Chapter 7
Nico POV
Hello! Happy early Thanksgiving! Sorry that I suck at dialogue, my friend finally wore me down to finish this, and thanks to everyone! I hope you like it! (Also, sorry if the situations in his memory are inaccurate) : )
Everything was black, But then a scene came to life before his eyes, of a young boy playing with a girl slightly older than him. Bianca. Their Mother sat in a chair, watching them, as beautiful as she had always been in his memory. It was a peaceful moment, what seemed like a perfect childhood. Their Dad was on a business trip, but they knew that he would be back soon.
Everything seemed fine, that is, until the scent of smoke came in, and it started to get hot. Their home was old fashioned and didn't have smoke detectors, so they hadn't known something was wrong until it was too late. The room filled with smoke, and the children immediately dropped to the floor, but they were on the second story, with the only window across the room, and flames were starting to close in on them.
The firefighters came and rescued the children, but when they went back to their mother, it was already too late, and the house had burned down. When the children's father heard about the incident, he paid for them to be sent overseas to America, and for them to live in a hotel, with all their living expenses paid for, but he never came back to visit them.
Then it all changed to the boy and girl, walking on a street, looking a few years older. This was right after their Dad had contacted them again, after all these years, to try to rebuild his relationship with them. The boy was chatting animatedly about what it would be like when they finally saw him again, while the girl was listening to her brother with a slight smile on her face.
They were crossing a street when the girl spotted a mythomagic card, from the boy's favorite game. She bent down to pick it up, with the boy still happily walking along and talking, not noticing that she had stopped, when a car ran the red light. Right as the car was about to hit the girl, I woke up in my bed, in a cold sweat.
I glanced over at Percy's side of the room, where my roommate was still sleeping soundly in his bed, muttering the occasional odd phrase such as 'I can't drown. And neither can my pancakes.' I knew that I wasn't going to be able to go to sleep again, and suddenly the darkness of the room felt overwhelming. I needed to get out.
So I got out of bed, straightened my pajamas, opened the door, and left quietly, so as not to wake Percy. I didn't know where I was going, but suddenly I was in the library, where several other students were, trying to cram for some test or another. As I scanned the room, I saw a familiar head of blond hair buried under a huge medical book.
I was worried about intruding, but nevertheless, I picked some random book off of the nearest shelf and sat down next to Will, who didn't even look up. But even just sitting there next to him, after those horrible nightmares that I hadn't had for months now, was somehow comforting.
All the tiredness that had gone away earlier suddenly came back full force, and I rested my head on the table, telling myself that I would only close my eyes for a minute… or two… or three…
Before I knew it, someone was poking my cheek, trying to wake me up. I groaned "five more minutes," but bolted upright when someone hit me in the head with a book. I found myself staring into a pair of blue eyes, and remembered how I fell asleep. Then I remembered how I was woken up. "What the fudge, Solace?"
Will grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, it was the only way I could think of to wake you up." I raised an eyebrow.
"The only way, I'm sure." I looked around the library and realized that it was almost empty, seeing as it was now the middle of the night. Will must have finished his studying or whatever it was that he was doing.
"Ok, so would you like to tell me why you were sleeping at my table when I looked down?" He asked, and I looked down, and could feel my face get hot. Quick, think of a lie!
"Well, I was having trouble sleeping, so I walked here and saw you, but I decided not to bother you, so I started reading, and must have fallen asleep." It wasn't too far off of the truth.
Then he pointed down. "So if you fell asleep reading, why is your book only open to the first page?" I tried to come up with an excuse, but he just laughed it off. "Well, it's getting pretty late, why don't we go back to our rooms. I nodded, and helped him put his books back before following him out of the library.
We got to his room and stood in front of the door when he stopped, looked me in the eye, and asked "are you ok? Why were you having trouble sleeping?"
I waved his question off with "oh, you know, just classes and tests and all that stuff. I'm fine." And before he could protest, I gave him a quick smile and left, only looking back when I heard his door close behind him.
