Mostly Normal: Only Half of the Story

(Rio) Act Three, Scene Four

Suddenly, Madeline's other personality, the one she rarely used except when she was really and truly upset, kicked in. "Rio, Rio, the sun is shining!" she squealed like a little girl, "Let's go make leaf piles!"

Rio blinked. He'd never gotten used to this abrupt change between his seventeen-year-old half-sister's real, bored/sad person and this surreal, overly happy six-or-seven-year-old person. Rio sighed and patted her hair again, standing up slowly. "No," he said, gently but firmly, "this is not a day for leaf piles, Maddie."

"Well why not?" she said with a bright smile.

"Because, you little bitch, she died today," Elliot shouted from outside, sounding tearful himself. Rio frowned. His siblings' worst personalities were coming out today. Elliot never swore in any of his other personalities.

"Nora says she wants to cry," the small nine-year-old girl said from underneath her bed. Rio groaned and ran out of his cabin, heading for the Big House.

He'd had enough of this. Even though he could feel his own worst personality kicking in, which was the worst of all of them, he tried to push it down, deep where it could not surface.

Rio was so focused on trying to stay himself when he nearly bumped into someone. He skidded to a halt and found himself face-to-face with none other than Nico di Angelo! Rio's mismatched eyes widened, and he blushed.

"Sorry, Nico," he muttered, "I'm kind of distracted today."

Nico shrugged, looking rather distracted himself. "It's okay, Rio," he said, "I heard about your sister's death. Did you know my own sister died when I was ten?"

Rio gasped. He hadn't heard. Nico's face twisted into a sad smile. "Yeah," he said, "she was killed on a quest. Percy tried to protect her, but she was just so stubborn she went and got herself killed anyway." he shrugged one black-clad shoulder. Rio nodded and swallowed. "Don't...don't you have powers to bring back the dead, though?" he asked, rather boldly, "I mean, being the son of Hades and all..."

Nico sighed. "I tried," he said softly, "Trust me, I tried to bring her back. She came to me and said she didn't want to come back, she told me to stop trying to bring her back. Eventually, I did stop, but her death still pained me. She had been my only companion for my whole life, did you know that?"

Rio shook his head, feeling rather shocked about all of this, but also a little relieved. Now that he knew they both had dead sisters, he could tell Nico everything and the teenager would know how to help him cope...wouldn't he?

Nico cocked an eyebrow and looked at Rio, who had turned as pale as a ghost. "Rio? Are you okay?" He asked. Rio suddenly fell to his knees and started giggling like a madman. No, NO. This wasn't happening. He couldn't come out. This couldn't happen. No. Not again.

Rio tried to push the personality back inside him, but now that it was out it wasn't going anywhere. Rio giggled harder. Nico looked at him in alarm and stepped backwards. Inwardly Rio felt helpless as his own worst personality exploded, doubling him over with crazy laughter.

"Rio, Rio, what's going on?" Nico asked with a scared tone. Rio giggled again, his hands wandered to the top of his head, his fingers threading into his bright red hair.

The scariest thing about his least favorite personality was, the only person that had been able to sooth it was Ara, and she wasn't there. She never would be again.