Bewitched || P. Jackson

ℕo one's home

Christmas was probably one of Nicki's favourite times of the year. Ever since she was little, she adored the idea of putting time and effort into getting presents for the people she cared about. Since her rescue from Westover Hall, Nicki's view of Christmas had been tainted, but she had promised herself that this year was going to be a good year.

Percy had arrived at camp almost a week earlier and had immediately been roped into Nicki's Christmas plans.

Nicki's cabin had been decorated in gold, twinkling fairy lights that seemed to glow brighter the more you looked at them. Having convinced Chiron to let it snow earlier than usual, many scattered snowman-building competitions had taken place under Nicki's excited eyes. Much to Chiron's frustration, no less than three camp-wide snowball fights had taken place. Although Ethan swore he got smacked in the face by a perfectly thrown snowball from Chiron's direction.

Nicki was determined to make sure that the campers had a good Christmas. They deserved a happy memory.

She had everything planned out. On the 15th, they would start the festivities. First, they would have a cabin against cabin snowman-building competition. The winners got two extra piles of sweets in the following day's gingerbread house decorating contest. That evening, Nicki had managed to get Chiron's permission to decorate the Big House with whatever the campers wanted.

Nicki had planned sledding races, Christmas cookie baking, ice skating, campfires, and a million more things.

Sally had offered to let everyone stay over in her apartment on Christmas Eve. So Travis, Connor, Annabeth, Nicki, Ethan, Thalia, Nico, and Percy were all being driven into Manhattan on Christmas Eve for present shopping before staying over with Sally and Paul.

The next morning, Nicki and Nico were travelling everyone down to Nicki's house in Massachusetts for Christmas Day.

Every single thing was perfectly planned. Nothing could go wrong.

It wasn't unusual for Nicki to sleep in until midday during the holidays. The only reason she woke up early was when she had to for school. She wasn't a morning person.

However, today Nicki was awake at the same time as the Apollo children.

Chiron had granted Nicki and Percy permission to go into Manhattan and shop for whatever they needed for Nicki's festivities.

Pulling one of Percy's hoodies over her head, Nicki practically flew down the stairs. Leaving Ethan still asleep in her bed, the daughter of Hecate ran across the snow-coated ground.

With minimal slippage, Nicki skidded up to Percy's cabin door.

"Perseus?" Knocking gently on the door, Nicki raised her voice. "Perseus? Come on, we gotta go. Argus is waiting."

Silence.

Nicki knocked louder, thinking Percy was in his bathroom.

Silence.

The windows were blocked by thick curtains. Nicki couldn't see inside.

"Percy!" Nicki banged on the window.

Silence.

After a moment, Nicki tried the door handle. When the door didn't budge, her heart rate began to pick up.

"Percy!" Nicki banged on the door. "This isn't funny!" Thumping her fists on the door, Nicki tried to open it again. "Percy!"

"Nicki?" The girl jumped at the sound of Will's voice.  He walked towards her quickly. "Nicki, what's wrong?"

No words left her mouth. Nicki's eyes danced around in a panic. They settled on a gray building with an owl carved over the doorway and plain white curtains.