Burning Alone

What Do I Do?

I walked out of the Hephaestus cabin, not really seeing my surroundings. I heard the shrieks of the children of Aphrodite and the archer's arrows hitting their target. I saw my brothers and sisters building their own projects and I heard the hammering of metal on metal.

I heard and saw all of this, but I didn't experience it. I wasn't there.

I kept on hearing Chiron's voice in my head, kept on seeing Rachel's sad eyes when she was telling me the prophecy. The prophecy that told me that I had to save my sister. The sister I thought was dead. The sister who I had mourned for...

And she was alive.

Rachel's words rang in my head, invading all my thoughts like poison:

"In the place of the dead your quest shall start,

Fire and darkness must keep heart,

To save the girl who has been kidnapped,

By the husband of someone you have trapped,

Encased inside a bejeweled cage,

You must tread carefully to avoid his rage,

Before the solstice you must seek,

Or the girls life will end in less then a week."

I didn't realize that I'd been walking down to the Hades cabin, my feet had just automatically taken me there, but when I looked up I saw the dark exterior of Cabin 13 and the chocked feeling I'd had in my throat just a moment ago began to ease slightly. I stopped just before I was outside the door and leaned against the cool wood of the cabin: my heart rate was faster then usual and I took a deep breath, clenching and unclenching my clammy hands.

I'd wanted to go out straight after Chiron had told me about the prophecy: I'd wanted to run out of camp and carry on running until I found the one person I'd missed so much it nearly tore me apart. But Chiron had stopped me, and told me that we needed time to sort out the quest: that we'd need time to decipher the prophecy. I'd been so mad my hands had burst into flames.

I took another deep breath and focused on my lungs expanding and contracting.

"Leo?" I heard a voice say. I snapped my head up and saw a pale, tall figure standing above me - Nico di Angelo. Nico had grown a lot taller after the battle, as had I, and he was now only slightly shorter then me. His dark hair had grown out and hung by his almost black eyes. Nico had become one of my friends. Maybe even my best friend.

And I had a crush on him.

"Hey..." I said, trying to be casual, but my voice broke. I winced at how awkward I was: seriously? I just want to seem attractive once in my life!

I knew that Nico was concerned about me: I mean, I hadn't even told anyone that I even had a sister. But the thing was I couldn't tell them. It hurt too much to tell them about my past, to relive those memories.

And this boy, this beautiful boy in front of me, standing over me with his concerned face, wanted to help me. He wanted to know if I was all right and he wanted to help. But I couldn't tell him that I was all right, because I wasn't. I couldn't think about anything else except my sister, my friend, the person I was supposed to have protected. Instead she'd been kidnapped and was staying somewhere.

Nico crouched down in front of me: "I think we've worked out the prophecy..."

"Wh-what?" I stuttered. Nico smiled and ran his long fingers through his hair, searching my eyes with his.

"Yeah. Annabeth, Hazel and me studied it for a while. So we know that line "In the place of the dead your quest shall start" means its in the underworld, we just weren't sure where. But then Annabeth connected one of the other lines: "By the husband of someone you have trapped"... she thinks it means-"

"Tartarus." I finished. The chocking feeling had come back and I turned away from Nico, dry heaving.

The final knowledge had finally slipped into place, like a missing piece of some sick, twisted puzzle. However my body rejected the idea of my sister being down there, in Tartarus, caged up for the past 11 years. I didn't want to accept it, I felt sick to my stomach. The overwhelming feeling of horror had pushed me to the edge and all I wanted to do was empty my body.

"Leo? Leo!" He fell down to the ground and flapped his hands around me, obviously not sure what to do. "Hey! Leo, are you all right? Oh Gods..."

"I'm fine," I whispered. I was clutching my stomach and my head was throbbing so much that I nearly passed out.

Nico moved so that he was knelling down in front of me and took my clammy hand into his cool one, stroking my calloused knuckles. "We're going to get her, Leo. I promise."

I looked up at Nico, doubt and hope warring inside me. I so wanted to believe him, but Percy had told me about Tartarus, as had Nico. The thought of her being down there, never escaping, never being able to get away from the literal hell she was in, made me want to drown myself in the lake.

Nico's expression was one I couldn't recognize: he seemed to be trying to hide his emotions from me, but his mouth was twisted down and his eyes were hard. I stared at him and he stared back at me. All I wanted to do was reach out my hand and run my fingers through his hair. I wanted him to wrap his arms around me and hold me; comfort me with his smooth, deep voice.

I was so wrapped up in my thoughts that I didn't even hear what Nico said to me. He saw my black expression and started to laugh. It was a deep laugh; it seemed to come from deep inside him and rumbled out, low and full-hearted.

"Come on, Leo, let's go find Annabeth. She went to find Chiron to tell him we know what the Prophecy means." Nico got up off the ground and dusted his jeans of dust, then reached out his hand to me.

I looked down at the ground and back up at the son of Hades. He was my savior, and he didn't even know it: My angel, my hero, my Ghost King.

I smiled to myself, something I hadn't done for the past few days, and took Nico's hand. I got up and we started to walk away, Nico only a couple of inches away from me, and I thought about all of my friends and how supportive they were, how caring and accepting. The smile on my face didn't fall, and we continued walking down the path, heading towards my quest to save Charlotte.