Death's Son (And All Its Perks)

Chapter 6

The fall should've killed Nico. He should've been dead by the time he made it down, by the time he could smell Tartarus and see its landscape. But he wasn't. He survived. Maybe it was luck, maybe it was skill, maybe it was Anubis attached to his soul. Whatever it was, something let him survive that day.

He couldn't say he was very thankful. The only thing worse than the fall into Tartarus was the walk through it.

He landed with a bone-crushing thump on the dry ground. The sound he was praying not to hear came from his ankle, the snap of bone filling the silent surroundings. It would be the first sound he heard in Tartarus, but certainly not the last.

Cursing under his breath, he laid there in pain. He gave himself a couple of minutes to recover, his eyes closing slightly even though he knew how horrible the danger was. He hadn't slept in nine days. Could his body really handle much more?

Nico sat up, groaning in pain as he felt down to his ankle. It was too dark to see anything, but he felt the bone sticking out and the liquid that covered his hands. Feeling like crying, he whimpered softly. "Anubis..."

He didn't expect an answer and he didn't get one. Loneliness washed over him as he closed his eyes in hopelessness, blood and tears escaping his body. What could he possibly do now?

After a minute he wiped his tears, thinking aloud as he moved his hands to his ankle again. "Keep the blood in, then splint."

He took his jacket off, wrapping it around his foot tightly while cursing every person he could think of, Anubis included. How could he just abandon him? Weren't they joined for life? Well, his life didn't look much longer, anyways.

All he wanted was to strangle that jackal-headed god.

Once he got it tight enough, he couldn't tell if the blood stopped but went ahead anyway. He took his shirt off and ripped it to shreds, using the shreds to tie the jacket around it tighter. Pain erupted in his body, but he knew that was the only thing he could do, so he had to do it. He had to be able to walk on his foot or he definitely wouldn't make it out alive.

He sat there for a minute after that, fear bubbling in his chest. He then heard a sound not too far away, a clambering that began to get louder. Knowing it was coming towards him, he scrambled to his feet in whimpers and curses of pain. He felt around for his sword for a bit but couldn't find it, so he limped away as quickly as possible.

What felt like the worse pain then would turn into a simple annoyance.

~Line Break~

Sadie and Carter were only planning on passing through that graveyard, not running into a certain god. Sadie's heart fluttered when she saw him, but she quickly became serious when she saw his expression. "What's wrong?"

Anubis gave her a small smile before looking to Carter. "My host, Nico...he's in trouble."

"What kind of trouble?" Carter glanced around but stayed put, crossing his arms. "Because we don't have the time-"

"You wouldn't be able to help him, anyway. It's Greek trouble." Anubis glanced at the ground nervously, like it would swallow him. When it didn't, he looked back up at the Kane siblings. "I was going to say, I'm afraid he might not be able to help us."

"Us?"

"What the bloody hell do you mean?" Sadie was suddenly in his face, her hands on her hips. "Didn't the deal you make specifically say-"

"He's dying," Anubis admitted. "The boy doesn't have long left. The time he has left will be given to help the Greeks and Romans, which I don't disagree with. He's the only one able to-"

"So he gets out of helping us? We spent so long teaching him and-"

"Sadie, didn't you hear him? He's dying." Carter replied, glancing at her. "We can't be mad at him for wanting to help his family."

"Carter's right," Anubis stated. "I just wanted to let you both know, so you weren't waiting and expecting him."

"So he really is dying?" Carter asked. "How...?"

"He's in Greek trouble. That's all I can say." Anubis replied. "He's...I'm trying to help but he's nowhere I can reach."

"But he's your host."

"Not in Ancient Greek places."

"That's stupid."

"Sadie..."

~Line Break~

Ow...ow...ow...ow..." Nico groaned in pain with every step, the pain in his foot boarder-lining on torture. His vision blurred and his stomach turned in hunger, but he continued through anything that tried to stop him. Nothing seemed to be a reality, so all he knew for certain was the fact that he was moving one foot in front of the other.

Light started to appear, just enough to see his surroundings dimly. He was in a long cavernous room, light coming from blobs along the floor. He didn't want to know what they were, but sat down anyways to check on his foot while he had the light to do so. The whole thing was badly swollen, blood leaking through the crappy splint he made. He didn't want to take said splint off to check anymore, so he got up again and walked.

Not having seen any monsters scared him more than anything. There was a reason nobody survived this. If it wasn't monsters, then what was it?

He wished he hadn't asked that question.

Nico had fallen nine days. Nine days down. But only spent a couple days down there. Why?

The twin giants got him and brought him out in that stupid jar. Anubis didn't help one bit.