A/N: Welcome to chapter seven of Pain Killer! Thank you all so much for your reviews and please keep them coming. As always I do not own PJATO just the plot for this chapter and any OCS. I hope you enjoy the chapter! –Maiden of the Heavens (MOTH)

Chapter 7

The bowstring still vibrated even after the arrow had left. It hit the target a couple of inches away from the bull's-eye. Cassandra let out a sigh of frustration and went to go tug the arrow out from where it was now imbedded in the target. She had to plant one foot above where the arrow was, just to yank it out. She landed promptly on her behind, and let out a curse in Latin. One of the ear buds that had been blasting Linkin Park in ears fell out, and she turned to look over her shoulder. Nico was standing in the shadows of one of the trees that surrounded the archery range, and he was smirking at her. From the way his chest was heaving up and down, she could tell that he was silently laughing at her. She glared coldly at him and jammed the arrow back into the quiver that was over her back. Her sun-shaped shield was leaning against the same tree that the Son of Pluto was. Her sword as always was hanging around her waist; she adjusted her purple and white stripped beanie and dusted her jeans off before walking over toward him.

"You haven't talked to your praetors yet have you?" Nico asked, he hadn't seen her in two days after all.

The Daughter of Apollo shrugged, she didn't see any point in talking to Jason and Reyna. They would probably just think that all her agonizing visions had finally taken their toll, and she had gone off the deep end. She notched another arrow and left it fly, this time it went way off target, and instead it decided to imbed itself into a nearby faun's behind. It yelped in pain and glared at her, but then yanked the arrow from its hindquarters and ate it, arrowhead and all. She turned to glare at the Son of Pluto. He was doubled over, his arms wrapped around his middle, clutching his ribcage. He was clearly laughing at her; she could hear it loud and clear.

Ignoring Nico's laughing fit; she walked back to where she had gotten the bow and arrows from, and gave them back to person that checked the weapons in and out during practice hours. Cassandra hefted her shield back over back, and decided to make her to the mess hall for lunch. Her stomach was snarling angrily at her, it didn't help that after doing her part in helping her cohort mates clean up their barracks; she had left to go running and never bothered to go the mess hall for breakfast.

Nico had eventually caught up by shadow travel. He was smirking at her in a teasing way. "I thought the children of Apollo were supposed be good at archery, but you really suck."

Cassandra only glared at him, so icily that maybe even the underworld would have frozen over at the look she was giving him. She trudged into the mess hall and sat down beside Adeline and Adrian, and a one of the Daughters of Vulcan. The girl's name was Hebe, after her father's sister, and right now she was busily building something with a screw driver and a bunch of metal scraps. Her green eyes were magnified ten times by her goggles. Cassandra sighed in relief as Nico went off to go bother his half-sister, Hazel.

The Daughter of Apollo ignored the curious looks from the rest of her table, and instead dive bombed into her steak and baked potatoes with a vengeance. She was nearly done with eating the skin from her second potato when Dakota approached their table. Adeline's cheeks automatically turned pink as she stabbed her fork into her dark chocolate cheesecake and tried her best to get a nice small piece onto the utensil before it could break into crumbs.

Dakota cleared his throat and tried desperately to get rid of some of the red Kool-Aid stain off of his mouth before he could get enough courage to speak. "Adeline, could I talk to you for-for a minute?"

Adeline's blush deepened as she sipped some of her milk, and looked over at Cassandra. Since her cousin was still munching on her potato, she was given the thumbs up of approval. Adrian glared at the fifth cohort soldier and then busied himself with his chocolate chip ice cream cookie sandwich, which was the size of a dinner plate.

"If he does anything to hurt her, I am going to chase him down with Hannibal and then the elephant shit on him, so he can die buried in it." Adrian said, licking off the crumbs from his fingers.

Cassandra cringed as the image of such an act formed in her brain; she finished drinking her chocolate milkshake and sighed. She was really looking forward to having double fudge cookie dough ice cream, but now thanks to her overprotective cousin, she had lost her appetite. She sighed at Adrian. "You're disgusting." She got up from the table and left the mess hall before another word could be spoken.

The Daughter of Apollo found herself sitting outside of her cohort, watching the stars while the rest of barrack mates were planning for tomorrow's game of capture the flag. Whispers in the Dark by Skillet, calmed her nerves. She didn't want to go to sleep tonight, even though sleep was what she craved most of all at the moment. It was visions, the ones that turned into nightmares, which frightened her, the most. But finding herself constantly rubbing her eyes, she knew that staying up was inevitable.

Cassandra curled up under the covers of her bed, while everybody else continued to plot. She could feel herself drifting into dreams, no matter how hard she tried to push the thought of sleep away. With Fix Me by 10 years sinking her into sleep, she no longer bothered to fight it anymore.

The paths before her were only lit by two very dull lanterns, the wicks within them on their last leg. Cassandra looked at both paths, but couldn't figure out which way to go, there were not any signs to help her either. She continued to scan both paths. They both looked the same, the same rocks scattered about in the dirt that formed them, the same tree roots snaking across. Just when she about to take a step forward the lanterns went out, leaving her in the darkness. The Daughter of Apollo bit her lip as fear began to take over. She sank to her knees in her snoopy tank top and shorts, feeling the fear about to completely pull her under. Cassandra roughly wiped the tears that dared to drip down her cheeks away, and looked up as a glow began to light up the middle of the paths. It was soft light, like the ones that came from laptop screens. She looked up at the man that was holding the glowing device, and realization shook her at what he was holding was some type of IPad. Gods forgive her for thinking this, but the man was beautiful, especially with his ashen black wings that spread out behind him. He looked down at her with a grim expression and offered his hand to her.

"Why must I take one so young?" He said softly, almost to herself.

Cassandra's face crinkled in confusion, and was nearly about to put her thin hand into his own, but something deep inside her told her not too, as she quickly pulled her hand away. "Who are you?" She demanded shakily, as fear took over her words.

"I am Death, my dear." He replied.

Cassandra bolted upright, her covers and sheets twisted around her like a strait jacket. She twisted trying to get out of them. A sob broke through as she whacked her head against the headboard of her bed. Gods be good, Death was coming for her in her visions. She screamed and sobbed and continued to bash her head against the wood. Well if he wanted her so damn badly, then he could come and take her now if he wanted too. The whole cohort began to stir, as flashlights were turned on and someone rushed out of the barrack, earrings jingling in their wake, saying something about going to go get help.

Cassandra continued to sob and to scream, she screamed as if someone was torturing her to death. Visions of being Judged and going down the River Styx continued to replay in her mind repeatedly, it felt like a bomb and an earthquake were going off in her head. That was how it hurt.

Suddenly she felt someone holding her to them. Gently rocking her back and forth like a child. She rested her head against whoever was holding her. She could smell their scent now, death and dirt. The musky smell of grave soil. She couldn't bring herself to open her eyes as another vision rocked her to her core, feeling like her skull was about to split in half. She screamed again, this time it was muffled by the fabric of his hoodie.

"N-Nico, I-I don't want to die…" She whispered hoarsely.

"I won't let you." He promised as he fumbled around in the dark for the water bottle, and her bottle of pills. He gave her two instead of one, and slid them into her mouth, while she hastily jugged them down with the water.

"Why won't you let me die?" She questioned, her whole frame was shaking.

"Because I don't want you too." He answered simply. He thanked the Gods that she had her eyes closed, and could not see him blushing.

It took about fifteen minutes for the pain killers to kick in, but when they finally did Nico stood up from where he sat by her bare feet, ready to leave. But Cassandra clutched at his fingers very loosely with her own, and tugged him back down beside her.

"Stay…" She whispered sleepily, "Please…"

Nico was now confused and very nervous, his heart pounding in his chest and ears. He squeezed in beside her and wrapped his arms around her. As he felt her drifting to sleep, he couldn't help but whisper in her ear. "Aren't you afraid me?"

Her whispered reply, which shocked him the most, was no. But for some odd reason it also brought a smile to his lips.