SolAngelo short story (post-war)

Chapter 3- Nightmares

Demigod dreams sucked. Demigod dreams sucked even more if said demigod happened to be Nico di Angelo. Memories of the dark abyss echoed painfully through his mind, but no images appeared. That was the worst part. Noises became louder and quieter as if whatever lurked was prowling in distance. Dream Nico's arms were like lead and his Styron iron sword seemed to weigh him down in the middle. He would dream travel away from the nightmares but even in the darkness of his dreams he could feel the thick atmosphere tugging at his soul as they began to fade into the shadows. They were the only times Nico was afraid of the dark. He would awake with a shout and his heart pounding in his chest. On the Argo II the room he was in would be pitch black and the fear remained strong in the forefront of his mind. Luckily the hum of the engine concealed his panic from the others. Here in the infirmary the orange artificial light gave him familiarity. He could see where he was and the clock ticking regularly on the wall was of great comfort as the echoes of his dream faded. Over the curtain rail the clock was visible mounted high on the wall; 01:30am, that sounded about right. Nico never slept for more than three hours at a time now days.

Unfortunately the thrum of the Argo II's engine was not present here and it was clear from the shuffling in the room by the door that Will had heard Nico's shout as he awoke. Nico struggled to breathe regularly and flinched irrationally when the curtain was pulled back revealing Will clad in a light blue T-shirt and a pair of black shorts, his feet completely bare.

The son of Apollo was at Nico's side in an instant and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Relax Nico it's only me, Will," he comforted.

Nico took deep breaths to get back to normal and placed his head in his hands sighing.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled weakly.

"Nothing to be sorry for," Will replied for the second time that day.

Will took his hand f the son of Hade’s shoulder and Nico immediately missed the comfort.

“I’m going to get a sleeping pill for you,” Will mentioned quietly.

“No!” Nico hadn’t meant to shout so loudly, “Please, I don’t-“ the distressed boy really didn’t want to admit he was afraid of going back to sleep.

Will’s face was soft and earnest. “It’s okay Nico; it will put you in a deep enough sleep that you won’t dream.” And with that he disappeared into the office.

The prospect of being in a deep sleep didn’t comfort Nico in the slightest. He had no doubt that the memories of the abyss no matter how deeply he was asleep and being in induced sleep would only mean that he would be unable to wake himself up. What if this time the shadows consumed him before he regained consciousness?

His contemplation was cut short when Will returned holding a syringe.

“I figured you wouldn’t want to swallow a pill after earlier so I bought it in liquid form so that I can inject it straight into your arm.”

Nico tried to shuffle urgently away from the blonde whom had worry etched on his face.

“Will, please. You don’t understand.”