I Wish I May, I Wish I Might, I Wish I Could Go Back In Time

Nico

I was fairly sure that I was standing on the beach with Percy two seconds ago.

So why was I now in a super fancy hotel chasing a young Bianca around a marble column?

I stopped running and looked around. The lobby was decked out with elegant sofas, crystal chandeliers and red velvet carpet.

I could almost feel my heart freeze. I’d seen this place once before, in a vision in my stepmother’s garden.

I slowly turned around and saw her.

My mother.

Just as she did in the vision, she wore a soft black dress with matching gloves and veiled hat. She smiled warmly and my heart ached.

Was this another vision? A strange dream? A curse from Kronos to replay my worst childhood memory?

Childhood memory.

I suddenly remembered the wish I’d made on the shooting star Percy had pointed out.

I wish to go back in time to relive my childhood different.

Was it possibly that the Fates had granted my wish? No magic I knew was strong enough to turn back the clock. What powerful force had done this?

With a sickening jolt, I remembered what happened in the vision. Zeus had destroyed the building and killed my mom. I was now about to relive that.

‘Nico?’

Bianca ran up to me, looking concerned. It hurt to see her so bright and full of life. She was wearing clothes in the style of the 1940’s. I looked down and realized I was too.

‘Nico, are you okay?’ Bianca asked. ‘And the game is paused, you can’t get me.’

‘I’m okay.’ I winced as my voice came out high pitched and childish.

As if a light bulb had suddenly lit up above my head, I realized what was happening; my wish to live my life differently had been granted. I, with all my memories of the future, had been sent back in time and given the chance to change my life for the better.

I studied my hands, smaller and softer than they were ten minutes ago – or rather seventy years in the future.

“Maria, please. I told you, Zeus gave me a deadline of last week to turn over the children. His wrath will be horrible, and I cannot hide you forever. As long as you are with the children, you are in danger too.”

The voice of my father, Hades, snapped me to attention.

If I was going to change the past, I had to stop my mother from going upstairs.

I waited a little while, watching on as my father tried to persuade my mother to come with him. Bianca started tugging on my arm, whining for me to play with her. I stayed put, knowing I would only have seconds to react.

When my mother put her finger to my father’s lips, I tensed and bolted forward, Bianca following confusedly. My mother stood up to leave, but I caught them hem of her dress and pulled her back.

‘Nico,’ she said in surprise. ‘What is wrong, darling?’

‘Stay,’ I pleaded in my kid voice. ‘Please, mom. It’s important. Something’s about to happen.’

‘Son,’ she said gently. ‘Everything is fine.’

My father held up his hands, ‘No, wait. He is right; something is coming.’

The building began to rumble and my father’s eyes widened, ‘Zeus!’

He erected a wall of black energy around the four of us, just in time before the building exploded in a blast of forked lightning.