The Real World || Percy Jackson Olympians Fanfiction (2)

Chapter 10

When I eventually woke up, both the boys were already awake. We all crowded in the kitchen as Leo made us some breakfast (basically beans on toast, which he toasted with his own two hands). The food was consumed by us savages in under ten minutes.

"So, what's the plan?" I asked, licking bean juice off of my lips.

"Maybe we should try and find some people today, and actually see if anyone lives in this weird town," Leo suggested.

We all agreed that that was a good idea, and took turns getting changed in the bathroom. I wrapped up in at least five layers, covering it all with Nico's coat.

Once the boys were both done, we gathered our stuff (better to keep it with us than to let someone else find it) and headed out into the snow. The town looked unchanged from last night, as expected. I made an effort to check every single building for any signs of people, but found none.

The town was perched on a bit of icy land right next to a huge ocean. There was a town centre with a statue of a soldier in the centre, and an empty circle stretching around it. Then, three roads spread out from different directions in the circle; one on the left, one on the right, and one opposite the sea. The first road we had just come from was absolutely empty, but when we got into the town centre, we realized that not everywhere was.

Sitting at the foot of the statue was a small girl, probably about three years old, in a white dress and white trainers. Her white hair framed her place face, and blue lips were the only source of colour on her.

She was on her own and definitely not wearing enough clothing for this kind of weather. I threw all caution to the wind and hurried over to her, kneeling in the wet snow to get to her eye level.

"Hey poppet, you shouldn't be out here on your own. Where are your parents?" I spoke in a soothing voice, trying not to make the girl afraid.

She fixed her dull eyes on me and spoke in a high pitched voice. "Mummy and daddy have been gone for a few days now."

"Where did they go though?"

"Mummy and daddy didn't say. They woke up one morning and left. They headed that way, they did."

She raised a shaking finger and pointed it towards the huge mountain looming in the distance. Leo and Nico, who were both standing a few respectable paces behind me, swiveled their heads to follow the girl's finger as well.

"Is there anyone else in this town?

She shook her head. "The parents left with my mummy and daddy. Some kids followed them and others have hidden away. I'm on my own now!"

I glanced at the two boys, a question in my eyes. Seeing as there was no other option, they sighed and shrugged.

"Okay, well it isn't safe for you to be out here by yourself, you're going to freeze, poppet. Do you think you could take us to your house so we could get you something warmer?"

"I can show you!" She shot up and grabbed my hand, pulling me along. "It's this way!"

Our party of four made our way down one of the roads and eventually came to a stop outside a fairly big house. The house was the biggest we had seen so far, and obviously belonged to a wealthy family. The girl knelt down and pulled a spare key from under the mat. She fumbled around, trying to put it in the lock, but she was shivering too much.

"Here, let me," Leo suggested, coming forward and taking the key from the girl. The door silently opened and we all entered the house.

"My bedroom is up there, come on!"

The girl started dragging Leo upstairs, but he just laughed and followed behind her. I made a move to go too but Nico stopped me.

"Maybe we should check out downstairs."

"This place give you the creeps?" I joked.

Nico huffed. "Whatever, leave me alone I can look by myself."

Even at Nico's obvious want for me to leave, I stayed to look around. The rooms were fairly uninteresting and quite empty, for a family who seemed to own a bit of money.

After searching through the rest of the rooms, I walked into one with a single sofa facing a large fireplace. The house was freezing, so I lit the fire and sat in front of it, holding my numb hands out. The flames danced in my vision, switching from brilliant oranges to blinding yellows to dark reds.

The girl had said that the other kids had gone into hiding, and I wondered what that meant. Surely they couldn't have still been in the town, we would have found them by now. Still, the people at the airport hadn't acted as if anything was wrong, but would they have even heard from so far away?

"The house is practically empty--are you okay?" Nico questioned, stepping inside the room. "You look freezing."

I hugged my clothes even closer to my body. "I'll be fine, it's warmer in here."

"Not by much."

Nico came and sat next to me, his face illuminated by the fire. He looked as pale as the little girl, but then again I'd never seen him when he didn't. I studied his face, getting lost in the security of it. He was a very closed person, and I realized I didn't even know the first thing about him. How could I have beem traveling with him for almost two days now and not even know what lay beneath that hard exterior?

"Can I help you?" He snapped, narrowing his eyes at me. I realized I had been staring at him.

"Who are you, Nico? I don't know the first thing about you."

"You just said who I am."

"Come on, I'm serious. What's your story?"

He sighed. "Look, it's a long story and not particularly one I want to share. I'm Nico Di Angelo, son of Hades, expert in sarcasm. Take it or leave it, solitario."

"I don't even know why I asked," I snapped, annoyed at both myself and Nico.

Five minutes passed in silence, me glaring at the fire and Nico looking to the floor. Eventually, I heard him mutter a single sentence that sounded painful.

"My sister would have liked you, you remind me a lot of her."

I stayed silent, waiting to see if he would continue. He did.

"A few years ago, she joined the hunters of Artemis. I didn't understand how she could leave me like that, alone at a strange camp where no one liked me. You see, she couldn't visit very often. Even though I was her brother, the hunters still weren't very keen on her interacting with a boy. They're very strict on that."

"She didn't really get to be a hunter of Artemis, though. A few days after she joined, she was called on a quest... Percy was with her, I made him promise me he would look after her. When he got back and she wasn't with him... When he got back and he told me what happened... Well, I hated him. I trusted him and he let me down. To be honest, I think that's when I turned into who I am today."

Tears were filling up both mine and Nico's eyes. I never thought I would see death boy get emotional, but here he was, sitting next to me, talking about his dead sister. My heart ached to comfort him, to take his pain away and add it to mine, but there weren't any words for this sort of thing. Instead, I leaned forward and wrapped my arms around him, burying my head in his chest.

I never would have expected him to actually hug me back, but only after a moment's hesitation did he embrace the hug. Suddenly, I saw the big and tough son of Hades for who he really was: just a frightened boy who needed someone in their life. A friend, a sister, a shoulder to cry on.