CHAPTER 4
IN MIGI'S AND FAYE'S HOUSE
They had been playing with a deck of cards in Faye's room. Faye and Jowy had had to teach Artemis a whole lot of games, since he wasn't all too experienced concerning cards. Afterwards, he won so many times that he was already getting bored. Faye's mood had apparently lightened, as she no longer kept glancing at her watch.
Jowy was loosening up as well. He strayed closer to Faye during one of the games, and Artemis moved closer as well, until Faye pushed them both apart at the same time.
"Geez, I lost again," Faye laughed good-naturedly. She lay down her cards and pointed to them one by one, pointing it out to Jowy and Artemis. "Jowy, we can't leave it like this! Rematch!"
Artemis found himself smiling as well, as if his facial muscles were moving on their own without his consent, at the sound of Faye's laugh. She glanced up momentarily, and for a moment, her eyes gazed straight into his, her laugh dying abruptly.
She and Artemis' gazes locked into each other's, until she suddenly broke it off with a wave of her hand.
"It's too early to say that you hate me," she laughed. She gathered the cards and began to shuffle them again.
Artemis looked past her head, to the machine, and was sort of left feeling dumb by how she could wave away such an embarrassing, but obvious spark of realization. Then suddenly, a thought came to his mind unbidden, and he was so shocked at the prospect that he didn't do anything but just sit up straighter and shake his head.
Jowy was looking at him.
"What's up with you?" he asked.
Artemis gave a glare. "It's nothing," he hissed.
At that moment, the doorbell rang. Artemis jumped up before Faye could.
"I'll get the door," he blurted out, as if he weren't a prisoner, and there was no chance in the world he'd try to run out and not look back twice. "Don't worry, I just have to ask Migi something."
Faye looked at him, then gave a vague nod.
Artemis rushed through the halls, and he stopped in front of the door. He swung it open. Migi, who had obviously expected Faye, was speechless. Artemis took a deep breath.
"Migi- I need to talk to you. Disable any camera here right now."
Migi stood still before she slowly closed the door.and took a remote from her pocket. Then she pointed it to the peek hole. A red light shone for a while, then died down. From another room in the house, Faye said: "Damn," as she watched the TV screen go blank.
"Okay, what is it?" Migi asked. Artemis hesitated.
"Migi." he said. "I want to stay here in this house for a while."
"What?!"
"Yeah," he said. He pushed his hands into his pockets. "Migi.please trust me on this."
"For what??" Migi was completely confused. Her head was reeling. What would Faye think? Would she be overjoyed?
"I can't tell you why."
"You have to tell me," Migi said, regaining control over the situation. She became serious. "If you don't tell me, then I won't listen to you. I have no control whether you're entering that machine or not, but I can call the police to kick you out of this house if I don't want you here anymore."
Artemis looked around, stalling, until he felt he had no choice.
"I.I sort of like Faye." He turned red. But he said: "It's hot," and he started to fan himself with his hand. Migi hated to watch him in that moment. He had destroyed his poise. Then his words got to her.
"YOU- YOU- " she couldn't find the words to say what she knew she was going to have to say. "That can't be!" she said.
"Artemis! Don't do that to her!"
Artemis gaped, frozen.
"Listen, Artemis! If that's the way it is, then even I don't want you to stay in here. It's better if you'd go back to where you came from, and never to think about this again!"
He burst in annoyance.
"How can I forget about it, idiot?! I can't just tell myself that this is a dream or anything! What are you talking about!"
Migi looked away. She felt her lower lip tremble. Artemis was just a character from a lousy book. The book wasn't even a novel. And.at the same time. he was everything she could have ever hoped to see from a guy. He was smart, handsome, and mysterious. She didn't realize that she had fallen in love with him so hard until she was returning to the house with the meteor rock in her hand.
She had been thinking about letting him go, somewhere so far that she wouldn't be able to see him ever again, and then her heart had begun to ache, and then she had realized that she loved him, more than anyone else in the world, in the romantic sense, of course.
She had been thinking about asking him to run away with her to another place far from Faye, where she could ask money from her parents, and where she could start a life with him. She insisted that love on his part would grow with time. But when she had opened the door, and heard that he had fallen in love with Faye, not her, she had developed a feeling of loss. It was going to be better if no one would have him if she couldn't have him.
But now, he had admitted that he had liked Faye, and for Migi, she knew that she'd rather risk the happiness of both Faye and Artemis if it would spare her from the torture of seeing the two of them together if he'd remain.
She walked past him into Faye's room. He followed in her heels.
"Faye! Is the machine ready?" she asked as soon as she opened the door. She greeted Jowy carelessly and then she turned her attention back to the junk pile. It was definitely better than when she had last seen it before she left, but apparently, it was still in need of repairs.
"She's not here," Jowy said. "She went into some other room a while ago."
On cue, Faye appeared behind Migi and Artemis. "Migi, what did you say?" she asked.
Migi pointed to the machine. "Can you hurry up and finish that thing?" she asked.
Faye nodded. "It's only a few more adjustments, and we still need that cursed meteor rock. Do you have it?"
Migi replied that she had, but she made no effort to bring it out. Faye didn't think anything of this as she crossed the small room to the machine. She bent down, and started to call out orders to hand her a screwdriver- a wrench- whatever she needed, and everyone scrambled to help her. All except Artemis. He just watched the scene before him, then dozed off while leaning against the wall.
He came around when Faye gave him a sock on the head.
"Okay," she said thickly. "I think it's about time for you to be going." She stretched out her arms to the general direction of the machine. "It still looks a little beaten up, but it's in working condition."
Artemis looked at the machine, then turned away. "I'm not getting in there."
"What?" Faye was stunned. He had been so eager to go back to where he had come from before this.
"I'm staying here," he said.
Migi, from behind Faye, was giving him a dirty look. Faye looked down on the floor.
"But.but." she began. "I had been so ready to accept that you were going to leave."
"Oh. You really want me to go back that badly. But I'm staying right here. I wont stay in this house, since you don't want me to. I'm getting out, and I'm going get somewhere, somehow."
"Th- that's crazy!" Faye said. "You can't just expect to get a stupid job as a waiter and build a house with those wages! What made you change your mind so suddenly anyway? Did Migi put you up to this?!"
Faye looked behind her shoulder at Migi, who was clearly insulted with that last line.
"No," he replied calmly. "Faye. I. Like. You."
.
.
.
Everyone in the room stared. From Jowy's perch on the wall, he suddenly took up a more formal stance, but he didn't move. Faye stared at Artemis, her mouth open, and Migi put a hand to her forehead.
"That's not possible," Migi laughed suddenly. Her laugh was hollow. Faye gave a small giggle, too, but it was so obviously forced.
Artemis winced.
Faye took in a breath. She hadn't fallen in love with Artemis too much, but she was scared that if he stayed in their world too long, she would be head over heels at the sight of him. Now, she had already prepared herself to send him back. In earlier circumstances, she might have been happy that he liked her, and she would have been overjoyed that he'd wanted to stay with them, but Migi had brought her to her senses. It wasn't a world based on emotions, it was better to just let go and let things be.
"Good-bye, Artemis," she said coldly. She motioned to the machine, and Artemis shook his head.
"Faye, I don't know what came into me. I just knew right now, tonight, that I had these.er. feelings for you.I'm not leaving! Not until I know what you're thinking!"
Faye gave a bitter laugh.
"Heh. You cant like me," she said. "You're a character in a book, Artemis!"
"Just because someone's written about me, doesn't mean that I don't really exist!"
"You idiot! You don't get it! No one wrote about you! You're Artemis Fowl, a kid from the imagination of a very good author! Whatever is written in the book, that's what's in your tiny memory-you cant be anything but just a fictional character!"
Artemis felt a bead of sweat run down his temple.
"You're not a real person," Migi said softly. "We just brought you here because we wanted to somewhat pretend that you were. I'm sorry, Artemis."
"How- how can you say I'm not real?! I'm standing right in front of you! Isn't that proof enough that I'm real?!"
Faye took a step back. She gave a nervous laugh that sounded a little chocked. Artemis looked a little stricken, an emotional unusual in his pale blue eyes. He seemed at a loss for what to say, and then he ran a hand through his raven hair. He was slightly flustered, and he obviously couldn't look anyone in the room in the eye anymore.
"Dammit." He let his arm rest on his side. This wasn't who he was. He was heartless and cruel. He had taken away the pride of several leprechaun forces by outsmarting them, embarrassing them, and giving them reason to hate him.
"NO NO NO NO NO!" Faye suddenly shouted in his face. Artemis put a finger to his ear. It was ringing strangely. He gave a grimace.
"You're too loud," he said.
Faye huffed. "You CANNOT stay here, you idiot! What's going through your stupid head?! You have a place to go back to, and here you are insisting that you want to stay in a place that's WAY beyond your area of knowledge! I mean, there are things in this world that you wouldn't even have THOUGHT about in that book you're in! There are detectives, scientists, that make you wriggle under their questions! We're not in that book, where the people fall for the slightest tricks you set up for them!"
She huffed again. "You're going back, if it's going to be the last thing you're going to do!"
Artemis stood straighter. That was one of his problems. He was stubborn. And it was going to be one of the last things he was going to do, to board the machine and go back where he came from. There was hardly anything that would keep him obligated. For one, there was Butler, and for another, there was Julie, and his mother had died a few years earlier already.
Aside from all those, he would be leaving behind his wealth, his constant battles with the leprechaun forces, and his eternal quests for strange things that no one else sought.
"It IS going to be the last thing I'm going to do. Unless you plan to go with me there."
Artemis said it lazily. Faye glared at him.
"Jowy-" she began. Jowy stepped up right away and gave Artemis a punch in the side of his face. Artemis' eyes grew wide. He staggered backwards one step, holding his jaw. Then he looked up, and he repaid the deed by socking Jowy in the jaw as well.
Now, Artemis wasn't such a great fist fighter, since it wasn't in his range of expertise. He was used to having Butler around to prevent any physical contact, and Artemis was far more used to mental games than the brawling that was so common in streets.
But, now, he found that he had more strength than he realized, because Jowy seemed surprised. Jowy retracted his elbow for another chance to hit him, and he did the same, until Artemis felt pressure on the back of his head. He collapsed with a slight sense of surprise. When he collapsed on the floor, a stricken Migi stood behind him, a large wooden plank from the windowsill for the plants in her hand.
On her face was a guilty expression mixed with disbelief, as if she couldn't believe it herself that she had done that. Faye pointed to the body of Artemis.
"Jowy. Can you cramp him into the machine?" she said it harshly. Jowy nodded. He moved towards Artemis' body and pulled on his arm.
He hoisted the dead weight onto his back, and he started to walk, when his eyes suddenly grew wide. He fell to his knees after just a second, and from the heap, Artemis stood up, haggard.
"Artemis-" Faye chocked.
He stood up calmly. When he looked at them, the look in his eyes were cold.
"Faye," he said calmly. "I'm going to take you down. Meet me tomorrow in the school gym, at eight o' clock. It won't be locked, since this time of year, the basketball players usually play around in the gym till late at night."
"Oh yeah? And what makes you so sure that I'm going to show up?!"
Artemis chuckled.
"Because-" he began. "Some things are just irreplaceable."
Faye's eyes grew wide as he turned to Migi, and knocked her unconscious with a punch in the gut.
"You know, Faye," he said, as he picked up the unconscious Migi and put her against her back. "For a while back there, in this house, I forgot that I was wanted because of my name, and that I wasn't living up to my reputation as a cruel person. Now, this is going to be your fault. I've got the blue prints for that machine of yours, I got it while you had gone to get some lemonade. You were careless, leaving it to lie in such an open space. I'll get along somehow. I'll take Migi to my world, and if she's lucky enough to come back here, she'll relate to you how it feels to be a held inside a stupid, cramped space."
IN MIGI'S AND FAYE'S HOUSE
They had been playing with a deck of cards in Faye's room. Faye and Jowy had had to teach Artemis a whole lot of games, since he wasn't all too experienced concerning cards. Afterwards, he won so many times that he was already getting bored. Faye's mood had apparently lightened, as she no longer kept glancing at her watch.
Jowy was loosening up as well. He strayed closer to Faye during one of the games, and Artemis moved closer as well, until Faye pushed them both apart at the same time.
"Geez, I lost again," Faye laughed good-naturedly. She lay down her cards and pointed to them one by one, pointing it out to Jowy and Artemis. "Jowy, we can't leave it like this! Rematch!"
Artemis found himself smiling as well, as if his facial muscles were moving on their own without his consent, at the sound of Faye's laugh. She glanced up momentarily, and for a moment, her eyes gazed straight into his, her laugh dying abruptly.
She and Artemis' gazes locked into each other's, until she suddenly broke it off with a wave of her hand.
"It's too early to say that you hate me," she laughed. She gathered the cards and began to shuffle them again.
Artemis looked past her head, to the machine, and was sort of left feeling dumb by how she could wave away such an embarrassing, but obvious spark of realization. Then suddenly, a thought came to his mind unbidden, and he was so shocked at the prospect that he didn't do anything but just sit up straighter and shake his head.
Jowy was looking at him.
"What's up with you?" he asked.
Artemis gave a glare. "It's nothing," he hissed.
At that moment, the doorbell rang. Artemis jumped up before Faye could.
"I'll get the door," he blurted out, as if he weren't a prisoner, and there was no chance in the world he'd try to run out and not look back twice. "Don't worry, I just have to ask Migi something."
Faye looked at him, then gave a vague nod.
Artemis rushed through the halls, and he stopped in front of the door. He swung it open. Migi, who had obviously expected Faye, was speechless. Artemis took a deep breath.
"Migi- I need to talk to you. Disable any camera here right now."
Migi stood still before she slowly closed the door.and took a remote from her pocket. Then she pointed it to the peek hole. A red light shone for a while, then died down. From another room in the house, Faye said: "Damn," as she watched the TV screen go blank.
"Okay, what is it?" Migi asked. Artemis hesitated.
"Migi." he said. "I want to stay here in this house for a while."
"What?!"
"Yeah," he said. He pushed his hands into his pockets. "Migi.please trust me on this."
"For what??" Migi was completely confused. Her head was reeling. What would Faye think? Would she be overjoyed?
"I can't tell you why."
"You have to tell me," Migi said, regaining control over the situation. She became serious. "If you don't tell me, then I won't listen to you. I have no control whether you're entering that machine or not, but I can call the police to kick you out of this house if I don't want you here anymore."
Artemis looked around, stalling, until he felt he had no choice.
"I.I sort of like Faye." He turned red. But he said: "It's hot," and he started to fan himself with his hand. Migi hated to watch him in that moment. He had destroyed his poise. Then his words got to her.
"YOU- YOU- " she couldn't find the words to say what she knew she was going to have to say. "That can't be!" she said.
"Artemis! Don't do that to her!"
Artemis gaped, frozen.
"Listen, Artemis! If that's the way it is, then even I don't want you to stay in here. It's better if you'd go back to where you came from, and never to think about this again!"
He burst in annoyance.
"How can I forget about it, idiot?! I can't just tell myself that this is a dream or anything! What are you talking about!"
Migi looked away. She felt her lower lip tremble. Artemis was just a character from a lousy book. The book wasn't even a novel. And.at the same time. he was everything she could have ever hoped to see from a guy. He was smart, handsome, and mysterious. She didn't realize that she had fallen in love with him so hard until she was returning to the house with the meteor rock in her hand.
She had been thinking about letting him go, somewhere so far that she wouldn't be able to see him ever again, and then her heart had begun to ache, and then she had realized that she loved him, more than anyone else in the world, in the romantic sense, of course.
She had been thinking about asking him to run away with her to another place far from Faye, where she could ask money from her parents, and where she could start a life with him. She insisted that love on his part would grow with time. But when she had opened the door, and heard that he had fallen in love with Faye, not her, she had developed a feeling of loss. It was going to be better if no one would have him if she couldn't have him.
But now, he had admitted that he had liked Faye, and for Migi, she knew that she'd rather risk the happiness of both Faye and Artemis if it would spare her from the torture of seeing the two of them together if he'd remain.
She walked past him into Faye's room. He followed in her heels.
"Faye! Is the machine ready?" she asked as soon as she opened the door. She greeted Jowy carelessly and then she turned her attention back to the junk pile. It was definitely better than when she had last seen it before she left, but apparently, it was still in need of repairs.
"She's not here," Jowy said. "She went into some other room a while ago."
On cue, Faye appeared behind Migi and Artemis. "Migi, what did you say?" she asked.
Migi pointed to the machine. "Can you hurry up and finish that thing?" she asked.
Faye nodded. "It's only a few more adjustments, and we still need that cursed meteor rock. Do you have it?"
Migi replied that she had, but she made no effort to bring it out. Faye didn't think anything of this as she crossed the small room to the machine. She bent down, and started to call out orders to hand her a screwdriver- a wrench- whatever she needed, and everyone scrambled to help her. All except Artemis. He just watched the scene before him, then dozed off while leaning against the wall.
He came around when Faye gave him a sock on the head.
"Okay," she said thickly. "I think it's about time for you to be going." She stretched out her arms to the general direction of the machine. "It still looks a little beaten up, but it's in working condition."
Artemis looked at the machine, then turned away. "I'm not getting in there."
"What?" Faye was stunned. He had been so eager to go back to where he had come from before this.
"I'm staying here," he said.
Migi, from behind Faye, was giving him a dirty look. Faye looked down on the floor.
"But.but." she began. "I had been so ready to accept that you were going to leave."
"Oh. You really want me to go back that badly. But I'm staying right here. I wont stay in this house, since you don't want me to. I'm getting out, and I'm going get somewhere, somehow."
"Th- that's crazy!" Faye said. "You can't just expect to get a stupid job as a waiter and build a house with those wages! What made you change your mind so suddenly anyway? Did Migi put you up to this?!"
Faye looked behind her shoulder at Migi, who was clearly insulted with that last line.
"No," he replied calmly. "Faye. I. Like. You."
.
.
.
Everyone in the room stared. From Jowy's perch on the wall, he suddenly took up a more formal stance, but he didn't move. Faye stared at Artemis, her mouth open, and Migi put a hand to her forehead.
"That's not possible," Migi laughed suddenly. Her laugh was hollow. Faye gave a small giggle, too, but it was so obviously forced.
Artemis winced.
Faye took in a breath. She hadn't fallen in love with Artemis too much, but she was scared that if he stayed in their world too long, she would be head over heels at the sight of him. Now, she had already prepared herself to send him back. In earlier circumstances, she might have been happy that he liked her, and she would have been overjoyed that he'd wanted to stay with them, but Migi had brought her to her senses. It wasn't a world based on emotions, it was better to just let go and let things be.
"Good-bye, Artemis," she said coldly. She motioned to the machine, and Artemis shook his head.
"Faye, I don't know what came into me. I just knew right now, tonight, that I had these.er. feelings for you.I'm not leaving! Not until I know what you're thinking!"
Faye gave a bitter laugh.
"Heh. You cant like me," she said. "You're a character in a book, Artemis!"
"Just because someone's written about me, doesn't mean that I don't really exist!"
"You idiot! You don't get it! No one wrote about you! You're Artemis Fowl, a kid from the imagination of a very good author! Whatever is written in the book, that's what's in your tiny memory-you cant be anything but just a fictional character!"
Artemis felt a bead of sweat run down his temple.
"You're not a real person," Migi said softly. "We just brought you here because we wanted to somewhat pretend that you were. I'm sorry, Artemis."
"How- how can you say I'm not real?! I'm standing right in front of you! Isn't that proof enough that I'm real?!"
Faye took a step back. She gave a nervous laugh that sounded a little chocked. Artemis looked a little stricken, an emotional unusual in his pale blue eyes. He seemed at a loss for what to say, and then he ran a hand through his raven hair. He was slightly flustered, and he obviously couldn't look anyone in the room in the eye anymore.
"Dammit." He let his arm rest on his side. This wasn't who he was. He was heartless and cruel. He had taken away the pride of several leprechaun forces by outsmarting them, embarrassing them, and giving them reason to hate him.
"NO NO NO NO NO!" Faye suddenly shouted in his face. Artemis put a finger to his ear. It was ringing strangely. He gave a grimace.
"You're too loud," he said.
Faye huffed. "You CANNOT stay here, you idiot! What's going through your stupid head?! You have a place to go back to, and here you are insisting that you want to stay in a place that's WAY beyond your area of knowledge! I mean, there are things in this world that you wouldn't even have THOUGHT about in that book you're in! There are detectives, scientists, that make you wriggle under their questions! We're not in that book, where the people fall for the slightest tricks you set up for them!"
She huffed again. "You're going back, if it's going to be the last thing you're going to do!"
Artemis stood straighter. That was one of his problems. He was stubborn. And it was going to be one of the last things he was going to do, to board the machine and go back where he came from. There was hardly anything that would keep him obligated. For one, there was Butler, and for another, there was Julie, and his mother had died a few years earlier already.
Aside from all those, he would be leaving behind his wealth, his constant battles with the leprechaun forces, and his eternal quests for strange things that no one else sought.
"It IS going to be the last thing I'm going to do. Unless you plan to go with me there."
Artemis said it lazily. Faye glared at him.
"Jowy-" she began. Jowy stepped up right away and gave Artemis a punch in the side of his face. Artemis' eyes grew wide. He staggered backwards one step, holding his jaw. Then he looked up, and he repaid the deed by socking Jowy in the jaw as well.
Now, Artemis wasn't such a great fist fighter, since it wasn't in his range of expertise. He was used to having Butler around to prevent any physical contact, and Artemis was far more used to mental games than the brawling that was so common in streets.
But, now, he found that he had more strength than he realized, because Jowy seemed surprised. Jowy retracted his elbow for another chance to hit him, and he did the same, until Artemis felt pressure on the back of his head. He collapsed with a slight sense of surprise. When he collapsed on the floor, a stricken Migi stood behind him, a large wooden plank from the windowsill for the plants in her hand.
On her face was a guilty expression mixed with disbelief, as if she couldn't believe it herself that she had done that. Faye pointed to the body of Artemis.
"Jowy. Can you cramp him into the machine?" she said it harshly. Jowy nodded. He moved towards Artemis' body and pulled on his arm.
He hoisted the dead weight onto his back, and he started to walk, when his eyes suddenly grew wide. He fell to his knees after just a second, and from the heap, Artemis stood up, haggard.
"Artemis-" Faye chocked.
He stood up calmly. When he looked at them, the look in his eyes were cold.
"Faye," he said calmly. "I'm going to take you down. Meet me tomorrow in the school gym, at eight o' clock. It won't be locked, since this time of year, the basketball players usually play around in the gym till late at night."
"Oh yeah? And what makes you so sure that I'm going to show up?!"
Artemis chuckled.
"Because-" he began. "Some things are just irreplaceable."
Faye's eyes grew wide as he turned to Migi, and knocked her unconscious with a punch in the gut.
"You know, Faye," he said, as he picked up the unconscious Migi and put her against her back. "For a while back there, in this house, I forgot that I was wanted because of my name, and that I wasn't living up to my reputation as a cruel person. Now, this is going to be your fault. I've got the blue prints for that machine of yours, I got it while you had gone to get some lemonade. You were careless, leaving it to lie in such an open space. I'll get along somehow. I'll take Migi to my world, and if she's lucky enough to come back here, she'll relate to you how it feels to be a held inside a stupid, cramped space."