Amaurosis

XIV: Mood Swings

The sun glistened against the deep blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea as the Argo II rode the wind. To this day, I still don't know how I can spend ten hours straight staring at the constellations dancing across the night sky.

Something stirred beside me and my head jolted, the rest of my demigod genes preparing for a fight. The space beside me was completely empty. It was as if no one had ever been there. I couldn't even remember when he left. The only proof that Nico fell asleep beside me last night was his leather jacket, which was still wrapped around my shoulders.

A cool breeze embraced the ship and I shivered. "What time is it?" I sighed, watching seagulls fly overhead. It amazed me how far and long birds could fly. Jason couldn't match them in a hundred years, and that's a fact. Percy dared him to race a flock of birds over Long Island Sound last summer.

Annabeth hopped down to join me against the crates on the main deck. "By the location of the sun, I'd say about eight in the morning."

I laughed. "And from that digital watch on your wrist, I'd say you're just about right." Though I didn't doubt she could read the sky like any of her books.

She sneered. "Ha. Ha. You're so funny, Alex." She began to move crates around to make a table surface. "What does Leo have as our destination at the moment?"

I shrugged and made my way inside and down the hall, pulling off the jacket. I stopped in front of Nico's room. The door was closed like it always was, but I could hear him rummaging through something inside.

Drawers were opened and shut, and from the outside, I could feel Chaos at work. Nico groaned in frustration, and something hit the wall beside the door with a loud thud. Mumbles leaked through the holes above the door hinges.

"I don't get it. I don't understand it." The springs in his bed coiled, and he groaned again. "Nothing adds up. It doesn't make sense."

I knocked on the door, not wanting to eavesdrop anymore. His soft footsteps drew closer, and soon enough, the door squeaked open about an inch. He peeked his head through.

"What?" he asked rather roughly.

Suddenly, I felt too close to him and took a step back. He furrowed his eyebrows and the door widened a little more.

I pursed my lips, almost forgetting why I was here. His skin was pale and dark bags hung under his bloodshot eyes. His pupils were so large that they consumed his irises, making them appear like pools of black ink. The hallway became cold.

"You forgot this." I handed him his jacket and he grabbed it quickly, muttering a 'thanks' and slamming the door.

He returned again and opened his mouth, then shut it, then opened it again as if he wanted to say something but couldn't. I stood there like an idiot watching him. "Nevermind." And he slammed it in my face again.

"What's your problem?" I found myself shouting. He was like night and day. One moment, he was friendly and trying to save me from bleeding out, and the next he pretended like I didn't exist.

"You don't belong here, Dusk. That's my problem," he spat. His usual demeanor had returned, and I felt my heart sink. I really thought... It didn't matter. "You don't make any sense." He paused and stared at the wood floor beneath his black socks. "I can't understand you." There was that vulnerability he failed to hide back in his eyes. He retreated into his bedroom. "Just keep the jacket. I don't need it."

He left his door open, and I could see his room was a mess. Papers scattered the floor, drawings and plans lay open across his bed and desk, and the lamp was knocked over and ready to set fire to the room. His bed was unmade, regardless of the fact that he hadn't slept in it last night, and drawers were stacked in the corner beside the closet. It was as if a tornado swept through the room before I got here.