~~~
I'm sorry. I didn't even know why I wrote this until after I did other than for the angst. Oops.