Don't Fade Away: A Solangelo Fanfiction 2

Chapter 43: The Oracles

Nico stared at the piece of paper in his hand and read it over and over. If you didn't count the last time they saw each other in person, this was the last thing Jason had ever said to him. The last words being, "I'll see you next summer!" Which of course was a lie. At least that didn't sting as much as Jason's last words to him in person.

"Never forget, I'm always here for you." Bullshit. People shouldn't say things like that when they don't even know what's going to happen. Like how Nico shouldn't have made Percy promise to protect Bianca.

Nico stared at the picture in his hand. It was the one that was taken after Nico had won Capture the Flag. Jason was standing right next to him, looking so proud.

Nico didn't even realize he was crying again until Will gave him a tissue.

How did this even happen? Nico was doing fine. He actually felt happy, for once. He was going to tell Will that he loved him. But in the blink of an eye, Jason was dead. His happiness snuffed out. Again.

Why when he felt himself getting better?

Will apparently knew what he was thinking.

"Nico, it's okay. Eventually, you'll get better again. It might take a long time, but that's okay."

"No, I won't. This was my chance to get better. After everything that has happened to me, I got another chance to be happy. But apparently the fates don't want me to be happy. I'm destined to be sad and broken forever."

"That's not true. I know this is probably not what you want to hear right now, but you can get through this. I know you can. It might take a long time, but I know that eventually you will get better again. But you don't need to worry about getting better right now. Right now you just have to get by, day by day. Hour by hour. Minute by minute. Just let yourself grieve."

Nico tried to wipe his tears away, but it was no use. "It's really hard to not feel like all of this work on getting me better wasn't a waste. Because I feel like I'm back at square one."

Will held Nico's shaking hand. "But Nico, you're not back to square one. Don't you realize? There's other things you've accomplished that don't change even though you had yet another bad thing happen to you. You've let people into your life and stayed at Camp. You got over Percy. You're in, what I would say, a pretty healthy relationship." Nico snorted at that. "I mean, you're way more comfortable in your sexuality than when we first started dating. You even call me your boyfriend! There's so many things you've overcome."

Nico set the piece of paper down on his nightstand so that he wouldn't get any more tears on it. "Will, I felt happy. I mean yeah, there were still sad undertones. Some days were worse than others. But even then, I hadn't felt that happy in a long time. You make me genuinely happy. Now, you have to start all over with me. I don't want to be any more of a burden."

"Hey, healing isn't linear. There may be times when you feel better, and times where you don't. And you will never be a burden. Ever. So don't you ever think that. A burden is something you are forced to carry, something that weighs you down. Something you typically don't want. That is literally the exact opposite of how I feel about you, and how I view this situation. So please don't think you're a burden. You'll never be a burden."

The next few days, Nico didn't leave his cabin once. He didn't want to face everyone else. He didn't want their pity, their condolences. And anyways, he just didn't feel like getting up.

The only times Nico got out of his bed was to go to the bathroom or to shower. Other than that, Nico didn't even know if he physically could leave his bed.

He was always staring off into the distance. There would be times when he wouldn't talk or move for hours, and just be looking far away.

The gaping hole wouldn't go away. If anything, it seemed like it was getting bigger, like it would swallow him whole. The only thing that made it a tiny bit easier was Will.

When Will was sitting in the cabin with him, Nico asked how many days it had been since he had been outside.

"Well, it was already early morning when your ears started ringing. It was already basically April 1st then. It's April 9th now."

"Really? It's already been that long? You're telling me I've been laying in here for over a week?"

"Don't worry about it, nothing really exciting has happened around here in the past week."

Just then, there was a knock on the door. "Can I come in?" A feminine voice asked. "It's Rachel. I have some news, but I can come back later."

"You can come in." Nico said loudly.

Rachel opened up the door. She was holding 3 paintings. She set them all down.

"Hey, sorry to bother you." She said.

"No, it's okay." Nico replied.

"I wanted to tell you guys that 2 more of the Oracles have been freed. One was the day after the...the meteor shower, and the other was yesterday."

"Looks like I was wrong. I guess exciting stuff did happen." Will commented.

Rachel shifted her weight. "The first one that was freed was the Oracle of Erythraea. The other was the Oracle of Cumae. The paintings here are the glimpses I got when they were freed."

She lifted up one, and it looked like there was a line of ships. Another was flames in a maze. The last one was a funeral pyre.

Nico pointed at the last one. "Is...is that for Jason?"

She nodded. "I'm pretty sure."

Nico tried to ignore the fresh wave of pain that looking at the painting gave him. "That looks like Camp Jupiter. Looks like they all know. I bet Apollo is there."

"Well, that means he's safe." Will said.

"Do you think he was with Jason when he...." Nico said.

Rachel bit one of her nails. "I think he was. It makes sense."

"I wonder when he'll be back." Nico wondered.

"Yeah. But anyways, that's what I came here to say." She turned towards the door. "I'm sorry, by the way."

"Rachel." Nico called. She turned around. "You can stay if you want. Plus, I need you to paint my nails again."