Rage and Ruin | 2

4 | 0

D E L P H I N I U M

      My heart pounded in my chest as I stared over at Gigi. I could practically see the gears working in her head. Feeling sick to my stomach, I glanced over at Benny, who was simply sitting and watching the tense situation in triumphance.

      I'd been afraid of this taking place for a time now. Originally, I'd thought that he was just going to make her aware of the fact that I watched him kill her mother without stopping it. But this was so much worse.

      "Deny it, Delphinium," Gigi said in a strangely quiet voice, like the calm before the storm. "Deny that you were there that night."

      I couldn't lie. They'd know if I did. "I can't." My response was a whisper.

     Glancing over at the rest of my team, I felt like I might vomit. They were clustered together, away from Gigi and I, watching me with shock and horror painted onto their faces. They didn't know what to do. I didn't blame them. Benny had made them believe that I'd murdered Gigi's mother and I was hardly even denying it.

      Ever since it had happened, I'd been holding it in, unwilling to tell anyone about that night. I knew they'd look down on me because I'd let it occur. But now, it was happening and it was worse than I'd imagined.

      "How could you do this to me?" she asked in that same odd soft voice. I shook my head, wanting to tell her that I was sorry, that I never wanted for this to happen.

      She said it again, this time screaming, "How could you do this to me? You murderer!" The echoes of her voice rang out in the massive concrete-walled room.

     With lightning-fast movements, she unslung her bow off of her back and nocked an arrow. She let it fly towards me, not caring if I got injured or not. Holding my hands up with fingers out as if I was preparing to catch it, I stopped the arrow midair. For a moment, it levitated in the air. Then I snapped it in half with my mind and let it fall.

     She let another arrow fly as soon as I'd let the first one drop. I stopped it midair as well, but this time I let it slowly spin around until the razor sharp edge was aimed toward her. The rage still burned in her eyes. She was going to kill me unless I did something about it.

So I let the arrow soar towards her. Gigi only dodged it with mere inches to spare. She nocked another, determined to shoot me through the chest.

"Stop fighting!" Finn yelled, trying to break us apart. "This isn't our biggest problem!"

Gigi returned his pleas with another arrow sent toward his face. That sent Finn ducking down to avoid it.

When she was distracted with Finn's interjection, I ran for the archer. This needed to end before anything worse happened. An arrow whistled over my shoulder as I lunged.

      She aimed an arrow a few inches from my face and I knew that she probably wouldn't hesitate to let it go. Whipping to the side, I kneed her in the stomach. As she instinctively bent down from the impact, I shot back and kicked her in the face, not powerfully, just enough to stun her. I pulled her bow out of her hands and threw it as far away as I could. It skittered to a stop on the ground near the rest of our team, most of which who were screaming for us to stop.

     She took a swing at my face, which I dodged. While she was off-kilter, I knocked her down so that she was kneeling before me. I unsheathed a dagger for the first time and held it to her throat. Her head was bent down but she was glaring up at me through her dark eyes. A trickle of blood leaked out of her left nostril. The deafening noise in the room faded to the background.