I must have been lying on top of Nico, my lavender hair stained with his blood, for hours. It felt as if with each second that ticked by that his life was slipping through my fingers. I was too dizzy, too sick to bother moving.

I sobbed my heart out on his bloody chest.

---

I awoke to a loud bang of a door breaking down and loud footsteps thudding up the stairs.

"Kimmi? KIMMI!" Someone yanked my off Nico's chest and dragged me away from him. I kicked and screamed weakly, but most of my energy was spent on crying.

"Kimmi, it's me." I recognized Leo's voice and sunk against his chest, completely and utterly relieved.

"Where's Calypso?" I grunted, trying to open my eyes to see.

"She's downstairs. She buzzed your apartment but when you didn't answer she panicked and called me...and here I am." Leo answered, picking me up and staggering down the stairs as quickly as he could.

"But NICO!" I protested, lifting my arm up in his direction.

"That's not Nico." Leo said darkly, backing into the door and walking into the blinding sunlight.

"That has to be him!" I cried in disbelief.

"Hate to break it to you, but Nico wouldn't have answered the door unarmed like that. Most likely what you saw was what we call a 'poofer', which is a monster that can change its body shape to look like someone you know in order to kill you by draining your life force the minute you reach out to touch it." Leo slid me into the back of his car, and Calypso leaned over the front seat to administer herbs to me.

"So where is he?" I asked, wincing when Calypso rubbed the salty paste on my cuts and my forehead.

"We don't know," Leo slammed the driver's door shut. "He could be anywhere."

Notes

Hope you like! (You are SO welcome. I could have been much crueler.)
<3 Echo