Nico stumbled through the woods, he had traveled at random after he had ran away from Annabeth and Camp Half Blood, now he had no idea where he was. Not that he cared, the only reason he was even aware of the woods he was in was the root he had tripped over. It had jerked him out of his own head only for a moment, he looked up at the trees surrounding him. He had never seen trees this big, they made it dark down on the forest floor where he was but he supposed as a son of Hades, he shouldn't be afraid of the dark.

He laughed and covered his own mouth with his hands. If he wasn't a son of Hades, his sister would still be alive, if he wasn't a son of Hades he would still be able to remember his mother, if he wasn't a son of Hades maybe she would still be alive. His laughter was replaced by strangled sobs as he started crying again, what did he have now? He couldn't go back to Camp Half-Blood and he couldn't go to his father, where else could he go? What else could he do?

He heard a snapping of branches behind him and cut off mid-sob, staying perfectly still listening to the woods around him. It was funny how quickly one learned to pay attention to their surroundings when their life depended on it. He heard a small rustling of leaves as whatever was coming snuck closer, Nico didn't turn, just listened. Suddenly the thing behind him jumped, Nico hit the deck, letting whatever it was sail over him before jumping to his feet to see what had jumped at him, drawing the sword he had been given to him by his father. It was too big for him, but well balanced, and he still didn't know how to use it very well but it was better than nothing.

In front of Nico was a… well it looked like a human, a male, Nico thought older, certainly taller than him. The man was wearing a pair of orange goggles and a mouth guard that made it hard to tell anything other than that other then that and that the boy had light brown hair. He was holding a pair of mismatched hatchets and staring at Nico. He didn't look like a monster to Nico, most monsters didn't have to use weapons, but then again sometimes the mist fooled even demi-gods so that might not be what this person/monster even looked like.

The other didn't speak before lunging at Nico again with the left hatchet, Nico dodged out of the way managing to block the right one with his sword. The first swing had put the person off balance, Nico pushed hard sending the stranger back. Nico lunged forward as the boy stumbled, delivering a shallow cut to the boys chest, but he didn't seem to notice. For a second Nico thought the stringent iron had gone through him and had no idea what the boy might be, but then he saw the blood.

The blood was red though, not gold like most monsters he was used to. The blood looked like a mortals blood, but demigod blood did look the same as mortal blood. There was definitely something off about him though. Nico hadn't thought to look for it before it had seemed like his sword hasn't worked but there was something... different about the other boys soul. Nico couldn't tell what it was and while Nico was distracted the other swung at Nico again, he only just managed to block it stumbling back. He took a couple extra steps as well, he wanted to talk. Maybe this person was another demi-god.

"Are you a demi-god too?" He asked the person, they remained silent but their neck twitched cracking loudly, Nico couldn't tell if it was a twitch or surprise. "You don't bleed Ichor like a monster or god but you're energy feels off, not quit human. Or like anything else for that matter." The boy lunged at Nico again and he danced out of the way trying to stay at a distance. "...so what are you if not a mortal? A monster? One chosen by the gods or a half god like me?" The boy had paused now and was staring at Nico with his head tilted to the side, he twitched again.

"Are you crazy?" The boy asked, Nico sighed, not a demi-god then, or at least not one that knew what he was. Not a monster either though, so what then? "It's okay if you are, I am too, have been ever since I killed my dad. Even before that probably." Well the twitching made sense now at least, Nico thought as the boy twitched again.

"I don't think I'm crazy but you being crazy wouldn't explain why you feel so different then other beings." Nico explained patiently. The other had left his fighting stance but Nico stayed in his, who knew how unpredictable this person would be if they admitted to being insane.

"Well I'm not, huh," The other made a small noise as he twitched again a bit more severally "Human anymore I guess really, I mean I died a little while ago I think but I just didn't go anywhere." Nico stared at the other, he really was crazy, there was something off about how his energies felt but it couldn't be that, the other did definitely feel alive.

"Your soul does feel different then other peoples." Nico admitted. "But my dad doesn't usually let dead people hang out up here for very long. If they don't make their way to the underworld on their own he usually sends someone after them." The other slid his goggles up into his hair to get a better look at Nico revealing large almond shaped light brown eyes surrounded by dark lashes.

"Your dad?" the guy asked, Nico cursed himself silently he shouldn't have mentioned it, no one ever wanted anything to do with him once they knew who his father was.

"Hades." He said in a resigned tone. "Greek god of the underworld and the dead." To his surprise the other's eyes widened in what seemed like delight.

"Really!?" He almost shouted his excitement making him twitch twice in quick succession as he laughed. "Your dad must either love or hate me and my friends for how many people we've sent his way!" His laugh was completely insane, and Nico knew he shouldn't, but he felt himself relaxing a little. He didn't like that he was around a murderer but still… this person's reaction was better than most peoples.

"Probably hate you." Nico said with a tiny smile, "He's always complaining about how many dead people there are and how looking after them all is a 'logistical nightmare'" The boy laughed wildly again.

"Sorry not sorry!" He yelled twitching again and bouncing up on his toes. Nico relaxed just in time for the other to lunge at him again pushing him to the ground, and raising his right axe with another laugh. Nico cried out and the other was jerked away from him by a skeletal hand that had reached out of the earth. Nico still wasn't good at controlling his powers all the time but obviously his panic had done something. A skeleton clawed its way out of the ground to stand between Nico and his attacker. He expected the other to run away in terror at least scream as Nico picked himself up off the ground.

"That's awesome!" Nico nearly fell over again in pure shock at the other's exclamation. "Seriously I thought BEN and Slender's powers were good but that definitely beats what they've got!" He laughed "Jeff's gonna be so pissed he thinks he's such a hot shot with his 'go back to sleep', but you beat him by a mile. You could scare anyone with that trick! How many can you summon? Can you do Zombish rotting ones? That would be more impressive, you should try it!" The guy was twitching like crazy and Nico had no idea what he was talking about.

"What are you talking about?" Nico asked bluntly, the guy was putting his hatchets back in their holsters but Nico wasn't going to drop his guard.

"You have to come with me to meet the other Creeps! I bet old Skin Taker would love to have some more skeletons around!" He laughed still not making any sense to Nico. "Come on, they'll love you! And that explains what you're doing in Slender's woods to, if you're like that! Come on, you can bring your skeleton thing!" The guy bolted off into the woods but Nico didn't follow him.

"Hang on! I need to know who you are and what you are before I go anywhere with you!" The guy did a U-turn and ran back to where Nico was, nearly falling over as he tried to stop too quickly.

"I'm Toby." He said, Nico wondered if he ever spoke softly. "People call me Ticci-Toby because of my twitching." He twitched again just to prove it. "And I'm a creepypasta! One of Slenderman's proxies to be precise." He laughed, Nico didn't know what was funny. "Me, Masky and Hoody. Slender sent me to get you out of his woods because Masky's busy and Hoody's too shy, but now I'm sure he'll want to meet you."

"What are creepy pastas?" Nico asked, he had never heard of it.

"We're horror story monsters!" Toby said proudly. "So most of us aren't human, BEN used to be I think, so did I, Sally and Hoody too, he still is I think, I don't know about Masky. Slender was never human." Toby would have kept going but Nico interrupted him.

"Okay horror story monsters. Fine if all the old greek legends are true why not horror stories but why should I go with you then? That doesn't sound like a place I want to be." Toby tilted his head in confusion.

"Because you're like us aren't you? Raising the dead seems like a pretty horror story monsterish to me." Nico felt like he had been kicked in the stomach, Toby was right. "But it's okay we don't hurt our own, and you already said you weren't human, we only hurt humans." He said nodding vehemently and the his head twitched to the side, Nico wondered if Toby could break his neck with those twitches. "So will you come with me now?"

"I suppose so." Nico said shrugging, he didn't have anywhere else to go, he might as well see what the Toby person was on about.

"Good!" Toby said dodging around the skeleton and grabbing Nico's hand dragging him through the forest. Nico could feel the skeleton dragging at his energy as it jogged after them, but Nico didn't let it go. Toby had said to bring it and he didn't know how important that was and he knew he might not be able to summon it again since he was having trouble with his power and had already used some of it today.

The woods seemed to warp around them and a lot more quickly than Nico had expected, an old mansion came into view through the trees. As they approached it a figure came out to meet them, at first Nico couldn't see anything of it besides the yellow hoody and as it got closer Nico realized that was pretty much all there was to see. The person's face was covered by cloth with red eyes and a red frown which seemed to have been bleached into it. Nico stared but Toby had looked strange too maybe masks and face coverings were common for these people.

"T-Toby!" The asked person said sounding irritated. "You w-were supposed to take c-care of the person in the woods not b-bring them back here!" Nico took 'take care of' to mean kill, and he felt a bit nervous again, but Toby just bounced again.

"But Hooodyyy look what he can do!" Toby said waving at the skeleton "He can raise the dead! That's not a human thing he's not a human thing I think slendy will want to see him don't you? I do." Toby said it all in one breath and then inhaled sharply twitching again. Hoody's head turned toward the skeleton, though Nico couldn't tell where he was looking completely.

"You m-might be right." Hoody admitted "but Sir i-isn't here right now. "

"What!" Toby gasped "He was here when I left."

"Jeff's causing trouble again." Hoody said, he didn't stutter on that sentence, and Nico got the impression it was something he had a lot of practice saying.

"Aww!" Toby practically shouted.

"Umm excuse me, but I won't be able to keep the skeleton here much longer." Nico interjected, Toby gave a surprised twitch he must have almost forgotten Nico was there. "It takes a lot of energy to keep it here and I only figured out how to summon them recently so I don't have much practice." Nico didn't add that he wanted to keep as much of his energy as h could incase he needed to fight or shadow travel away from these people.

Hoody nodded. "I-if both m-me and Toby t-tell Sir about it h-he'll believe, you c-can let it g-go." He stuttered more when he was talking directly Nico, he guessed it was because Hoody didn't like talking to strangers. Nico nodded cutting of the connection to the skeleton with a sigh of relief and hearing the clatter of bones as it collapsed behind him.

"So what do we do till the old man comes back?" Toby asked impatiently turning to Nico "Do you wanna fight again!?"

"Not really, I'm tired from sustaining the skeleton." Nico glanced at Hoody but his head was angled towards the ground and he didn't seem inclined to speak again.

"Damn." Toby said frowning. "And Slendy wouldn't want me to show you around until he sees you ummm, I guess we could just talk." He didn't sound convinced.

"K-know more will h-help." Hoody put in quietly.

"Okay." Toby said "Let's go sit some place!" he ran off and Nico had to jog to keep up with Hoody right behind him.

"Is Toby always like this?" Nico asked Hoody and Hoody nodded still looking at the ground. Nico didn't press him to speak. Toby stopped suddenly by the shores of a pond and plopped down.

"You should tell Hoody the Demi-god stuff, he'll want to hear that stuff." Hoody sat down slowly beside Toby and angled his face toward Nico, he sat down next to Hoody. Hoody seemed calmer then Toby, maybe he was less likely to suddenly attack.

"Well umm, I don't know that much really, I didn't find out that long ago but I'm a demi-god, half god I mean. My mother was human, my father was Hades the Greek god of the dead and the underworld, that's why I can call on the dead." Hoody nodded but didn't say anything, Nico wished he could see Hoody's face and know his reaction.

"Are there lots of other Demi-gods?" Toby asked without looking at Nico, Toby seemed to be looking for rocks to throw into the lake.

"I wouldn't say there were lots, but there are more. No other children of Hades though, I had a sister but she. She." Nico couldn't finish, he swallowed and looked down at the ground. Toby had fallen still for the first time and was staring at the water blankly.

"Ya, mine too." Proving he was capable of speaking softly, no one spoke for a moment, Nico and Toby stared at the water, Hoody at the ground. "Any other family?" Toby asked after a couple minutes where they both thought of their sisters.

"Just Hades." Nico said shrugging and smiling bitterly. "And it's hardly like he counts, he's always too busy running the land of the dead to pay any attention to me." It was hard not to sound angry, if he had wanted to Hades could have stopped almost all of this.

"My mom's alive." Toby said shrugging. "But she called the cops on me as soon as I killed my dad so I'm guessing she doesn't want to see me anymore." Nico nodded, unsure of what to say. "But it's okay!" Toby said twitching back into action with a grin and grabbing Hoody. "I've got Hoody here and the rest of the creeps!" He ruffled where Hoody's hair must be hidden and Hoody tried to push him off, after a moment Toby let go.

"That's more than I have." Nico said nodding encouragingly at Toby.

"What do you mean?" Toby asked frowning.

"Well there is a camp for Demi-god kids but it's arranged according to who your 'godly parent is'. Hades didn't even have a cabin till recently because they don't want his kids around. We're bad luck, we bring death with us wherever we go." Nico pulled up his legs and crossed his arms over them. "It wasn't hard to tell that no one wanted me so I figured I'd better stop bothering them."

"That's how the outside world feels about all of us too, sounds like you'll fit in here just fine." Toby said, Nico was surprised again and raised his eyebrows.

"Even if I plan to never kill anyone on purpose?" He asked curiously.

"Even if you don't want to kill anyone." Toby said laughing "Though I don't know why you wouldn't it's fun!" Nico made a small noncapital noise. He didn't think so.

"I d-don't like k-killing people." Hoody commented suddenly.

"Ya but you do it anyway." Toby pointed out and Hoody shrugged. "Still he's right and you're nobody's proxy so no ones gonna make you." Hoody nodded crossing his legs.

"Okay." Nico said, he kind of liked these people. He knew maybe he shouldn't hang around with murderers but who else wouldn't care that he was a child of death? Hell these people seemed to like him better because of it. "So what should I expect from meeting this Slenderman?" he asked, if he was planning on sticking around it seemed he would need Slender to like him.

"Be polite." Hoody advised and then Toby picked up.

"Ya polite, and don't run away, you might want to he's kinda big and weird looking but don't do it. If your head hurts stay calm, other than that let us do most of the talking and answer any questions he directs to you." Big and weird look wasn't a very helpful description, but the rest of the advice the two had given would be helpful. Nico wondered what they meant by if his head hurt. Sudden static in his head made him jump, Toby did as well leaping up to his feet.

"That's Slender back! He'll be here. Oh there he is." Nico spun around and looked up, and up and up. He really was big, well, tall and thin and, ahh that's what they meant by weird looking. Faceless. Nico swallowed hard and froze watching the tentacles coming out of the beings back waving in agitation as Hoody got up and bowed slightly.

Children who is this? The voice was inside Nico's head instead of the air around him and he shivered.