Oh my god, you guys, I don't even know what to say. What did I say last year when I started this? Well, this isn't no Side Friend, so, please tune in while I try to wow you all once more with another completely original story. Gosh, I am so nervous, I hope you enjoy this.

DISCLAIMER: Don't own the characters, just the story.

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"What William Shakespeare was trying to enforce on the audience in Romeo and Juliet when he stated that..." the teachers voice droned on. His Adams apple bobbed with every movement of his lips, his goatee hiding years of facial wrinkles. Thick rimmed glasses covered his eyes as his receding hair line framed his enlarged forehead.

It was growing increasingly hotter as the day ticked by, and sitting in class wasn't helping the feeling of over heating.

Nico had grown tired of hearing his mundane teacher continue on in a single tone about the works of William Shakespeare for the fifth time that week. But he continued to endure it, for it was the last class before lunch, and he couldn't wait to get something to eat.

Just when he thought he was going to fall asleep, the bell saved him from the tedious lecture. He stood up almost immediately, yawning as he packed his notebook and pencil away, slinging his bag over his shoulders before heading out the door and to his locker.

On his way out, he bumped into the janitor, a man with greasy black hair always thrown into a hat.

"I'm sorry," Nico apologized before zipping away, only looking back when he was about to turn the corner. The janitor still had his eyes glued on him in an almost creepy fashion. Trying to ignore it and shake the feeling away, Nico continued down the hall until he reached his locker, putting in his combo before shoving his backpack in.

"Dude," a man called out, causing Nico to jump. He closed his locker and looked at where the voice was coming from. He looked up to meet Mathew's eyes, a man from his English class. "Whoa, didn't mean to scare you."

"Its fine, just wasn't expecting you there," Nico replied as he shut his locker, taking his wallet with him as he got up and followed Mathew down the hall.

"Still tired from Mr. Walsh's class?" he asked, leaning his head back while resting his hands on his neck. "I fell asleep during part of it and woke up to him blabbing about the same thing."

Nico smiled as he nodded, hands in his pocket. "Dude, I know. And his class is always way too hot, it's not fair that we have to suffer through it."

"At least it isn't Myers' class, her's is like Satan's asshole," he groaned, closing his eyes as he yawned.

"Jesus, don't get me started. I had chem with her last semester. Eric Rylee would always take off his shirt whenever he could."

"Fuck Eric Rylee!"

"Dude," Nico chuckled, "keep your voice low. He might eat you if he hears you shit talking him."

"Fuck, why is that so real?" Mathew asked, slightly concerned. Nico only shrugged in return.

They made their way to the cafeteria, swerving in and out of groups of people that where standing around absentmindedly. They stopped in line, waiting for their turn to pick something up to eat.

"I'm starving!" Mathew complained, whining as he fussed and stomped his feet in protest.

"Chill, you'll get us in trouble. People are already starting to stare," Nico muttered to him passively, rolling his eyes as Mathew tried to complain again.

He stared forward, watching the crowds of people move in and out of the room through the doors directly crossed from the other pair. He watched as the janitor weaved through the hoards of people, head low and baseball-style hat pulled down to cover his eyes. His greasy hair stuck out from the small tears in the fabric and underneath.

"Aw man, the weird janitor's here," Mathew pointed out, snapping Nico back from his thoughts. He hadn't noticed the fact that he had been staring at him intensely for the past minute until Mathew had spotted him.

"He seems..." Nico tried to place a word to it, but he couldn't. He felt out of place, even more so than most janitors do.

He had showed up only two weeks ago, and since the first day, something seemed off about him. He didn't act or look off, it just felt like it did. Nico didn't want to single him out, but how could he not? Something about him seemed... off.

"Trust me, I know. Look at him, he looks like he has lost his will to live. Really sad, isn't it?"

"Not what I would say, but..." But before he could finish, the line had moved up enough for the two of them to take their turn. Nico placed a pudding and a fruit cup on his tray and moved down to pay. Once he was done, he moved over to the side and waited for Mathew to finish paying for his own.

Nico watched the janitor as he swept up the same spot for the fifth time, trying to peel his eyes away. He was only half paying attention as he followed his friend to an empty seat only a few steps away from the line, over looking the rest of the cafeteria down the small inclination lead by two rows of stairs on either side of them.

Just as he set his tray slowly on the table, the janitor looked up and met his gaze, sending shivers down his spine. He stood there, almost frozen, unable to move as the nerve-wracking stair of the creep janitor tore into him, making his stomach feel empty and hallow.

"Dude, Nico!" Mathew called out to him as he sat down, noticing his friend stare off abstractedly behind him.

"Hmm?" Nico turned to face him, trying at act normal while the image of the janitor continued to tear through him.

"You okay?"

"Yeah," he answered as he took his seat, sticking his spoon into his pudding suspiciously fast and taking a bite, swallowing as if nothing had happened.

"Alright," he said, drawing out the word before tossing it aside. "Anyways, Samantha Higgins, from my bio class was asking me if you where free - dude! What is the matter with you?"

"What?" Nico looked back at him, finding his eyes and mind elsewhere.

"Are you alright? I'm talking about freakin' Samantha Higgins and all your doing is-" Mathew turned around to see what he was looking at, "-is looking at the damn creepy janitor! You sure your alright?"

"Dude," Nico whispered, dropping his head and voice low, looking over Mathew's shoulder to try and hide himself, "something's not right."

"No shit, you'd rather look at the freakin' janitor rather than listen to what I'm trying to say!"

"No, seriously, Mathew, shut up!" Nico hissed, swatting at him trying to silence him.

"Okay, man, seriously-"

"Shut the fuck up dude!" Nico aggressively whispered at him, sending him a murderous glare his way.

Just before Mathew was about to open his mouth again, he noticed the serious look Nico had. He took a deep breath and glanced behind him slowly. When he turned around, just as Nico had said, something was off.

He turned back to face him. "He hasn't moved," he said lowly, confused.

"I know, that's what I've been trying to say."

Nico kept his eyes locked on the mysterious new janitor, watching the way he eyed the entire student body, glare hard and cold as his aged-eyes stopped, looking just behind him. From a distance, it almost seemed as if he was looking not at him, but through him, but knowing he wasn't, Nico slowly turned his head around, feeling the stiff creaking in his neck.

Slowly, as he saw behind him, his heart raced. A girl with soft hazelnut skin stood in the direction of the old man's stare. Her curly hair, shades lighter than her skin, was held up in a soft satin pink ribbon. Even though her eyes were dark, they shone, bright with determination, yet hard with experience.

He turned back, looking over his friend briefly as he looked over the hardened old man once again.

"I think..." he tried to say, probably something about the girl he thought he was looking at, but the words hung on his tongue, dangling just out of reach before falling all together.

His eyes traced back to the girl again, but only for a small moment before turning to face his friend who was scarfing down his hamburger, still giving Nico a questioning glare.

Trying to turn his thoughts away, Nico scooped a large spoonful of pudding into his mouth. Even as hard as he tried to not look up, he couldn't help but look over Mathew's shoulder.

The janitor had stopped pretending to sweep, but he just stood there, leaning on his broom, glaring underneath the top of his hat. Nico took in a deep breath, stretching his chest out.

The pounding radiating from his chest rang in his ears, almost as if it was keeping track of time; every two beats signalling the passing of a second.

As the janitor brought his chin up, eyes never moving from the spot just behind him, Nico went numb. He didn't know why, but the moment his chin fell, rising slowly, the ringing came as a single buzz, drowning out the outside world.

As he turned his head around once more, he couldn't have been quicker, but for him, it still wasn't quick enough. The girl with the hazel skin nodded back, fixing her ribbon before looking upwards, reaching into her vintage coat.

Nico's eyes darted to were she was looking; upon seeing nothing, his eyes went back to the girl, his heart skipping a beat as a small, concealed blade made itself presence known.

"What the actual fuck?!" he aggressively whispered under his breath, eyes unable to look away as she held a firm grip on it.

"What, dude?" Mathew asked, getting annoyed with his friend before him.

"That!" Nico exclaimed, pointing to the girl that was now creeping up on his slowly, eyes still fixed on the roof. As she got closer, people almost seemed to act as if they didn't see her, like she wasn't even there. Without looking, she avoided walking into people, making her way slowly forward.

Mathew looked up to were he was pointing. At first he just sort of looked in the general direction of the girl, eyes not exactly fixed on a single spot, but after squinting, he just sat back, confused.

"What about her?" he asked, not seeming to see the sword.

"She has a fucking sword under her coat!"

Once again he looked, but shook his head with the same look of confusion and disbelief.

"Dude, you are going crazy," his friend started, but as he continued on, Nico started to get anxious. The more he talked, the more he wanted him to shut up and to let him think. "Like, first, you don't even seem interested in Samantha Higgins-"

The hazelnut girl made her way forward, brow brought down.

"-secondly, you think the creepy-ass janitor has it out for you-"

The janitor gripped the broom with aggression, muscles rippling through his hands, worn down with calluses. Scars littered his toughened forearms, exposed by his sleeves being rolled up; why hadn't he noticed that before?

"-You think that this girl is carrying a knife under her jacket-"

"Sword, she has a sword!" he tried to correct him, eyes still darting everywhere, but was cut off by Mathew.

"Whatever! Same thing! Look, dude, maybe you should calm down, maybe eat something besides sugar."

As his friend continued to talk, Nico couldn't help but feel threatened. He stood up, his chair making an ugly screeching noise. All eyes fell on him, but that didn't matter, because as if every bit of noise had been screaming all at once, the noise that came next topped it.

An explosion-like sound radiated from the ceiling, bits exploding, being sent in all direction. Students ran, screaming, as they tried to get away from the thing that had just happened. The fire alarm sounded, sprinklers going off as a creature made entirely of what seemed like shadow crawled on the shattered ceiling, claws digging, sending pieces of debris falling.

The creature appeared to be defying gravity, tongue, rough and ridged, flicking in and out, hissing as it turned his head to look downwards in an abnormal way.

"What the actual fuck!" Nico yelled, head turned upwards as chaos broke out around him. People slammed into his shoulder as he stood frozen, entranced by the beast whose violaceous eyes burned the back of his mind, neck bending in a spine-breaking way.

The longer Nico stared, the more he forgot that he wasn't the only one there. He didn't notice or mind the people running into him trying to get out of the way, about the strange janitor or the girl with the sword; all he knew was that there was a creature that writhed haltingly hanging from the ceiling.

A tar-like substance oozed out of his mouth as he exhaled hot air, increasing the temperature room, yet still managing to send shivers down Nico's spine.

The more he looked directly into the eyes of the malicious creature, he didn't feel fear, but a sense of dread, like it didn't want to hurt him, but warn him, to show him what was to come.

Nico wanted to move, but time around him was frozen along with his legs.

"Eum!" shouted the hazelnut girl, her hand extended and eyes wild. As people pushed past her - none ever touching her, though - in her free hand she wielded a bronze sword, symbols engraved on the hilt and blade.

"Dimitte," shouted the janitor whom had tossed the hat aside, showing a face hard with years. "Umbra pecus!"

With a mixture of water from the sprinkler system and the light that radiated from the combo's hand created a ray of light, glistening a sickening array of colours, transfixed by the creature that still threatened to do nothing, Nico was beginning to get nauseous.

"Come with me," the hazel girl said with much urgency, gripping Nico's upper arm with the force of a full grown man. Nico wanted to go with her, he felt that he needed to go, but his feet had other plans. As she had to literally rip and drag him from the spot, his feet protesting to move but stumbling forward as to follow the rest of his body and to not fall forward.

As the older man, now discarded of his janitor getup, continued to shout words in a language that he didn't recognize, Nico couldn't help but to look up once last time at the creature that resided on the ceiling.

As he looked once last time at those piercing eyes, couldn't help but feel a freezing calm wash over him, as if someone had dunked a bucket of ice water over him, but instead of shivering and revolting at the touch, he found safety in what should've harm him. He knew he should have ran, but he didn't, and he didn't know why; he didn't want to know why.

"Vade!"

"Stay close to me," she instructed him, her grip not loosening any less.

As Nico looked over his shoulder, the creature was no longer in sight, but the lights and screeching noises that radiating from a mix of fire alarm, students screaming, chanting from the older man, and the creatures unnerving silence that created a ring all to itself.

"What is going on?!" Nico screamed, and when the girl didn't turn back to answer him or show any sign of informing him, he stopped complying to what she wanted.

Nico dug his heel down, halting him and the girl's rushed path.

"What the fuck was that?!"

"We need to go," she exclaimed, her once calm, almost sweet demeanor gone, but replaced with one that was hard with years of pain. But Nico wasn't budging. "You don't understand what is going on, we need to go-" she tried to rush him but was cut off by the presence of the older gentleman.

"Hazel," the man spoke with a soft, yet firm authority.

"Chiron-" she tried to plead her case, but when he raised his hand, she shut her mouth.

"That's enough, my girl. We must go now, though. Will you please?"

With a quick nod and fast pace, she made her way back over to the door they had just exited.

"What the hell is going on?! What was that thing?! Why is it here?! And why the hell is no one acting like they saw that thing?!" Nico continued to yell questions, trying to wrap his mind around what had just occurred. Not even ten minutes ago his life was completely normal, no creature bursting out of the ceiling, dripping tar from his twisted smile, strange people chanting in a foreign language; he had been normal, and now he was more confused than he had ever been.

"Nico, please don't be alarmed," the older man - Chiron - had spoken with a softness to his words.

"How do you know my name?!" Nico interrupted, taking a step back, hoping that he would wake up from this dream - nightmare he had found himself in.

"Nico, I know many things, and all will be relieved in due time. But for now, as to your questions, I will tell you what you need to know to the best of my abilities."

Nico stood there, oblivious to the screaming around him. He raised his eyebrow in a cocky manor, as if asking him to continue on.

"That 'thing' is a creature that humans have yet to meet and remember the face of. The closest thing to the creature that have made big enough impact on human lives is the Enenra from Japanese mythology. They also tend to be closely grouped with Shade. We generally call it Quæ sedes in umbra"

As the man continued to talk, Nico grew more and more confused. Enenra? Shade? Nothing this man said made any sense.

"Barrier is up," Hazel, the girl, said solemnly as she took her place in front of Chiron.

"Thank you," he said, smiling gently in a way that Nico had never seen before.

The two of them started to head out, Hazel gesturing for Nico to follow.

"Why do I have to go with you?" he asked, heart still racing.

"Because it's not longer safe for you here," Hazel informed him, being gentler this time.

"Why?" he asked, trying to make sense of what they were saying.

"Because that... thing has found you. We sensed you here, and it seems to be just in the nick of time too."

"You sensed me?" Nico stopped in his tracks, the fire alarm still ringing throughout the building. It was starting to give him a headache.

"Yes, which is unusual. Usually they aren't so... old." The way she emphasized her words seemed harsh, as if he was strange to her, even after all that.

"Won't people notice I'm gone?" he asked, still trying to figure out why he was being taken from his school. "Mathew, my teachers, my Mother?"

"I put up a 'barrier,' they wont notice your gone. It's as if you were never in their lives," Hazel told him bluntly, forcing him to continue towards the door heading outside.

"What?" Nico wanted to protest, to scream, but the more he thought about what had happened, the more he wanted to scream. "Everyone will forget me?"

"Yes," she replied, opening the door, the silence - compared to in the building - was refreshing.

"But, my Mother," Nico tried to wrap his head around the thought of his Mother never knowing he was born.

"Hazel," Chiron chirped in, voice sounding like a warning. "No, your Mother will not forget you." He gave Hazel a small glare which she just shrugged off. "She will believe that you are going to a boarding school."

"I'm so confused," Nico muttered, still unknowingly following them. He wanted to turn around, to act as if nothing had happened, that he wasn't following strange people just because they had told him to, but here he was, doing just that. "Why do I have to go with you?"

Hazel groaned, sighing deeply to which Chiron gave a reassuring sigh.

"Nico," he said, turning to face him. "You are not normal. That creature was drawn here because of you. We don't know why that specific creature was the one that came to you, that part... that is the part that confuses me, but because it did, we have to protect you." Chiron's face got hard in thought, the years showing on his face as he scowled in a way that could send shivers down your spine. "No-" he shook his head, looking kinder then, "-but you must come with us. Nico, I know you may not like it, but your life as you know it is over.

"We normally find people like you and Hazel when you're younger, but the fact that you're as old as you are (now) is unusual, something that might have to do with the fact that the Quæ sedes in umbra found you, but until we know, you must come with us. We will take you to a school where you will learn and understand, with other that are just like you."

As Chiron finished, Nico looked from one face to another, seeing how serious they were. Nothing made sense. His mind was racing, trying to figure out what was happening now that he had information and moment of clarity.

Almost as a form of panic, he started to laugh, shaking his head slowly at first, a small chuckle that slowly started to build in to a full on laughing fit. Tears that had started to pool in his eyes started to escape, his sides started to hurt, and his knees were becoming weak.

"You guys are crazy to think that I-" Nico pointed to himself after he held his weight up by leaning on his knees, "-have some sort of voodoo witch craft magic powers!"

The glares he received from the two before him were steady, unchanged, if anything, a little exasperated. They waited until Nico managed to clam himself a bit, wiping away a single tear as he stretched his back back, attempting to shake everything off as a some sort of joke.

"Is Ashton Kutcher going to pop out and tell me I've been Punk'd?"

"'Punk'd'...?" Hazel mouthed, trying to make sense of the word.

"Nico, please," Chiron tried to silence him, to get him to understand, but Nico still was throwing everything off as a joke.

"I can't believe you had me going for this long! How'd you do those special effects? How many people were in on it?!"

"Nico," he spoke with more force, shocking Nico silent, "none of this is a joke." Nico stared at him, his shaking turning from laughter to worry, apprehension, his entire will to continue to stand riding on the adrenaline coursing through his veins. "What happened in there was no joke. Nico, you have powers that people only dream of. Did you not see your own hands while in there? It was small, but there was a spark." He turned to face Hazel, her arms crossed. "Hazel?"

She relaxed her arms and took a step forward. She put her hand out and closed her eyes, and not even a second later, from the pavement below, a thick, rough gem broke through, cracks spreading everywhere, and landed in her hand.

Nico tripped over his own feet as he tried to back up. He landed on his butt with a loud thud!, his tailbone aching.

"Now," Chiron started, turned to head towards a parked car, old and rusted, yet well taken care of, "we must be going, ever minute we waste here, the more danger we are in."

Hazel dropped the stone as if it was it was going to burn a whole through her hand and extended her hand down to help Nico up. As Nico examined her hand, almost backing away from her touch, she let out a sigh and smiled, lightening her aura.

With cautious fingers, Nico took her hand slowly, getting back up to his feet, brushing his behind off of dust.

Hazel lead him to the car and opened the door for him, holding it open as he got in hesitantly, hands clammy and shaking. Once he managed to buckle his seat belt, Hazel slid in, eyes forward as Chiron started to drive away, silence becoming the loudest sound in the car.

For Nico, there was a before and after, and no matter how hard he wanted to stay in the "before", his life would forever be changed by what came after.

...

Chapter one: completed!

Wow, so here it is! For those new to this: each day I will be uploading a new chapter until Christmas, that's where the last chapter is posted; simple.

So, what's your thoughts? Any ideas where this is going?

Funny enough, I only have four chapters written for this, whoops. I swear I had this originally planned to start in the summer, but look how that worked out.

Anyways, I miss this, so prepare for eight days of christmas!

Review, follow, favourite!

Kitty out!