A Nico Di Angelo Fanfic

1

Percy woke up with a slight start as he felt something washing over him – something light as air yet terribly dark.

He looked around but found nothing amiss. Light from the half-moon streamed through the wave-patterned windows into cabin 3. The bedside clock showed the time to be half past two.

Percy peered into each nook and cranny to find out what had awoken him. His time in Tartarus had taught him the stupidity of overlooking things that unsettle you.

Finding nothing even mildly harmful, he pulled up the covers again, ready to drop back into the peacefully dreamless sleep he had been enjoying, when a terrifying scream rent the nightly silence.

The son of Poseidon threw off the covers in the blink of an eye and was dashing out the door, disregarding the threat of the harpies.

For he knew that scream - had heard it within and without his demigodly dreams and he was not going to let his cousin suffer.

The hero of Olympus sped in the direction of cabin 13 at the same time as doors to the other cabins burst open and demigods streamed out, the counsellors at the head. The cabin heads stopped in front of the big double-doors to the Hades cabin, hesitating to barge in, when yet another blood-curdling scream yanked them to their senses.

Alabaster Torrington of the Hecate cabin pushed his way to the front, the cabin heads stepping back to let him operate. The disgraced demigod had been found and led back to camp along with his guardian mistform, a Dr. Claymore. With his control over magic he could have easily risen to become the cabin head, but there were a few demigods who still didn't trust him completely. Be that as it may, he held a lot of respect among most demigods who admired his skill and appreciated his help. He stepped forward as the cabin heads stepped aside for him.

Percy wanted nothing more than to break down the door and rush to the Ghost King's side, but he knew it won't go well with all the enchantments Hades had cast over his cabin.

Percy fumed silently as Alabaster worked on the door, flinching whenever a scream tore apart the air around them. It would have been easier to calm him down if Hazel had been there, but she was centurion after all. It was imperative that she be at Camp Jupiter.

The son of Hades's nightmares seemed to be even more extreme that night. The screams were coupled with silent shadows lashing out across the grounds, sending shivers through everyone and everything they touched. Percy glanced at them curiously. Having developed a close acquaintanceship with his cousin, he was used to the occasional flickering when Nico got extremely irritated (which was somehow a common occurrence).

But the way the shadows were behaving......he didn't have time to ponder over the thought as the son of Hecate burst open the double-doors with a flash of purple light and the cabin heads rushed in.

Percy quickly pushed through, knowing that Nico wouldn't be in the best of moods when he discovered that the entire camp now knew of his nightmares. Percy cast a glance at Jason who had managed to hold back the others by now. Usually, he, along with Percy and Hazel would be able to calm Nico down, but with Hazel gone, leaving no one to open the doors for them, and the nightmares getting steadily worse (though Nico stubbornly insisted that he was fine) it seemed the cat was out of the bag. Their best hope now was to keep away the others to the best of their abilities and hope Nico didn't get too mad.

Jason was holding back the other cabin heads, using everything from his post as Pontifex Maximus to sending sparks at anyone who pushed too hard, leaving them a bit disoriented and tingly, when Will Solace, the head counsellor of the Apollo cabin yelled in a surprisingly loud voice:

"EVERYONE, OUT OF HERE!! DOCTOR'S ORDERS!!"

Hearing the familiar catchphrase, along with the amount of authority channeled into it, the demigods cleared out, leaving Percy, Jason, Will and the Hecate kid, Alabaster, in the cabin.

Nico had stopped screaming, though the curtains around his bed were still drawn, indicating the son of Hades to be asleep – hopefully. Percy rushed to the bed now that there were no shadows swirling around it and no audience to watch their interactions.

Well, at least no audience that couldn't be cowed or manipulated into keeping quiet, according to him.