Chapter Eight
Artemis P.O.V
I stared at the screen. This could not be happening. Why would she do that? It was uncalled for! There was no need to go to extremes! She must have been pretty damn connected to her notebook. Her hand would be fine, she managed to get it under cold water before any serious damage could be done. But, this… everything was on my hard drive.
But I'm not stupid, I did save the most important files to my phone, which is a short relief, but all of the other files were gone.
Gone
I just had to pray to god that Foaly was still as nosy and rude when it came to privacy, for he could have copied and saved all my files for himself, to make sure I wasn't up to something. Not that I was these days, but being Foaly, I would still keep my eye out.
For the mean time, I needed to think of a way to bring Abby down. I haven't been around to know what her interests are, but now's my time.
--
Abby P.O.V
"It's 50,000 feet high,
everyone look to the skies.
And it's just so damn strong.
Why can't anything ever go wrong?"
I paused to write down the lyrics and melody. Doing something rebellious has put me on a music writing high. I've only been in this room for 10 minutes and I've already written a verse and some of the chorus. More lyrics came to my mind. I put down my pen and mixed them with the melody.
"Pictures can be changed,
but your reflection's still the same.
And you can try all you might,
but not everything's gonna be right.
No one's a perfectionist."
I wrote those lyrics down with the chords, and picked up my guitar. I heard a slightly muffled noise and I froze. I listened out for another noise to be made. But when none came, I started to relax and work on my music again. I must have been hearing things. I strummed softly and heard the sweet sound of the metal strings. Ah, I loved this guitar.
Artemis P.O.V
I'd never sworn in my life, but somehow, I felt that this was the right moment.
Holy. Shit.
Abby could sing.
I felt the shockwaves roll through my body from the power of her voice. It was incredible.
I watched closely as she stopped playing and reached behind her. She picked up a guitar that I had never seen around here. It was red, sleek and shiny with a white border. It was a really nice guitar. It had to be hers, and the way she handled the guitar with delicacy meant that she must adore it. I had found my point of attack.
I quietly backed away from the door, closing it very, very softly. I quickly tip-toed down the hallway, she would have heard that door closing.
I made it to my bedroom and safely locked myself inside. I knew what I was going to do, but that would have to wait until tomorrow. Because right now, I had files to retrieve.
--
Abby P.O.V
I lay, weak and unmoving. I opened my heavy eyes and they immediately connected with a pair of worried and pained midnight-blue one's. My senses were slow, it took a while to realise that someone was holding my hand. I tore my eyes from the blue ones and looked down at my hand. My eyes trailed from the unknown hand, the arm that connected, right back to the same pair of blue eyes. I realised that those blue eyes belonged to Artemis.
"Abby" he whispered, his voice breaking.
"Abby," he whispered again, "your going to be okay, I promise."
A tear rolled down his cheek as he leaned in and pressed his lips to my forehead. I closed my eyes and savoured the moment. It was only too quickly that he pulled back and placed his forehead against mine. I looked deeply into his eyes; they were a mixture of emotions. There was pain, worry and hope. But above all his eyes showed love. I don't know why he had such hope, I was dying. He placed his hands on either side of my face, memorizing every inch of it. I closed my eyes again, revelling at his warm touch. I heard him sigh brokenly as I leant into his hands.
And then he was gone. I opened my eyes; he had turned around and walked to the door. I tried to call for him, but I had no voice. I could barely even open my mouth.
Artemis opened the door and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. I stared in shock, I felt the urge to cry. I couldn't breathe…
I couldn't breathe…
I couldn't breathe.
I couldn't breathe!
My senses smashed into me as I woke up. I opened my eyes, but I was only greeted with darkness. I found that I was lying on my stomach, without support of my legs to keep my breathing steady. My windpipe was being cut off because of the angle my head was laying at. I tried to roll over so I could breathe, but I found I was too weak. I started to panic, wave after wave of terror washed through me. I needed air.
I tried to roll over again. And the next thing I knew, I was flat on my back, gratefully gulping in huge lung fulls of air.
That was scary. I rolled safely onto my side and almost immediately fell asleep again, totally unaware of the dream that I had just experienced.
--
"Up! Rise and shine!"
I groaned, and then cowered underneath the bedcovers as the sunlight emerged from behind the curtains and hit my eyes.
"Ow! You could have at least waited until my eyes had adjusted!" I said, my voice muffled by the blankets.
Juliet ignored me. "Come on, breakfast is downstairs."
"I'm not hungry." I whined.
"Then starve." Juliet sneered. She walked out of the bedroom and closed the door rather loudly behind her.
"Will do." I mumbled. Looks like the news got out that I had got hold of Artemis' hard drive. Oh well.
I clumsily got out of bed and put my clothes on. I walked sluggishly out of my bedroom and made my way towards the music room. Music is always the best way to start a day. I opened the door, prepared to walk over and grab my guitar from next to the piano, but there was something blocking my pathway in front of me.
What I saw lit up a flame of anger and fury within my heart. My guitar was snapped, smashed and destroyed. My hands balled up into fists and my whole body started shaking. I knew this wasn't caused by the twins.
That guitar was the only thing that had pretty much kept my sanity. When I said that guitar was special, I wasn't joking. I know that the wise say you shouldn't get attached to objects, but I just cannot stress enough on how much that guitar meant to me. It went everywhere with me. It held almost every happy memory spent with my family. It was all I had left.
And now it was destroyed. I wasn't going to cry, I was too far gone to cry.
I was going to make Artemis wish he wasn't brought into this world.
I stormed out of the music room and all the way down the stairs. I smashed my fist into a couple walls along the way, trying to relieve my anger, but it wouldn't help. I finally made it to the Dining Room and smashed the door open. I panned the table and spotted Artemis, who was looking alarmed. I started to walk furiously towards him. He immediately stood up and made a gesture with his hands to calm down. Hah, good luck. When I was within a metre away from him, I pulled my fist back and punched him in the face with all my strength. The momentum from my punch sent him into the table. I was just about to punch him again when I was grabbed from behind by a pair of two large, muscly arms.
"NO!!" I screamed, and writhed around in Butler's arms, flailing about. "LET ME GO!"
"Not until you calm down" Butler said with authority.
"LET. ME. GO!" I yelled, still wrestling against Butler's grip.
Artemis seemed to have recovered pretty quickly, because he suddenly yelled "STOP!"
I stopped moving and Butler dropped me onto the floor. Artemis looked directly at me with a bloody nose.
"You should have thought long and hard about taking my hard drive and deleting everything on it in the first place." Artemis said, "Otherwise you wouldn't undoubtedly be going through all this pain. You have absolutely no idea who you are messing with, Abby. You seem to take pride in other people's suffering. You do damage to other people, and then you wonder why you get damaged in return! Life's not a walk through a field of daisies and butterflies! There is always that hole that trips you over!"
I took deep, steady breaths to stop myself from going off again. "You have no idea what you've just done." I said in a strangled voice.
"No! I don't! But you don't have any idea what you've done either!" He pointed out quickly.
I resisted the urge to scream my whole life story to him, and then see how he reacts. I clenched my teeth and slowly stood up. "At least your hard drive meant nothing. At least your files can be replaced. My guitar may seem like just another instrument to you, but it wasn't to me. It meant something. And it cannot be replaced. You may think we're just in the same situation, but you couldn't be further from the truth. I hope one day when you do find out the truth, the guilt just eats at you," I took a step closer to him, "eats at you fucking inside out."
I took another step closer and slapped him in the face. Immediately, Butler was there, forcing me out of the room.
"Go to your bedroom, and don't come out until I tell you." Butler said viciously. I turned on my heal and started to walk towards my bedroom. When I came to the hall, I stopped. On my left there was a door that led into the yard, and beyond that was the Fowl's huge garden. I took a change in direction and walked towards the door and out into the open. And, as I walked, I sang.
--
It took a whole 6 hours before Juliet came and found me. I was surprised it would take them that long; it didn't take 6 hours to fix a broken nose.
"What are you doing out here? I thought you were supposed to be in your bedroom!" Juliet said. I shrugged, and just continued to walk among all the flowers and plants. A look of anger crossed Juliet's face and she grabbed my arm. I immediately felt a horrible pain run from my arm and all through my body. I yanked my arm away from her. "Watch which bloody arm you grab hold of will you?!" I yelled. Her eyes narrowed at me and then she started to walk back to the house. After about 5 metres, she turned back towards me and signalled for me to follow her. And so I did.
She guided me through the house and into the dining room. Artemis sat, his nose bandaged and on the road to healing, at the other end of the table, with a big bowl of stir fry sitting next to him, waiting to be eaten. I had a feeling that the stir fry was for me, and it was only confirmed when Juliet started to push me towards the food. I grudgingly complied and sat down in front of the bowl of stir fry. But I crossed my arms in front of me and didn't touch it. Artemis eyed my suspiciously.
"Eat." He demanded.
"I'm not hungry." I said. And it was true; I didn't feel hungry in the slightest.
"You were outside for 6 hours, and you're telling me that you're not hungry?" he said incredulously.
I shrugged. He took a deep breath, and said, "Well, how does this sound? I'm not going to move from this seat until you have finished eating the stir fry."
"You can't force me to eat food!" I scoffed.
He leaned in and said, "I can when you haven't eaten for a whole 3 days."
I simply looked at him. Hatred coursing through me. The faster I get this done the better, so I can get away from this bastard.
I picked up my fork and stabbed it into the stir fry.
Okay, for the people who read that chapter and thought "It was just a bloody guitar!"; well, you've got to really imagine what it would be like in Abby's shoes. If your whole family died, and the only object that you had left to remember your family by was destroyed, how would you feel? I dont think I can really say much more on it...
I know, I am getting incredibly lazy about this story. I'm sorry, i'm getting distracted everywhere I turn. The next chapter will be short, but it'll be worth it for what's coming up. has anyone guessed what's going to happen yet? I've dropped so many hints it's not funny. actually, I think i've left a hint a chapter. this chapter has kind of said the most about what's coming, though. but then again, it's pretty hard to figure out. c'mon! try and have a guess!
Peace,
Maddie =]
PS: I do not own Artemis Fowl, the totally psychedelic Eoin Colfer does.
