NICO DI ANGELO

Night falls differently at camp when you’re not there.

It isn’t sudden. It creeps in—quietly, patiently—like something alive. The last embers of sunset fade behind the trees, swallowed by an ever-thickening blue until the sky turns ink-black. One by one, the lights across camp flicker out. Laughter dwindles. Voices soften. Doors close. Silence settles in.

And then there is him.

Nico sits alone in his cabin, exactly where you left him hours ago. He hasn’t moved much—just shifted slightly, enough to ease the stiffness in his shoulders, but not enough to call it rest. The room is dim, lit only by the faintest glow filtering through the cracks of the boarded windows. It barely reaches him.

The shadows do.

They gather first at the corners, as they always do. Harmless in daylight. Familiar, even comforting. They used to curl around his feet like loyal companions, stretching lazily with the sun. But now—now they change.

They deepen. They sharpen. They move.

Nico watches them.

He doesn’t blink often. Doesn’t dare to. His dark eyes track every flicker, every unnatural shift. His breathing is shallow, controlled in a way that only barely disguises the tension coiling in his chest. He knows the shadows too well. Knows what they can do. Knows what they carry.

Memories.

They don’t speak, not out loud—but they don’t have to. The way they stretch along the walls, the way they twist into shapes just barely recognizable—it’s enough. More than enough.

A figure in the corner bends too sharply at the shoulders. Another stretches too thin, like it’s reaching. Like it’s calling.

Bianca.

The thought doesn’t come gently. It never does. It strikes, sharp and sudden, like something breaking through the surface of his mind. Nico’s jaw tightens. His fingers curl into the fabric of his sleeves, knuckles paling as he grips onto something real—something solid.

But the shadows don’t stop.

They never do when it gets like this.

He exhales slowly, trying to ground himself, but the air feels heavy, thick with everything he refuses to say out loud. The cabin creaks faintly, wood settling, but to him it sounds like something shifting just beyond sight. Watching. Waiting.

Alone.

That’s the part that gets to him. Not the darkness itself—not really. He knows darkness. He commands it. Walks through it like it’s second nature. The Underworld never frightened him.

But this?

This quiet, suffocating emptiness—this is different.

Because you’re not here.

And without you, the darkness feels wrong. Twisted. Like something has been taken from it—like something that used to keep it at bay is missing.

You.

Nico presses the heel of his hand against his chest, as if he can physically steady the uneven rhythm there. It doesn’t help much. His thoughts keep circling, spiraling back to the same place.

You should be here.

Not in a demanding way. Not in anger. Just… a quiet, aching certainty. Like the world has slipped slightly out of alignment without you in it.

He tilts his head, listening.

Nothing.

No footsteps outside his door. No soft knock. No familiar presence that settles something restless inside him. Just silence—and the shifting of shadows that grow bolder in it.

He lets out a shaky breath.

“Don’t,” he mutters under his breath, though it isn’t clear whether he’s speaking to the darkness or himself.

The shadows flicker in response.

For a moment—just a moment—he considers reaching for them. Commanding them. Forcing them back into obedience the way he always does. He could. It would be easy.

But he doesn’t.

Because tonight, he doesn’t trust himself.

There’s a crack in his control, thin but dangerous. He can feel it—the way the darkness pulls at him differently, the way it responds to something deeper than command. Something raw. Emotional.

Unstable.

And if he lets it in now… if he gives it that opening…

He doesn’t know what he might lose.

So he stays still.

Watches.

Endures.

His shoulders hunch slightly, posture closing in on itself as if he’s trying to make himself smaller—less noticeable. Less reachable. But it doesn’t work. The shadows find him anyway, creeping closer along the floor, stretching up the walls behind him.

They whisper without sound.

Memories bleed through in fragments—flashes of loss, of isolation, of every moment he’s stood alone when he didn’t want to be. Every goodbye that came too soon. Every silence that followed.

And beneath it all, one thought, repeating like a quiet echo:

You’re not here.

Nico swallows hard, throat tight. He presses his back against the wall, grounding himself in its cool, solid presence. His eyes flick toward the door—just for a second.

It doesn’t open.

Of course it doesn’t.

You’re not coming. Not yet.

He knew that when the lights went out. Knew it when the last voices faded. You had your own cabin. Your own space. Your own life beyond the fragile, unspoken thing that exists between you and him.

Still…

Still, he waits.

Because hope, no matter how quiet, is stubborn.

His gaze drifts back to the shadows, and this time, something in his expression cracks. Just a little. Just enough to let the exhaustion show through—the kind that settles deep in his bones, worn from carrying too much for too long.

“I’m fine,” he whispers, though there’s no one there to hear it.

The lie lingers in the air, thin and fragile.

He draws his knees slightly closer, arms folding around them—not fully, not enough to look vulnerable, but enough to feel contained. Safe. Or something close to it.

The shadows inch closer.

And Nico doesn’t fight them.

Not anymore.

Because fighting takes energy, and tonight, he has none left.

So he sits there in the dark, surrounded by things that used to obey him, letting them twist and stretch and pull at the edges of his mind. Letting the memories come, even when they hurt. Even when they threaten to unravel him.

Because somewhere beneath all of it—beneath the fear, the grief, the silence—

He’s still waiting for you.

Waiting for the sound of footsteps.

For the door to open.

For light to break through the darkness in a way that doesn’t feel like something he has to control or survive.

Something real.

Something warm.

Something that reminds him he’s not alone.

Until then, he stays exactly where he is.

Watching.

Breathing.

Holding on.

And hoping—quietly, desperately—that you’ll come find him before the darkness convinces him that you never will.