I'mmmmm bacckkkkk! Vacation was kinda boring. And I had writer's block :P Sucks for me! But I start school tomorrow, and I decided to just get this chapter over with and move on with my life. Not the best, kinda rushed, but I'll probably go over it again later :P
Disclaimer: I don't own anythinggg :P
I was dead.
Or at least it seemed like I was. Dull, lifeless spirits crowded around me like they were moths and I was a bright flame. The overpowering, throbbing pain in my shoulder had completely disappeared. The River Styx ominously weaved through the land, assuring me that I was in fact in the Underworld.
Am I dead?
I hadn't realized I had said it out loud until I heard a response.
"No, you stupid boy. Why on earth would you be dead?" I whirled around, seeing the god of the Underworld himself, my oh-so-loving and compassionate father, Hades.
"Because I just got attacked and now I'm in the Underworld…What else could've possibly happened?"
"Did you ever consider your old man just wanted to have a nice conversation with you?" he asked, though it was obvious by the way he said it that that was not the reason I was in his presence.
"No." I shook my head, "I can honestly say I did not consider that."
He sighed dramatically. "Nico, why don't we take a walk, hm?"
Saying that having a conversation with Hades was awkward was an extreme understatement.
The man/god lacked something called social skills. While I was no social butterfly myself, I at least understood that while having a conversation with somebody, both people were required to talk.
"How's, uh, Cerberus doin'?" I asked in an attempt to break the awkward silence. All I received was a nod of Hades' head. "And your, um, wife, Persephone?" Another nod. I was about to ask him if he had ever considered putting a Taco Bell down there in the Underworld, when he ever so rudely interrupted my thoughts.
"Nico, let's cut the small talk." he said. We continued walking along the side of the Styx River, dangerously close to the edge, in my opinion. "You nearly ended up in an early grave in the middle of a quest. Do you think you would've been remembered highly for that? No. And I wouldn't have been thought of too highly either, Nico."
"Wait, what?"
"Do you think I want people to think of me and then go 'Hey, his idiot son got sliced up by some gross old gorgon for this girl he had a crush on'? Hmmmm Nico? You think that's what I want?" he questioned.
"No…?"
"Exactly. You're powerful, Nico. More powerful than you and your small teenage brain can understand at the moment. So don't go off and ruin your life for a girl, no matter how pretty or smart she may be. Understand?"
"Uh, I guess." I didn't really, but the last thing I wanted was to be lectured by Hades again.
"Good!" The small smile he showed seemed foreign on his face. "Now, you may go."
"Go?" I asked, "I don't even know how I got here!"
He sighed again. "I had my pet Pegasus kidnap you and bring you down here so I could have some quality time with my son."
"Really?" I didn't know Hades had a pet Pegasus…
His familiar cold stare was back. "No. You're dreaming."And with a snap of his fingers, I was gone, but even as the scenery of the Underworld was replaced by a field of darkness I could hear my father's voice as he let out a humorless laugh and said "Don't get too excited about leaving; you'll be back sooner than you expect."
(Hi. My name is Robert and I am here representing a line. It's so very nice to meet you.)
I woke up on a train.
No, not one of those plush, comfortable trains that we were rudely kicked off of a day or two ago. I was in some kind of cargo car, with crates stacked upon crates all over the small area.
As I slowly gaining consciousness, I was hit with a blast of pain coming from my arm. Groaning, I shifted my body, and ended up hitting into someone (which seemed to induce some more pain).
"Nico! You're awake!"
I tried to say something along the lines of "Yes, I'm awake; and even with these deep gashes on my arm, I still manage to be incredibly good looking. That takes some serious skill, don't you think?" but instead it came out more like "Mmmmbeelejuggg".
"Is he awake?" asked another voice.
I tried to talk again, but that time it came out sounding even worse (if that was even possible).
"Good; now, punch him for nearly giving us all a heart attack!" said the same voice.
"I can't punch him; he just got attacked by a monster!" complained another from my side.
The pain in my shoulder had felt immensely better, but I was strangely exhausted and quite frankly I just wanted everybody to shut up so I could go back to sleep. I attempted to wave them away with my hand, but instead it just looked like I was having a small seizure.
The zealous brunette sat in front of me. "Look, we don't want to scare you considering you just passed out for 7 hours after getting mauled by a gorgon, but on top of that we're pretty sure that gorgon was walking around in something not-so-sanitary and your wound is totally infected.
I groaned. Of course it was infected. Just my luck.
"But no worries! Because Doctor Hailey is here and she's gonna make your boo-boo all better!"
And so after a few painful minutes of her clenching my arm and chanting while "healing" me, the wound was officially less infected.
Yay.
The next few hours were really, really exciting.
Really exciting.
I dozed in and out of sleep (though luckily I didn't return to the Underworld again), nearly cried a few times, had nectar and ambrosia shoved down my throat (literally) and was stuck in the back of a moving train the whole time. Sounds exhilarating, right?
But fortunately, after all that work, I was actually feeling better. And guess what? I was finally able to form full sentences without either grimacing in pain or wanting to pass out from the effort.
Hooray for Nico!
Soon the light creeping in through the opening in the car door began to fade, and eventually dimmed down until there was only darkness left. I preferred it that way; it was peaceful, and the familiar darkness was strangely comforting to me.
Sitting there, only being able to see each other in the light from Hailey's emergency light (after all, she was terrified of the dark), we made small talk.
Actually, they made small talk while I sat there and wondered what possessed me to take the sarcastic blonde's blow instead of just politely sitting off to the side. It could be that I was secretly madly in love with her, but didn't realize it yet. Or it could be that I would never hear the end of it from Annabeth if she died, or got as much as a scratch on her.
Yeah, that was probably it.
Hailey nudged me. "Hey, Nico."
"What?"
She giggled. "I have some good news for you."
"Care to share?"
"It's an old Chinese custom that if you save someone's life, they'll love you forever. Ya know, if you know what I mean…" She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, but before she could say more a fist came out of nowhere and hit her arm. "Ow! Jeez, you should go into boxing or something with that arm!"
"If you don't shut up I will throw you out of this train covered in barbeque sauce and leave you for the wolves, understand?" Jill commented more seriously than one would expect.
Hailey, most-likely used to these verbal threats, just sat back and smiled. "That's quite unlikely." she said.
Jill looked taken back. "What? You don't think I'll throw you off of the train? Because I wi-"
"No," interrupted her friend, "I totally believe that, but where do you expect to get enough barbeque sauce to completely cover me? I mean, come on. That's not gonna happen."
"You're ridiculous." commented Isabella as she stalked to the other side of the train car.
"I'm just predicting the inevitable romance that will- OW!" I watched as the two girls wrestled and Jill reached for the latch on the door of the car. "No, Jill! Seriously! I'm sorry! Don't open the door!" pleaded Hailey.
Jill took this as an acceptable apology, and stopped attacking her friend. After the blonde retreated back against a wall and began to glare at her friend, Hailey rubbed her arm where Jill had hit her and muttered, "Jeez, you're so violent. I don't know why Nico is in love with you…"
I finally realized I should probably be participating in this conversation, so I added in, "I'm not in love with her!"
"You don't have to hide it! It's okay!" blurted out Riley from the corner. He seemed to be having a wonderful time; he was rocking back and forth from laughter as his face turned red.
"I'm not hiding anything!" I defended.
"Except for your mysterious dark past and your secret love for Jill, right?" questioned Hailey, leaning forward excitedly until she was practically sitting on me. She sounded as if she were interviewing a character from her favorite soap opera.
I scooted away from her. "Uh, no?"
"Uh, yes." she remarked.
"Look," I explained, "I'm just naturally a really heroic person. I mean, saving kittens from trees and catching thieves who steal old ladies' bags are like two of my favorite things to do. So when a damsel in distress-"
"I was not in distress!" shouted out Jill.
"Yes you were." I quickly replied, "Back to my story, when a damsel in distress was standing right next to me, what other choice did I have but to save the day like always?"
"Oh, like you were helping anyone. I would've been fine." Jill crossed her arms over her chest stubbornly.
"You would've been diced into a million pieces, then piled into a taco shell and eaten for dinner!" I yelled back at her.
Isabella commented from the other side of the car as she read her book on ancient civilizations. "Harpies don't eat tacos, you idiot."
"Santa Claus isn't real, you idiot." I counteracted.
The girl's jaw dropped. "What? TAKE THAT BACK!" cried out the little girl. "Jill! He's just being stupid, right? Isn't he lying, Jill? Tell him he's a big fat ugly liar!" she screamed.
By this point Riley was rolling around on the floor, tears running down his face as he clutched his sides laughing.
Jill looked like she couldn't think of a right answer. "Uh, we'll talk about this later, Izzy."
"Jill!" cried her sister.
The older girl sighed and held her hand to her head. "Hailey, why don't you take Izzy into the next car? It's getting late; we should all be getting to bed." Isabella looked like everything that she ever knew in her life had just turned out to be a lie.
"Sure thing!" enthusiastically shouted Hailey. She grabbed the young girl's hand. "Come on, Izzy. Your best gal pal Hailey is gonna tell you a bedtime story."
"I don't want a-"
"There once was a beautiful princess named Princess Hailey. She was the daughter of King Apollo, who was definitely the most awesome of all kings. One day, Princess Hailey was outside singing a lovely song, when all creatures, big and small, crowded around to hear her mellifluous voice." She continued the story as she opened the door that led to another car. Dragging Izzy along with her, the story faded out until we (thankfully) couldn't hear it anymore.
When they had gone, it was just Riley, Jill, and I left in the car.
After a short moment of silence, Jill leaned over and smacked me.
"Hey! You said you weren't gonna hit me!" I complained.
"That was before you had even opened your mouth. If you're healthy enough to be arrogant and sarcastic, you're definitely healthy enough to be punched." She argued. "Plus, you totally just ruined my little sister's childhood." While her expression was hard, her voice held hints of laughter.
She was nearly out the door when she turned around and faced me again.
"One more thing…" she said hesitantly as she walked back towards me.
Defensively I scooted back closer to the wall. "Don't even try to kick me, Jill." I warned her.
To my surprise, she leaned over and quickly kissed me on the cheek. "Thanks, for… you know." With this, she hurried out of the cart, leaving me dazed and confused. I could feel a blush creeping up my neck and my face felt like it was a thousand degrees within seconds.
"Duddee," stated Riley from the other side of the cart as he nodded his head approvingly, "That was…unexpected."
Yes. That was unexpected.
(Esta es una línea)
"You have got to be kidding me." I found myself saying the next morning as Hailey tried to convince me to jump out of the train and onto the hard dirt below. When we had gotten on the train (which I didn't remember, considering I was unconscious, slumped over Riley's shoulder) Hailey had overheard the conductor saying it was only a day long drive; which meant they would be unloading the train that day and I'm sure they wouldn't be so understanding if they found five teenagers hitching a ride in one of the cars. Which left us two options: get caught and go to jail, or jump out and take our chances with the wilderness.
Hailey continued trying to convince us. "It's quick, and there's a 50% chance you'll be totally unharmed besides a few bruises and scratches!"
"And what's the other 50%?" asked Riley.
"Oh, nothing too horrible." she said nonchalantly, "Ya know, that you'll break a few bones, get your skin rubbed against the gravel until you're unrecognizable as a human being, get pulled under the train wheels and flattened like a pancake, or possibly hit your head and die on impact with the ground."
"Oh, yes, none of those are too horrible." Jill commented. While all morning she had stayed cool and collected, I had began to blush every time I looked at her. It was ridiculous, considering she had kissed me on the cheek last summer. Then again, I hadn't seen her for a year after that.
"Glad to know you understand! Now, ready?" asked Hailey happily.
I looked at her. "Are you serious? We're seriously doing this?"
"Yeah! Come on! It'll be fun! A great story to tell your kids!" She had such a persuasive tone in her voice that if she asked me to eat a jar of nails because it would make me seem manly I probably would've considered it.
"You mean the time this psychopathic girl forced me to jump off of a train when my arm was cut open and severely infected?" I asked.
"No, the time this really amazing girl saved your sorry butt by helping you travel across the country for free!" she punched my shoulder in a friendly matter.
I rolled my eyes. "Oh yeah, silly me." And before I could say anything else, the girl had jumped out of the train, tumbled a little, stood up, and then cheered as she jumped up and down, urging us on.
And so, one by one, we jumped off of the train, finding safety in the dirt and grass that lay below. Dirt stained our shirts and we all had a few scratches, but we were relatively unharmed just as Hailey predicted. Hearing the train zoom past us and seeing the sparks as the wheels rolled along the track made me cringe when I thought what would've happened if one of us was pulled under. I don't think my father would appreciate it much if my death was due to clumsily falling in the path of a train and being crushed.
"So," Jill asked as she lazily traced her name in the dirt, "what now?"