Don't Fade Away: A Solangelo Fanfiction 2

Chapter 36: The Escape

Nico's dream continued right where it left off weeks ago.

The man had shut the door behind him, and as soon as Maria heard his footsteps retreat, she ran to the small window next to the door, and waited until she saw him climb into his car and drive away.

She immediately ran over to Nico and Bianca's room and woke them up.

"We must leave." She told the 2 once they were awake.

"Why? Where are we going?" Bianca asked, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"To America." Maria said, throwing things into a bag.

"What? Why are we going to America?" Bianca asked.

"Because America is safer."

"We are leaving now?" Nico said, yawning.

"Yes. Now pack the most important things you want to bring."

Nico grabbed his little bag, and started putting clothes and his favorite toys in it. Bianca did the same.

After a couple hours of packing, they hurried out of their home.

As they ran down the streets of Venice, Maria said she had to make a quick stop.

Nico knew exactly what that meant, so he wasn't surprised when she stopped in front of the old building he had seen in some of his past dreams.

His mom pulled out a piece of paper and a fountain pen and wrote something. First in Italian, then in English, and slid it under the doorway. Nico just had time to make out the words, "Sto fuggendo dal paese, mi mancherete tutti. In bocca al lupo per il tuo viaggio...." Which translated to "I am fleeing the country, I will miss you all. Good luck on your journey....."

Who was that letter addressing to? Who were the people that he had seen in the building before?

Then Maria put away her pen and they continued to run. That's when Nico realized he remembered this night. It seemed like something that wasn't a big deal at the time, they were just moving to another country very suddenly in the middle of the night, right? Completely normal. He was 6 or 7, something like that didn't really seem that weird. So it didn't stick out as much. It didn't help that he was half asleep and in his pajamas.

Finally, they arrived at a boating port. They hid out of sight until daybreak, with Nico and Bianca sleeping while Maria stayed awake.

Once the sun rose, Maria woke Nico and Bianca up and used her money to pay for tickets. They boarded the ship, and the 3 of them were off to America.

And just like last time, Nico found Will in the infirmary.

Will watched him come in. "Your mother?"

Nico nodded.

"What happened?"

"Last time, you told me everything would be fine, because we ended up in America." Nico said slowly.

"Yeah?"

"Well, that's exactly what happened. As soon as the man left, we packed up our stuff and went to a boat dock. Well, we did stop at the abandoned place first, where my mom left a note. My dream ended with the boat leaving the port."

"What did the note say?"

Nico told him the part he was able to read.

Will shook his head. "I'm sorry, Nico. I'm sure this is really stressful for you."

"You bet it is!" Nico huffed. "I just want to know what is going on with my mother!"

"Listen, from what you told me, it sounds like she was working with people illegally. Do you remember any of the people from the dream where you saw people in the building?"

"No. Just figures in the darkness."

"So your mother was working with people that, if people found out, would put her in danger."

"At this point, World War II had started." Nico supplied. "So this was not long before I turned 7, so I was still 6 here. Maybe mom was working with the enemy? Which to us would be the good guys." Nico wondered.

"Could be."

"We'll talk about this more in the morning." Will said.

Nico was confused. "Huh? What do you mean?"

"It's 3:30 AM."

"No it's not."

"Then why is it dark outside?"

Nico realized that it was, in fact, 3:30. He was so distracted by his dream that he didn't even notice.

"Well why are you awake, then?"

Will blushed. "You know I wasn't really expecting you to be coming here so early."

Nico crossed his arms. "Will."

"There are patients that need care!"

"Go to bed." Nico said.

"You go to bed!" Will said.

"Fine, we'll both go to bed, okay?"

"Alright, let's go then." Will told him.

Neither of them moved.

"For the love of-" Nico said, grabbing Will's hand. "You know, our roles are basically reversed here. You're usually the responsible boyfriend that makes his chaotic depressed boyfriend go to sleep."

"I think we're both chaotic depressed boyfriends at this point."

"That's fair." Nico said, dragging Will to the Apollo cabin.