Lost In Memories and Curses (PJO HOO STORY)

CHAPTER 7: TRIPS THROUGH HELL IS A ROAD TO FRIENDSHIP

NICO POV

I followed Percy and Annabeth up to their room a few minutes after they left. I knew something was wrong, I could feel it, which was only even more concerning to me because, well, hello. My powers are over the dead and underworld. Me feeling something isn't always the greatest thing.

I could hear the two whispering inside, probably reminding each other that they loved the other forever and always. I rolled my eyes at the thought and decided it would be best if I knock first before barraging in.

Annabeth got up, shuffling her feet to get to the door and opened it, with a surprised look dawning on her face once she saw me.

"Nico! Wait, come on in!"

She opened the door wider than the tiny creak she was peeking out of and welcomed me. I saw Percy sitting on the bed, a blush creeping up my face once I noticed he was shirtless.

"Sorry," Percy muttered, his face turning a bit red with blush that also adorned his cheeks as he started scratching the back of his head out of habit. "We were just helping each other change the bandages. I can pretty much assume why you're here.

"Yeah," I nodded. "We need to talk about what happened down there."

"I mean, where do we even begin?" Annabeth said, a slight tremble in her voice. "Nico, it wasn't two weeks for us. No, Nico we were down there for two whole years."

I could literally feel my heart stop. The room seemed to get darker and colder but that wasn't even from my powers, just because of the heaviness of that statement.

"What?" I hissed. "What do you mean 2 years? How are you still alive? No wonder I was getting a weird aura from you both!"

"Nico, we both died. We should have died. After we cut the chains, we were captured and held down there by Tartarus who worked with the pieces of Kronos to slow down time and make it so that a day on the mortal world was a year down there."

The news seemed to only get worse and worse, but one thing caught my attention.

"Wait Kronos? What do you mean by Kronos? I thought we defeated him! How could he have refo—"

"Slow down Neeks, Kronos didn't reform. He still had some power down there to slow the time and gods know he wants revenge after we killed him. He's not back. And I don't think he will be back for a long time. His entire being was scattered."

Huh, well, that's new.

"Don't call me Neeks," was the only response I could think of to this entire confession. Percy just laughed and then all of a sudden made a groan of pain. I realized that Annabeth went to continue changing his bandages as we were talking. "So all of these injuries..."

"Well naturally our stay was less than pleasant," Annabeth began, taking up the story telling job while Percy worked in adjusting the bandages on her shoulder. He removed it to see a large red scar, which I soon figured out was more than just a scar. It was a brand. A big T burnt into her skin. I could easily bet and win that Percy had the same scar on his shoulder. I could tell Annabeth was getting awkward at me looking at her scars so I quickly looked away. "As we were healed hostage, a lot of things happened. We would get very badly hurt, and I'm sure you can extrapolate what had happened because of our, well, injuries and just with the whole confession that we were captured in the first place. Nico we actually died down there, but that's the thing about heroes that go to the pit. Their soul can't leave, just eternal torture."

Percy visibly flinched at the word "torture" and almost lost his grip on the bandages. Annabeth gave him a worried glance, but all he did was pick up the story with a shaky voice.

"I remember them torturing us day after day, constantly. I memorized her screams because if they took her while I passed out because of pain and exhaustion, I would immediately know. We did everything in our power to survive. We fought for each other. Suffering for each other. But you can only do so much down there. We died, Nico. We actually died, they just kept bringing us back to torture us. You know that shrine of Hermes? They used to bring food from there, scorch it in fire, and give us the tiniest of pieces once a week to keep us alive."

"Percy, hu-wha- um."

I didn't even know where to begin. What do you say to the people who were tortured for the lousy gods above that won't do a single dam thing to help! I touched my cheek and felt a tear. Now, I'm not into that whole touchy-feely thing but I went over and gave the two a hug. I hated how siff Percy got when I came near, as if I was one of the monsters that tortured him, but he slowly melted into the hug. Then he all of a sudden pulled away from me and started scrambling backward.

"No, no Nico stay awake from me! Please! I don't deserve this! I did so many horrible things down there! I'm a monster, a monster!"

He was talking to me and to himself, to anyone and no one but desperately trying to force people to acknowledge him as the monster he was. He was pulling at his hair, in clear distress. I actually almost cried hearing him say that, but Annabeth jumped in to help.

"Percy, look at me, we did what we had to do to survive. You are NOT a monster. You are a hero. We both would have been dead had you not done what you did. I am not scared of you, not now or ever. And I love you. You are not a monster."

She said the last line over and over again until Percy's strangled sobs died down and plateaued into a soft cry on her shoulder. I suddenly felt like an intruder exited the room. I was only two steps away before I realized I should do something.

I shadow traveled out of the boat and into a local fast food restaurant, got my usual meal, before shadow traveling back. Thank god I made it to the right location. It was so exhausting and easily drained me, but I felt like this had to be done.

I walked right back into their room, not caring about knocking at stuff, and pulled the happy meal from behind my back. They looked at me wearily and silently as I placed all the meals on the bed.

I pulled out the toy and handed it to Percy. It was a soft blue plush dolphin (I thanked Poseidon that it wasn't some stupid gift like it was sometimes).

"It's okay to be a kid sometimes," I told them. Percy just cracked a grin before reaching over and plopping a fry into his mouth.

A start is a start.