A/N: I'm so sorry for the long wait, but here's the next chapter for your patience!
Disclamier: Indeed, even after this long wait, none of the charatcers are mine.
Chapter 8: Surprise Symphony
I woke up around ten, feeling remarkably refreshed after raising the dead the night, er, early morning before. Stretching, I blinked at the sunlight, before my mind kick-started into action. I scrambled out of bed, noting briefly that my arms were no longer throbbing, and began to rush around my room, grabbing things I would need to take on my journey.
Eventually, I stood before my kitchen table, examining my pile of stuff. It was a fairly modest stash, to be honest. I didn't know how far I would be traveling, when I would be coming back, or when I would have time to take a break, so I pretty much prepared for everything.
Hopefully it'll all fit in my backpack. Probably not.
At any rate, I probably didn't need two packs of Oreos or a whole liter of soda, I considered, putting those things back where I found them. I need to call Percy to make sure the food gets out of here before it all goes bad—don't want anything growing on it. Besides, what college student wouldn't take up the offer of free food?
Slinging my book bag onto the table, I began to grab the things I really needed before stuffing them in; a change of clothes, food, cell phone, a small sleeping bag, food, shower stuff, my journal, food, i.d., my new debit card, more food. My hand stopped as it was about to toss something plastic into my backpack. I had picked it up without even thinking.
Glancing down at the object, I knew what it was before I even looked. The Hades figurine. I rubbed my thumb over his face, feeling the familiar featured brush against my skin. His face wasn't like my dad's; the figurine had a little pointed goatee and a bald head, but he stood upright and proud, just like my dad.
You have a weird way of showing your approval, dad, I thought, staring at the figure. I wish I could…And then even my thoughts trailed off, I didn't know what I wished from my dad, from fate, from myself. Hopefully the oracle would clear some things up. I snorted. Yeah right.
I sighed and set the little model gently on top of all my stuff. I had a choice, but when it really boiled down to it, there was no choice at all. I had to do this.
Suddenly, my bag started to vibrate and beep. I let out a moan.
Great, I would put the cell phone on the bottom, I thought, as I pulled everything out of the bag I had just finished packing.
Finally I found the phone, just before it finished ringing, answering it without looking at who the call was from. "Hello?"
"Hey, Nico?" came Percy's voice.
"Hey, Percy," I said, trying to repack my bag one-handed. "I need to talk to you—."
"Yeah, I need to talk to you too," said Percy, cutting me off. "Can you come to Braden Auditorium? I have to show you something."
"Now?" I asked, somewhat confused. What on earth did Percy have to show me?
"Yeah, it's urgent," replied Percy and hung up.
That was weird, I thought, hanging up as well and slipping my phone in my pocket. Maybe Percy found a monster, I mused, but then why would he have bothered to call me? Wouldn't he have just taken it down by himself? Maybe it's something big, I thought, starting to rush, grabbing my knife as I swung out the door.
But Percy didn't sound worried, I thought, trotting down the street toward the college campus. He sounded almost calm.
I shook my head, frowning at my paranoia, but not slowing down my pace. Better to be safe than sorry. I will never doubt my instincts again.
The student center was teaming with students as I approached, so I tried to act like I knew what I was doing. It was a Monday and, apparently, passing time, as students milled groggily about, clutching coffee mugs and trying to get to their next classes. Slipping into the building, I dodged clumps of people and headed toward the auditorium, scanning for Percy.
He didn't mean in Braden Auditorium. I glanced around the sitting area nervously. I mean, I wasn't beyond breaking and entering, a lot of quests tended to lead beyond locked doors, but I liked to do it when no one was around. You know, not during broad daylight during passing period at a busy university campus.
I waited for a few more minutes, scanning the heads for the idyllic black hair of my friend, but when he didn't show up, I sighed. Great, he did mean in Braden Auditorium. I turned around to examine the three sets of double doors that led into the theater, almost subconsciously feeling the hilt of my knife.
Students continued to mill around the area, moving through doors to my right which led to the outside as cars circled to pick up people. There was no way I was getting in without being seen. I swallowed nervously. Just act like you know what you're doing. Hopefully the door's unlocked, and I pushed my way in.
I was through the doorway—they were unlocked—and into a sort of antechamber. There, a weird staircase thing led me down to a series of doors. I picked one of them at random and opened it as well.
I found myself in the auditorium that Percy had shown me the other day, yellow chairs arching around a stage; two more floors of chairs hovered over me. I was about five rows back from the stage.
"Nico, over here!" called Percy's voice and I turned to the stage. There stood Percy, a confused expression on his face, arms crossed over his chest.
"Hey," I said, before climbing over the seats to reach the stage.
"So, what did you want to talk about?" asked Percy.
"Oh," I said blinking, pausing with my leg in the air, about to go over the last row of chairs before the stage—I thought he wanted to tell me something—but then shrugged it off and kept moving. "I have to go. I've sort of been given a quest."
"Soon?" asked Percy, hauling me up on the stage.
"Yeah, like now," I said, trying to offer a smile. It would be hard to leave Percy. He was like the big brother I never had.
"Oh, right," said Percy, giving me a worried smile back. Worries like a big brother too, I thought. "Good luck on your quest." He grabbed my shoulder and squeezed. "Call if you need me, okay?" He added, letting go and slinging his backpack up on his shoulder.
Yeah, Percy's a great one for goodbyes, really knows how to draw them out, I thought sarcastically. "Wait," I started, memory catching me. "Didn't you need to tell me something?"
"Uh, no," said Percy, turning to look, arching an eyebrow at me. "If you recall, you called me to wait here."
"No I didn't, you called me."
We stared at each other for a second.
"This is stupid. Look, I can prove you called me," I said, pulling my phone out and flipping to "Received Calls". "See that's….not your number."
I looked up at Percy and his face was frowning slightly, mind moving a mile a minute (not as fast as Annabeth's, of course, but you get the idea).
"And you called me on the landline through the school," muttered Percy, body starting to tense.
"What's going on here?" I said, voice ringing slightly and looking around, drawing my knife.
Suddenly an eerie laugh echoed around the enormous theater, sending shivers down my spine. This was like classic Joker laugh, hair raising, insane, and completely evil.
Percy had pulled out Riptide now and was looking around too. We unconsciously moved together, back to back, facing opposite directions so as not to get attacked from behind. We were close enough so we could watch each other's backs, but not so close so we couldn't still move around.
And then suddenly the theater was plunged into darkness. I froze, frantically waiting for my eyes to adjust to the darkness, but there was nothing to adjust to. The theater didn't have any windows to the outside, nor did it seem to have any of the phantom lights that sometimes are left on in big rooms.
"Stay close, Nico," came Percy's voice out of the dark.
I nodded but remembered he couldn't see me. "Right," I said, taking a deep, calming breath. This was my element, I reminded myself, fighting back the sinking suspicion that something very bad was about to happen.
I exhaled a slow breath and then inhaled through my nose, allowing my other senses to open up, ears becoming hyper sensitive and letting my form become more shadow like. It was like I was trying to shadow travel, only I didn't fully step into the shadows, I just kinda stepped among them. And it wasn't really like I stepped anywhere; I just sorta let myself go. I think it was kinda like what would happen if I tried on my dad's helm. But it wasn't quite like that because I wasn't 100% shadow. Ugh, it's hard to explain. Let me just say that I've never done it before.
At any rate, as I did whatever I did, everything began to take on more shades of grey. It wasn't that it got lighter; I just was able to sense things better. Maybe it's because I was more of a shadow myself; I could tell what was a shadow and what was substance. I don't know. Like I said, it was confusing. All you really need to know is that I could sort of see now.
"Hey, I'm going to try and find the lights," said my voice off to my left. Now, I've heard some weird things, but having your own voice come from something other than you is a very weird experience.
"Nico, don't go by yourself," said Percy, and I heard him wandering off, trying to follow where my voice had come from.
"Percy, that wasn't me," I said, using my new senses to guess where Percy was.
"What?" said Percy, completely confused.
"Yeah, don't follow my voice," I said, still scanning the area, not really paying attention to what I was saying, then winced. "I mean the first voice," I amended "Just hold still. I'm trying…there."
Another form moved around the stage. It was weird though, it moved, so I knew it was alive, but I couldn't feel its shape or even what it was made of.
And then it all clicked. Mist. "Percy, we've got a monster," I said reclutching my knife. The creepy laugh rang out through the auditorium again. Point one for the Ghost King. "I can't tell what it is, but I think it can see us."
"Okay," came Percy's voice, trying to keep his cool. "Stay there and I'll come to you. Keep talking so I can find you."
"Alright," came my voice that wasn't my voice again before I could say anything. "Just follow my voice. I'm right over here. Make sure you don't fall off the stage."
"Percy, don't follow that voice! That's not me," I yelled, starting to panic slightly as I saw Percy's form head toward the Mist covered thing.
"Don't listen to that thing, Percy," said the voice again, imitating my emotions perfectly, sounding just as worried as I did.
Percy stopped moving and flicked the sword in his hand nervously. He was about half way between me and the thing. "Good," I said at the same time as the other me spluttered, "You're actually listening to that thing?"
"Both of you, stop talking," commanded Percy. I could sense him looking every which way, trying to see something in the pitch darkness. I took a step forward, trying to reach Percy and he swung his sword in my direction.
"No moving either. Now, one of you is a monster and then other is real," he declared. Thank you, Captain Obvious, I thought, feeling ornery. "I just need to figure out which one," he added as an afterthought, his sword flickered from side to side, roughly pointed at where I was and where that thing was.
"Ask me something," I blurted out. "Something only the real Nico would know."
"Okay, okay," said Percy. "Let me think." Silence reigned as Percy thought. Come on, Percy. Ask just the right question, I thought, wishing sons of Hades had ESP. "Got one: How many attack points does Hades have?"
"Huh?" said the other me.
"5000!" I crowed, running toward Percy. I knew my Mythomagic would come in handy some day!
"Yes!" said Percy, whipping his sword around to face the source of the other Nico voice.
Suddenly the other voice roared, a sound of frustration and rage, and finally its form solidified into something vaguely dog-like. It bounced around us, moving too fast for me to shadow-see.
"Where is it?" yelled Percy, sword flicking nervously, standing perfectly still to try and hear where the monster was.
"I don't know, it's moving too fast," I muttered, eyes flicking around, catching glimpses of the beast as it moved.
"You can see the thing?" asked Percy, an odd mixture of emotions in his voice.
"Sort of," I admitted, gritting my teeth as the thing started bounding forward. "It's coming. Head on. Now!"
We both swung down at its face, gaping mouth clear to me before it jumped over us, laughing madly.
"Apply directly to the forehead!" it cackled, swiping a giant paw at us.
"Behind—! Duck!" I barely had time to yell the order before following it myself, dodging the swipe of the huge paw.
Unfortunately, I heard Percy grunt off to my left as he was swept away. The monster let out a roar, Percy must have punched it or something. Not that I saw it happen, but the monster was still there, so, yep, he couldn't have hit it with Riptide. Anyway, Percy's body landed with a thump and rolled slightly. And Riptide flew a few feet away.
Percy moaned. Good, at least he was conscious. The monster ran forward, closing in on Percy and leaped.
"Percy, above you!" I yelled, running forward with my knife above my head. I slid the last couple feet in order to get my knife underneath the falling monster. I got there just in time to drive my knife into the monster's throat.
And my knife stuck deep into the side of its neck. As a note, the part that sucks about Stygian ice blades is that the weapon actually has to be pulled out in order for the soul to be released to the Styx. That means no insta-kills like with celestial bronze. I pulled fruitlessly at the knife, trying to get it to come out, but it was wedged in tight and the monster pulled away, roaring in pain, retreating a few steps. I stood, blocking the monster from Percy's prone form, knees trembling from almost being eaten.
"You have been a constant annoyance," said a voice somewhere between mine and Percy's with a hint of a third voice thrown in the mix –one I couldn't quite identify. "I am this close to killing the son of Poseidon, when the worthless son of Hades shows up and completely ruins my plans."
"Good for me, then," I said. Percy hadn't moved since his groan earlier. He must have bumped his head when he fell. ADD had my senses on alert as I tried to think of a weapon I could use. My eyes flicked to my side, picking up the form of Riptide, close enough to be really irritating, but too far away to be any help.
"No, bad for you," hissed the thing, a wild cackle bubbling at the back of its throat, "because now you'll be the first to die."
Then I did something really stupid. I ran toward the thing. With Percy out of commission and his sword out of reach, my closest weapon was the one stuck in the monster's throat. If I had celestial bronze! I thought for the thousandth time, as I grabbed the knife. But then where would the fun be? Part of my mind wanted to know before I mentally slapped it and returned to the matter at hand.
The monster was about as surprised by what I had done as I was. It stood stunned at my first tug, but by the second heave, it sprung into action. It shrieked and bucked and I held on for dear life, feeling my grip slip from my knife as I scrambled for a hand hold on the thing's fur.
My hand was sticky with monster blood, but I barely noticed. I locked my legs around its body and leaned over so I was basically hanging off the beast, using both hands to search for the knife.
"Just give up, Ghost King," snarled the thing, pausing in its bucking, shaking its body like it just had a bath, trying to dislodge me that way. "You're not going to win."
"This is coming from the guy with a knife hanging from his neck," I said, not stopping in my search. My mind was almost distracted by the familiar-ness of the voice, but my hand brushed something even more familiar. The knife hilt.
I grabbed onto the blade and the monster starting bucking again, letting out a roar. My body was being jerked around like a rag doll and my legs were getting tired from holding on. Fortunately, my knife gave out before I did.
My knife slipped free and I let go, tumbling to the ground and rolling. I quickly got to my feet, preparing for one more attack however unlikely.
I turned in time to see the monster keel over, landing with a thud as its soul slowly began to exit its body. "I hope you enjoyed winning this time, Ghost King," it rasped mockingly, energy completely depleted, "because you will lose in the end. They all do." Its cackle faded as its soul disappeared into the Styx. The body would linger for awhile, but the soul, what made it alive, was long gone.
That wasn't what was really important, though, I needed to find the light switch. Maybe by finding the light, I would keep all those wonderful ADD thoughts that had tackled me after the little gem that the monster left with me back.
I jogged to the side of the stage, hand reaching for the wall, finding it, and beginning my search for a light switch. I found something that might have been one and poked it experimentally. A couple lights on the stage flashed on, nearly blinding me.
I examined myself quickly, no new injuries that I could see, but my body seemed to be cloaked by this weird substance, almost as if I was wearing a veil. I shook myself and it fell away, creeping off to join the other shadows. I turned, shivering slightly, to look over the stage.
"Oh my gods," I said, feeling like the ground had dropped out underneath me. There on the stage lay Brandon, Percy's roommate, a jagged cut in his neck, his blood on my knife. But no, I blinked, and where Brandon lay was now a strange hyena thing with bale gaping eyes and a strange ridged mouth. What kind of monster was that?
I blinked one final time and it was gone. I reclutched my knife, steadying myself before jogging over to Percy's side. I felt battered all over as I settled by his side to give a rough examination. A giant bruise was already starting to form over his left eye and it was turning into some truly impressive colors.
"Hey, Percy, wake up," I said, lightly tapping his shoulder. "You missed all the fun. Time to get up Sleeping Beauty."
His eyes fluttered open and he scowled at me. "Never call me Sleeping Beauty again."
"I won't for awhile," I said, offering a hand to help him up. "You're going to have some really impressive bruises."
"Thanks," he said dryly, taking the offered hand and moaning as he stood. "What happened?"
"I fought the monster," I said matter-of-factly. "Did you know your roommate was a hyena?"
Percy stared at me for a second and then blinked. "Well, that does explain his fascination with Africa and his love of raw meat." He paused and nodded. "Yeah, I believe it."
"Well, I guess this means you'll have your own room now," I said, glancing over to the spot where the Brandon-monster was.
"I guess," said Percy, somewhat distracted. His hand was up on his forehead, poking the bruise experimentally as he winced.
"Do you need help getting somewhere?" I asked.
"Nah, I'm good," said Percy. "Tis merely a flesh wound!"
I chuckled, shaking my head. Yeah, Percy was going to be just fine. He patted his pockets absentmindedly, and pulled the Riptide pen out, double-checking that he had it, before putting it away. "You really have to go?" he asked, looking at me, picking up the conversation as if it hadn't been interrupted by a freak monster attack.
"Yeah," I said. "You can have all the food I left at my house."
Percy's eyes lit up at the prospect. "Well, that should make you leaving easier to bear," he joked and then became more serious. "Thanks."
"You're welcome."
"I'll miss you. Check back whenever you feel like it."
There was a pause.
"Got a location in mind?" he asked.
"Well, I need to actually get the quest, so…"
"You need to find Rachel," Percy finished.
"Yep," I said, grimacing slightly. She always seemed a little weird to me.
"Have fun with that," smirked Percy.
I scowled at him and then smiled, waving one more goodbye –there wasn't anything left to say. It was back to my house to grab my things and then off to Chicago. I had to visit the Oracle of Delphi.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed the chapter! This one is dedicated to my little sister whose birthday was on Saturday (I know it's a little late, but atleast when I posted this it was still September. Ha!). I love ya, sis!
Anyway, did you love the chapter? Hate it? Have any ideas of where it's going? I want to hear from ya! Please review!
