Love is a Dangerous Game 2

Nico:

Why Percy had made me call this girl was beyond me. I was surprised I even remembered her name, but it seemed like she had no trouble remembering me. I hadn't even remembered that the number was still in the pocket of my Aviator, maybe I should clean it out more often.
I emerged from the shadows and found myself at the back entrance to the Empire State building. It was almost eight o'clock so I figured Kat would be waiting for me in the front. Every bone in my body was telling me to turn back, forget the date and hide in the underworld until it all passed over, but for some reason I couldn't just turn my back on this girl. Maybe it was the fact that Percy had made me swear on the River Styx that I would actually go through with it, or I might be sort of interested in what might happen. No, it was the River Styx. Percy didn't know how hard this was, he had known Annabeth practically his whole life, asking her out was a piece of cake. Okay, so maybe not a piece of cake… how about more like making the cake. Never mind, I can't make analogies.
Anyway, I didn't even know this girl. At best, this date would crash and burn because some monster would attack me and I would have to erase her memory of the whole night. Yeah, this will be fun.
Even at eight at night, New York was just as busy and crowded as usual. I dodged businessmen, hobos, and pedestrians as I made my way around to the entrance. Lights from cars and billboards illuminated the streets in nauseating neon colors. Why would you ruin the serene essence of night with noisy cars and stupid lights? My eyes scanned the masses of mortals but I couldn't pick out the one I was looking for, they all looked the same.
I hadn't seen this girl in three years, how was I supposed to know what she looked like? I stood in front of the Empire State building waiting for a girl I didn't even know. That's when the panic started to move in. I didn't want to waste my night out here just to be stood up, could this night get any worse?
My eyes searched even more wildly through the streets. I looked for people parking along the sides of the road but none of them looked like Kat. I was just about to give up and go home; it was obvious she wasn't coming.
"Nico!" I heard a childish scream come from my left, but before I could respond to it I was nearly knocked off my feet by a massive hug. I threw my arms into the air as this girl squeezed the living daylights out of me. "I didn't think you would ever ask me out!"
Eventually I pried Kat off of me was able to breathe again. I was surprised at how strong she was. "Yeah." I said struggling to get the words out. "Nice to see you too… I think."
Kat giggled. She thought I was being funny but I rarely made jokes. I do have to admit this girl was cute. She crinkled her nose when she laughed and something about the black and white hair was intriguing. I was just a little taller than her now; I guess it had been a long time since I'd seen her. She was wearing skinny jeans and a black vest that barely passed as a shirt, and her high-tops were folded down over her ankles like some sort of fashion statement, which I thought was just plain dumb.
I must have been starring at her because her deep brown eyes somehow found mine and snapped me out of it. "So… um…" I stammered. Kat kept staring at me expecting something intelligent to come out but all she got was nonsense.
"You don't have a plan… do you?" she asked.
"This was kinda sudden." I scratched the back of my head nervously. Maybe the date would end just like that, I would be saved!
Kat sighed. She looked around, thinking hard about something. Then she perked up like she just thought of something. "I've got it."
She grabbed my hand and pulled me along to her car.
"Get in" she said.
"Where are we going?"
"You'll see."
With that she slipped into the driver's seat. I was reluctant to get in but what choice did I have. We drove for hours. Where could she possibly be taking me that was so far away? The whole time I didn't say a word; I held onto the door and starred off into the night. We were far away from the city now, the lights and noises had disappeared and all that was left was lots of farms and the occasional house. Kat turned onto a dirt road and I was sure I was headed for certain doom. Lights, I saw lights for the first time in almost an hour. Kat pulled up in the driveway of a beat up, old, crappy looking dinner. I hadn't been on any dates before but I assumed Kat had been on at least one in the past three years, so my question was: is this were she takes a lot of boys on the first date?
"We're here!" she exclaimed.
"Great, but where are we exactly?" I wasn't too sure about this place, it seemed sketchy.
The question seemed to irritate her. "This is Crusty's. Can't you read the sign?"
She sounded real enthusiastic about the diner, but we still got out of her car and entered Crusty's.
To be honest, the inside was a ton nicer than the outside. It was painted, no rust peeling off the metal roof, and it looked clean! The restaurant was completely empty, which I was happy about. One mortal was enough for one night.
A skinny, pale kid dressed in a fry-cook uniform picked his head up off the counter where he'd been sleeping. Drool stuck to his face and smothered the counter; I figured he wouldn't be cleaning that up later. His brown hair was spiked like Mrs. O'Leary had given him a saliva bath before he passed out.
"Sleeping on the job, really?" Kat asked sarcastically. I figured she knew this guy so I did what I'm best at, staying in the shadows and letting other people deal with their problems.
"Huh…uhn Kat?"  he blinked a few times trying to wake up from his nap. "It's your day off, why would you come to wo-"
"I just came to eat, so shut up and make us a number seven." she cut him off. The guy took one look at me and scowled. So naturally I scowled back at him. Kat turned to me and grabbed my arm, she started to pull me along but I fought back. I wasn't done with this guy yet, and apparently he wasn't done with me either.
"Who's this?" he asked suspiciously.
"I think I could ask the same for you." I approached him as intimidatingly as I could. "I'm Nico Di Angelo."
"Fancy!" his eyes bulged as he regarded me and continued to talk with Kat. "Is he really your new boyfriend? Listen, Kat, you've had some pretty weird relationships but this is a whole new level of creepy."
That offended me. One more word out of this guy and he would be eating stygian iron for desert. I've been called creepy, weird, and dangerous my whole life but that was from other creeps, weirdoes, and dangerous demigods. Hearing this from a mortal put me over the edge. He didn't know what creepy was, he hadn't been to the underworld, or seen the dead, or anything else I had done that would make most demigods run home crying for Chiron. My hand went straight for my sword that I had concealed in my Aviator just in case.  
"Wyatt!" Kat screamed from behind me. "Leave us alone!" she calmed down but her eyes bore into him with such hatred that I couldn't help but wonder what their history was. "It's just a date… and no, Nico isn't my boyfriend."
Kat's eyes mellowed and once again I was pulled along against my will. I gave one last hate filled glare to Wyatt and he returned the favor before going off to make whatever Kat had requested.
"Don't mind him…" she said. "He's okay once you get to know him but he gets jealous of all guys I hang out with."
"Why?" I asked like an idiot.
Kat hauled me all the way to the back of the restaurant and sat down in a booth in the corner before answering.
"We may have dated for a while." she sounded embarrassed and clearly it was a good time to just drop the subject. I slid into the seat across from her and once again the uncomfortable silence set in. She fingered the curly strands of black and white hair that fell across her face for a while and I turned my attention to the window. Some part of me wanted to find a monster ready to kill me, but that would mean explaining myself over and over again until the monster was gone and I erased everyone's memory. It just wasn't worth it.
"So," she said after she had gotten board with her hair. "What's out there?"
I looked suspicious. I knew it was stupid to keep an eye out for monsters but I just couldn't help myself. I scooted away from the window overlooking the dirt parking lot with only three cars in it and tried to enjoy this date.
"Nothing." I said. I decided to ignore the feeling of being watched and focused on my date. I still couldn't believe I was doing this; it wasn't like I would ever fall in love with this girl. She was mortal and I was the son of Hades. No one likes me; I'm an outcast, a loner, not a bachelor. The way she fell head over heels for me was just not normal.
Kat reached her hands across the table and started drumming a tune with her fingertips. Her fingers went back and forth, trading rhythms and keeping the beat so perfectly that I got lost in what she was trying to recreate. Suddenly her fingers stopped and the song ended, even though there was no music to begin with.
"What?" she asked, forcing my eyes to find hers. She looked board, scared, and worried.
"Oh, I was just… That was really cool, what you were doing with your fingers."
She suppressed a smile, but the corners twitched upward which meant I might have done something right for once.
"Thanks. It was just a song I learned to play when I was little."
"That's cool, what song?"
"You probably don't know it but-"
"Here!" Wyatt cut in bringing a huge plate of chocolate piled on chocolate covered in more chocolate. I wanted to run right then and there but I didn't. He set the steaming pile of hot fudge draped over moist chocolate cake right in front of me and the sweet aroma filled my lungs squeezing the air out of me. I wanted to gag, run, hit it with my sword, and do anything but eat it.
"Happy?" he asked probably more towards Kat than me but I answered anyway.
"No. How could anyone be with you still around?" I took all my anger out on this skinny kid and the chocolate death cake. "Why would you even make this?"
Kat held her breath and Wyatt came back at me with the worst comeback I have ever heard. Even Percy could have done better, and he did have some pretty stupid comebacks.
"My job, duh. This is what you ordered, number seven, right Kat?"
I felt more anger swell up inside of me but I had no idea where it was all coming from. Kat face palmed herself and mumbled a few things under her breath that I couldn't make out.
"Yes, thank you. Good-bye Wyatt." she spit out without even looking up and he left us alone. Once she recovered Kat picked up a fork and started stuffing her face with the desert.
"How can you eat that?" I asked.
She looked up, some fudge dripped down her chin but she didn't seem to notice. "It's delicious!" she exclaimed. "Don't tell me you hate chocolate."
I didn't answer.
"Ugh. You do hate it." she seemed more entertained than annoyed. "Well then I guess I'll just have to convert you. Trust me this is amazing."
She picked up the other fork and scooped up a huge chunk of cake and then rolled it around in fudge so it was thoroughly disgusting. I tried to protest as the she brought the fork up to my mouth but she was so persistent. I dodged the fork over and over while Kat giggled away forcing the cake to my mouth. At one point I accidentally lowered my guard for a moment, thinking that she had finally given up, but as soon as I opened my mouth to catch my breath she plunged the gooey, chocolate cake covered in still hot fudge into my mouth.  
I will admit it wasn't as bad as I thought. The cake was spongy and the fudge spilled over my taste buds warming me up from head to toe. Chocolate wasn't my favorite, I never ate it and avoided it as much as I could. It was my sister's favorite food before she died. I stayed away from anything that reminded me of her so naturally chocolate became my enemy. I suppressed the memories of my sister and forced the desert down my throat, gaging a bit though I'm not sure why.
"I can't believe you don't like this." Kat continued eating while I tried not to vomit. I was astonished by how much she could eat. In a matter of minutes the mountain of memories was reduced to a hill of cake with a stream of fudge. For once I couldn't take the silence. I wanted to get to know this girl a little more, not that I like her or anything, I was just interested.
"So, that song you were drumming, what was it?"
Kat looked up surprised that I was actually talking. She wiped the chocolate off her face and immediately looked embarrassed. Her eyes wouldn't meet mine and the feeling of sadness shone on her face.
"It was just something my dad taught me, it was nothing."
"I'm sure it was nothing but tell me anyway. I want to know you."
"You don't want to know about me." she whispered.
"Of course I do, why do you think I asked you out tonight?" I pushed the question as far as I could trying to get something out of her.
"No, you don't… its kinda depressing." once again she stared at the floor too embarrassed to look at me.
"I can handle it." her warm inviting brown eyes almost met mine but stopped half way.
"Alright but that means you have to tell me your story."
"Deal." I choked out. Now I would have to find a way to explain my life to a mortal, yay!
Kat picked up the fork and swirled it around in the fudge.
"Where to start?" she mumbled, "Well I guess I could start with my mother. I didn't really get along with her, she hated me and I hated her. Everything I did was wrong and I would never be the perfect little ray of sunshine she wanted me to be. My grades have never been good either, my best was probably a C+ but that was when grades didn't really matter."
The fork clattered on the plate and Kat leaned back in the seat. This was a really touchy subject but she kept explaining. "Anyway my dad was my one and only friend. He taught me how to play guitar and he would sing with me and even stand up to my mother when she yelled at me. She expected way too much from me, she didn't understand how hard it is to be dyslectic."
I couldn't believe what I was hearing, Kat seemed so normal; I never would have guessed she was dyslectic or that she fought with her mom. She almost sounded like a demigod.
"Your dyslectic?" I asked.
"Yeah but I've gotten better at reading and I'm not weird, please don't think I'm weird." she pleaded with me but she didn't understand why I was asking.
"No, it's not that at all. I know all about being dyslectic." I said sheepishly.
Her expression was unreadable. She didn't respond to my confession and continued with her story but she seemed more comfortable. "I grew up in Detroit. I loved it there, no offence to New York or anything but that was my home. It all came crumbling down the day we decided to leave. My mother dragged my dad and me out to Chicago for the weekend to do some "family bonding" but it didn't work out." She stopped, taking a moment to recollect herself. Something was wrong but I couldn't put my finger on it.
"What happened?" I asked.
"We never made it to Chicago. I was yelling at my mother demanding why we had to go even though there really was no point in arguing, I was going whether I liked it or not. Then my dad tried to intervene while driving and it became a full blown argument. All three of us were yelling at each other and I started to cry which made my dad turn around for a split second to calm me down but I wouldn't listen. He took his eyes off the road for moment too long and it was over."
My eyes bulged out of my head like the story caught me off guard, but that was not the case.  The world suddenly started to spin and change all around me. Suddenly I wasn't in the corner booth at Crusty's diner anymore; I was sitting in the back seat of a minivan next to twelve year old girl with long black hair. It was a bright sunny day in the middle of summer but a since of disaster hung in the air. Outside field after field of corn and dead grass passed by and I figured I was on my way to Chicago.
"But I was supposed to go to Cameron's birthday party today! Why didn't you tell me we were going away this weekend?" the little girl screamed at her mother who had turned around to yell back.
No one seemed to notice me so I figured it would be useless to ask why the Hades I was even here.
The woman had the same long black hair as her daughter and I recognized the soft, alarming gaze of brown eyes, they were exactly the same as Kat's. The woman had old weathered features but I couldn't see how she could have been more than forty. She wore lots of makeup to hide her ageing, bright red lipstick and tons of mascara. Then she began to yell at her daughter with such a raspy voice I wanted to cut my own ears off.
"Kathryn! We are going-"
"Don't call me that!" she shouted back cutting off the old woman.
"But that's your name sweetie." Kat's mother tried really hard to sound sympathetic but under the false tone I could tell that she really had to fake it. Kat faced the window looking out onto the rows of corm. I couldn't see her expression but I figured she was hurt by what her mother had said. The woman continued to explain to her daughter but I doubted she was listening.
"Like I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, we are going on a family vacation and you are going to enjoy it."
"You can't tell me what to do!" Kat turned around and I could see the tears streaming down her cheeks. The guy in the driver's seat (Kat's father) turned around to see what was going on. He had short, business like, brown hair dotted with grey. Bright blue eyes looked right through me as he twisted around to see his daughter and I could see what was going to happen from a mile away. Unfortunately I would be in the car when it happened.
"Kat don't cry we'll have fun this weekend. Don't worry it won't be as bad as you think."
No, it'll be worse, I thought to myself though I could have said it out loud and it wouldn't have made a difference.
The next moment went by so fast I couldn't comprehend what was going on. At first a few car horns beeped at us but no one seemed to hear them. Next, Kat's father tried to get through to his daughter but forgot he was driving and we started to drift off the road. I could see the cars in the right lane pull away from the unstable car and leave it with a clear path. The car swerved from the left lane to the right but didn't stop there, I held onto the sides of the car and watched as the man who was driving floored the gas and plowed the family into the side of a highway bridge.
"Harold!" the woman screamed but it was too late. The words were mangled as the minivan crumbled into the pillar. Kat's father turned around just before the impact but his body was crushed between the seat and the air bag. Her mother too, was broken under the force of the collision and Kat started screaming. More and more tears flowed from her cheeks but the wave of impact finally spread from the front of the car to where we were sitting. I was pushed forward and backward at the same time; my head hit the seat in front of me where Kat's mother lay lifeless. My head started spinning again and dots danced across my vision, but I could still see the unconscious form of Kat slumped over next to me. Again the world started spinning and I prepared myself to be face to face with Kat in the diner again but when I awoke I was in a totally different scene.
"She'll be alright, wont she Doctor?" a female voice resonated inside my head. My eyes couldn't see anything but I guessed I was in a hospital of some sort. She seemed to be overacting something like a dramatization. I opened my eyes to try to find who had spoken but the vision was blurred and incomprehensible.
"Doctor? Huh, wait why am I the…and why is my son-" the doctor, who was obviously male, couldn't finish a single sentence and was cut off by the female.
"Just play along, silly." she giggled like a little girl.
I blinked hard trying to focus on the voices. I couldn't put my spinning thoughts in order but I could have sworn I knew these two. For some reason I was lying in a hospital bed with IV tubes and heart-rate monitors hooked up all over my body. I didn't know why I was in intensive care, besides this headache that was forming I felt perfectly fine.
"Uh, alright… she'll be fine I guess." the said but he didn't really sound confident. At last I could make out the two figures standing over a hospital bed occupied by none other than the little twelve year-old Kat.
Her eyes were closed and her chest hefted up and down painfully like she couldn't breathe well. My eyes found the nurse which was a big mistake. I could barely focus on her because she changed almost every second. One minute her hair was golden and perfectly straight, but the next it was brown then black or curly sometimes even wavy. Her makeup was applied perfectly, never changing, but her face was always adjusting to fit the mood. I knew instantly I was looking at the goddess of love, Aphrodite.
The doctor on the other hand was pale, ugly, and also someone I knew all too well. His hair was greased back and his skin was so pale it could have passed as translucent.
"Dad?" I managed to choke out. My throat was scratchy and swollen but he heard me. The god and goddess looked up from their patient and decided I was more important. I tried to sit up but something was pulling me down keeping me in the bed.
"You're awake finally." Hades said like I had been keeping him here far too long.
"What am I doing here? What's going on?"
"Well, it seems Aphrodite wanted you to see something and decided to pull me into it. Otherwise I have no idea what's going on." Hades looked to the goddess and expected her to finish the thought.
"Oh! You mean me. Well I thought Nico here would like to see the tragedy himself. I'm mean if he's going to do this right he might as well see her family die right in front of her."
"Her?" Hades pointed to Kat in the bed on the other side of the room. "What about her? Aphrodite, what game are you playing at?"
"Hades! Can't you see? These two were meant for each other." her voice was swept up with her emotions and she started gazing into the future.
"What is that supposed to mean?" I asked.
"You'll see. Just be good to her." Aphrodite gave me a loving smile and pinched my cheek as she walked away to fantasize about something.
"What were you doing before you got here?" Hades asked.
"I was in a car crash." I said bluntly.
"Not that, before the vision."
"I was in Crusty's diner with that girl over there." I pointed the Kat and Hades lifted an eyebrow in confusion. "She's older now." I blurted.
"Ah." Hades seemed to understand something that I didn't. "I understand now. Aphrodite got me in a doctor's costume for a game of love." he crossed his arms and looked rather disappointed.
"It isn't love." I said.
"Yes it is!" Aphrodite wailed from behind my dad.
Hades opened his mouth as if to say something but he was interrupted by voice screaming from nowhere.
"Nico! Nico are you okay? What's wrong with you?" she yelled from somewhere above us. I recognized it as Kat's, she was pulling me back into reality and for once that night I was glad she was taking me somewhere.
"Well, I guess you'll see soon enough." Hades waved as my vision once again blackened.
My head slumped forward and I landed somewhere with a thud. Hands were grasping my wrists and shaking my arms but I couldn't wake up.
"Nico!" she screamed desperately but even her voice was fading along with my consciousness.