A/N The song referenced in this chapter is My Immortal by Evanescence. It's beautiful; I recommend you go look it up on YouTube if you haven't heard it.

For now, at least, this is the ending. If a lot of people review asking for this to continue, I might add more chapters, but for now, it's over. I hope you like the ending.

Chapter Five: Leaving Camp

A little before sunset I was walking back from the infirmary. Nico stepped out of the shadow of a tree beside the path.

"Will?" he called.

I smiled slightly nervously. "Nico, hi."

He bit his lip. "Do you have a minute?"

"Of course," I said. "What is it?"

"I'm leaving," he stated.

"Leaving?" I asked. "For how long?"

"I don't know for sure," Nico said. "Two or three years."

"Years?" I squeaked. "Why?"

"I don't- like camp," he said. "It's not for me."

"But why not?" I asked. "Camp is great, and everyone loves it here-"

"Not everyone," he said, cutting me off. "It's too bright, and I don't like having to live in close proximity to so many people. I'm going back to the Underworld."

I gave up on arguing. "I wish you'd stay," I said.

Nico swallowed slightly and stared up at me with those eyes that were so entrancing. I couldn't help it. I kissed him again. This time, he kissed back.

When we broke apart I whispered, "I love you."

"And I you," he whispered. "That's why I've been trying to stay away from you."

"What?" I asked.

"I can't stay here," Nico told me. "I can't live like this. All this does is hurt both of us. So I love you, and goodbye."

Nico walked toward the shadow of the Zeus Cabin.

"Wait!" I begged. "At least say you'll visit."

"You should move on to someone more normal," Nico said. His voice broke. "It'll be a clean wound. You can't hold on to me."

"Iris message me? Please."

He turned to look back at me. "I'm sorry." He faced away again. "Don't try to contact me. Try to heal."

"No," I said. "You can't just leave."

"I can."

I tried to grab his hand, but he was gone. All that was there were shadows.

"Please," I whispered, crying. "Please, please no."

The next three days passed in a blur. I can't remember a single thing that happened. When that time ended I tried to Iris message Nico. It wouldn't go through.

For months I tried to follow Nico's instructions. I tried to heal. I couldn't.

I was lying in my cabin, listening to My Immortal by Evanescence. That song made up my mind for me. The memory of Nico had poisoned camp. I couldn't stay here anymore.

Twenty minutes later I left. I didn't tell Chiron or any of my cabin mates. I just left.

My mother was dead, and I didn't have any other relatives I could try to find. All my friends were still at camp, so I wouldn't meet anyone I knew on my travels. I half hoped I might run into Nico, but he was probably still in the Underworld.

I could go to the Underworld entrance in Los Angeles and try to find him, I thought. Or I could just kill myself. It would be faster.

Hope that I might see Nico again, not in the land of the living, but at least while I was alive, kept me from just wanting to die.

Nico didn't stay with me because I was at camp and he couldn't stay there, I thought. Now I can't stay at camp any more than he could. What if we could stay somewhere besides camp together?

That idea sounded absolutely beautiful to me. I just wished I could talk to him and ask him.

I hitch-hiked to Los Angeles and tried to find the entrance to the Underworld. I couldn't. I don't know why it was so hard. Maybe it moved?

I gave up as soon as I had the start of another plan. I went back to New York to find the Door of Orpheus. I knew it was somewhere in Central Park, and I knew the shape of the rock formation. With that information it was difficult but not impossible to find the door.

I stole a cd player and found the song that had helped me decide to leave camp. For a child of Apollo, my singing is terrible. Unless I wanted to torture the rocks into opening, I needed the cd player.

My Immortal played gently over the speakers, and the Door opened.

The Underworld is the last place a child of Apollo would ever want to go. We live by the sun, and the dark makes us weak. As a small child the dark had been my greatest fear. Before I knew Nico, I could never have made myself walk down into the dark.

But Nico was the person I loved most in the world, and he was the embodiment of darkness. I still couldn't understand the darkness, but it didn't make me not want to go down there. The darkness in the tunnel seemed seductive, enthralling. I wanted to go down there and loose myself in that darkness. It seemed worth more than life.

So I went down into the darkness to Nico's father's kingdom.