Out Of The Shadows: A Solangelo Fanfiction Chapter 36: More Mysteries

   It was about a week after Cecil went missing, that something else went wrong. Rachel didn’t show up for Winter Break. She said she would arrive December 8th. Rachel was known to show up late for things, but 8 days late? She had never been that bad. Nico would remember. He journeyed in the Labyrinth with her, Percy, Annabeth, Tyson and Grover when he was 11.

   Chiron looked worried. He was pacing around in centaur form. The cabin leaders were all currently in the big house for a meeting. As Chiron paced, Nico realized he had been through 2 wars with this camp, and he hadn’t once seen Chiron so worried as he was now.

   “What are we supposed to do?” Will spoke up. “Rachel’s our Oracle. Even though her prophecies aren’t working right now, she might have news. Or her prophecies could be working again, for all we know. She’s very important. And not just because she’s the Oracle. She’s our friend.”

   “I’m afraid we can’t do much. I sent 2 satyrs to go to where she is currently staying, but we can’t have anyone else going after her.”

   “What about me?” Nico asked. The table turned to look at him. They were probably surprised he spoke up. He felt uncomfortable with all those eyes on him, but he continued. “I can shadow travel to her house. Then I can shadow travel both of us back here.”

   Chiron shook his head sadly. “You don’t have complete control over your powers. You could end up somewhere completely different, or you could pass out somewhere and we wouldn’t be able to help you. Taking another person is a whole different level of difficulty. I’m sorry, but that will not work. That was a great idea, though.”

   Nico sank in his chair. If only he had a better control over his powers….

   After the meeting ended, they had decided on doing nothing. All they could do was wait and pray to the gods she would make it to camp okay.

   “Why do you seem so worried, Nico?” Will asked. “I didn’t think you knew her that well. Even people who do know you well you had tried to avoid.”

   “Well, I actually went on a quest with her with Percy, Annabeth, Tyson and Grover. She saved me a couple of times when we were down there. And she never seemed to be afraid of me or uneasy when I was around her. She was always nice to me and treated me like a normal kid. I wouldn’t say I was ever very close with her, but I care if she’s alright.”

   Will nodded. “I didn’t know you went on a quest with her.”

   “Another thing…she used to have a crush on Percy. Like me. And Percy didn’t choose her. Like me. I guess…I guess I could relate to her a little bit.”

   “If you used that to relate to people, you would be relating to half of camp.” Will told him.

   “What do you mean?”

   Will laughed. “Literally everybody had or has a crush on Percy Jackson. You’re not alone.”

   They passed by Miranda Gardiner from the Demeter Cabin. “Hey Miranda?” Said Will.

   “Oh, hey, Will! What’s up?”

   “Have you ever had a crush on Percy?”

   She tilted her head. “Why?” She asked.

   “I’m just trying to reassure my bone-headed boyfriend that he shouldn’t feel ashamed of having a crush on Percy in the past.”

   Miranda smiled at Nico. “You liked him, too? Yeah, I used to like Percy.”

   The son of Apollo turned to Nico. “See? The first person I asked said so.”

   Miranda put a finger to her chin in thought. She turned to the campers that were outside, which were all of the ones currently at camp. “Who here has ever at some point had a crush on Percy Jackson?” She asked the campers.

   “That includes you.” Will whispered.

   Nico rolled his eyes and hesitantly raised his hand.

   About half of them raise their hands, and not just the girls. There were boys raising their hands.

   He turned to talk to Will, but as he was about to say something, he noticed that Will was raising his hand as well.

   Nico doubled back. “What?! Will!”

   The older boy just laughed. “What? It’s Percy Jackson we’re talking about! Don’t worry, I got over him when I was 11. When I started liking you.”

   “Oh, really? How am I anything compared to Percy? He’s literally every girl’s dream. My dream for a long time.”

   “Don’t tell him I said this, but I think you’re much cooler than Percy. I mean, you can literally raise skeletons! And I think you’re much cuter.”

   Nico blushed. “Shut up.”

   Will laughed again. “Let’s go eat some food, death boy, and hope Rachel gets back soon.”

………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

   Nico once again left his cabin because of the ruckus the other campers were making. Once he stepped outside the door, everyone was crowding around the Ares cabin. A little ways away, Nico saw Will walking towards the group as well. He looked wide awake, unlike Nico who was still groggy even though he had been awake since 3 am and it was now 8.

   Nico walked over to join Will. “What’s going on?”

   Will’s face was a mask of worry. “Ellis. Ellis Wakefield, son of Ares.”

   “What about him?”

   “He’s gone. No sign of him. No saying bye. Just like…just like Cecil.”

   They arrived at the group surrounding the cabin. Chiron showed up seconds later.

   “Chiron! Ellis is gone, just like Cecil!” A camper cried.

   Chiron looked at them sadly. “Just like Cecil, you say? No trace of him, no goodbyes, no nothing?”

   Sherman Yang, another Ares camper, nodded his head. “It was just like when Cecil disappeared. Yeah, sure, Ellis has always been kinda unpredictable, but he would never just leave! He’s a good man, and a good cabin counselor.”

   Everyone suddenly turned to Nico unexpectedly. He suddenly had the urge to run back to his cabin and hide. But he knew why they were looking at him.

   “I wasn’t ever close to Ellis. But I think I would know if he died, though. I don’t think he’s dead.”

   Sherman glared at him. “You don’t think?! This is my brother’s life we’re talking about!”

   Will put his hands out, stepping into his role as mediator. “Let’s all calm down, okay? This isn’t Nico’s fault. It’s great that he even has this power at all. It’s not like he can control which people’s lives he senses.”

   Sherman backed down, but still glared at Nico. “Well, how are we supposed to know if he’s okay, then?”

   “Like I said, I’m pretty sure he’s alright.” Nico repeated.

   “Alright, campers. Time for breakfast. I’ll continue trying to figure this out.” Chiron finally said.

   Will frowned. “I just really hope we’ll be able to figure what’s going on before something happens to one of them, or before another person goes missing.”

   “I’m sure we will. These 2 disappearances seem to be connected, so as long as Cecil’s alive, I’m sure Ellis is as well.”

   Will nodded. “It’s just that a lot of these campers have been through so much already. Gone through 2 huge wars where we lost a lot of campers, and lost a lot of things in ourselves as well. We’ve given up a lot. I think these kids deserve a break. Not to be worried about disappearing campers, or about communications and prophecies not working, or that we aren’t in contact with the gods, especially my dad.”

   “I know.”

   Will stopped. “What am I saying. You totally get it, huh? You’ve probably gone through more trauma than all of Camp Half-Blood campers combined.”

   “That doesn’t mean their trauma should be thought of of anything less than mine.”

   Will stared at him. “You know, that was a very smart thing to say. You’re pretty mature, huh?”

   Nico smiled slightly. “Thanks. It’s the trauma.”