Not Asleep.
by CupcakeLerman
[still in danger of being "in hiatus"!]

dedicated to MindBender10 for being so enthusiastic! You're like my #1 fan!

Chapter 7.

"Hey, Nico, can you please speed it along? I really want to see where you're keeping me—uh, y'know—hostage!"

Hayley was propped in the backseat of Nico's new Audi R8, with him driving and Thalia taking shotgun. They all massaged their temples as Hayley droned on and on about how much of a "crush" she had on Thalia and Nico. The three were currently speeding on the local streets of New York—the not so crowded ones, thank the gods. Hayley was in the middle of explaining why she loved the book series, when Thalia quickly spun around and faced the mortal.
"Hey. Remember, muggle: no secrets. You spilled all your secrets, so don't keep anything. And especially don't say anything to your preppy little fan-club." Her eyes were glowing a silvery blue, frightening Hayley a little.
"Okay, okay, I won't mention anything."
Thalia sat back down, satisfied. "Thank you for complying with us."
"If..." Hayley started, as Thalia groaned.
"If Nico kisses me."

At that second, the tires screeched to a halt as the R8 made tire marks on the asphalt. Several other cars and their drivers cursed at the phantom black car, yelling at its driver. Its driver, Nico, pushed open the driver's door, proceeded to slam it, forcefully pried open the backseat door, and took Hayley by the wrists gently, but forcefully. He gave her a menacing look, one that'd make anyone run for their money. His dark eyes glittered slightly, causing Hayley to shiver. Nico meant business.
"Listen, Hayley," he said in a concerning yet calming voice. "This isn't your usual game of hide and go seek. We could end up losing the battle—all of us. Think about it. Your favorite characters. Dying."
Hayley's eyes widened as he continued. "We're going to end up dying if you don't pull your act together, sit in the back of this stupid car, and shut up. So please do it. Do it for me," Nico whispered.
She heard his every word and stared at Nico. Slowly, she pulled her wrists free, and sat back down, quietly and staring at the front of her.
"Thank you," Nico said.
He stepped away from the door and slammed it shut, making Hayley slightly wince. The surrounding drivers were really pissed now, especially that this was a one-way street. Swears and honking could be heard from several blocks down. To them, Nico just lifted his middle finger.

"Nico, get back in the car before we cause a scene," Thalia whispered through Nico's open window. "We are kind of notorious at that, if you didn't know."
Nico delayed going into the car, for he had the strong gut feeling that something was coming. Something sadly powerful, but happily far enough that they could make it if they hurried. His hand was laying on the doorhandle, and in a moment, he flung the door open and stepped on the gas pedal as if to make a getaway. Thalia and Hayley stared at Nico's sudden burst of willingness to leave.
"Nico, what the hell's wrong with you?" Thalia yelled at him.
"I thought you were the one who wanted to get out of here so fast!" Nico retailiated quickly. Hayley sat still and quiet in the background, silently whispering to herself, What did I get myself into—?
"If you must know," Nico asserted. "We are being followed."

Thalia looked at Nico in disbelief. "Wait. Why? I thought we'd lose anyone pursuing us—"
"Thalia, we're two powerful half-bloods. No R8 can outrun what we're running from."
"And what exactly are we running from?" Thalia wondered.
For a moment, Nico paused to look at his cousin Thalia. Her blue eyes were in literal shock, something Nico might've never seen in his life. He knew he had to take authority and guide Thalia, acting as the older and more wiser figure in this equation.
Nico sighed deeply. "We've been followed our whole life from this force we can't see or hear...or at least didn't stop to hear."
Thalia was taking in what he was saying and processing what was going on. Hayley, however, was already up and ready, knowing what was happening.

"...You guys...didn't know your lives were being broadcasted to the world, did you?" she asked from the back.
Thalia realized the answer. "No. No, we haven't."
"Exactly. We have to make our way back to Camp Half-Blood and warn Chiron soon, before this gets out of hand," Nico said. He stepped harder on the pedal, forcing the R8 to reach its inner limits and surpass 80 miles per hour. Deep inside his interior thoughts, unknown to the two girls in the car, he was battling the deepest thoughts and horrible renditions he felt forced to do, as specified in that one story he read on those many nights. Kill.
Hayley was clutching the back of Nico's seat just to hang on. Hayley couldn't believe these turn-of-events. She was just being dropped off at the bookstore by her parents—who, she had to explain this to much later. Then, she met Thalia and Nico, gaped a little bit, and was now overiding the speed limit in a car so expensive, she didn't feel like even siting on the plushy leather.
"What? No, nonononono. Nico, we're driving our butts to the Empire State Building! We need to tell them first!" Thalia argued stubbornly. She almost tried gripping the steering wheel.
Nico swerved to avoid incoming traffic. "What are you, crazy? We need to get to Camp Half-Blood, tell Chiron and the others, and then we'll Iris Message Mt. Olympus!"
Thalia strongly disagreed. "Nico! I think I'd rather place my first priority trust in the gods, and not some amateur rookie demigods. They'd know what to do!"

Nico tried death-glaring Thalia. He felt so conflicted fighting with her when all he wanted was for her to feel the same way about him that he felt for her. "The gods can wait! I think they need to know first."

"Oh, heck no! They deserve to know; after all, the whole damn reason I am here is to save your ass."

"My amazing ass does not need your help, and I think we should go to camp first, and I think that's what we're doing."

"Oh heck no! Turn around and let me out, so I'll walk-"

"WILL YOU TWO STOP IT?" Hayley screamed from the backseat. Thalia and Nico actually turned to acknowledge the girl's outburst. Hayley, however, looked on the brink of tears.

"You guys are my heroes. I can't believe I'm meeting you for the first time, and you're quarreling over some stupid dispute! So please, just suck it up, and drive to the Empire State Building, Nico, because Thalia's right."

Thalia had a look of victory plastered on her face. "Ha," she said. Nico had a slight pout creeping on his lips. It wasn't just a pout creeping on his lips, but a snicker escaped him. His expression turned darkly, unknown to Thalia and Hayley until—

CRR-ASH.

Thalia only had time to blink before the car impacted with a large pine tree. Hayley had smacked her forehead against Nico's seat, but it only gave her a major headache. Nico, of course, was spared, and only had a feeble scratch on his cheek from Thalia.

"Nico! What's wrong with you?" Thalia screamed at a unwavered Nico. He just sat back in his seat and sighed loudly.

"I didn't really like this car anyways," he muttered.

Thalia slapped her palm on her forehead, and checked the back of the car to check on Hayley. She was rubbing her forehead where she hit the seat, muttering obscenities. "You okay?" Thalia asked.

Hayley looked to Thalia. "Never better. I've been in car crashes a lot, I don't know, I'm just like IMMUNE to them." She rubbed her forehead, which was aching tremedously.

Meanwhile, Nico allowed the car to melt into the shadows. Itself became a dark shadow, only to drop its three passengers onto the ground. They had unprecariously dropped themselves off in the middle of the forest, and it was all going according to a certain person's plan. He grinned to himself and looked to Hayley.

"I'm sorry," he truthfully apologized.

Thalia stood to brush herself off. She pulled Nico to his feet, brushing him off as well, and lured Hayley to stand despite her head ringing. Thalia took note of her surroundings.

"It could be worse," she concluded. They were surrounded for miles around by trees—all coincidentally pine trees—in every direction. She estimated it'd take nearly days for them to walk out of the forest alive and sane.

"Let's start walking," the leader of the group said. Thalia lead a monotonous Nico and trailing Hayley. She climbed over uprooted roots and vicarious carcasses while the two hikers would trip and stumble over every branch and twig. Thalia was fed up by the time the two had increased headaches and countless bruises. Thalia just groaned from the distance she'd have to trek with two idiots.

"I'm pretty sure we've walked in a circle at least five times," Hayley impatiently muttered. Her previous headache disappated momentarily before being replace by a knew found one: Thalia and Nico's constant bickering.

"You know," Thalia stated. "I think she's right. Nico's idiot self brought this upon us, so blame him."

Nico swerved to face Thalia. "Don't look at me! So I crash the car, it's not like we needed it!"

Thalia pestered. "Shut up, do you see the situation we're in? Of course we needed it!" She avoided a pesky tree branch before continuing. "Why can't you just call up a new car anyways?"

"Hey, it takes a lot of energy calling for a car from the deep shadows. Be grateful I actually wanted to take you to lunch," Nico said.

"Oh yeah, thanks for that. It's like, eight in the evening, we're stranded in the middle of the forest, with this Hayley-Williams chick, and I didn't even have lunch," Thalia said.

"Hey, don't compare me to Hayley Williams!" Hayley yelled from behind the bickering duo. "I do not have orange hair!"

"I'm comparing you to Hayley Williams; deal with it." Thalia crossed her arms, obviously annoyed at her waste of time here.

Geez, these two are a lot nicer when I'm reading about them. Hayley was happy about the turn of events before, but all she wanted to do now was go home. She missed lying on her bed and reading one of those books, and imagining her life with the books' characters.

Thalia sensed Hayley's feeling of going home, and her leadership qualities kicked in. She was used to this, seeing as many of her newbie recruits in the Hunt would want to return home. She trailed a little behind Nico, until she caught up with Hayley.

"Hayley. Hey. It's—uh, me, Thalia. Thalia, your favorite character from the series?" she played cautiously.

"My favorite is Nico," Hayley murmured quietly. She was beginning to dislike the world she was living in, and wanted to go back to dreaming about a different reality.

"Yeah, I didn't like pine trees that much either. Thanks for confiding in me," Thalia said sarcastically. She marched up to a dark-aura filled Nico, attempting to strike conversation. She didn't know she'd end up apologizing her guts to Nico.

"I'm sorry about fighting with you earlier. It's just—It's not something you'd do, something nice for someone. For me. Why, again?" she asked. She almost dared to look at Nico, who was just staring at the ground.

"You're special to me. That's all."

In some cases, Thalia would expect a whole speech laid out, but she happily accepted this development.

After mindlessly treking through the uncharted wilderness, it began to get a little more frustrating on the trio.

"I'm now SURE we passed that tree ten times. Literally," Hayley complained.

"Nico, she's right. I don't know if you're...leading us somewhere? But just hurry up, it's probably already nine thirty," Thalia told him.

Meanwhile, Nico had just been taking note of the ground patterns. His rather over-worked brain and processed that they had only passed this way three times, and that was a sign that the labyrinth they had accidentally crashed in was coming to an end. He didn't know what exactly they'd find, but he was hoping it would go along the lines of safety.

Before Thalia, Nico, or Hayley could speak anymore, something from behind covered their faces—a rag? Whatever mysterious substance lingered on the rag was apparently being inhaled by the three teenagers, who could do nothing but attempt to scream in frustration, all except one. He smirked quietly to himself, acknowledging that maybe his plan would work out after all.

—- - -

A/N: That was surprising for me O.O

It's turning out so well, and Nico is so...different, shall I say?

The gaps are becoming a little less bad, but I'm not sure if it will completely improve (like, once a week). So unless I start liking Percy Jackson EVEN MORE [ahem, new BOOK.], this will continually drag out a bit. So...yeah. Thanks for reading; reviews are kind :3

so i was supposed to change the paragraph form, but then it was not working for me. :P
oh and hey im sorry for any mistakes. i incredibly rushed this. i didnt even check over -_- and it ended short. OK. have fun i'll edit later.

—- C u p cake Le r m an -—