Nyx

Chapter Four.

Chapter four of this SCHISTY story! Hope you like it!

Previously:   

She concentrated.

And she exploded.

Now:

Jacklyn felt the shadows break free of the confines of her mortal body, threading their way through the crowd of Nyxes. It stopped at one. One who had a more defined jaw, more masculine features than she remembered. She was shorter and had an aviator jacket on. She seemed familiar. The shadows crept closer, and Nyx paled. She stepped away.

"No, shadows. Nice shadows. I'm your friend, Mr. Di Angelo. Remember me?" Di Angelo. What a familiar name. The shadows made a growling noise. We remember you, they murmured. We remember and we want to take you with us. The short Nyx paled even further. She turned to Jacklyn, eyes wide and terrified. 

"Make them stop," she pleaded. "Please, I don't want to go." Jacklyn felt a wave of satisfaction as Nyx appeared more and more terrified. She could control the shadows. She could hurt her mother however she wanted. She reached her hand out, and Nyx reached for it gratefully. But as she was about to reach it, Jacklyn wrenched her hand away and closed her fist. The shadows inched closer, silently preparing for the kill. And Jacklyn was going to watch as the shadows that had become a part of her would tear her mother apart, bit by bit, golden ichor trailing down her face. She would watch as her mother screamed and pleaded for mercy, watch as Nyx's arms were ripped off, the bones crackling and ligaments tearing, her eyes being gouged out, her throat being slit with a wet slice. And then, as she watched her mother's fearful eyes widen further, she laughed manically. Loudly. And she was unable to stop, until her shrieks of mirth were heard across the entire estate of the House of Nyx.

"No mercy for you, mother. Mercy is for the weak. In the Underworld, there is only justice." Nyx made a weird whimpering noise.

"Hey, that's my line, Jacklyn." Jacklyn barely had time to process and call the shadows off before she passed out. But of course, it wasn't a quiet half-coma. No, it had to be terrifying. Because hanging off the edge of Chaos and slipping off your ledge and falling into the abyss and feeling your body painfully disintegrate is just the right thing to help a traumatized demigod sleep. Soon enough she woke up, thank the gods. But what was waiting for her was almost worse than the nightmare.

Will was standing protectively in front of Nico di Angelo, who was still smiling, a horrified look in his eye despite his attempts to hide it. Percy and Annabeth were staring at her. They did that a lot. Jacklyn was overwhelmed with embarrassment and rage.

"What, you've never seen PTSD from Tartarus?" Percy shook his head in wonder, a broken light shining through his head.

"That was... the strongest thing I've ever seen." Annabeth said in amazement. Will stared at her like she was crazy. 

Which, of course, she was.

"I've never seen anything like it. The control, the... it's just indescribable." Percy mused. "How did you build up such a tolerance for pain?"

"Practice." Jacklyn said curtly. Percy nodded, a speck of madness breaking through the crack in his once perfect sanity. Nico stood up and walked toward her. Will grabbed his wrist and whispered something to him. Nico cursed in Italian and stomped towards her. 

"Are you alright?" he asked gently. Jacklyn was about to respond, but an angry son of Apollo interrupted. 

"Alright? Is she alright? She nearly killed you, Nico!" Nico glared at Will. Will glared back. 

"She nearly killed herself. That thing you did with the shadows, Lynn," he said, turning back to her. "That was-"

"Dangerous? Absolutely going to get us killed?" Jacklyn glared at Will. Will blinked back tears. "I just don't want you to get hurt, Nico. You've already sacrificed so much." 

Jacklyn stood up, brushing herself off. She smiled weakly at Will, and glanced at Nico.

"He's right, you know. Your boyfriend." Nico blushed. 

"He's not-" 

"Yeah whatever. He will be. Anyway, he's right. I am a menace. And sadly, I couldn't care less about you people. Trauma does that to you." Jacklyn stood up, patting Nico on the shoulder.

"You know what I mean." Nico nodded uneasily.

"Are you going to leave?" Nico asked quietly.

 Jacklyn grabbed a random backpack from some stuck-up dude who looked like Mini-Apollo. He glared at her. 

"That, ma'am, is my property. Please give it back." Jacklyn snorted. 

"I, sir, do not care. So I don't think I will." She turned back towards Nico. Then she winked and started walking backwards. 

Towards the cabins.

She tried for a smile. It came out more like a psychopath's evil grin.

Same thing. Jacklyn skipped into the Hermes cabin. 

Because she was a demigod, after all. 

Camp Half-Blood was her home.

End of Chapter

A/N: I really hope you liked this chapter, because I wrote it at like 1 in the morning and it's trash. But whatever. See you next chapter!

-Bia