Chapter 41: The Ball Begins To Roll

~Leo's P.O.V. ~

An itch on my shoulder had started to irritate me as soon as Jake walked around the corner and down the hall in my direction. He was wearing that same distressed face filled with anger, frustration, and worry that he had when he sent away Ember and her group. If he kept making that face, it might actually stay that way.

"How is she?" he asked for the third time today as he came to a stop in front of me. His voice was completely normal, as if he had control of the situation, but his eyes told the story of one that was very weary.

Poor guy. Fretting over what he can't have. I put on my best poker face to not show my pity.

"She's still asleep. It's been silent as the dead in there."

He glared at me for my choice of words, but I looked neither unapologetic nor did I retract my statement. He didn't have enough energy to expend on something as arbitrary as this, so he just sighed and furrowed his brow while massaging the bridge of his nose.

"It's been almost a day and a half. That's not normal is it?" Jake fretted, more to himself than to me.

I answered anyway. "I really couldn't tell you."

He sighed again and looked up to gaze longingly at the large pine door behind me that I was guarding - the one that he knew that I definitely knew that he could easily push me aside, knock the doors off of its hinges with his monstrous strength, and see her there, sleeping in that room in the huge king sized bed and rose colored satin sheets that he specifically picked out for her. And yet he couldn't. Because he was forbidden to do so by Him.

"You're here again?" called out a patronizing voice.

Jake's head swiveled around toward the sound like a child being caught stealing a cookie. Out stepped Max from the shadows with a deep frown etched on her face as well. She had been watching Jake from around the corner for who knows how long, probably seething until she couldn't help but say something.

Seeing that it was only Max, the tension in Jake's shoulders immediately evaporated. "What are you doing here?" he asked in a disinterested tone.

"I would ask you the same thing. I'm not the one who was forbidden from any type of interaction with her."

"Does it look like I'm interacting?"

Max crossed her arms over her chest with a look of disgust. "You're looking more and more pathetic by the second."

Jake sent a glare her way. "What is your problem?"

"My problem is YOU! You're a push-over and you're irritating me!" Max roared.

"You're just upset that I stopped you from doing anything."

"I'm more than upset! I'm f-ing pissed! When He gave the order, he didn't say to treat her like the f-ing Queen of England!"

Jake advanced toward Max, backing her against the wall next to the door. Even as mad as he was getting, I could tell that he was still holding back his true strength when he slammed his fist into the wall near Max's head and it didn't break through. "He said that I could do it my way."

She didn't flinch at all; instead, she scoffed and glowered up at him before getting closer to his face as well, refusing to back down. "Look here. I don't know how many times they brainwashed you to believe that you are some hot shot prince or why they did it, but you have no control over me. You're just a brat who thinks he's important. He may as well have let me deal with this; this chick would have been caught and dealt with ages ago."

I pretended as if I wasn't interested in their conversation, but it was very hard to when Jake lost his facial composure and seemed both confused and irritated as Max made hard jabs at both his pride and ego.

"I know what you're trying to do, though," she continued as she picked at a piece of lint off of his shirt and observed it as if it was something quite interesting. "You're trying to make her willingly come to you; for her to run into your open arms and you both live happily ever after. Am I right?'' She looked back at Jake, but he stubbornly turned his head away. "Let me set you straight right now. It's not gonna happen. So just give it up, be a good boy, and do what you're told. And another thing."

Max grabbed his chin and forced Jake to look at her. "If you ever get in my way and ruin my fun again, I will slaughter you, no matter how strong you are." The short silence between them that Max's threat had created was disrupted, however, by several crashing sounds from behind the door, along with loud grunts and frustrated outcries. "Sounds like your fair princess is wide-eyed and bushy-browed," Max stated rather enthusiastically.

Jake wrenched his chin out of her gasp before stepping away from her all together. He watched the door once more, listening to the sounds of things being destroyed before clenching his fist and walking away from both of us. Max watched with a smirk at Jake's retreating figure as we walked down the hall.

"Well, it seems as if she's calmed down," Max noted about a minute later when the noise from behind the door had died down. "Now that the wet towel is gone, maybe I can finally have some fun." She made a move toward the door, but I didn't budge from my post. Max gave me a hard look; I responded with a yawn out of boredom. "I don't like you," she stated.

"I'm sorry," I replied indifferently.

"Move," Max demanded, using the same hostile tone that she used against Jake. I stared back, quite unaffected by her tactic, but stepped aside anyway to avoid a big confrontation. She paused at the door with one hand on the knob and, almost as an afterthought, turned her attention to me once more. "Just because you've been here longer and your His favorite watchdog, don't think for a second that I won't hesitate to put you in your place," she warned before finally opening the door and walking in.

A large yawn emanated from me as the doors closed behind her. The itch that had started to die down after Jake had left had begun to flare up again. I gazed up at the camera across the hall that was positioned to watch the perimeters at the door and my every movement. And yet, even now, I knew that no one would be paying attention to the video feed in the control room. There was an even better chance that no one was in there at all, especially not when they had new play things in their vicinity.

I sighed, thinking of the chaos that would surely ensue in about an hour's time, and most importantly, my role in making it happen. "What a hassle," I muttered, hands in both pockets, as I walked away from my assigned post to get to work and set things in motion.