I Don't Even Know What To Say

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Previously,

"D-Dad? Father? Why are we here? Tartarus is such an awful place. Why are we standing next to its opening?"

Hades didn't say anything. Nobody did.

"Now, Esperanza. You must realize that we're doing this for your own good. We have no benefit out of this by all means I say and-" said Zeus

"What are you all talking about?! Surely you don't mean-" Esperanza was glassy eyed and I realized what was about to happen next.

Hades pushed her. HADES, her own FATHER. MY father. 

No, Hades. Lord of the Underworld pusher her, not my dad.

He didn't even look remorseful.

I just covered my eyes. I wasn't ready or prepared for it. Her scream-

It was too horrible. I just covered my face and shifted closer to Will. I couldn't take it.

Meanwhile Esperanza just sat there. Emotionless. Looking at herself in plain sadness.

Everybody else just looked at the screen. Nobody could utter a single word. It just hit us in the face like a bullet train. We just sat there mindlessly processing what we just witnessed.

So that was how she ended up in Tartarus. She was betrayed by the only people she knew.

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Nico's POV:

Next scenes were again a montage of everything that happened to her in Tartarus.

No one, not even Percy and Annabeth or even Mr. D and Chiron could look at it without squirming. Monsters of all kinds, big and small, scary and terrifying to just downright disgusting and horrifying. All of them did horrible horrible things to her that I just- can't describe.

With each scream a piece of me just died on the inside because it was just too- painful.

Yeah. That's what it was, painful.

Annabeth couldn't even look straight at the torture she was going through in Tartarus. Mostly she just kept her head down in Percy's grip and screamed softly every time Esperanza wallowed in pain.

But Di Immortales, seeing Esperanza cry in the scene was just plainly disturbing. Because there was that one scene in which these Empousai were being too painful and disturbing her too much. And Esperanza was on her knees crying in pain and self-pity. Tears fell down her mud-stained cheeks and all she said was "Why" every time a whip landed on her back. And then, as she lay flat on the unforgiving ground, blood spilling out everywhere, she whispered the most horrible and blood-curdling thing I'd ever heard. Even I couldn't comprehend how one sentence could sound so painful.

"What did I ever do to you Father? What did I do to deserve this?"

And somehow it hurt like hell. Not just for me, but all the rest of the campers too.

That single sentence was laced with so much pain and regret and self-pity that I just sat there, tears leaving my eyes before I could even stop them.

It all ended with us and Esperanza Vapour Travelling out of Tartarus and ending up on Half-Blood Hill.

And I kid you not, nobody could speak about anything they saw. We were all too dumbfounded.

Then Esperanza got up, still looking as emotionless as ever and walked up to the front.

"So umm... Yes. That was my life in Tartarus and with the Olympians. Any questions? No? Please fellow demigods, say something!" she asked with a sad little smile.

All I can tell you was we were all scowling at Chiron and Mr. D the entire time afterwards. I wish I could tell you of something heroic I did to help her after the experience she just shared with us.

I just- I got up. I walked over to her and- 

I hugged her. 

I knew I was still learning physical contact but it just felt right.

And she didn't object either. She just stood there- hands by her sides. She didn't know how to react.

Then the others joined in. Almost the ENTIRE CAMP had joined in on this ginormous bear-hug and stayed like that for about few minutes till we realized we weren't hugging Esperanza anymore- just thin air from where she was.

We all naturally panicked. Turns out her scream telling us to let her go was so muffed that she just decided to Vapour Travel and let us figure it out ourselves. We all quickly settled down after that.

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Sooo... 

No Cliff hanger this time

YAY!

I'm so happy to finally be back online here and post my story.

Bella Ciao loves 👋🏻

The Daughter of Hades~ By Bella HearthstoneWhere stories live. Discover now