The Plea of Apollo || COMPLETED

THE CURSE: PT1

It was nearing the end of September, which meant it had been almost a month since Nico and Will had moved to New Rome. With an awesome job, amazing boyfriend, and everyone he cared about close by, Nico was as happy as could be. This was exactly the reason he ignored the signs, the early indicators that the Fates had finally caught up to him. He was a son of Hades after all; the happy life he was living was bound to be toyed with sooner or later.

At first there was no way he could've known something bad was happening. Nightmares, while fairly rare since he had a fine grasp on his dreamscape, did not unnerve him much when they did occur. This was part of the reason when he began getting them increasingly more often he thought it just had to do with the fact Will wasn't there to keep them at bay. He had no idea a deity was the cause of it. Every demigod had nightmares, so besides apologizing to Tucker whenever he woke him up with his screaming he tried not to worry about it.

However, after a few weeks of this his friends started noticing something was different about him.

"Hey," Hazel said lightly as she placed a hand over his. The two siblings were currently eating lunch together in Camp Jupiter since he didn't have to work for a few more hours. From where she sat next to him, the daughter of Pluto could clearly see the bags under his now slightly sunken eyes. "Nico, are you sleeping alright? You look a bit off."

Sighing, Nico rested his face in his hands for a moment before answering.

"For some reason or another I've been having nightmares like crazy," he opened up to his sister. "At first I thought it was because I haven't been able to sleep next to Will, but two days ago I slept over at his and Jason's dorm and I still woke up screaming. Gods that was embarrassing."

"No it's not," Hazel spoke sternly. "We all have nightmares, Nico. It's not just you and they are nothing to be embarrassed about. When did they start?"

He looked away for a moment. "A little over three weeks ago," was the mumbled reply.

"Three weeks? This isn't good. Maybe you should talk to Clovis back at Camp Half-blood to see if he can help keep them away, or perhaps tell someone about them. Are they... are they about Tartarus?"

Nico frowned, his brown eyes inspecting his half-eaten food on the table. Suddenly he wasn't feeling very hungry.

"I can't remember most of the time," he admitted. "All I know is that I either wake up screaming or get shaken awake by Tucker. I'm pretty sure he's told Reyna by now, but she hasn't said a thing to me as of yet. Anyway, I do know that there's this voice I keep hearing. It's like a woman's but not a woman's, you know? I think it's a monster or something, maybe one from Tartarus, but I can never be sure because I forget when I wake up. I'm not really sure what to do. I thought spending a night with Will would help, but it didn't."

"Go talk to Clovis, okay? I hate seeing you unhappy and looking miserable." Hazel then pulled him into a hug, and he returned it gladly.

He smiled at her, his brown eyes shining with affection. "Thank you, Hazel." He kissed her forehead. "I'll do that."

Clovis worked his magic that very night, and for the next several days Nico and Tucker could actually sleep without any trouble. Their respite didn't last long though.

A mere child of Hypnos isn't anywhere near strong enough to keep me at bay, the telltale voice from his nightmares spoke with a cackle. From where Nico stood in his subconscious, the place Nico had been hiding out in order to sleep peacefully for the past few nights, the demigod spun around in attempts to locate the voice.

"Who are you?" He called out into the darkness that had begun to descend upon his mind. His eyes swept across the blackness in front of him worriedly, panic beginning to find a hold in his chest. "What do you want with me?"