The Harbinger of Death

Chapter 9 (unedited)

Nico's POV

I closed my eyes in concentration, slowly fading into the shadows as we traveled to London. I could feel my soul trying to disappear with the shadows and fade from reality. In a few seconds, we had arrived in London.

Although the streets were busy with cars and packed with people, it didn't remind me of New York. Many people were whispering grimly to their friends while others went on with their business, not noticing anything. The sky was dark with clouds and it seemed like it was about to rain. Nobody carried umbrellas or raincoats (Macs) to protect them from the rain.

"Is it about to rain?" Piper asked. Grover glanced around nervously, sniffing for monsters. "It doesn't seem very safe here. We should go," Grover suggested. "What is it, Grover?" Annabeth asked. "It's definitely a monster, but not a Greek monster." He said.

Annabeth shivered, looking around suspiciously. "I can sense it, too. Something's very wrong," she noted. "Should we find a hotel for the night?" Piper asked. "Fine by me," Leo responded. "How are we going to pay for the hotel rooms?" I asked. "Leave that to me," She said, smiling.

We decided that the best we could do was to walk around and hope we see a hotel, or even a motel. It wasn't long before we were standing in the safe lobby of a hotel, as Piper was talking with the person at the front desk, using charmspesk to convince him to give us a hotel room.

I watched as the person at the front desk gave Piper three keys for the hotel rooms and five passes for free food at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Piper returned to us, smiled proudly. "Wow! Your charmspeak got us VIP Hotel rooms and free food! Awesome!" Leo exclaimed. "Let's go find our rooms," Annabeth suggested, already walking towards a staircase. "We can take the elevator, you know," Piper reminded her, looking at Annabeth confusedly.

Annabeth shook her head faintly before she continued up the stairs. The Doors of Death. I had never made it as far as the Doors of Death, but it must've scarred Annabeth pretty badly. "Let's go," Grover said, following Annabeth up the stairs. Piper and Leo shrugged and started to walk. I paused, staring after them in suspicion. This hotel gave me a weird sensation, shivers climbing up my back. "Nico? You coming? Or are you scared of stairs?" Leo asked teasingly.

I glared at him, forcing myself to shrug off the sensation and walk up the stairs. Leo glanced at my angry expression before sprinting up the stairs. I chased after him, slowly starting to gain on him as he clumsily ran up the stairs. His expression didn't seem worried that I'd catch up, and too late, I realized why. An invisible trip wire sprang out of nowhere and caught my foot, forcing me to plant face-first onto the stairs.

Leo laughed as he continued to sprint up the stairs. I grit my teeth and stumbled around as I tried to get up, but the trip wire seemed to wrap around my leg. I tugged against the wire, kicking and shoving. "Leo!" I raged. I heard chuckling from farther up the staircase, as he ascended farther from me. I brought out my Stygian iron sword, but it didn't even make a dent on the wire. I cursed silently to myself, closing my eyes in concentration. Suddenly, I heard a loud yelp from far away, before I laughed myself.

I grabbed the wire to try and untie myself from the huge knot the wire made. I went under, over, around, and sometimes I even had to squeeze myself in between two segments of wire. It took forever to finally untie myself and stand up. I ran upstairs to find Leo and kill him.

As I arrived near the top of the staircase, two skeleton warriors carried a scrawny Latino in between them, who struggled to escape their grasp. "Let me go, Di Angelo," He demanded. He glared at me, trying to kick one of the skeletons. "You can let him go when he learns his lesson," I instructed. Th skeleton warriors nodded, turning to me. "Have fun trying to escape," I smirked, laughing as I ran away. "Nico!" Leo screamed.