Nico

I tried to open my eyes, which seemed to be pushed down by something heavy. I wriggled my fingers, altering patterns in what seemed to be grains of damp mud. Well, obviously mud is damp. It's good for bee stings. Also usually near a source of water. Mud under the Earth, where skeletons lay that help me when I need them.

Nice creatures, skeletons. They love  the Happy Meals I buy for them. Actually, speaking of happy meals, I met this weird little kid at McDonald's the other day. He was holding a Hades Mythomagic card next to my face, as if searching for a resemblance. He was really annoying and kept pestering me with questions..

Where was I? Oh yeah.

I lay buried under the dirt, like a dead corpse. The thought was not reassuring.

Actually I think I died, didn't I?

So if I'm dead, why aren't I in the underworld listening to my father shout at me for dying?

I wriggled my fingers more, creating a few little holes void of dirt where my fingers were. There wasn't much to do here.

The dirt shifted around me until I was pushed onto the surface.

I wiped specks of the stuff from my eyelids and coughed some of it up. Here's a tip for life; do not eat dirt. It tastes horrible.

I looked into the night sky, straining my eyes to see the faint stars that resembled Zoë.

Was it usually this dark?

The moon was like my nightlight. In fact, upon further examination I noticed that today was a full moon. Why I thought that mattered? No idea.

I got up and walked to the camp fire. My few close friends would be glad to know that I'm alive.

When I reached the fire, I noticed the flames were low and dull. Was my death that bad? Am I even dead at this point?

I walked up to where Hazel and Will were and sat next to them.

"Hey guys, look, it's me!"

Hazel held her hands to her face and started crying.

"Hazel?" I asked, "Ha-azel."

I looked back at the campfire to see a shroud burning slowly. Was that mine?

I got up and touched it, being careful not to get too close to the burning flames. I glanced at Hestia, who was looking after the fire to keep it from dying out.

The shroud was pure black, with skulls scattered around on it. It was covered in stars and looked like there was something large and grey in the middle but it was burning. Probably a giant skull.

What is going on?

I watched my shroud burn until it was just a bad smell in the eerily cold night air. The wind moved slowly and animals howled and hooted, crickets chirped loudly.

I got up from my sitting position and went to follow Hazel and Will. They walked slowly and looked down, water dropping onto the floor.

I ran and stood in front of them, shouting, "guys, look! I'm back!"

What happened then surprised me most of all. It also hurt me, inside and out.

They walked right through me, creating a pain that seared through my chest, jiggering through my nerves and sending a sob into my throat.

Am I invisible? What happened?

I looked at my reflection in the Aphrodite Cabin door. I was still me, the scrawny 13 year old boy that looks way too depressed for his own good. Thing is, I could barely see myself. I was seeming transparent.

What now?

I remembered Jack and Jamie. That's what I need to do! I remembered, but the thing is, would they see me?

I found a nice, dark shadow and jumped in.

The shadows gently pushed me out in a standing position. I checked myself for scars or anything, really. Why were the shadows treating me kindly?

What I noticed next surprised me even more - I didn't feel drained! Although I was also surprised that I didn't notice sooner.

Traveling from camp to Pitch's lair should have knocked me out for at least an hour, seeing as it's just me, but apparently not. Not that I'm complaining though, this is a wonderful blessing.

I snuck up to a cell and hid behind it, careful to avoid the dark, sandy guardians of the cages.

I cautiously looked around for Jamie's cell, hoping that Jack's would be near it.

I spotted the familiar shadow of of a few books that were near Jamie's cell last time, and sure enough, there it was.

I edged closer to Jaime, who followed my advice and slept on the floor instead of the mattress.

Icy breathing on the back of my neck froze me in place. I gripped my sword and turned to my attacker, pointing my sword at it's nuzzle.

It was a nightmare.

No. I don't mean the idiom, it was a nightmare, I mean a literal nightmare was standing there, with my sword now carefully poking it's nose.

I backed away slowly, still unsure of whether to kill the thing or run. I still wasn't sure if another two nightmares would appear in it's place. We don't need a repeat of that.

I took the safest option, I ran.

As fast as I could, I ran to Jamie's cell poking my finger through an inconvenient lock and solidifying shadows to create a key. I tried twisting it so that it would open, but nothing happened. I groaned and tried again.

"Looking for this, Nico?" A voice from behind me taunted.

It was Pitch Black, standing there, with a nightmare at his side. I noticed a dent is the nightmare's nose, where my sword poked it.

Idiota, I thought. How could've I been so dumb? (A/N: In Italian, Idiota means idiot. I'm sure I didn't need to say this but I have. It's basically the only Italian I know.)

Pitch held up a key with a smirk etched on his face. I lunged for the key, but pitched slipped into the shadows and appeared behind me.

I probably should have been thinking; give me that key! or, free Jack and Jamie right now! But honestly, all I could think of was; hey! Shadow-traveling is my thing!

"You know Nico," Pitch said, "if you would join me, we could be powerful. We would get revenge on those who had broken our promises, those who have ignored us, those who haven't trusted us."

Somehow, Pitch knew exactly how to get under my skin, but I held my ground, even if memories flooded through my mind.

"I have said this before, and I will repeat it as many times as I must. My answer is no and it always will be."

Pitch waved the key around, as if daring me to take it.

"Hand me the key," I demanded, while jerking my thumb in order to summon a skeleton, though thankfully Pitch took my motions as a sign of anger, not my true intentions of having a skeleton take the key from behind.

A small crack appeared in the floor, while I willed the sound to minimise.

The skeleton silently climbed out the hole, as I kept my eyes trained on Pitch as to not look suspicious.

"But why, Neeks, would I do that?" Pitch asked me.

"Do not call me Neeks," I ordered, silently adding; only Bianca calls me Neeks.

The skeleton quickly snatched the key and it's hand fell off, steadying the key between it's pointer and middle finger, while using it's other fingers to scuttle towards me.

"Oh Nico, you will pay for this," Pitch growled, while lunging for the key.

He was getting too close. I jumped and dived, snatching the key and turning the fragile skeleton hand to dust when I landed on top of the poor thing.

I grasped the key tightly, as if my life depended on it.

I raised my head to look at Pitch. "Mine."

~~~~~

I'm not even going to do the whole thing I've been doing here. All I need to really do (which is something I should've done a long time ago) is to thank Sparrow-_-2020 for helping me and accepting to help me. Anyway, thanks for reading!