AN: Hey guys! Comment on how I portray Leo, and what you think I could do to improve his character, or if I should leave it how it is.

Thanks guys! Enjoy the story!

TRIGGER WARNING IN AUTHORS NOTE AT END!!!!!!!

Persephone's POV

How dare he hit me! That man is abusing me! I just cannot handle this, but I don't want to be divorced. That would make me look bad! Ugh. I'll just figure this out in my own.

"Yes....yes." I mumble to myself. He has to get over his actions, doesn't he? Besides, I'll just..... play with him a little tonight. I smirk at the thought.

It's too bad I'm barren, otherwise I would've liked a child of my own. It's funny. I'm extremely talented with plants, even own an emporium, but am unable to have children.

Bianca felt like my own child, for a while. Until her death. I sigh remembering that day. At least I won't have to deal with Nico. What a pest. Although if it made Hades stop hitting me, then I would gladly have him back.

My thick dark hair was wrapped in a messy bun on the top of my head, as I walked around, helping customers around the store. A particular man caught my eye though.

He had brown eyes and curly black hair. I think I recognized him from somewhere, and I knew that he worked here. I think he knew my mother.

I'd never talked to him, but he seemed nice enough, and easy to persuade, so I decided to try talking to him.

"Hello." I say, walking up to him. "I'm Persephone. Who are you?"

He looked dumbfounded, but responded. "I-I am Triptolemus! And are you perhaps Demeter's daughter?"

"Why yes I am." I reply seductively. What? Can't a girl have some fun?

"How is your mother? Tell her thank you for helping me with my farming skills! I really appreciated it!"

"Oh. Alright." I frown. "So, do you want to have lunch sometime?"

"Uh, no thank you! Very busy, I am! But thank you for the offer Ms. Persephone! I best be off to work now! Goodbye!" And he scurried off.

I huffed in annoyance. What is it with men these days? I heard a laugh behind me and saw another co-worker, who's name I don't know, laughing at me.

"Trip's so oblivious, right?" She had her hands on her knees, shaking with laughter.

"But why go for him?" She asked, righting herself.

"Well-um- ah-I...." I glared at her. "What? A girl can't try?"

"Well, it's makes it a little funny that you'd go for him, and the fact that your married, judging by the ring in your finger." She raised her caramel eyebrows accusingly.

I looked at my ring, and studied its pristine diamonds, and polished sapphire. Another perk to having a rich husband. I look back up, gritting my teeth.

"Look, just forget you ever saw that, and you'll get along nicely with me, your CEO." I emphasize the last word, hinting at my position, but the girl just flips her long caramel hair, rolls her large eyes, and walks off.

I glare at her some more, then get back to work. God, she is such a party killer. Glad I'll never talk to her again.

Nico's POV

My nightmare from before repeated itself. Again, I woke up drenched in cold sweat and was plagued with terror. What is wrong with me? Why does any of this happen to me? Why? Why, why, why?

I know I sound like a whiny three year old, but I don't care. I just want to wake up in a new life! I sigh. I couldn't tell what time it was, but I got the feeling it was still late. Morning had yet to come.

I lay back down, trying not to remind myself if the nightmare. Mama and Bianca seemed to have left somewhere. Good. I don't want them to worry about me.

Suddenly, outside the door and through the halls, I hear whoop. Then a male, but slightly high pitched voice shouted; "TEAM LEO FOR DA WIN, BABY! WHOO!!"

After hearing that, I am convinced I'm the most sane person here. There was also some shouting from a female voice after that, telling whoever it was that had yelled, to settle down.

My mind slowly drifted towards the different things I had heard since being here. There were incoherent babbling, and almost chant-like mumbling. The most sane thing is heard here was definitely the Team Leo, thing.

In other words, I was losing my already pretty unraveled sanity. No wonder they called these places Insane Asylums.

To be put here, I'm probably as crazy as the rest of the lunatics here though. Wow, I'm pathetic.

I look down at my nails. They were pretty long, and looked healthy. I looked back to the walls of the cell. I stood up and made my way over to one of them.

Using my index finger nail, I try to make a line, but it doesn't work. Feeling stupid, I sit back down on the bed. Even if I had been able to make a mark, I wouldn't have been able to see it, because of the white walls.

     I fall on my side, and rub my face, thinking of the different things people here might have. A came up with a list of over fifty mental illnesses, some of them small, but with big affect on others, and different things where they endanger both themselves, and others.

     Depressing much, yes. Do I care? No. not really. I mean, people are plagued with this kind of stuff all the time, this place is proof of it, so I wish that people would stop thinking of others as stupid, or weak.

     I know I'm rambling but I seriously hate it when people think someone's life is perfect, just because they act like it.

     And that's when I realized I was having a mental conversation with myself. Wow. I really am sad, aren't I?

     Not being able to fall asleep, I kept going in and out of conversations with my the voices in my head. After hours, the door clicked open, and in was shoved that mystery goop from my last three meals.

     I guess the better breakfast from before was just a one time thing. I picked it up and gagged it down, wondering how to destroy my taste buds to prevent me from any further torture.

     I knew I would have socializing time soon, so I tried not to bang my head into the wall too hard. That was sarcasm, if you couldn't tell.

     I shook myself out of another argument in my mind, and tried to stop thinking about my horrible dream.

(Time skip *cue TARDIS noises*)

     As I was lead away from my cell, I watched a bloodied mother and her baby limp down the corridors. The dead seemed to be calling to me, beaconing me to come closer.

     I saw a corpse in a tattered Marines uniform, a thick, navy blue button up with white pants and black shoes. A gaping hole was opened right below his left breast, probably marking the shot that killed him.

     I saw a patient in a hospital gown, that took me a minute to realize he was a ghost, and not another patient. His clothing was fine, the hospital gown intact, if not a little dirty, but his skin was slightly grayish, and he was walking with a limp.

He pointed at me, and, in a raspy voice, said bone-chilling words; "Beware the one who is not what he seems." I shivered. And quickly followed after John.

     I tried to ignore the different spirits, but, hey, try not to listen to someone when they are trying to warn you of something.

As we took a different hall than I remembered from yesterday, we entered a new room. It looked the same as the one from yesterday, but was slightly larger. Guess I was right about the different Socializing areas.

I looked around, and unlike last time, there were other patients there. Most were quiet, or didn't talk, but one guy, from what I could tell, since he wasn't facing me, a Latino teenager, and short. Like me.

His body was jerking around as he talked (he probably used his hands to speak so it was difficult with a strait jacket on) to a patient that looked pretty frightened, and from what I could tell, the conversation was about fire, mechanics, explosions, and more fire.

"And then," The boy was saying, "I threw the match onto the wheat field, and BAM!!! It caught fire so quickly I hardly had time to duck and cover!! It was amazing!!! The heat was just awesome and I was all like, "THAT'S HOW BLOW UP A HAY BALE!!""

He started laughing, a bit maniacally I might add, and the other patient managed to crawl away without him noticing. Unfortunately, then he turned towards me, catching my eye.

Uh oh, I think to myself as the elfish looking Latino strolls over to me, with a troublemakers grin and a crazy glint in his brown eyes.

"WASSUUUUUP?!" He starts. "A newbie!"

I growl at him, annoyed by his calling me a newbie.

"Probably not much more new than yourself."

"Got me there!" He smiles at me. "So, what are you here for?"

"Nothing."

"Don't wanna share? That's fine! I'll find out sooner or later! The staff sometimes slips up with patient profile stuff!"

I roll my eyes at the guy in front of me. What an idiot. Glad I'll probably only see him once. He stood at most an inch and a half taller than me, which wasn't very tall.

"So! I'm Leo, what's your name? Jack? You look like a Jack! I remember I once set this guy named Jack's house in fire! It was accident of course." He then winked at me, hinting me it wasn't an accident. What is this guy? A homicidal maniac?

"I don't need to tell you my name." I fold my arms, having had enough of, Leo.

"Tense much?" He asks sarcastically. So he wanted to play that way? Fine.

"No, I'm an open book, free to share all my secrets." I reply with a snarky attitude.

Leo just laughs.

"Alright then!" He says in between snorts.

"So." He asks, eyes sparkling. "What your opinion on fire?"

My opinion on fire. Strange question. It was beautiful, in a sense, and provided heat, something I never felt on my skin, and if I did, it did nothing to warm me to a healthy degree.

I shrugged. "It's fine. It doesn't really matter to me."

He had been tucking a curly strand of dark hair behind his elfish ears as I said that, but immediately stopped and stared at me, jaw dropped practically to the floor.

"What?! How can you say that doesn't matter?! It is my sole life and blood!" He says passionately.

"Yeah, well, it's not mine." I snap back.

"Jeesh." I here him mumble under his breath. "Someone's grumpy."

"And someone should back off!" I shout, slightly raising my voice.

He looks at me for a moment before saying, "Don't cause to much trouble or suspicion. The punishments are, uh... not pleasant."

That's what Percy said. I think.

"Just be careful." He gives me a small nod then turns to walk away when I say, "I'm Nico. Nico Di Angelo."

He turns back around towards me.

"Take care Nico. Watch out for the baddies." Then he turns for the final time, and leaves to bother other patients.

Cryptic much? God, that was annoying.

     Soon the different nurses gathered their different patients and escorted us back to our rooms. I kept thinking about Leo, and when I had seen Percy the day before.

     They had both given me the same warning. Keep quiet, don't cause trouble, and beware the people here. They don't need to tell me twice.

     Again, lunch consisted of the mystery goop, and again I nearly puked all over the pristine walls with how disgusting it is. Same with dinner.

     As I lay in bed, I started to slowly hum Soldatino. A song Bianca used to sing for me when I was restless at night.

     Then I began to sing it softly.

Close you eyes.
I know what you see.
The darkness is high,
And your in ten feet deep.
But we've survived,
More terrible monsters than sleep.
And you know I,
Will be here to tell you,
To breath.

Tu sei il mio soldatino,
La ragione per cui vivo.
Non ti scordar di me.
Io veglierõ su di te.

There was a sudden baning on the door, that startled me enough to shave off ten years of my life.

"Quiet!" I hear John yell. My response was a sigh.

Soon I slipped into unconsciousness, hoping for a dreamless sleep.

AN: Hey guys! How've you been? Comment on your week and how horrible school was to you! Anyway, how did you think I did with Leo? I'm not really satisfied with his character. I feel like I need to make him more funny. Any other suggestions?

So I have been contemplating three different endings to this story (which won't be happening for a while) and two of them are pretty sad. And two of them allow me to make another book. No, I'm not going to tell you the endings because that would give everything away, but comment on the ending you would like to see happen, because that might save you further pain in the future.

Also, I've been wondering if I should include rape. No, I won't tell you which character would've had that kind of abuse, but it would make for good scenes in the future.

Anyway, I hope you guys liked this chapter! Sorry that after Nico met Leo the story was a little rushed. I just didn't have anything to add. Also, if you haven't seen or heard Paolo Bennet's "Soldatino (Nico's Lullaby)" then you need to!

Alright, well, goodbye my Dumpling Children! Until next time! 😉

Word count: 2,374