Percy Jackson One Shots

Ghost in the Graveyard (AU)

I had never seen a ghost. But like they say, there is a first time for everything. I looked around the building, anxious to get out. I had always heard ghost stories that scared me to death as a kid, but never --ever-- did I think I might live one.

Turning my head, I looked back at the mirror. It reflected my face and my surroundings, as a normal mirror should. But I was absolutely positive I had seen a ghost.

Sure, I may not know what ghosts are supposed to look like, but my eyes had yet to fail me. I'd seen something in this mirror. I had stared at it for a good thirty seconds to be sure it was there. I didn't know what I was looking at or looking for when I turned around. But it was only in the mirror.

I glanced around the abandoned building again. It was supposed to be some fancy hotel that would bring celebrities to our small town. But, a mere five days after the build was complete, a week ago, something happened. I don't know what, and I don't know how, but it was closed before it opened and no one entered again. Until me.

I decided to step away from the mirror. My flashlight beam floated across the walls and floor, casting strange, elongated shadows.

I was really starting to regret my lack of sense during Truth or Dare. It was that stupid game that stuck me in here, alone, for a half hour.

Although they said they wouldn't, I knew my so-called "friends" would be watching through holes in the boarded up windows. That is until they got bored. Then they would start talking about more ways to jokingly humiliate me, Nico di Angelo, and my fear of large, empty spaces.

But it's not that irrational -- right?

Realizing that I'd been lost in thought, I checked my electronic watch. Twenty more minutes, meaning I'd been here longer than I thought.

Creeping across the floor, I looked for anything out of the ordinary. That's when I heard it.

CRASH!

I whirled around. Something was tumbling down the stairs. It was a grayish figure, roughly the size of a teenager.

It's alive! I thought as it moved to stand up at the bottom of the stairs. It turned around sluggishly, in my direction.

After what felt like years, I could finally see its face. A boy, no older than seventeen, was staring at me.

That's when I screamed.

Not even bothering to start running after I'd stopped pivoting, I dashed to the grand door I'd come in from.

What had scared me wasn't that there was someone else in here. That would give me a mild startle at the most. No, the problem was his lack of opacity. I could see right through him.

I made it to the door at long last, banging on it as hard as I could, praying that my friends realized I needed to get out.

In a pause between knocks, I heard laughter coming from the other side.

"LET ME OUT!" I finally found my voice.

The much calmer voice of one of my self-proclaimed "friends", Piper McLean, traveled back through the door.

"Fifteen more minutes, Neeks. A dare's a dare. You have to fulfill it completely before your turn is over."

"PLEASE!" I was getting more desperate.

I turned back around, the boy was staring at me. I could've sworn he was at least ten feet farther away just a minute ago.

~~~

"Guys, maybe we should let him out.  He seems really scared." Percy Jackson tried to reason with his friends. As the one who'd brought Nico into their friend group, he felt somewhat responsible for him.

"Come on! He's the one who accepted Jason's dare! It's like signing a contract," Leo Valdez argued. "It's not our fault he couldn't handle it."

Annabeth Chase, Percy's girlfriend, spoke up. "How would you like it if we kept you in there while you were scared for your life, hmm? You wouldn't, would you? Therefore, we should let him out.

"Let's just put it to a vote," Jason Grace reasoned. "All those in favor of letting him out?"

Percy, Annabeth, Jason, Frank Zhang, and Hazel Levesque (Nico's half-sister) raised their hands.

"All in favor of waiting?" This time, only Piper and Leo raised their hands.

"I guess we're letting him out then," Leo mumbled.

~~~

I stared, paralyzed with fear, as the boy came closer. By now, I could make out a mess of hair atop his head. Colorless, like the rest of him.

I tried not to focus on the fact that I could see a desk on the opposite wall. A desk that I wouldn't have been able to see, had he been solid.

I flattened myself against the door, he was now twenty feet away from me. Eighteen feet. Sixteen feet.

He had legs, but apparently, he didn't need them to move around. Gliding creepily across the tile must have seemed a much better option.

Before I knew it, I was falling backward and onto the pavement outside the entrance. I had good reflexes, so I managed to land on my butt instead of my back.

My friends were behind me, apparently having jumped back as I fell.

My head shot up as I  remembered the reason I was so desperate to leave. He was still there, now standing just before the threshold.

"AH!" I shrieked, not expecting him to be so close to me.

"What? What's wrong?" Annabeth looked at the doorway and back at me.

My words had failed me, so I pointed at him, my hand shaking with the fear that I was going crazy. Could they really not see him?

"Nico, there's nothing there." Hazel sounded worried for my sanity, and frankly, so was I.

I watched, transfixed, as the boy moved a leg for the first time. He slowly lifted it up and over the threshold. He took another step, faster this time.

And I was running. I didn't remember getting up. I didn't remember turning around. But by the time I did remember, I was halfway to the forest behind the back door I was at.

I looked behind me and glimpsed the pristine building, still new and regal. As I faced forward again, I felt something cold enclose my wrist, stopping me abruptly.

In the distance, I heard the screams and shrieks of my friends. I wheeled around again to see him, his hand on my wrist, feet firmly rooted in the ground.

But the first thing I noticed? The color. His grayish, translucent form was gone and replaced by a completely opaque teenager. He looked so alive that if I hadn't seen him earlier, I would have thought he still had his whole life ahead of him.

But I had.

I yanked my wrist out of his grip, and his color was gone. I didn't know where my friends were now, but I didn't care. All I cared about at the moment was the ghostly boy in front of me.

He grabbed my upper arm and solidified again.

"Hi," he said, smiling. "I'm Will."

~~~

A/N For this, I used a prompt for English class, so the first two sentences are the prompt. I just wanted to say that writing prompts are great for when you're out of ideas. Just try to find ones that you know probably no one else on Wattpad will use (have a friend come up with one, use one from school, stuff like that). By the way, my next few chapters will probably be with prompts (again, from English class) so I'll let you know when I use them and you can try them out too (for prompt practice, please don't use it in something you're going to publish unless you modify the prompt)!

Sorry for the long A/N, but if you skipped it, please go back and read it. Bye!