The Eight Part Soul

Nightmares

I couldn't believe it. I wouldn't believe it.

My breathing was shallow and uneven because right in front of me at the same place of the dead body... was the entrance of the worst part of the Underworld: Tartarus.

But... but how could it be here? Here? Cruel memories were flooding my mind now and I couldn't help but shiver in fright.

Inside the hole, I could see the many places I travelled in Tartarus, weak and exhausted. Something I need no reminder of.

Harry and Mrs. Weasley were looking at the hole with wide eyes and slack mouth, pure terror to be seen. How could they comprehend such a thing? This is literally hell to them. Hell.

Then, all too late, when my nerves felt fray, it snapped and I breathed a sigh of relief to pale even whiter when I saw Tartarus.

Because standing right in front of me was...

"Mama?!" I asked in shock as Harry and Mrs. Weasley were looking at me curiously.

But I didn't care. Mama, Maria di Angelo, was still as pretty as before with her olive skin, dark brown eyes and dark hair tied neatly.

She was also wearing a ruffled dress with black gloves doffed with a feathered hat.

"Mio figilo piccolo," Mama said. My little son...

"Mama?" I asked tentatively. What was she doing here? Wasn't she dead a long time ago?

Mama looked morose and sad when she spoke, "Why did you forsaken me?"

"I never forsaken you, Mama!" I said, but I can't help feel it true. I always ran from the past looking into the future instead, because the past was just... too painful.

"Yes, you did," Mama said in a sharp tone that I've never heard before. "You have decided to forget about me and your sister... like we aren't any important. Don't you miss us? Don't you love us?"

"Of course, I miss you. Of course, I love you," I shouted, because that was the truth but thinking about them had always been painful.

"Then, why did you try to forget about us," Mama said in a sorrowful expression, "No son of mine will do that. Are you even my son?"

That hurt me more than anything and seeing my mother's ghost like that was a nightmare come true, a fear come to life because she was so good to me and Bianca that she always deserved more. And now, she's saying...

Then, another snap and I took a deep breath.

"Bianca?" I asked. Why is this happening to me?

"Yes, Nico," Bianca said, "It's me..."

How was that possible. She was supposed to be reborn a year ago!

"What are you doing here? Why are you here instead of me? You could have done something, you just let me die!"

"What?!" I asked. I have felt like that and blamed others before for this but I was over that, I thought, and Bianca was saying this to me now?

"What kind of brother are you to leave your sister to die? What kind of brother are you to not do anything in your power to bring me back? Instead you took a replacement besides me!"

She might as well have stabbed me with a rusted dagger because it would have hurt less. I was too late for Bianca, but not for Hazel, a daughter of Pluto and my half sister and brought her back instead.

Snap! And seeing the person, I immediately bowed. What was my father, Hades, doing here?

Mrs. Weasley and Harry were both stunned to see the man and recoiled a bit for all the darkness in him that could be felt.