Heartbroken [Completed] [Wattys 2019]

10

*Nico

   Percy has been gone for a day. I hope he's doing all right. I feel like I'm being dramatic and stressing about him too much but I cant help it. I'm worried about him!

  I decide that after lunch I'll go visit him. I did promised that i would soon. Maybe I could even take some of his friends with me.

  No, actually not, he probably wouldn't like that. He didn't want to see them before i guess he doesn't now.

  The morning crawls by super slow as I wait for lunch. Sword fighting then arts and crafts. I've gotten way better at sword fighting, probably since my growth spurt. Im as tall as Jason and taller than Percy now.

  Arts and crafts may seem like it's not my thing but I actually love it. It's always so layed back and very different from what we normally do. I normally look forward to it but today it just seemed to take forever.

  Eventually though, morning classes were done and I got to go eat lunch. I shoved whatever was closest down my throat and then went to ask Chiron if I could leave.

  I walked up the steps of the Big House to find Mr. D and Chiron playing Pinochle, as usual. "Hey, Chiron," I started, "Can I-"

  He cut me off suddenly, "yes, you may go visit Percy."

  I thanked him then ran out the door. I headed for my cabin to grab some nectar and ambrosia- just in case. Then I stepped into the shadows and into the hallway that leads to Percy's apartment, not wanting to be rude by going straight in.

  I knocked on the door but no one answered so I put my ear to it and started listening. I heard snoring even though it was only 9:30. I didn't think Percy would be asleep yet. Instead of waking the sleeping person, I just shadow traveled through the door.

  I saw a man sleeping on the couch. I assumed it was Percy' step dad that he never talks about. Even from the entry way i could smell the alcohol on him.

I walked to where I remembered Percy's room to be and saw the door cracked open, just enough to let a sliver of the room peek through. Still not wanting to be rude or anything. I knocked on the door, pushing it open a little bit more. No one answered.

  At this point I thought Percy would be asleep despite his nightmares and normally late bedtime. I decided to check on him just in case. I pushed open the door and took at step on and thats when i saw it.

  Percy was laying completely naked in a pool of his own blood. First glance i thought he had tried to kill himself again but when i looked closer I noticed the bruises. Percy was beaten into this state.

  I immediately took out the godly food I had brought and forced some of the nectar down his throat. I checked his pulse- weak but it was there. I continued to force more nectar down his throat until he had a stronger heartbeat.

  Then I took him into the bathroom, put him in the shower and turned on the water. He's a son of Poseidon it should heal him. However, for whatever reason, it did not.

    So I just took him out of the shower and forced more nectar into him until he started smoking from too much godly food. And then I set about cleaning him up.

  I had no idea what happened but he was covered head to toes in bruises. Some still forming, proving that this beating was recent. Deep gashes across his chest and some new ones of his arms. I don't know how but i could tell that these cuts weren't from self harm. The cuts that were from himself, however, had broken open in the violence and were oozing blood.

  I found some cleaning alcohol in the cabinet and started to clean his wounds with it. As soon as i touched the first one, he snapped awake, his eyes glimmering with fear.

  "Percy, it's fine. Im here now."

  "Nico..." He breathed out my name in relief before he suddenly figured out what was happening. "Oh, uh, sorry lemme go change."

  He stumbled out the bathroom with a limp before I could stop him and came back to me a few minutes later, fully clothed. I could tell he had tried to cover up the bruising and stuff but I had already seen it all.

  "Percy... What happened?" He just shrugged in response. Apparently the best way to get him to talk was to make him panic like he just had when he woke up.

  He suddenly stumbled and fell against the wall, holding onto it for support.

  "What's wrong?! Blood loss? Lack of food? Percy, let me help you!"

  He just shrugged again and looked away. I heard footsteps coming fron the other room, probably from the man that was asleep. Percy suddenly looked at me with wide eyes, like a deer caught in headlights, and wispered one word. "Hide." Then he pushed me into a closet in the bath room.

  Just in time. The man entered the bathroom right as the closet door closed. "What the hell was all that noise?" He asked grumpily. I could smell the alcohol radiating off him even through the closet door.

  Percy didn't answer. I dont know why, but he probably knows this man better than i do. I heard a couple thunks and a snap and then the mans voice whisper in an intimidating way, "piss me off one more time..." Then there were the same footsteps receding.

  I cracked open the door and found Percy lying on the ground. He was conscious this time, but his eyes were clouded over in pain and fear, and I could see a couple new bruises forming on his face and probably more on his torso that I couldn't see. What the most horrifying part was his leg; it was bent at a strange angle, obviously broken.

  I reached out to touch his leg, as if to make sure it was real. He winced as I did so but did not tell me to stop or even pull away. Pieces of the puzzle of Percy's life were slamming together, faster than I thought imaginable.

I understood Percy's situation now. Why he had thoughts like he did. And now we had sent him back. Back to the roots of those thoughts. We had sent him back to his own personal Hell.

A/N
Guys im soooo sorry it took me so long to write this chapter. Things have started going back downhill for me but im trying to stay positive right? Keep going, have hope and all that stuff.

Sometimes though I feel completely worthless and like no one really cares about me. The worst part is, i can always come up with reasons why im unimportant.

Anyway, on that cheery note, remember to keep going. Do it for me, if no one else. I don't want you guys to think the same way i do. I love you all. See ya guys later.