Misery Loves Company

Praying to the Dark

A/N Sorry its a short one today!

Will scuttled back more frantically now, wishing he had taken a weapon after all, he would take a curse over being eaten any day. Maybe he'd just get cursed to speak rhyme for a week? He tried not to think about the cruelty of the curse Nico was suffering.

The Arai inhaled deeply and its eyes narrowed at him, "You smell of the son of Hades, little demigod. Tell me where he is and I will let you live."

"What do you want with him?" Will demanded, still crawling backwards. His heart stopped when he felt his back meet a solid wall. Shit. Shit. Shit.

"My mistress has been searching for him for many years now. He has managed to evade us, pesky demigod, but now she will have him once more."

"Once more?" Will kept the beast talking as he searched his surroundings. There was a shed a few feet away, the door ajar. Possibly one of the emergency weapon caches, he really wished he had paid attention to the map of where they were located when it was announced a few years back. If he could distract the Arai, slow it down, maybe he could get inside and hide at best case scenario, worst case he'd at least have a weapon to fight with.

"They have met before you see, he was to be her Champion. So perfect he was, and then he returned to the surface. He fell in love-" The Arai spat out, "He was ruined and now she will make him perfect once more."

What the fuck was going on?

"But that doesn't matter right now, no I will find Death's Angel after I am finished with you." The Arai laughed, marching up to Will with a greedy gleam in its eyes.

Will threw out his hand, summoning a bright ball of light which flew toward the Arai's face causing it to cry out as it was temporarily blinded.

"Curse you son of Apollo, I will make you pay for that." The Arai hissed but Will was already moving, pushing himself up and sprinting for the shed. Throwing the door open and shutting it hastily behind him, sticking a spear through the handle to hold the door closed buying himself at least a few seconds.
He had been right, the shed contained various imperial gold weapons, none of which he was particularly confident using. He grabbed a sword off the rack, knowing that a dagger was too short range and he didn't have any training with a spear. He had hoped for a bow but was unsurprised by its absence, the legion had very few archers.

The Arai slammed its weight against the door, and Will heard the sound of wood splintering. He could barely see in the darkness of the shed, but he knew the door wouldn't hold the Arai for long. Will readied his fighting stance, there was nothing to hide behind so he would have to risk fighting the Arai, but he tried to remain hopeful. Perhaps Nico's lessons would come back to him?

Another slam against the door had it flying open, the spear he'd placed fractured in half. When the Arai saw him, he had his weapon in hand and was lowered into what he hoped looked like a combat stance.

"Come on little demigod, you cannot kill me, lay down your weapon and greet your death." It crowed.

"Like Hades I will." Will brandished his sword, murmuring a prayer to Apollo just in case.

The Arai leapt forwards with shocking speed, clawing at his already wounded shoulder, making him scream in blinding pain. Another strike had him falling to his knees, sword still gripped in his hand but without the strength to lift it.

The monster opened its mouth to speak again, probably to brag or give the typical villain monologue only to be tossed aside by a tentacle of pure shadow. The Arai crashed into the wall of the shed.

"Hey Nico, nice of you to join in." Will said breathily, his vision blurring. The shadow tentacle wrapped itself tightly across his bleeding clavicle acting as a temporary bandage.

"So it is you that he protects, Son of Apollo. I shall take you both to my Mistress then, she will be most pleased." The Arai untangled itself from the weapons and debris which had collapsed on it, stalking forwards. But the darkness around Will thickened, swirling like a hurricane

"I'll find you, Angel of Death. See you soon." The Arai cackled and with that Will was shadow travelled away.

Darkness.

Shadows.

Cold.

Then, Will found himself slamming down onto his apartment floor.

End Notes: Bit of a short chapter but I hope you enjoyed it all the same.

For those of you who are enjoyers of Badass Will, don't worry he'll get his moments in this fic eventually. But right now he's actively bleeding from an artery so...yeah.