The beast inside

Chapter 15

Nico's pov:

I was sitting on top of Zeus' fist, looking around at the forest that surrounded me. I was thinking of Percy's whereabouts and how he could be dead-when his soul wasn't in the underworld.

'It is impossible! If he was dead not only would I be able to find him in the underworld but I should feel his life force disappear.' I thought to myself angrily. I was really starting to get pissed. 'If anyone is dead it would be Zain.' I thought bitterly. 'He's the one who is dead. Dead on the outside as much as the inside... Wait! Dead on the inside. Could that be what he means?!' I thought.

I stood up and jumped off the top of Zeus' fist and landed on a bolder that was a few meters below the top. I continued to jump down bolder to bolder till I reached the ground and took off towards the cabins at a sprint. I ran through the foliage and made it to camp, panting from the fatigue that the sprinting caused.

"Hey, Nico, where you going?" Annabeth asked, as she caught up to me. She looked shocked.

"I am going to the Thanatos cabin. I need to talk to Zain." I said without breaking stride.

The cabin was twenty feet from us and it still reminded me of a tomb. Not the Egyptian tombs but modern tombs, the tall gray ones with the stone door that has whoever's name on it that is buried inside. This didn't bug me, but made Annabeth shiver.

"Are you sure Zain is in here?" She asked.

"Nope. But there is only one way to find out." I said before knocking three times on the coffin shaped door.

There was absolute silence as the door creaked open revealing a dark room. The walls of the room were covered in red names, each the height of an inch. Coffins seemed to have replaced beds in the cabin. Each one of them were closed except for two.

The first was a pure black coffin that looked to be rather old but had a white lining on the inside as well as a pillow and a jade green blanket.

The second one was in a room in the back of the cabin. It had a bronze like color and had steam coming out of the top of it. I turned my head and saw Annabeth walk over to it.

"No! Annabeth wait!-" I said trying to stop her but it was too late. Annabeth' s face morphed to one of pure fear, she looked worse than a cornered animal. Then she screamed.

'Great here we go' I thought as a very scared hand grabbed the rim of the coffin and pulled the rest of his body out. Annabeth pulled out her knife and took a few steps back.

"Nico, go get Chiron! I'll hold it off." Annabeth said to me.

"Annabeth. Calm down he is not going to hurt you." I said.

She turned to look at me before looking back at the figure.

"Nico, he is a monster. Monsters kill demigods." She said as if I was three, sometimes you really gotta hate Annabeth.

"That is completely true Annabeth. Although I'm sure Zain would prefer to not be called a monster." I said calmly.

It took her a minute to understand what I meant.

"Wait. That... Person over there... Is Zain?" She asked. I didn't have to explain for the figure nodded his head. "B-b-but he is-" she started to say before I cut her off.

"Pretty beat up? Yah." I said. She just stared at Zain. Zain has had a pretty bad past. It didn't help to be constantly beaten at each foster home he went to. Eventually he ran away and lived on his own and learned to fight with the drumsticks which were a gift from his father.

Supposedly the sticks are a weapon that is kept in Thanatos' family. It gets passed from one demigod son/daughter to the next. There was one who declined using them and used a scythe instead. He killed mercilessly with it and started the whole grim reaper thing mortals talk about.