Reflections
Artemis watched the snow delicately swept by the breeze outside of his study window. He knew that no monitor in a dark room could compare to the light the snow gave off in the winter night. His eyes flicked to the moon that glowed upon the endless white. A crescent tonight, the moon distracted him from his most recent plan. But he knew that his emotions were uneasy beneath his stoic countenance. He seemed ever afflicted by the guilt, as normal humans called it. But Artemis was not a normal human boy. He knew this well, and had kept to that until tonight. It seemed strange that he was feeling this strange unrest now. He was protected by multiple security systems outside of the mansion. On top of this, he had an exceptionally trained member of the Butler family protecting him outside of the door. He had no reason to feel threatened. The voice, however, was always in the back of his mind. He had learned to block it out when he had picked up his father's notorious schemes. He was in for the fortune of a lifetime if he could hack into the largest bank account he had come across yet. It was not difficult to hack into the system, but it was difficult to do so without leaving behind any traceable signal from his computer. Although he had the most advanced technology, he needed to disguise himself everywhere he visited. Long ago, he had learned to mask his computer's identity on a network. This evening, however, would prove to be different. Butler strode into the study, breaking the chain of thoughts in Artemis's head. "We have a problem, Master Fowl." Butler explained as a couple of FBI investigators strode in behind him. "Ah, good evening. To what do I owe this pleasure?" Artemis asked calmly. Beneath his ribcage, his heart hammered. He had learned to master his emotions, but not his body. It always seemed that he could not have total control of his being at a given time like this. He could always meditate, but in this situation, he had to act fast. "We're agent Holoman and Graphete. You could owe at least 10 different banks thousands of dollars, Fowl!" The shorter man growled. Artemis raised a brow in his most profound expression of emotion that day. "Oh? Please, do tell me which banks you speak of…the ones in France, Germany? I've visited so many. But please, tell me why I would owe them money." Artemis said softly. "We traced the signal, and we have the authority to take the computer you own and search it's history for any signs of hacking." Graphete seethed. Artemis let his shoulders relax; his laptop was not the same as the twenty others he had used to rob the banks electronically. He surrendered the laptop without protest and leaned back in his chair as the FBI investigators took their leave for a few hours. Artemis eyed Butler and noted, with a slight amusement, his expression. "What's troubling you, old friend?" "A-Artemis, if they see any trace of network hacking, they could put you in prison." Artemix slowly let a wicked smile spread across his handsome features. "Not to worry, Butler. I always have a trick up my sleeve."
In the meantime, Juliet was up in her room, attempting to do math problems assigned to her in school that day. Juliet was not focused, however. Her mind drifted to the thing she was deprived of, the thing that she longed for and dreaded eating at the same time. She never thought that food could control her, but she was slowly realizing that it already had.