Chapter 10: Sometimes the Past is Worse than I Thought

Nico POV

I am freaking out internally. It is one thing to explain your nightmares to your sister and the only one who can restrain me when need be, but it's a whole other matter to explain it to someone who knew very little about you. Why was my life so fucked up? I had a dreadful week, then when I kind of feel better I have a nightmare. Are the fates really that pissed at me that I can't have one good day?

I can't just say 'you don't need to know anything. I'm perfectly sane.' Yeah not going to work. Not after I'm sure he's heard me scream and watched Jason restrain me. Gods, why is this happening to me?

When the other three are finished eating, and Jason talks to Will a little bit everyone falls silent, probably waiting for me to start. I take a deep breath and look down at the floor. "Sorry if I scared you."

"What happened?" Out of the corner of my eye I can see that Will's worried about me. 'Wait! Worried!?' That's odd.

"Um … I'm a fuck up and you don't need to know anything else."

"Nico. You need to tell him." Hazel puts a hand on my shoulder. Her soft voice calming me down a bit. I sigh, not wanting to do this at all. I start to play with the skull ring on my finger. "Fine." I close my eye, so I don't have to look at anyone well I tell my crappy life story. My hands are shacking so badly that I'm sure Hazel and Jason came both feel the vibrations through the sofa. I'm trying to keep myself together, to keep the memories away, to make it seem like I'm just retelling a story and not my past.

"You know, Percy and I go way back? We first meet when I was 10. At that time I thought he could do anything. He was going to a party, and was bringing my sister, Bianca with him. It was just a small party. Nothing bad was supposed to happen. That morning Bianca and I were fighting over how I didn't want her to go. She ignored me and went anyway. I was so furious at her.

The next thing I know was Percy ringing the doorbell and telling me that Bianca died. It turns out that she ran into the road to push a kid out of the way for a truck that didn't stop. She didn't die on impact, but didn't even make it till the ambulance made it to her. Before she passed, she handed Percy a little toy figure from a game I use to play, Mythomagic, and told him to give it to me." I start to cry, unable to keep my tears back any longer. I stopped talking trying to steady my breathing.

"My last memory of her was of us fighting. I could never make it up to her. I could never say sorry. I was angry at Percy from not being able to protect her like he said he would. I ran away. I couldn't stand being here, knowing that she would never return. Everything reminded me of her for a very long time. So I just ran. I ran for a long time.

I don't know how I ended up there, or even really where it is, but I found an old abandoned tunnel system. I don't even know how long I was down there. I got lost as I ran through it. It was like a maze.

Soon I meet Minos. He was nice. He listened to everything that happened that day. He told me the best way to repay Percy for not helping my sister was to get revenge, and that he would help me with it. Of course I said yes." I started to ball up my firsts. "He helped me kind of navigate the maze and learned that he was the Ghost King among the others down there. Soon we came back to the surface, and I lead him to Percy's house. What I didn't know was that Minos was a sociopath. He was going to kill Percy and me. I couldn't let that happen, I was the one that lead him there, I was the one that had to stop it. In the end I didn't just take his title as Ghost King.

After that Percy didn't trust me, and I don't blame him. I locked myself up for weeks at a time after that. No one talked about what happened when I was around, but I knew that everyone was afraid of me. So what did I do? I ran away again. I knew no one cared about me, and most people didn't see me far long periods of time anyway, they probably thought I was just locking myself up again.

This time I didn't go underground though. I was just the one of many homeless kids on the streets for a few weeks, before I ran, literally ran, into Hazel. She told me she was on her way to New York to meet up with her father, because her mother just passed away. She was very sweet, and I couldn't just leave her to fend for herself. So I made a decision that I'm glad I made. I told her that I had a home that she could stay in till she found her father.

So we made the long track back to the house. We learned a lot about each other on the way. When we got here though, I didn't expect to run into my father. He's normally never home, so I was scared that he would have kicked her out before she even got to come inside. Turns out that Hazel was my half-sister. I was bother relieved that he didn't kick her out, and angry that I found out he cheated on his wife.

I stayed here with Hazel for a few months. Enough time for her to get use to the house, learn to cook, make some friends, and was able to go to school without having anxiety. But as soon as I knew she was going to be okay by herself, I left again.

This time I ended up in a place people called Tartarus. It's a place I would never wish my enemies to go. I don't know how I even got there, but by the time I realized where I was, it was too late to turn around. Once you are in Tartarus, it's only a matter of time before you get killed. Very, very few make it out alive. I'll spare you the details, but just know that wherever you look there are more dead bodies then you can count. At one point I had to drink something like liquid fire just to stay alive.

I almost made it to the exit, when I ran out of strength to continue and two giant like creatures caught and tortured me. At first it was just beating, whipping, and once in a while drinking the fire. That only lasted a few hours? Maybe a day? After that, they put me in a bronze jar. It wasn't just being stuck in a confined space that bothered me, it was the lack of air. I only go so much oxygen every time I was put inside. Most of the time I tried breathing as little as possible, but I would always pass out at some point. This when on for what felt like years. I only got free when Percy, Annabeth, Jason, and Piper freed me. I was so disoriented, I didn't even realize I could breathe air that wasn't toxic. I still kept holding my breath. It wasn't until we got into a car that I realized we were above ground. My captors must have brought me up at one point without me even noticing …"

I stopped talking. I tried my hardest to tell a very water downed version of what happened. Even then, I don't know how well I did. Everything was dead quiet. I want someone to break it. Something to make noise. Today's not that day I want everything silent. Jason must have notice me freaking out or something, because he gets up and turns on the little radio we have in the kitchen. I start to calm down a tad.

Will POV

Shit. I knew people had shitty lives, but I think Nico's topped everyone. I don't want to just say sorry, because first of all, no one likes to hear sorry when something bad happens, second, I doubt he will even accept it. I watch Jason get up and turn the radio on, and I take a deep breath before I calm down myself. I couldn't even imagine Nico going through all that. Shakily I finally say something "I'm glad to learn your past, but how does that have anything to do with you screaming bloody murder?"

Nico looks like he's about to kill me, and now I know that he could it scares me even more, but I stood my ground. Hazel looks like I just asked the stupidest question in existence. Jason … well I don't know how to describe his expression. It's a mix between amused, angry, and questioning. I don't even know that was possible, but I guess Jason could pull it off.

Hazel sighs, and rubs her face. She looks over to Nico probably wondering if she should tell me or him. In the end Nico nods and looks over to me. "When I have nightmares, I relive those experiences. It's like I'm really there again. Sometimes I can snap out of it before it gets too bad, but other times … well you saw what happens."

Now it all clicks, why Nico has nothing in his room, why Jason live just a few houses down, the cold personality he gives off to keep people away. Even his pale skin and huge bags under his eyes are kind of explained.

I look up to see Nico and Hazel are gone. They must have gone upstairs or something. Jason looks at me curiously. Then he looked away and started talking. "The first night Nico had his nightmares, a bunch of us were over … well the seven that went to get Nico. Only Percy, Annabeth, Piper, and I found him, but Leo, Frank, and Hazel where there helping to find him.

Anyway, the first time I hear him scream like that I was terrified for him. None of us knew fully what happened to him, or exactly what he's done, I'm sure he's toned down what exactly happened for the sake of us. When we heard him scream we all went upstairs to see what happened, only to find blood on the floor and Nico freaking out over something none of us could even see. It was probably a stupid idea for us to let Hazel to walk into the room and try to calm him down. He didn't take well to her getting close or touching him.

We didn't know where he got the knife, and didn't notice him raise it till it was too late. It took all of us to pin Nico down, take the knife away from him, and to stop Hazel from bleeding out. Though Hazel got the worst of it, we all come out scarred from that. Once we got Nico started to calm down and Hazel got to the hospital, the rest of us helped each other with the wounds we acquired. When Nico finally came around, we told him what happened. He rushed to the hospital, but as soon as he got there he stopped. Nico didn't know if Hazel ever wanted to see him again for what he did to her.

It took a lot of convincing, but we finally managed to get him to see her, and she didn't blame him one bit. Once she was released, Nico said he wanted to get rid of anything that was a potential weapon, he didn't want an accident like that to happen again. So Hazel, Nico and I sent all day getting rid of almost everything.

Though Nico doesn't have anything that can be a weapon, Nico still has a strong punch and kick if you're not careful. That's why Hazel held you back, and called me. I'm one of the few that can take a hit, help calm him down, and live close. Percy is another one that can, but he lives really far away. Luke could probably do it to, but we try to keep it to as few people as possible. I know you were trying to help Nico, that's why I told you this."

Jason got up and walked to the door, but before he went out, he turned around to face Will one more time. "Nico doesn't just tell anyone his past. You are special to him. Don't ruin that." With that, Jason left.