Friends With Mental Issues (Percy Jackson Fanfiction)

Special Chapter #3

Hazel screamed, reaching out to her mother, but it was too late. The ice falling from the quickly deteriorating ceiling had covered her mother from view. There was a sickening crack and the sound of a body hitting the icy floor. Hazel whimpered, dropping to her knees. Her panicked golden eyes looked up at the ceiling littered with cracks, feeling helpless as more and more cracks started to appear, beautiful ice crystals dropping around her and sticking to her wild hair. And then the ceiling fell.
~~~
She heard a steady beeping beside her. Hazel was aware that she was lying on something somewhere between being comfortable and not, and that she was wearing a dress made out of strange fabric. Someone's hand was ghosting across hers, almost as if the person was afraid to touch her.
Finally, the hand made a decision, gripping hers tightly. The fingers were cold, and Hazel involuntarily shivered. Almost instantly, the hand retracted.
Hazel opened her eyes, looking into a bright stark white room, and shifted slightly. The person she guessed had been holding her hands sucked in a breath. her eyes shifted to look at the strange mechanical machine that was making the beeping noise, which she realized was beeping in time with her heartbeat.
Her eyebrows furrowed, her mind trying to make sense of what was happening. after a moment, she finally shifted her gaze to the person who was sitting by the bed she was laying in. He was young, with dark circles under his eyes. He had jet black curly hair, pale skin, and dark clothes. Who's this scrawny kid?
Slowly, Hazel started to remember what had happened. Her and her mother had been in Alaska, stuck on an island mostly made of ice after their small boat had crashed. They'd gone deeper into the island glacier, which had turned out to be a mistake. The ceiling had started to collapse, trapping her and her mother within.
"I'm alive," Hazel said softly, still looking at the boy. "My mother. Where is she? Is she dead?" The boy stared at Hazel's hand, then took it, his icy fingers giving Hazel the answer to her questions. Her mother hadn't made it out of the island glacier.
Tears gathered in her eyes, and it was suddenly hard to breathe. She gasped for breath, her chest heaving with the effort. Her mother was gone. Dead. Trapped in an icy grave, just like Hazel should've been.
"I'm sorry," the boy said, gripping her hand, "I'm so, so sorry."
~~~
Hazel learned that the boy's name was Nico. He had found Hazel and her mother, but she found that no matter how many times she asked how, he never told her. He rarely talked, and when he did, he seemed to be forcing himself. Hazel enjoyed spending time with him.
The doctors said she was fine physically, but there was something wrong with her brain. Something that made her think that she'd been born in the 1920s and had been brought back to life. They called it schizophrenia.
"There's a place I know of that can help," Nico said one day, surprising her. He rarely ever initiated conversations.
"Help with what?" Hazel asked. He gave her a look, like it should be obvious. And it was, Hazel thought, her cheeks flushing. "Oh."
"Are you coming, too?"
Nico shrugged, looking out the hospital window. "Maybe. Maybe not. I'm not sure yet." Hazel looked at the boy she considered to be like a brother with worry, her eyes trailing his sunken cheeks to the purple-black circles under his eyes.
"You should."
He didn't say anything in response, just continued staring out the window, though Hazel knew there was no view. just the brick wall of the building next to this one. But Nico stated as if there was something more to see.
"You'll meet people there. People who'll take care of you and love you more than I could. It'll be good for you." She wondered if Nico had meant to say that, or if it had just slipped out. He never talked about his feelings.
"I'll go," she said, seeing Nico nod slightly to himself. "As long as you promise to come with me, or at least come to visit. I want you to become better, too." Hazel wanted him to say that he promised, but he didn't. He didn't say anything, in fact. instead he turned to look at her, a small and sad smile pulling at his lips.
The smile he gave her that day never left her mind, not her nightmares, even when Nico came to stay at the facility. Perhaps it was so haunting because the smile made it seem like Nico thought he had no hopes of getting better.