If you recognise it, it's not mine.
The key was tucked under the corner of the doormat, and Nico unlocked the door quickly. "I'm just going to get some stuff quickly," he said, rummaging in the hall cupboard for a holdall. "My room's upstairs."
"Okay," Will said. "Do you want me to come, or should I stay here and watch out for Persephone?"
Nico shrugged, then nodded. "That might actually be a good idea." He grinned suddenly. "Text me, and I'll know to climb out of the window."
Will laughed, and sat down on a windowsill. He could see a large portion of the sweeping driveway, but not the actual door.
Hopefully that meant that Persephone wouldn't be able to see him either. He had a feeling a random guy lounging on the windowsill wouldn't go down so well.
He could hear a clock ticking, and it took him a while to locate it; this place was huge.
It said half past twelve, and Will's eyes widened. They'd misjudged the distance from Will's flat, but he'd thought they had more time than this. He returned his gaze to the window, tapping his fingers against the sill nervously.
Ten minutes, Nico dumped a large bag at his feet, hauling another one out of the closet.
"That's got clothes in it," he explained. "I'm just going to get some personal stuff, like photos and things." He hesitated for a second. "She'd probably just burn them otherwise."
In the time taken to fill the bag, he'd gone very pale, his hair looking like splashes of ink on his white forehead.
Will frowned. "Are you feeling okay?" Nico nodded firmly, giving him a look which told him to drop it, and Will sighed. "Do you want a hand? We should probably get out of here pretty quickly."
Nico ran a hand through his hair, glancing at the clock. "Yeah, maybe. Come on, then." He gestured to the stairs, and Will followed him. "My room's up here. Watch out," he added as they reached the top. "That step's really easy to lose your balance on, for some reason the carpet doesn't stick properly."
"Okay," Will said, noting the way Nico was rubbing the side of his head, as if he had a headache.
Nico shoved the door to his room open roughly. Will stifled a gasp.
The room was large and well-decorated, but bedding was strewn over the floor and the wallpaper was torn and ragged in places. As he took a step forward, something crunched under his foot. He looked. Broken glass, from the photo frames lying in a heap at the foot of a shelf.
"Nico," Will whispered, staring at the destruction in horror, "what happened?"
Nico shrugged, kneeling down to start stuffing the photo frames into the bag one-handed, the cast on his wrist making him clumsy. "It would appear that Persephone didn't take my departure as well as I'd hoped," he said, voice tight with something Will couldn't identify. He hissed in pain as one of the shards of glass still in the frame nicked his hand, and Will knelt beside him.
"Let me do that," he said quietly.
Nico looked like he wanted to protest, but eventually stood and moved over to the desk. Will reached for the photos, glancing at them curiously. Most of them were of what Will guessed was Nico's family. The photos were quite old; the smiling little boy in them couldn't be more than seven or eight. Beside him was a girl who was a couple of years older than him, and Will realised that it must be his sister, Bianca. Standing with a hand on each of their shoulders was a woman, dark eyes laughing at the camera. She had the same dark hair and eyes as both her children, and Will could see that Bianca would practically have been a carbon copy when she was older. Nico's father was standing at the back of the shot, eyes dark and brooding, face almost turned away from the camera.
In later photos, the woman was gone, and Bianca pressed closer to Nico, more protective, while their father seemed to be edging out of the shot altogether, tall and thin in a dark suit. The last, and most recent photo was the only one left unbroken, and that was only because it was pushed to the very back of the shelf.
This time, Nico was squeezed into the edge of the picture, half shadowed by the frame. His father and a woman Will guessed must be Persephone took up most of the shot. Will studied her carefully. She was beautiful, in a slightly fragile, Disney-princess way. Her dark hair, maybe a little lighter than Nico's, cascaded over her shoulders in perfect curls. Big, earth-brown eyes blinked sweetly out of a delicate face which was a shade darker than porcelain. She was shorter than Nico and his father, slim figure encased in a flowing flower-patterned dress.
Overall, she didn't look like the sort of person who'd kick someone out of their home, but Will knew better than to judge by appearances.
He didn't realise that Nico had come up behind him until the frame was knocked from his hand by the heavy cast on his friend's wrist, the glass fracturing with a sound like breaking ice.
"Nico!" Will jumped up, putting his hands on the other boy's shoulders and pushing him down to sit on the bed. "Hey," he said more quietly. "What's up?"
Nico stared down at the floor stubbornly, but Will could see the slight tremble in his lip. He was still pale; if possible, he'd gone whiter.
"Are you hurt? Do you need medicine?"
Nico shook his head, the movement almost imperceptible. "Just..."
"It's getting to you, isn't it?" Will guessed. Nico sighed, looking deflated.
"Yeah. Can we...can we go now?"
Will nodded. "Is there anything else you want, besides the photos?"
"No. Everything else is hers." Nico almost spat the word out, shuddering slightly. He ran a finger along the still-bleeding cut on his hand from the glass earlier.
"Okay," Will said. "I'll finish up in here, then. You go put something on that cut."
Nico looked at him like he was going to protest, but Will raised an eyebrow and grinned. "Come on, doctor's orders."
Nico smiled back, although it was wobbly, and left. Will reached for the last couple of photos, leaving the one of Persephone where it lay on the floor.
Too late, he heard the slamming of the front door.
Zipping the holdall shut, he brushed specks of glass off his jeans and crossed to the door. Nico came out of a room across the hall and raised an eyebrow at him. "What's up?"
"Shh!" Will hissed, gesturing downstairs. "I think she's back early, I heard the door slam."
Nico's face went from confused to terrified to unnervingly calm in a split second. "Okay," he said more quietly. "Okay."
"Should we go?" Will asked, pointing back into Nico's room. "You said we could climb out of the window..."
He trailed off at the look Nico was giving him. "You do realise I was joking when I said that, Will? It's at least a five metre drop, maybe six." Will shrugged. "Into my stepmother's rosebushes."
"Oh."
"Oh, exactly. Besides, she'll have already seen the bag we left down there. She's not stupid, you know, she'll work out that I'm here." Nico's voice was quiet, but he was speaking too fast to be calm, and his eyes were wide and panicked. "Look, you stay here. If I go to meet her, I might be able to talk her out of doing anything."
"Nico-"
"I don't want you to get hurt, Will."
Nico stood and walked down the hall, towards the stairs. Will lay on his stomach with his face pressed to the gap under a cabinet, peering at a slanted view of the staircase.
He could see Nico's feet, balanced on the top step, and walking towards him, the lower half of a flowery dress.
"What the hell do you think you're doing back here?" Persephone's voice was soft and clear, but there was something harsh about it, like the cold shock of a mountain stream.
Nico didn't reply, and Will saw the flowery dress move up several steps. There was something glinting in its folds, and Will swallowed hard as he saw the gleam of a knife.
"You have a knife," Nico said, obviously trying to point this out to Will.
"In case of burglars," Persephone replied coolly. "Coming home to find the door unlocked and a bag in the hall? It seems I was right."
"I've lived here since I was a child," Nico spat, voice surprisingly steady.
Persephone laughed. "Not anymore." She paused. Will could hear the faint tapping of metal against wood. "You haven't really lived here since your sister died."
"Shut up," Nico snapped, but his voice was trembling now. "You don't get to talk about Bianca."
"Oh, yes," Persephone continued. "It was a tragic accident, wasn't it? So like the one which killed your mother."
"Shut up!" Nico said again, more forcefully. "Look, I just want to take my things and go. You never have to see me again, I'll talk to my dad, say I've been wanting to move out, okay?"
"But you haven't got anywhere to go," Persephone said quietly, voice dripping with false sympathy.
Will heard Nico take a deep breath. "Anywhere's better than with you, you witch," he muttered. "I can't understand what my father sees in you."
Silence. Will held his breath.
"Well," Persephone said eventually, and every hair on Will's body stood on end. "Too bad nobody'll ever love you either."
There was a whistle of metal through air, and Nico cried out, stepping out of Will's sight. Then there was a thud, and a gasp of pain.
Will was on his feet within half a second.
