Hidden Angel

Chapter 8 Forgotten past

Had to search the web for treatments for memory loss for this chapter. As for any parts involving the types of drugs Minos uses to basically control Nico I'm just making things up as I go because I'm kind of paranoid about having something like that in my search history. I hope things make sense anyway.

For the next Week after that Will went to school for the last few days before summer vacation. He had been so busy making sure that he had all of his homework completed that he hadn't been able to go see if Nico was able to play.

Will sat in his room and looked at the pictures he and Nico had taken the last time he was over there. Nico had looked so happy during their card battle that Will just had to take pictures of it. He saw that Nico had taken a couple of him when he wasn't looking as well, then he saw the picture of the two of them that they had taken after Will had shown Nico the timer setting. Will couldn't stop smiling as he looked through the photos on the camera.

"Will time for dinner!" his mom called from downstairs.

"Okay, be right down!" he called back then turned off the camera and set it down on his bed before heading down for dinner. As they sat at the table to eat Will's parents talked about work, his dad was talking about a recent car crash victim that had come through emergency.

"It looked worse than it was but he still came out of it with a nasty concussion. But I'm sure that he'll get through it okay, he's pretty young too, maybe 16 or 17."

Will usually tried to pay attention when his parents talked but his mind kept wondering and he only caught bits here and there but when his mom spoke next she had his attention.

"I hope it doesn't leave any lasting effects, head injuries can be so unpredictable right? I hope it doesn't affect him too much."

Will's dad shook his head. "The tests came back and aside from the slight concussion there's nothing to worry about like memory loss or anything."

Will looked over to his dad. "Hey dad is there any way to help someone who does have memory loss?"

Will's dad thought it over at him surprised by the sudden question but thought about it. "Well it would really depend on the type of memory loss and what caused it, sometimes it can be temporary and the person will recover after a short amount of time but in other cases if the trauma is too much the mind may have repressed any memories linked to the cause of the trauma and that could last longer and be more difficult to recover from."

He paused and Will waited for him to continue, he paid close attention to everything his dad said.

"Personal effects such as toys or photographs may help them to remember, but it is best not to over stimulate their brain with too much information at a time because the memory loss will cause confusion and this can result in physical pain like headaches if it gets to be too much for them."

Will sat quietly for the rest of dinner while he thought over what his dad had said and wondered how he could help Nico regain his memories.

...

Later that evening Will was looking through his camera again trying to think of a way that the pictures might somehow help Nico get his memories back, he wondered if maybe the Hades figurine would help somehow. Nico had had a strange look on his face when he had first seen it, now that Will thought about it maybe that look was recognition...

Will stood up and went downstairs to grab a drink from the kitchen and as he passed the living room the news story on the t.v. stopped him cold in his tracks near the bottom of the stairs.

"As the summer gets underway we would like to remind people of the story of Nico di Angelo.

Two years ago the young boy had been in a terrible car accident where his mother and older sister were killed, 10 year old Nico had been deemed unresponsive upon arrival of first responders and rushed to hospital immediately. Records said that after slipping into a coma young Nico succumbed to his injuries and passed away shortly after.

When Hades di Angelo, the boy's father had arrived at the hospital to claim the bodies of his family it was discovered that the records were falsified and that his son was missing and the case became a missing persons investigation. The amber alert still remains in effect, though little hope remains of now 12 year old Nico di Angelo returning home alive and well it is small, his father still offers a reward to any with information about the whereabouts of his missing son."

Will stood transfixed as he saw the images appear on screen of the missing boy. A happy child with a sweet smile laughing and playing with a girl slightly older that bore a striking resemblance to him with the name Nico di Angelo below the images.

"It's terrible what happened to that boy. I hope that he's still alive, I know it's rare for these cases to end with a happy ending but after all that family has lost I really hope father and son can be reunited again after so long." Will's mother said.

"They said that members of the medical team were involved with the disappearance and fake reports, I can't believe anyone would sink so low as to fake the death of a child." Will's dad said, disgust clear in his voice.

"There was never any word of a ransom demand right? I just can't imagine why someone would go to such lengths and not come forward wanting money or something. They must have had some reason to take this boy." Will's mother said.

"I don't try to even pretend to understand the mind of a lunatic; they have their own ideas of how the world works that only makes sense to them. It's just horrible that they would involve a child in whatever scheme they have going on." Will's dad said.

Will turned around quietly and ran back to his room and turned on his computer and searched up the news story and any information connected to it, he held his camera up to the monitor as he compared the images, his heart hammering away in his chest.

"They match... It is Nico!" he said almost breathlessly. He looked at the news articles about the crash and grabbed a notebook and started writing down whatever information he could about it and the di Angelo family that he could find. He printed out articles from newspapers and whatever photos he could find that he thought might be useful and put them in-between the pages of the notebook and grabbed his camera and threw them into his backpack, he still had his walkie-talkie in there and he had his dad's cell phone as well.

There was no time to lose so Will threw on his backpack and knowing that his parents wouldn't agree to him leaving the house so late he decided to climb out his bedroom window, it was on the second floor but he could do it if he reached the tree outside just like he did at Nico's.

He couldn't tell his parents about what he had just discovered because they would want to call the police and if his dad was right and the man claiming to be Nico's dad really was a lunatic or some kind of psycho, then he might hurt Nico if the police stormed in so he would just have to go in himself and try to convince Nico that he wasn't safe there and get him out. Once they had gotten away safe then maybe Will's dad could help Nico with his memories and the police could get the bad guy.

Will opened his window and edged out slowly as he climbed out carefully to the tree outside, despite having done this many times before at Nico's he had never actually done this at his own house so things were a bit shaky at first but he managed to get to the ground safely and from there he ran as fast as he could over to Nico's.

He would get him out of there even if he had to carry him on his back the whole way.

Dramatic enough for you yet? Well there's more to come, Mwahahaha! Anyway what do you think so far? I tried my best to come up with medical information on the whole memory loss thing and looked into Post Traumatic Amnesia because that seemed to be what I was using here, anyway I was kind of making things up to begin with that made sense to the story but felt I needed actual information on it so if you want to look into it that's what the condition is called PTA for short. The things I've put in here might not be the most accurate but like I said that's because I was just making things up for the sake of the story.