EgyptAdbydos: I read this cute ghost story the other day after finishing the fourth book of Percy Jackson. So I don't know how Hades treats Nico but in this story he's a good father, I mean it is his only living child left. So, yeah anyways this about Nico asking his father to read him a ghost bedtime story, this is Nico's pov.
I sat on my bed in my black pajamas looking down at a ghost story book I got sometime before I came down to the underworld to train and be with my father, like I told Percy I don't belong with the living. But here in the Underworld I feel like I belong but my father's wife is not so happy about finding out about me her stepson. My father just ignored her when she accused him of cheating and should kill me.
When she said that I felt the room temperature drop and I was pulled away by a guard to my room right when they started to yell at one another. I sighed I wasn't going to sleep soon; I felt unwanted my father didn't come to get me for dinner another guard did that. Dinner was quite nobody talk to anyone but I like it that way.
But in an odd way I wanted to get to know my father, I wanted to bond with him but he's a god they don't talk to us Demigods unless they want us to do something for them. I heard the door creak open and my father was standing in the doorway looking at me. Had he heard me sigh out loud? Do gods even sleep? I don't know but I looked up to see his eyes, they looked like the always look black and emotionless.
"I heard you crying and I came to see why." He said.
I cried without me knowing that's odd, I must have been really deep in thought. "I'm sorry sir, I didn't know I was crying." I said carefully. I knew that if I didn't show him respected he could kill me with a snapped of his fingers.
He looked at me with a soft expression and shut the door behind him, and walked across the room to sit at the end of my bed. "Son, you don't need to apologies if you cry it's normal for you, you don't need to call me sir, father or dad are both good enough for you." He said looking at me. I nodded and was about to wipe the tears away when he reach over and wiped it away with his thumb.
"Don't worry about Persephone, she's just jealous that I had a child with another women but you're mother was special. I love you, I really do Nico, you're my son, my only child left so please be careful when your not in Underworld." He said looking at me. "I promise." I said to him. He stood up and kissed my forehead before turning to leave. "You might want to stay out of your stepmother's way, she's still upset." He said looking at me.
"Yes, father." I said.
He was about to leave when I called out to him. "Dad?" I asked.
"Yes?" he asked looking back at me. I stayed quite for a while was I really going to ask him to read me a bedtime story like Bianca did when we were in the hotel. He stayed there patiently waiting for me to talk.
"Would you read me a bedtime story?" I asked looking away. I heard him walk over to the bed a brought a stool with him. "Which one?" he asked looking at me. I turn to him blinking and open the book in my hands. "This one please, dad?" I said pointing at it. Ghost Handprintsretold by S. E. Schlosser, was the title. I read myself and it's a good kid ghost story not scary at all.
My dad smiled and grabbed the book from me and he began to read. I lay down deep into the covers and let the deep voice of my father bring me to sleep.
"My wife Jill and I were driving home from a friend's party late one evening in early May. It was a beautiful night with a full moon. We were laughing and discussing the party when the engine started to cough and the emergency light went on. We had just reached the railroad crossing where Villamain Road becomes Shane Road. According to local legend, this was the place where a school bus full of children had stalled on the tracks. Everyone on board the bus had been killed by an oncoming freight train. The ghosts of the children were reported to haunt this intersection and were said to protect people from danger.
Not wanting a repeat of the train crash, I hit the gas pedal, trying to get our car safely across the tracks before it broke down completely. But the dad-blamed car wouldn't cooperate. It stalled dead center on the railroad tracks.
As if that weren't enough, the railroad signals started flashing and a bright light appeared a little ways down the track, bearing down fast on our car. I turned the key and hit the gas pedal, trying to get the car started.
"Hurry up, Jim! The train's coming," my wife urged, as if I didn't hear the whistling blowing a warning.
I broke out into a sweat and tried the engine again. Nothing.
"We have to get out!" I shouted to my wife, reaching for the door handle.
"I can't," Jill shouted desperately. She was struggling with her seat belt. We'd been having trouble with it recently. She'd been stuck more than once, and I'd had to help her get it undone.
I threw myself across the stick-shift and fought with the recalcitrant seat belt. My hands were shaking and sweat poured down my body as I felt the rumble of the approaching train. It had seen us and was whistling sharply. I risked a quick glance over my shoulder. The engineer was trying to slow down, but he was too close to stop before he hit us. I redoubled my efforts.
Suddenly, the car was given a sharp shove from behind. Jill and I both gasped and I fell into her lap as the car started to roll forward, slowly at first, then gaining speed. The back end cleared the tracks just a second before the train roared passed. As the car rolled to a stop on the far side of the tracks, the engineer stuck his head out the window of the engine and waved a fist at us; doubtless shouting something nasty at us for scaring him."
I can picture the engineer yell at them for suddenly pulled away from the tracks.
"Th...That was close," Jill gasped as I struggled upright. "How did you get the car moving?"
"I didn't," I said. "Someone must have helped us."
I jumped out of the door on the driver's side of the car and ran back to the tracks to thank our rescuer. In the bright moonlight, I searched the area, looking for the person who had pushed our car out of the path of the train. There was no one there. I called out several times, but no one answered. After a few minutes struggle with her seatbelt, Jill finally freed herself and joined me.
"Where is he?" she asked.
"There is no one here," I replied, puzzled.
"Maybe he is just shy about being thanked," Jill said. She raised her voice. "Thank you, whoever you are," she called.
The wind picked up a little, swirling around us, patting our hair and our shoulders like the soft touch of a child's hand. I shivered and hugged my wife tightly to me. We had almost died tonight, and I was grateful to be alive.
"Yes, thank you," I repeated loudly to our mystery rescuer.
As we turned back to our stalled vehicle, I pulled out my cell phone, ready to call for a tow truck. Beside me, Jill stopped suddenly, staring at the back of our car.
"Jim, look!" she gasped.
I stared at our vehicle. Scattered in several places across the back of our car were several glowing handprints. They were small handprints; the kind that adorned the walls of elementary schools all over the country. I started shaking as I realized the truth; our car had been pushed off the tracks by the ghosts of the schoolchildren killed at this location.
The wind swept around us again, and I thought I heard an echo of childish voices whispering 'You're welcome' as it patted our shoulders and arms. Then the wind died down and the handprints faded from the back of the car.
Jill and I clung together for a moment in terror and delight. Finally, I released her and she got into the car while I called the local garage to come and give us a tow home." I heard my father finish the story but I was already asleep. "Good night, my child." I heard before everything went into dreamland.
EgyptAdbydos: I hope you like it. This is just a one shot with Nico and his dad bonding. Please tell me what you think, R&R!