Sorry for the long wait- I was out of town. I have drafts of the next chapters written, but might scrap them because I want to change that part around a bit. Anyway, thanks for waiting. Review!
"No, I didn't. I had been thinking about it, from the moment we got the alert. You could have died that day. To be honest, I was considering You, Jessica and…" She stopped, but Eden knew which name had been about to slip through her lips. "You were the only ones that could do it. Dawn, too. I was hoping it wouldn't come to that." her voice was flat, emotionless.
Yes, Jackie had been strong and smart. Jackie would have been a lieutenant to rival Zoë Nightshade. But Jackie was a fucked up, stinking traitor.
O-o
Eden let go of Dawn, landing hard on the ground.
"Arianna." She snarled, and Hermes sighed.
"We can't, Eden. I'm sorry."
"You're not." She said angrily. She doubted he really knew how she felt- 'sorry' didn't help. If he was really sorry, he would let Eden look. If he really was sorry… she turned away from him, trying to contain the crazed feeling of shame and grief that was burning her body .
She had failed. Jackie had left. Ria was missing.
Jackie Ria Jackie Ria Jackie Ria Jackie Ria Ria Ria.
A joyful and curious crowd was forming. Angrily, Eden pushed past Gäldstrup, stalking into her empty cabin and slamming the door. She swung onto her upper bunk, ignoring her leg when it objected, and glared at the ceiling. She knew what they all thought, and, for right now, at least, she didn't care. She would set them straight later.
Ria. She didn't want to imagine what her friend was probably going through right now. Eden could see the appeal of drugs- if they helped you forget, then bring 'em on. She rolled over, hiding her face in her pillow, only to find ninty eight point five pounds on hunter land on top of her.
"Edie!" Mary hugged her as well as she was able, pulling her into a sitting position. She was crying.
"Ow." Eden mumbled, and Mary pulled back looking guilty. Jenna swung herself onto the bunk, also hugging her. Eden wrapped her arms around her legs, staring blankly into space. They didn't know about the others- she wasn't going to tell them.
They didn't ask how she was. They didn't need to.
O-o
"Titansdamnit." Lars slammed his fist on the table.
"Tell me again who was there." Cynthia Jincuk, CEO of T.S.F.R (The Search For Rebels) asked, finger on the start button of a recorder.
"Hermes," Lars began, watching the name appear on Jincuk's computer screen. "And Peter Johnson, naturally." Cynthia paused the recorder, deleting the word 'naturally' from the document. "That hunter- Dawn… something. McCreebis, I think. Yes, Dawn McCreebis. You know, the blonde one."
"Emmerson is blonde," The CEO pointed out, removing the words That, Hunter, Something, McCreebie, I, Think, you know the blonde one, and Emmerson is blonde from the screen, waiting for him to continue.
Lars's face darkened. "Ar-tuh-mis." He said nastily, glowering. She had escaped. Titansfuckingdamnhertohell.
"Gregory Gäldstrup?" Cynthia checked, and Lars shook his head.
"He was MIA."
"Ah."
"And, of course, Ed-en Emm-er-son was accounted for. And thirteen Cyclopses are AWOL. "
Cynthia stopped the recorder. "I hope for your sake, Castellan, thay we catch them soon."
O-o
Lars stormed down the hallway, leaning up against the wall at the end. Eden's face as she fled seemed imprinted on his eyelids. It disgusted him.
He wanted her to die. Who was she, to kick his balanced world, to question his power in the new regime?
He supposed she was sort of pretty in a fourteen-year-old, great-granddaughter-of-Aphrodite sort of way, but he did not want to have to jump her.
I am not a child rapist. He thought acidly. It might be different if she was at least twenty five. As it was, she was too young and too old at the same time.
Unfortunately, Kronos seemed to have different opinions on the matter. But Lars knew she would die before she cracked, and probably before she let anyone near her.
Kronos had told her the definition of the word 'fuck' last week, and he was surprised. Sex slang- Jump, squirrel, parley, were banned from society. Using one was a great offence.
Then again, that seemed to be her goal.
But fuck? What kind of word was that?
O-o
She was running, so, so slowly. Her leg was on fire- she could see the orange flames licking up her body. She was running towards the ocean, but it was retreating, farther and farther away. Hawks circled above her, cackling with delight at their catch.
"I'm not dead!" she shouted angrily at them.
"You will be soon," The largest of them said. He looked at her with the familiar bright blue eyes that wound haunt her forever, and she screamed.
"NO!" She sat up in bed, shaking.
She slid off the bed, slipping outside into the night. A few guards looked around, surprised, as she passed them, but none of them spoke to her. she had been like a ghost this past week, and they had all stopped trying.
Eden curled up in a ball behind the dining hall, gazing at the stars. Her forehead throbbed angrily, begging for painmeds.
She ignored it, counting stars. That was a good way to kill time.
She had gotten to seventy six when she heard footsteps on the gravel behind her.
"Go away." She muttered. Seventy seven, seventy eight, seventy nine… someone sat next to her.
Eighty, eighty one, eighty two, eighty three…
"Eden." Her voice was quiet, so as not to alert the patrols.
"Go away." Eden repeated. Eighty four, eighty five, eighty six…
Something dragged her into a sitting position. She lashed out at it, and found… nothing. She glanced around at the figure next to her, sitting two feet away.
Oh.
"Cut it out." Eden turned her face away from the goddess, staring fixedly at the stars. Eighty seven, eighty eight, eighty nine, ninety. Or wait- had she counted that one already? She didn't think she had already included Orion-
"It doesn't help anyone for you to behave this way, you know. Not you, not Ria, not-"
"Go away." She insisted. Her grandmother didn't move.
Eden glowered at Ursa Major. No one would understand, not even a god. Why couldn't they all leave her alone?
"You need to live."
"Says who?" her voice was cold. She didn't need to live, didn't want to live. Something that an immortal couldn't understand.
She wondered what the rules for Elysium were. It was probably how strongly you believed in something, how you acted. Lars would go to Elysium for his work for the titans- was it too much to hope for that she could go for working for the gods? The judges were supposed to be impartial.
"Says me. Says everyone at this camp. Are you planning to abandon us? Do you want six hunters down?"
Abandon. Jackie had abandoned them. Could she do that again? In her book, joining the Titans was like abandonment. Could she make them loose three hunters in a month?
She didn't say anything.
"Are you really going to let one Y chromosone ruin your life?" Athena pressed on.
Eden squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block the tears that tried to force themselves through. It didn't work. A tear fell from her cheek, catching the light of the moon.
O-o
"Tell me now." She ordered Gälstrup in the morning. Her depression of the last week seemed to be wearing off- she had gotten her glare, at least, back to normal. "What are people saying?" Gäldstrup stayed silent.
"Tell me or I'll go threaten someone." She said darkly, and still Greg hesitated. He knew exactly what people were saying, but did Eden really need to know?
"You have ten seconds, Gregory."
She never used his full name unless she was thoroughly pissed.
"Nine."
Did she really need to know? He had learned in the last seven years was that an angry Eden was dangerous.
"Seven."
But then again, it might restore life to her. Was this a sign she wanted to live again?"
"Four."
How much should he tell her?
"Three."
But if she wanted to beat someone up- Poseidon, Athena and Aphrodite were all known for their tempers. The person would not get off lightly.
"Two"
She had a right to know.
"One." Eden's eyebrows descended as she glowered at him.
"They are saying… well, opinions vary. Um," He pressed on before she could blast him into the Atlantic, "Sixty five percent of the population are convinced that you were raped by Castellan." She gnashed her teeth together angrily. "Thirty percent of the population here at fort Seattle are convinced that you were raped by," he paused, and Eden's hand pulsed. "Kronos or Atlas."
"HOLY FUCKING-"
"And thirty seven percent think that you are traumatized and will never speak again," he continued, "something that has already been proven wrong. And Eighty seven percent believe that Arianna is dead."
He shouldn't have said the last part. Worry clouded her face, and she glared at a point over his shoulder. "Lovely."
"Eden, you wern't-" she heard the plea in his voice, his desire to know but not wanting to hear the answer.
"No, I wasn't." She stormed off.
O –o
"I. Was. Not. Raped. By. Titans." Her fist landed on Adams face with each word. He narrowed his eyes, massaging his jaw.
"I am only repeating what I heard from… everyone else."
"Like who?"
"Everyone." He said, annoyed.
She shook her head, glowering. "Screw everyone, then. I was not raped by fucking titans." She punched him hard in the jaw, and stalked across the green. But something had crumbled inside her. No one would ever fully believe her. There would always be a suspicion in the backs of their minds, and they only had her word for it…
She wondered if Arianna was as lucky.
Ria… she sank to her knees outside her cabin, eyes closed. She had to find her- there was no other way. Ria Ria Ria Ria. She could die. She could kill herself. She could end up… Eden refused to use the P word. Refused to think it.
It was all her fault. Well, maybe Ja- she stopped. She knew that her ex-friend was gone- she was never coming back. But when she pictured the Hunt, Jackie always slipped in. It was hard to grasp- even after ten days. Jackie is a traitor, Jackie is a traitor…
With a cry, she curled up into a little ball on the floor of her cabin, rocking back and forth with greif. Arianna. Laurel. Jessica. Jackie. Thalia. They had started out with eleven hunters. Now there were six. It was her fault.
O-o
too tired for replies. So sorry.
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