We're identical. Completely identical. Every hair, every freckle (not that there are a ton of those), every speck of color in the irises of our eyes.
I stumble backwards and yelp in surprise, tripping over piles of weapons and cutting my hand on a knife. I turn to pick it up, and see that it's Piper's knife, Katropis.
Strange.
I pick up the knife anyway and hold if out, facing the boy, who supposedly is named Nico, just like me.
"Oh, come on!" He says. "Just because we look alike you think I'm going to hurt you?"
Now that I think about it, our voices sound the same.
"I can explain. Here." He sits down. "Okay, well, I'd assume that you already know that you killed yourself in the river, right? Well, a scientist found your body in that stream, only a few hours after you'd... Um, gone." He takes a deep breath. "He took samples of your cells and somehow cloned them. I am the clone he created."
I suck in a breath of air. If that's true, then... No. It couldn't be.
The boy continues on, "He raised me as his own until I was eight, and eventually told me about my cloning. You can imagine how disturbing that was. Knowing that you were born because some other kid that I never knew died. Well, after hearing the news, I ran away. I didn't know that I was a demigod, but because I was, I ended up being chased by monsters and eventually arrived here. When we learned about Nico - aka, you - I kept the image that was shown to us in mind, because I looked almost EXACTLY like the picture." He gulps. "Now, here you arrive. I'm your clone, and something's going to happen if the camp sees you, I mean, you've been dead for almost eighteen years - "
"Eighteen years?" I cut him off. I was almost eighteen when I killed myself.
"Yes, and it would be strange if somehow there suddenly was two of us walking around."
"No... You don't get it... Wait! How many days until you turn eighteen?"
"Um, nine."
I laugh, even though the situation is horrifyingly creepy. "Nine days until my birthday, too."
"You gotta be kidding me..." He says in awe.
"Not."
We both begin to laugh at the same time. We have the same laugh.
I'm sure of it now. Hades is the one who brought me back, on the anniversary of when I died. For one reason or another. For whatever reason, he allowed my clone to live, and brought me back. Possibly to help my clone in some way?
Either way you put it, Hades just saved my life... But in a way I would have never imagined.
In my delirious happiness, I don't notice that the door has been opened until I hear a voice.
"Oh my Gods."
It's a voice that I recognize, but it sound older. Rougher. I turn around to see another person staring at us, mouth hanging open slightly. He has a beard now and is taller, more well built. He has a silver ring on the ring finger of his left hand. But there's no mistaking the eyes that stare out from the depths of his weathered face.
It's Percy Jackson.
