Disclaimer: I do not own Artemis Fowl

You know when you see jokes about authors writing something and just leaving it, despite people asking for more? Apparently I'm that person, and I apologize for that heavily, but I'm back now!

If you care about why I haven't updated, I've just been really busy with university and a channel on youtube. Hopefully I can make up for making you wait so long.

Chapter 2

Haven, two days later

Holly sat at her desk as she always did, finishing up the various daily tasks she had to accomplish every day, but her work was mindless, as she had more important things to think about.

Foaly hadn't spoken to her since he'd initially voiced his concerns about Artemis, and she suspected that he was doing so in an attempt to get her to talk to him, but she didn't plan on giving in to that, even though she was growing more worried about Artemis as time went on. There was never a follow up to the first email, and she was concerned that it may be because he wasn't capable of sending one, or possibly because whatever he'd wanted her for had already passed.

Whatever it was, Holly was worried that she'd let her emotion get in the way of better judgement. She planned on going to the surface tonight for the ritual, and then to go see Artemis immediately to see whether or not he was alright. If required, she could probably find a way to stay longer if there was something that needed her help to reconcile, but she hoped that it was nothing too problematic, despite the serious tone of the email.

Holly shook her head lightly before trying to focus on her work again, but her thoughts would soon start to drift away from the monotonous tasks again, and would continue to do so all day.

"Artemis," Holly mumbled to herself, "don't let this be as bad as I'm making it out to be…"

Fowl Manor

The morning came to Fowl Manor, as it always did, but that was no matter of importance to Artemis anymore, as time had no impact on what he did.

Since the funeral, all he'd managed to do was lie in bed most of the time, with the occasional jaunt to his study to attempt to distract himself from the thoughts of everything that was his life now. The emptiness where his family used to be consumed most of his thoughts and emotions, and at times, the emotion mixed with the malnourishment made it neat impossible to even stand.

He'd eaten a single morsel of food since the news after Butler insisted, and refused to leave his room until he'd seen Artemis eat, but the lack of food was still taking its toll on the young man's body. His normally pale skin was a ghostly white, seemingly stretched over his bones. His eyes seemed hollow, and there were dark spots below each eye from lack of sleep. His clothes always appeared disheveled, and his mannerisms were sloppy, almost lazy, rather than his normally formal and polite tones that he kept in speech and body language.

The blinds were permanently drawn over his windows to block the sun from entering and awaking him from his precious few hours of sleep, as well as working as a shield from the outside world. Since the email he sent, there had been no communication with the world apart from the funeral he'd attended for his family, and even then, he'd not spoken a word to anyone, despite their attempts to approach him. Everything he did was an attempt to shut out as many feelings and words as he could. Everyone said they understood, that they cared. They all lied.

All of them. Even Holly…

He cringed slightly at the thought of the elf. The person whom he'd felt closest to had abandoned him when he needed her most, and he deserved it. Everything that was happening to him now was a sort of penance for the pain he'd caused her, and others around him. The plans, misguiding, lying, tricks, all of it. Everything that he'd done to hurt others for his own gain, all of it was finally coming back around to him. He finally got what he'd had coming to him for his entire life as a criminal, a mastermind… A liar…

Artemis slowly stood from his bed where he'd been staring at the ceiling, taking deep breaths and trying to block out the thoughts and memories that were starting to rise out of his emotions. Holly hadn't come because of his mistakes, he'd brought this on himself, there was no reason to think about why he'd done it, or how he could've avoided it.

But still…

A light knock came at the door to his room, and Artemis knew it would be Butler with something for breakfast that would be uneaten, but it was something to get his mind off of his memories.

"Come in, Butler."

The door opened, revealing the massive frame of the bodyguard in the light of the hallway, holding a small plate of food.

"How are you this morning, Artemis?"

Artemis stayed silent for a few moments before answering with his usual response, "I'm fine, Butler."

It was lazy, a lie, but Artemis didn't care. He didn't want to drag others into the pain that he'd caused for himself, there was no point in doing so.

Butler pursed his lips slightly, looking at Artemis and the form that he'd deteriorated into since the news. It was rather common for the bodyguard to do this, but Butler went further today than he had before.

"Artemis, you're not fine. I know you're trying to put on this façade of being in a period of grieving and recovery, and that you'll get better soon, but you're not changing Artemis. I know you, and what you're doing isn't healthy. You need to talk to someone, to eat, to do normal things. You can't just stay in your room and slowly starve to death because of this. You're stronger than that, Artemis…"

For a moment, Artemis wasn't sure how to respond.

"Butler, there's nothing to be done. I'm fully aware that I'm quite unhealthy right now, but give me my time. I'm fine, Butler, there's nothing more to it."

And with that, Artemis laid back down on his bed and closed his eyes. Butler didn't say anything more, but after a few seconds, Artemis heard him put the plate of food on his nightstand before leaving and shutting the door behind him.

The darkness enveloped him again as he was lost back in his thoughts.

He needed to talk to someone... The logical side of him knew that Butler was probably right on that front, but there was no one, and no point in bothering.

He rolled over on his side and held one of his pillows to his chest before closing his eyes to try to get some sleep. Maybe he would get a few hours of rest without any nightmares this time, or maybe he would just stay awake and imagine things that could have been, should have been…

A small sigh left his mouth as he clutched the pillow closer. Maybe someday this would all end and things would go back to something that resembled the way they were before. He certainly didn't know if they would, but he couldn't be bothered to care.

Haven, a few hours later

Holly was still in her office, staring at the clock that was displayed on her monitor before her. All of the work that she needed to do had been completed, and there were no anomalies for her to deal with, so now she was waiting for her shift to end so she could leave to the surface. She'd been consumed with worry and paranoia for the whole day, but she'd managed to push it off enough that she could work semi-normally, but now that she was just waiting, the worry returned to the forefront of her thoughts. The lack of distractions just allowed her more time to imagine different scenarios and problems that could've arisen that would've caused Artemis to send that email, and she had nothing else to distract herself from those ideas.

She rubbed her eyes for a few seconds, and looked for anything else to focus on for a little longer before she could leave for the surface, but before she could, a knock came from her door.

As always, it was open, but Foaly tended to knock on the side of the door anyway as a sort of courtesy.

"Holly, we need to talk."

Holly remained silent, waiting for him to speak. If he was going to give her the silent treatment all week, he could explain what was on his mind without her help.

"Holly, I know that you're still upset with Artemis, but I just want to ask you to take this seriously. You're going up to the surface and you don't know what's happened, so I want you to promise that whatever it is, you take it seriously and put aside whatever it is that you're so upset about to make sure nothing is wrong with him first."

Holly looked at the centaur standing in her doorway for a few moments, collecting her thoughts.

"I don't plan on letting a grudge get in the way of helping Artemis if it's serious, Foaly. Whatever this is, I'll do what I can to help, and then this will be over. I'm sure it's nothing, you don't have to be so concerned about the mud boy, he's gotten himself out of worse situations than we ever have."

"But he's also gotten himself into worse. Keep that in mind."

Holly nodded, but didn't respond.

Foaly let out a small sigh, "You can go, Holly. There's nothing left for you here, and I'm sure you'd rather go anyway. I'll make up some excuse if I need to."

"Thanks Foaly."

"Any Holly?"

Holly paused from collecting her things, "Yeah?"

"Please take this seriously, for me?"

Holly let out an exasperated sigh, "Fine, for you."

Foaly nodded and left, leaving Holly alone with her few things to collect before she left for the surface.

At least Foaly seemed to be as concerned as she was too.

Holly looked at her desk once more from the doorway, making sure she hadn't left anything of importance, then she shut the door to leave.

"Artemis, I'll see you in a few hours, you better not have done anything too bad," she mumbled to herself as she left the room behind.

That's it for this chapter. Again, sorry for the enormous wait, but I hope you still enjoyed!