fix you - solangelo

Chapter 14

Nico woke up sweating after having multiple nightmares, mostly about Tartarus. He shuddered and squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block out the horrible memories.

He shook his head, refocusing. He had to figure out a way to get out of here. Maybe when Kakoa came back, he could try to push past her as she was coming in. He wasn't worried about his strength. Kakoa looked like a regular woman, aside from the pointed teeth and scary eyes, and she was wearing heels, so Nico had a feeling she wouldn't be able to fight him off so easily.

He struggled to his feet and stood by the door, ready for when Kakoa came in.

.

Will, Percy, and Reyna had woken up early the next morning and moved quickly, and because of this, were only about an hour away, Percy said. To Will, the hour was feeling like a year.

They finally reached the subway entrance, which had a piece of yellow tape over it that read: CAUTION: UNDER CONSTRUCTION.

"Well, this is it." Percy took out Riptide and uncapped it, twirling the sword around.

Will swallowed and ducked under the tape. He paused on the first step, waiting for Percy and Reyna, and looked into the dimness below, where it was eerily silent. Will never had liked silence.

They descended warily into the train station, which, Will thought, was rather hot. As they reached the bottom of the stairs, Percy spoke.

"It seems abandoned," he said, looking around.

"Yes," Reyna agreed. "We should be ready to fight, though."

As if it was summoned by her words, a troll lumbered out if the shadows and roared at them.

"Schist!" Percy said loudly. He turned to Will. "Go find Nico, we'll try to hold off the troll."

Will nodded mutely and dashed towards the tunnel the troll had just exited.

.

Nico was getting impatient. By his count, it had been at least a half hour since he woke up, and no Kakoa. He had tried yelling and pundit on the door (with the little strength he had) to try to get her to come to him, but either she hadn't heard or didn't care. He groaned and rolled his eyes at the ceiling.

And, in that moment when he was distracted, Kakoa came in and took hold of his arm. He tried to pull away, but she was surprisingly strong. Her fingernails dug deeper into his arm as she felt him struggling.

The woman began to pull Nico after her, leading him down the length of a train station, towards a door cut into the wall of the train tunnel.

"I can walk on my own," Nico snapped, trying to shake Kakoa off of him.

"Well, fine," she replied, letting go off him. "Be that way. But don't you dare  try to escape. We only need you alive, not unharmed."

Nico said nothing, only continued to follow her. They climbed down a series of iron rungs built into the wall, crossed the train tracks, and climbed back up to the other side.

Kakoa put her hand on the doorknob and smiled at Nico. "You're going to meet my friends now. Behave yourself."

She opened the door and Nico, unwillingly, stepped inside.

From the outside, it had looked like a simple maintainance room, but it was bigger on the inside than it was on the outside.

The room was circular, about 200 feet in diameter, and dimly lit with red light. Blood red light, Nico found himself thinking. In the center of the room was a raised dais, on which was a stake and a table holding a large, shiny knife. However, that wasn't what worried Nico.