Blood.

That's the first thing Nico saw when he opened his eyes. Blood on the ground. Blood on the walls around him. Everywhere. Every inch of space surrounding him was drenched with the scarlet liquid. The rancid smell of corpses invaded his nostrils, and burned like acid in his lungs. Nico couldn't see anything in front on him. Not even his own hand as he waved it around in front of his face. It was dark. Cold. There was no light to be seen for miles and miles. It was as if light was not permitted to enter this rayless abyss. No light meant no hope. No chance of survival or escape. This was to be his eternal damnation. The ground beneath him came to life. It began crawling up his legs, wrapping around his ankles and dragging him down. Nico fought it. He tried to move or run, but he was tied down. Nico frantically searched for his sword, but could not find it. Fear and panic began swelling up inside of him. His body began trembling. His breathing became uneven and erratic. His heart was beating a mile a minute. The thick darkness that surrounded him seemed to be coming closer to him. It was suffocating him. The putrefying stench of blood grew in intensity. Nico's nose burned from the foul odor. Like someone had poured bleach down his nose. Nico covered his mouth and nose with his hands, but it didn't help. Nothing could stop the overwhelming stench from assaulting his senses. To make matters even worse, his skin was beginning to dry up and crack from the boiling atmosphere. Nico hadn't noticed, or even payed attention to it, at first. But now, he noticed and felt every crack and peel of his skin. The sudden dryness of his throat. He squeezed his eyes shut, but that did nothing to stop the darkness from creeping up on him. No matter if his eyes were open or shut, the shadowy darkness would coil around him. Nico could not hope to escape it. It would always be there. Waiting. Watching Nico tremble with abject terror. The darkness mocked him. The shadows toyed with him. A child of Hades, afraid of the dark. How pathetic. It was truly pathetic. Nico hated himself, but there was nothing he could do. It was absolute torture.

Then, a miserable cry echoed throughout the area.

Nico froze. The hairs on the back of his neck stood straight up. A chill ran down his spine as his heart beat suddenly stopped, then started back up again. In front of him, a purplish, smoky figure manifested in front of him. The darkness that surrounded Nico began to clear up in front of him. When he was finally able to see who it was, his heart stopped. Literally.

It was Akhlys. The Goddess of Misery.

Nico was so terrified, he wasn't even shaking. He was frozen. Not a single muscle was moving. His heart was not beating. He was not breathing. The ground continued to eat up his legs, already at his knees. He couldn't do anything except stare at the Protogenos of misery and poison, herself, Akhlys. Nico feared this woman more than anything else in the world. Just the sight of her made Nico's stomach drop. He clenched his chest when his heart refused to pump oxygen and blood throughout his body. His chest started to constrict. Nico curled in on himself in immense pain. Panic swelling and overflowing inside of him. There was nothing he could do except to stare at his worst nightmare. Akhlys' blood-shot, sunken eyes bore into the depths of Nico's soul, searching for any signs of misery, pain, and suffering. And by the way her cracked, bleeding lips curved up into a grief-stricken smile, it seemed she had found plenty to satisfy her.

Akhyls looked like a victim of famine. Her emancipated body was covered in her Death Mist. It shrouded her entire frame, and seeped out towards Nico. Her bleeding nose, and bloody crimson clawed cheeks dripped with blood onto her tattered dress. Her stringy, gray hair was matted. Her teeth were chattering with her constant weeping, and her swollen knees shook. They were weak and unable to keep her form standing upright. Her long nails clawed at her already bloody cheeks. That action made Akhlys look like the over-dramatic, yet the insanely more creepier version of The Scream's mother. Nico would have slightly chuckled at the little humorous thought, but there wasn't enough air in his laughs to laugh. Correction, there was no air in his lungs to laugh. He was already waist deep into the ground when Akhlys finally began to speak.

"My, if it isn't the son of Hades. It has been awhile, hasn't it?" Her dejected voice echoed throughout the silent abyss. Another chill racked his body. He still couldn't manage to suck in a single breath. His heart remained still. Yet, he was still standing. He was still alive. He could still hear, feel, smell, and see. But he couldn't breath. Nico felt no life within himself, or in the area around him. Nico desperately tried to free himself from the sentient ground that threatened to engulf him, but to no avail.

'What the hell is going on?!' Nico screamed in his mind.

Akhyls laughed at seeing Nico struggle with himself. "You must be wondering why you're still alive, correct?" Nico stilled at Akhyls' question. He didn't look up at her. He kept his eyes glued to his own body, or what was left visible of his body. The majority of it had already sunk into the fleshy earth beneath him.

"You heart has stopped beating. You have stopped breathing. Yet, you are still standing. Conscious and aware. How is that possible?" Akhlys asked. Nico knew it was a rhetorical question. Akhlys knew the answer. She was just messing with him, and that infuriated and frightened him at the same time. She seemed more...boisterous then usual. Or more so since the last time he saw her.

"I have all of the answers you are seeking. But I can't tell you, unless you look at me." She tempted Nico. Her bone chilling, gut wrenching voice made Nico physically sick. Or maybe it was the fact that this area or room he was in smelled like a freshly dug up graveyard. Or maybe it was because of the living ground that was eating him up. Either way, Nico could not take it.

"Don't you want to know why you've become a living corpse? A fitting description for a child of Hades, don't you think?" She questioned again. Nico's chest constricted tighter after hearing that.

A living corpse.

Children of Hades were always made fun of as being vampires, or ghosts. But living corpse...that fitted the image perfectly. Nico was a child out of his time. He interacted more with the dead, than he did with the living. He was hollow, cold, and alone. Tartarus made sure to perfect that. His soul was shattered. His mind was deranged. Nico always had this sense of never belonging. People feared him. Looked down upon him. Or they never looked at him at all. They would look passed him. Like he wan't even there. Invisible. Like a ghost. Even his half-sister, Hazel, was a girl out of her time. She had already died, but Nico brought her back to life. She was practically a living corpse, as well. Even though they had a beating heart, and a conscious mind, people still feared them. That's just the given norm for children of Hades. Nico could never find the right words to describe himself. Now, Akhyls gave him the perfect description of what he actually was.

"Come, son of Hades. Look at me with your sorrowful eyes. You are so full of misery. So full of hate, and demise that there is nothing more I can do with you. You are a perfect sufferer. It makes me proud." Akhyls all but purred, melancholic happiness heavy in her voice. Nico was sure he was going to throw up then.

"Look at me, son of Hades. If you think you are in a horrible situation, you are wrong. You haven't seen nothing yet. I can make your worst fear come to life. Come, let me see just how much misery and suffering you have in you." Akhyls called out. Like Nico would fall for it. He didn't doubt Akhyls' words, but he couldn't think of anything she could do to make the situation worse. He was already mid-waist deep into the ground, his body colder than ever, and his head was killing him. The rancid odor was making his head spin. Like someone had whacked him in the back of the head with a sledgehammer. He had gotten use to not breathing, and his heart not beating. Just like how a corpse would.

"If you don't believe me, look and see. I'm sure I can surprise you." The temptation was gnawing at Nico. For some damn reason, his head would move to look up at her. His eyes wanted to see what she was going to show him. His mind wanting to find out what she was planning. His curiosity be dammed! He wasn't going to look. Nothing she says or does will make him look.

"You are quite the stubborn one, Nico di Angelo." Another chill racked his body as she said his name. It still wasn't enough to make him look, though.

"Look at me, deathboy."

Nico froze. His body became stiff, like a statue. Akhyls' voice changed, suddenly. It became more masculine. It sounded like a voice Nico knew all to well. A voice Nico could never get tired of hearing. A voice he loved. What made it worse, was the nickname that voiced spoke. It was the nickname a certain person gave to Nico. Nobody else called Nico that...except...

Nico dared himself to look up at her.

He instantly regretted it.

Where Akhyls should have been stood the one person Nico never wanted to see in a place like this. Akhyls' body remained the same. It was her face that had changed. It had morphed into a boyish face. A face Nico would die a million times over to see. But this wasn't that face. Not in the same condition, at least. This face was pale, unbelievable so. One eye was hanging out of it's socket. Skin rotting and decaying, to the point you could see bone. Lips scorched and burned off. Blood and dirt matted in disheveled blonde hair. Blood dripping out of it's nose, and gushing out of the eye that was dangling out of it's socket. The one eye that remained intact had a faded blue color to it. There was no light in it. No warmth or acceptance. The two things that kept Nico bounded to this earth. The two things he desperately relied on. The two things he foolishly fell in love with. That blank, cold eye stared back at him. And this time, there was no life in it.

'No...' Nico thought, tears forming in his eyes. 'Not him...'

Anyone but him.

The face stared back at Nico. It's mouth opened up, and a shrieking cry erupted out of it. Nico covered his ears. He did not want to hear that cry because he never wanted to hear that voice scream out like that. Akhyls was right. This was his worst nightmare. He couldn't take this. A voice invaded his mind.

"Look at me, Nico." It said, in his voice.

Nico looked back up at the decaying face of Will Solace.

Nico woke up with a scream