𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐋𝐃 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐅𝐀𝐋𝐋

𝐍𝐈𝐂𝐎 𝐜𝐡𝟕|Falling for an Apollo kid

Disclaimers: These are not my characters or original ideas; they belong to Rick Riordan

Nico

Finally. They'd finally found a Labyrinth entrance. After wondering around New York aimlessly for a day, Rachel had said she'd sensed something.

"Took you long enough..." Clarisse muttered.
"Grow up! Gods, I'm so sick of you two and we haven't been on a quest for 24 hours yet! What's your problem with eachother anyway!" Will exclaimed.
Rachel rolled her eyes and brushed past Clarisse, completely ignoring her and Will, humming to herself.

We were in an alleyway by some trash cans in central New York. It was dark, but after Rachel shined a torch, we were certain that the mark we'd found on the wall was the mark of Daedalus. ∆

"Delta!" I grinned when I saw it.

"We need somewhere to sleep for the night - it'll be dark soon. Should we go in the Labyrinth first? We know where an entrance is now so we could find somewhere safe to sleep? We have a bit of money." Rachel asked.
"Yeah," I nodded. Let's get a hotel."
"Right choice, punk," Clarisse nodded.

___________

They arrived back outside the alleyway the following morning.
"Ready?" Rachel asked. I nodded. She touched the symbol and it glowed.

The bricks opened like double doors. The gap that must've been there before must've been seamless because I had not noticed it at all.

It revealed a deep dark hole. Rachel shone the torch and it revealed a stone corridor, a drop about 3 metres down. I saw that Clarisse was trembling.

Cautiously, the four of us jumped down and took in our surroundings. The last person to land was Clarisse and I felt the floor shake.

"Gods, calm down - I'm not that heavy, you stupid corridor," she muttered angrily. She began to walk and then stopped as a second thought. Then she did something unexpected.

She threw her spear, hard, at the floor. She yelled as she did, like she was taking out all of her anger on the stone corridor.

She picked it up and said "That was for Chris," and continued walking, her voice deadly quiet, her posture tense. Me and Will exchanged a look of concern and followed her.

The ground shook again. More viciously this time. I hesitated then shouted "Go, go!" as the floor collapsed the way we had come.

It was a ripple effect; the cobbled stone falling into an abyss below. They seemed to fall one after eachother, the floor disappearing beneath our feet. The way we had come completely collapsed.

We began to sprint. One long dark corridor. Shadow Travel, I thought. I need to get us out of here. But I needed to focus to shadow travel and I couldn't focus. Also, I didn't have anywhere to shadow travel to. I could've taken us to the surface, but then we might not find another entrance - the one behind us had collapsed. We ran and ran and ran.

Running.

Sprinting.

Desperately.

The corridor stretched on forever. I felt the stone come loose behind my feet. Suddenly, the walls shifted so that there was an opening to a big stone room ahead, which was dimly lit. We were about twenty metres away. We were going to make it. My luck might finally be turning around for once.

Maybe I wouldn't fail my own quest in record time after all.

But of course that's where it all went wrong.

Rachel and Clarisse were ahead - Will and I were close to the edge, which was creeping up to us, fast. Rachel and Clarisse made it to the room and stood waiting for us, yelling words of encouragement.

But then Will tripped on a loose cobble and flew forwards. He smashed his chin hard on the floor and I saw blood. He attempted to stand up but looked too dizzy.

Rachel screamed "NO!" and I saw Clarisse grab Rachel and hold her back.
"COME ON NICO, GET HIM QUICK!" The daughter of Ares yelled.
I grabbed Will's hand and tried to haul him up.
"Go!" the son of Apollo croaked.
But I wasn't going to. I looked into his eyes, they were pleading. Eyes like the sky, blue and bright, even though the only light was Rachel's torch. We locked eyes. We both fell into darkness.

I held onto Will, terrified that we'd separate. I attempted to focus. C'mon Nico, I whispered to myself. We were falling so fast. I think I was screaming, but I couldn't hear anything.

Falling

Falling.

Faster.

Forever.

"NICO!" I could hear Will scream, though he sounded a million miles away. I saw a stone floor under dim light, right below us. Soon we would've been pancakes.

My life flashed before my eyes.

I willed the shadows to grab me and Will, to envelop us and to go to the big room I'd seen before. Clarisse and Rachel, I pictured. And then we weren't falling anymore.

I smashed my head hard on the ground. I could hear sobbing and Will panting next to me. Dazed, I sat up. The world spun. I saw two blurry figures run towards us.

"Oh-my-gods-you-two-are-you-okay-you-made-me-so-scared-don't-you-dare-ever-do-that-again-" I heard Rachel say.

"I agree with her for once - you feelin' good?" Clarisse grunted. Will finally sat up and groaned.

"Nah, not really," he said. After being disoriented for so long, my vision began to clear. I realised I was still holding Will's hand. I blushed profusely and let go awkwardly.

Rachel laughed, "Let me find the ambrosia."

___________

"And being a medic is all I'm good at..." Will muttered, rubbing his head as Rachel cleaned the cut on his chin. We sat down inside the room, eating KitKats and Ambrosia.
"Are you kidding me?" I said, "You're good at everything."
"Yeah, right," he said sarcastically but looked at me and smiled. I smiled back.

Clarisse walked over to us, hand on her spear.
"You're gonna wanna see this."