Young and Old, Back and Bold

Chapter 8

Nico fell back onto a bunk bed, the momentum causing him to bounce slightly before going still. He looked around, hoping what had happened had been a disappearing wall or a work of magic, that maybe Hogwarts had been playing with him. But nothing about the room he was in resembled Hogwarts in the slightest.

It looked to be a cabin, with dark wooden walls and a floor to match. The bunks were stacked and dark, with silk blankets that somehow were extremely warm beneath his hands. He could see the sunlight peeking through the closed door, could see that it would have to be in a different time zone than Scotland's darkening skies.

"How...how..." Nico stood up, looked around for the shadows that had brought him there. None in the room looked abnormal. He tried to step through one to go back, but he only resulted in slamming into the wall.

You aren't supposed to be here, son of Hades. The voice sent chills down his spine. Stay put.

For the first time, Nico didn't listen. He crossed over to the door, put his hand on the handle.

Son of Hades!

He jumped back in surprise just as the door opened, a green-eyed boy standing there. As Nico fell back into the shadows, they looked at each other in raw shock.

Then the shadows enveloped him again.

Nico fell back onto his bed in the Hufflepuff dormitories, his heart beating out of his chest. He could still see that cabin, could still see the boy that had opened that door. He looked so familiar...

"Nico!" Dominic was suddenly at his side. "What the hell was that?"

Nico grabbed onto Dominic's sleeve without thinking. He could feel himself calming, could feel as he started to become grounded. He felt...he felt at home. Finally.

"Nico." Dominic sat next to him. "What happened?"

"I don't know..." Nico breathed out. "I don't know. It shouldn't be possible."

"Tell me what you know." Dominic grabbed a glass of water off the bedside table and handed it to Nico. "Just relax. You're back where you're supposed to be."

Nico sipped at the water, felt his heart beating. "I'm still alive..."

Dominic nodded. "Course you are. You're okay."

"I'm scared of the dark." Nico spit the words out without another thought. "It scares me. In my nightmares... It scares me. And I fell into the darkness and it took me to this cabin thing. And when I was there it felt familiar...and this teenager came in...and he looked familiar...and the voice was there and then it brought me back. I think it was the voice that brought me back."

"What'd the voice say?" Dominic asked.

"It said that I wasn't supposed to be there." Nico took a deep breath, pictured the face of the boy he had seen. "But...but that boy knew me, I could tell. What if he knows where I came from? What if he knows everything I'm wondering about?"

"You should try to go back." Dominic got up. "We can go to the library tomorrow and try to figure out how to do it."

Nico set the water back on the table, his hands starting to stop their shaking. "What if I'm really not supposed to be there?"

"Then..." he shrugged. "I don't know. We'll figure it out."

"We'll figure it out..." Nico whispered the words to himself. Were him and Dominic friends? He never thought he'd accomplish a real friend, but maybe now he really had one. Who else would get into something so complicated?

"I just want Will..." Nico laid down, his hair falling into his face. "I just want Will."

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His dreams that night weren't terrifying like usual, but instead held some light into what had happened that day.

In the dream, he was standing in the same cabin as he had been before. The boy he had seen was standing in the middle, a figurine clenched tightly in his fists.

"Nico..." the boy's voice shook. "I saw you. I know I did. If you're here... Please tell me. Please. We're going to be leaving on a quest soon."

Nico stepped towards him, stared into those green eyes. "Percy..."

The boy didn't react, didn't seem to hear Nico's voice at all. But finally, the name came to Nico's mind. That boy... his name was Percy.

"Percy!" Nico grabbed onto the boy's arm. "I'm right here! I'm in Scotland! Please! Please tell me what's going on!"

Percy looked around the cabin once more, turned to the door. "Maybe I was just seeing things... Annabeth said it was impossible. But I saw...I saw maybe you shadow traveled out... I don't know..."

Nico looked at this boy, tried to memorize every detail of that face. It was the key to his past, the key to who he really was.

"I...I have to go..." Percy turned toward the door. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry about how things turned out, Nico... We noticed you were gone too late..."

"Wait!" Nico tried to grab him but the dream started to evaporate around him. "Wait! No! Percy! Please!"

Son of Hades... How much do you know?