Author's Note:

Hope you still remember this story exists! Still bad, but way better than last time. I hope. Ending is bad. But I like the content in this one. :P Hope you review!

I'm thinking of switching to third person's view after this chapter lemme hear what you think.

So it turns out our friend-turned-enemy-turned-dead is actually alive.

Talk about a major heart attack.

I swear and almost fall off the roof. I'm not sure if I should be happy or not. If I should break down in relief or shoot Horus dead.

I'm hyperventilating. "Mercury? We should probably take him down from the roof."

Mercury nods tightly and grabs Horus by his bony legs and I grab his tough shoulder armor. He's freakishly light. It's freakish, I tell you. I could see that he's grown a bit. He's slightly taller and a bit more muscular. That's freaky.

For a minute, I'm afraid he'll wake up and kill me, but his just stays open and stares blankly at the sky. He doesn't even blink. His eyes are a curious yellow shade. It's unnatural and cat-like.

I shiver.

I had always preferred dogs.

Getting down was tricky. We had to carefully haul Horus down several precariously stacked crates. I almost drop him but we made it safely down. I mean, would it kill the builders to build elevators?

Huffing and puffing, I sit to the side while Marlin and Zee inspect Horus.

By inspecting, I meant prodding and poking Horus. Not exactly rocket science.

Once I get back up on my feet we haul Horus into the house that we hid in. He stays on a couch. I can see that Mercury's also having trouble figuring out what to do with him.

Marlin snaps the cuffs he had found on a Thirteen soldier on Horus's wrists.

"Well, now what?" Marlin asks.

Someone's stomach grumbled.

"Now we eat," Zee says.

We all open our bags. There's nothing in there but some mashed up berries crushed by the other survival items.

I sigh. "I guess we're going hunting."

"Nah." Zee's eyes lights up mischievously. "You are going to look after our prisoner."

My eyes bulge out. "Come on! I just spent who-knows-how-much time in that little box."

Zee shrugs. "I spent it in a coffin."

"I spent it in a pot crawling with cockroaches," Marlin says.

"I spent it under the bed. I think I ate a dust bunny." Mercury.

I cringe. "Fine. But I get all the firearms." Yay for compromising!

Everybody handed me their guns. Except for Marlin. We didn't give him any. We figured he'd shoot himself in the foot.

So he just looks on, rather sulkily, as the exchanges were made. The cold metal feels good in my hand. "Come back before midnight." I just gave them an hour thirty minutes. Two hours at most. "Whistle 'Little Franky had a Blankie' so I'll know it's you when you get back here."

Mercury and Zee looks confused. Only Marlin understands.

"But Rooba, I can't whistle."

I roll my eyes. "Hum, then."

Everyone draws their weapons out and files out in a quiet line out of the small room. Except me of course. I have to babysit the ultra-light monster.

Funny how I thought of him as a friend. Now, I don't know what he is.

A pain stabs my arm and I remember the bullet.

Ah.

I head to the kitchen, nursing the still-bleeding arm and turn on the sink. A dark gooey liquid spills out onto the rusted sink. Nice.

Then, I hear a small little tinkle that I identify as running water. It comes from under the sink. I wrench open the door and see precious water dripping onto the wooden floor from one of the pipes.

I use one of my knives to cut the hole bigger. When the metal finally curls open, a gentle slosh of clean water comes out and I stick my arm in. The pain stings for a while but when the blood clears, I can see my arm already swollen around the bullet. I clean my knife and prepare to gouge it out of my arm.

I have the tip of it touching the side of the bullet.

Okay. On the count three. One, two, two, two, two, two, two, three.

Blood wells out again and I bite my lip hard. A few more cuts and the bullet is wiggling.

That's sick.

I can feel tears well up in my eyes. It's just like the time when I was chasing Marlin and this idiotic child ran in front of me and I ran over it and I feel on my arm and broke it.

I don't think I can handle any more knife-fiddling. Then I remember. The pliers! I automatically search my pocket but I know they're back on the table next to that couch. I scowl at my mangled arm.

Sometime prods my shoulder. "Ugh, looking for this?"

I whirl around, my healthy arm slapping against someone's cheek.

"OW!" It's Horus. Awake and breathing. "Stop that."

On the floor, I see the pliers, and next to it, I see Horus standing, a bit stooped to see on what I'm working on. He must've kicked it over here.

I quickly check his arms. Thankfully, they're still locked together.

"Um, thanks." I take the pliers from the floor and hover it above my wound, figuring out the best way to take the bullet out.

I can feel Horus stare burn into my back. It makes me feel self-conscious and guilty. What am I supposed to do with a prisoner that's awake? I almost snap at him to get out but that wouldn't sound nice. So I let him stay.

Finally, I pick up the courage to latch the pliers onto the bullet. There's a tremor of brief pain, but I am able to pull it back out. I let out a breath that I didn't know I was holding and look around for a bandage.

I thought about ripping a bit of fabric from my clothes but they are too ripped as it is. I lost my socks on one rainy day and I don't really want to resort to sewing my wound up. With my knife.

I hear a ripping sound behind me and turn to see Horus with a bit of curtain. I reach for it but he grabs my wounded arm gently and wraps the curtain around it. It was awkward for him, with his wrists attached and only fingers free, but he managed it well. He even did this weird knot thing so it's connected to my shirt so it won't fall. Excellent.

"Thanks," I say.

He just shrugs and walks back to the couch where he was formerly sitting on.

It's nice having a quiet prisoner. I also walk to the living room and seat myself on the opposite side of the room. I take out my gun and place it on my lap, fingers on the trigger. Won't do any harm showing some power.

It's an awkward silence, just begging to be broken.

Fortunately, Horus breaks it first. "Long time no see."

I nod slowly."Yeah. How are you these days?"

"Fine."

"Oh. Good to know."

We lapse back into silence.

Horus takes in the messy room and I take this time to study him. Eyes are still cat-like. He looks like he lost a lot of weight, his eye sockets sunken and his cheeks showing dark shadows. His fingers had become spidery and long and his mouth had become a thin grey line. He yawned once, showing white sharp canine teeth.

"What happened to you?" My voice broke as I said it. The sound was pathetic, but if Horus heard it, he didn't say.

He just gave another little shrug. "Dunno. Woke up one morning and saw you guys gone. I was in a cage. And they gave me stuff. Lots of green liquid. It was delicious, but it made your head go fuzzy."

I blinked. "I-I think they gave you Tracker Jacker venom."

"I don't know what to think anymore. Sometimes, I see Mercury's shadow, but he was nowhere to be seen. I see Marlin falling off a cliff, chasing a cloud. Or Zee. I see her fighting a giant, who gobbles her up. Or you. In the Hunger Games. I thought you guys were dead. Visions varied."

"You know, I don't think any of us stands a risk of being eligible for the Hunger Games," I joke.

Horus shook his head. "It didn't hurt at all, though I went to sleep a lot. Sometimes I suddenly woke up in a surgery room. Then things became a bit redder. Then I was recruited. Then I just needed to be ordered. Then I just needed to kill you."

I laugh. "Didn't succeed didn't you?"

"Well, maybe I didn't. Doesn't mean I can now."

I stop laughing but look into Horus's golden eyes. "I have a gun here. If you tried I'd shoot you."

He shook his head and stood up. I stood up too, pointing my gun at him.

"Your gun is empty." He opened a fist and bullets fell out onto the floor, clanging.

I start breathing heavily. My heart pounded even faster when he launched himself in the air. I drop my gun and scurry out of the way.

Horus lands with a bang and regains footing immediately. By then, I'm out of the room.

Window? Blocked.

Door? Behind Horus.

Knock out a wall? Not an option.

Fight? Not a good idea.

Stairs? Only thing left.

I take the stairs two at a time. Horus is on my heels. He grabs my ankle and I fall down, sticking my wrist up to catch my fall. We wrestle on the stairs for a minute, in which I unsheathe my knife and try to get it on him. He grabs my wrist and twists. I drop the knife. I kick him hard and he lets go. I run back down the stair and burst out of the door.

I run out the alley and fling myself inside a door and lock myself in. No light, but a sliver of hope.

I hear Horus scream outside. It reminds me of Titus, the cannibal in one of the Hunger Games.

I'm being stalked by a psychopath and I let him jump me.

Mercury is so not going to let me live this down.