Yeah, right, Sunshine

chapter 5

(ps, not my art!)

Nico POV

The whole night long, I was plagued with nightmares. Usually, I'm able to keep quiet, and sleep through them. Not this time.

My dreams and nightmares are far more vivid than those of your average mortal- one of the many perks of being a demigod. For example: if a mortal dreamed of going through the nine layers of Hell, they'd be a bit shaken up, but overall fine. When a demigod dreams they're being ripped through Tartarus... There's a small chance that a part of their consciousness was actually there. So, when you wake up, you feel like you've physically been through tartarus. (Which I have, but that's a story for another day.)

I found the whole "Nightmare causes screaming, screaming causes love interest's wake-up" (NOT that Will was my love-interest, ok?) troupe kind of cliche', but when you're (mentally) running for your life from a herd of angry empousai, you aren't thinking about avoiding overused plot lines. You're trying not to die.

"Oh my Gods. Like, slow down! Ew. He totally REEKS of death." The monster currently talking was dressed in a half-destroyed cheerleader's uniform, and dragging around a pair of pom-poms. She could almost have passed for a normal teenaged brat, if it weren't for the mismatched legs- one bronze, one donkey, both awful. Four or five other empousai were also on my tail, streaking across the ground. Their stupid donkey legs slowed them down a little, but dream me wasn't exactly having the easiest time running either.

"It totally sucks," She said, flipping her (half-burnt) blonde hair over her shoulders. "He's waaay too small to be any real fun. Too scrawny, not enough meat on his bones. At least he's cute, it makes our job waaaay more fun." I stumbled over a rock, and hit the ground. It pulsed underneath me, like a giant vein. Nasty.

"Quickly, Kelli," whined another empousa in a shredded toga. "We've all been starving since Jackson escaped us."

"UUGH, fine. But since I'm the captain here, I get first bite." She ran up, pinning me to the ground. The sickening stench of rotten meat and cherry chapstick came off of her in waves.

"No! Stop!" I screamed, kicking and flailing to no avail. Her grip was iron.

"It's like, literally too late." She hissed, and bit down hard.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH-"

"Hey, hey, hey!"

I instinctively flung out my arms, swinging blindly at the intruder. One of connected with a satisfying Thunk.

"OW! Hey, calm down! It's just me!" I opened one eye. Schist.

Will was kneeling next to my cot, hands held in front of his face. His face that I had just punched. Hard.

"Oh my gods, I'm so sorry," I stammered, pulling his hands away from his face. I'd gotten his nose, but (thank the gods) it didn't seem broken.

"Nico, calm down." He said, sitting me back down. I was shaking, and near tears. "Nico, It's fine."

"But I almost broke your face, and.... and..." I blubbered. Will laughed, wincing. A little bit of purple was spread over his freckles. A bruise, I thought.

"Yeah, but that's...Ouch... That's okay. What happened? You were screaming?" I tucked my legs up to my chest, and leaned against the headboard.
"It was only a nightmare."  Will raised an eyebrow, and sat down on the bed next to me.

"What kind of a nightmare?" He wrapped what I suppose was meant to be a comforting arm around my shoulders. I tensed, but leaned on him after a moment. It was better than trying to support my own weight, at least.