My Ebony Dove (Nico Di Angelo)

Ch 14: Heartbreak

Ryan's pov:

When the bright light subsided and we stood in the new memory, it wasn't what I expected and that scared me. It scared me to death.

We were standing in the middle of a Church. The wooden pews with their leather kneelers surrounded us on all sides, an inanimate army. A blood red carpet covered the pure tile and I was eerily reminded of blood dripping into snow. A large black box, probably ash or mahagony lay on top of the carpet, directly in front of our path. Upon further inspection I saw that it was a coffin bearing a silver plated Celtic cross on the front of it. Hesitantly, I stepped forward to observe the coffin. I reached to open it and my hand passed right through it as if I were a ghost. That's when I realized that I was powerless to change anything in the memory. A voice rang out in the empty church.

"Ryan wait!" It called. I watched as a boy of about fourteen years ran into the church and down the aisle until he reached the coffin. I turned back to the entrance and my mouth fell when I saw my father just inside the entrance. He ran beside me to where my fourteen year old self sat.

"I'm going to lift the lid ok Ry." Said my father quietly as he pushed my hands away from the coffin. He lifted the lid and both versions of myself peered into the coffin.

"Mom." I whispered softly as I stared down at her lifeless corpse.

"Oh my God Ryan." Whispered Annabeth as she placed her hand on my shoulder.

I couldn't blink and I couldn't breathe as I stared at her body.

Her once olive skin had now dulled to a pale ashen green colour. Her thick pink lips were now only harsh lines of a crusted pink, a horrid colour smeared on by the mortician to make her appear full of life even in death. Her eyes had been closed but even I could see the glass beads in her eye sockets through her transparent and veiny eyelids. Her thick black hair had turned wiry thin and it coiled around her like a dead snake. Bruises marred the pale, smooth skin of her throat and the swells of her breasts. Lacerations spread ugly scars like wildfire across every inch of her skin including her delicate hands which were now skeletal, the diamond ring on her finger much too large and gaudy for her.

I watched as my fourteen year old self began to cry. I began to tear up too but I stopped myself before I could cry. We were on a mission, a quest and I had no time for frivolities like emotion. We just needed to find the key  and be done with it. I spotted the key on my wrist and I knew that I had to get it before I spoke. But it was too late. I had to listen to my pain and sorrow before I could get that damn key.

"You did this you old bastard! You probably arranged to have her killed so that you could take all of her goddamn money and put me in foster care!" I swore at my father, accusing him of the unthinkable.

"I loved your mother Ryan and I would never put you in foster care. She fell through the window and onto the ground below and you know this. You saw her fall!"

I was half mad with grief so I blindly I kept accusing him.

"The only only thing I saw was you arguing and pushing her out the window! She wouldn't give up the money so you pushed her! That's all you are is a selfish and greedy bastard. You aren't my father but a murderer!"

My father stormed up to me and grabbed me by neck before he held me up and cut off my air supply.

"You're an intuitive little shit aren't you Ryan?" He stated as he threw me against the altar. "Yeah I killed that old whore of a woman to get her damn money and I was planning on killing you too but she left it all to you and I can't get it until you're eighteen."

I stared at my father and Nico and the group stared at me. I quickly ran to my younger self and snatched the key labelled heartbreak off of his wrist.

The white door didn't appear so I has to stay and watch the memory until it appeared.

"No one is going to believe you if you tell them the truth. They'll call you a pyscho and lock you up. They'll say that the trauma screwed up your brain and that you aren't rational. Face it Ryan! I got away with murdering your mother and no one will ever figure it out!" My father laughed and exited the church.

The white door suddenly appeared and I wasted no time in jumping through it.

I shoved the key in my pocket and rushed to the next door. I was about to open it when I realized that my friends weren't behind me. I tried the door but it was locked. I stood there and waited until they stumbled through the door.

"Are you all ready for the next one?" I asked impatiently as they pucked themselves off of the floor.

"Don't you want to talk about that memory Ryan? I'm sure that one needs to be talked about." Called Annabeth as she strode up behind me.

"No I don't need to talk about it. My mother and father are still dead so there's nothing I can do except get through the memories and kill that damn Targerynne and end all of this stupidity."

I stopped at the third door which was labelled Betrayal. I pushed it open and stepped inside. I was desperate to finish all of the memories so I could leave and forget them all. In my desperation and Percy and Annabeth's concern, none of us saw what had happened to Nico. If we saw what had happened we could have avoided another tragedy.