Death and Water

I curse at myself while I dip another plate into the lava. “You could have fucking told me” I say to Nico for the hundredth time. He doesn’t respond for the hundredth time. The freams snarled at me once again to keep quiet, they were hired to take care of the camp, and to keep watch at night, making sure everyone stayed in their cabins after curfew. They were mean, irritable creatures. I couldn’t really blame them, because only an hour after being in that back kitchen, dipping plates into lava while wearing heavy duty magic gloves and apron, made me ready to explode.
Twenty plates later, the freams started chitting, and pointing out the door, which made me think that she was free to go. I ripped of my gloves and apron and rushed out the door. The cool night air welcome against my burning skin. I jump when Nico speaks next to me, “that wasn’t so bad, only six more days” he says sarcastically. It seems he could only speak in two different tones, sarcasm and threats. Not that I was much more articulate.
“I can’t believe Mr. D, that old wretched bastard with nothing better to do then ruin his kids’ lives” I mutter darkly, Nico chuckles a little, the sound foreign in the quiet night.
“He’s not that bad” Nico says, shrugging and looking up at the sky, his breath clouding and then disappearing into the cool air. It didn’t feel that cold outside, and my breath didn’t fog, so I vaguely wondered if that happened to Nico all the time because he's practically dead if you think about it. “Trust me” he continues, turning to look me in the eyes, “you don’t want to meet the other gods” he says.
“What, like your dad?” I knew she shouldn't have said it, but it just sort of popped out, and I had never been good at holding back her comments. He turns dark, and looks at the ground, so intensely as if he could see through it and straight into his father’s kingdom. The thought made me uneasy, to know I was just a few layers of earth from the pits of Tartarus.
“If you spend your life without having to meet him, you’ll be lucky.” He says darkly.
“The horrible thing is, no matter who you are, you’ll have to deal with hades at some point.” I say, looking up at the stars. My breath beginning to come out in puffs then, so maybe it just wasn’t some weird reaction from the prince of the dead, I wrapped my arms around myself to get a little warmer.
“And immortals are just worse off.” He says my thinking out loud.
“Take Mr. D for example” I voice. He doesn’t say anything, but I can feel him smiling slightly. He then turns in the direction of his cabin without another word. I roll my eyes and walk towards mine.

Notes