BEAUTIFUL MONSTER

39 : Awkward

My world had shattered into fragile pieces, scattering across every surface of my mind. Ellie was my sister and she was in danger.

Sacrifice.

A million horrid thoughts flashed as the word bounced around in my head, cruelly teasing me.

Serpent Sister.

How could Ellie possibly be one ...one of those? She was my sister, that's all she was. She couldn't have six more sisters. She was human. Not something people would hunt and kill for. She wasn't some sort of monster or animal. I'd never felt more helpless than I did right than. If Ellie was in danger, I had to protect her. But then I was just human and around me were monsters escaping from prisons, warriors, witches, Tènos'...the list was endless. I had barely scratched the surface of this game, who knew how many different monsters were out there?

My cheek suddenly stung sharply and heat bloomed. I blinked, my whole body snapping out of the state I was in. Orion was in front of me, looking guilty and concerned.

I felt my cheek. "Did you just...slap me?"

He backed away. "I called you around ten times, you weren't responding. I didn't know what else to do," he paused, shooting me a sideways look. "Are ...are you alright?"

I was terrified at the thought of losing Ellie and without thinking, I gripped my gun, aiming it at Orion.

"Why did I not expect this?" He murmured, looking slightly nervous. He furrowed his eyebrows, trying to placate me.

"Shut the hell up!"

"You won't shoot me," He said confidently.

"Try me," I dared, his eyes dropped to where my hands shook ever so slightly and he brought his gaze up to me. "You want to break the Sphere; you're going to try to kill Ellie."

"If I wanted Ellie dead than all I would have to do is steal her crutches and throw her down the stairs."

"You son of a bitch!" The gun went off, narrowly missing Orion who looked shocked at the thought that I had tried to shoot him. My hands were shaking too much for me to aim straight.

"What the hell is wrong with you?! I don't want to kill Ellie, if I did I never would've told you!"

I was unbelievably confused. I never felt as afraid and vulnerable as I did now. "You - you don't?"

"No. I get that I've just given you the biggest shock of your life and you're probably internally screaming but put the damn gun down before you do real damage."

It was a tense moment of waiting and slowly, my hand dropped until sudden exhaustion took over me and the gun slipped out of my hand. Orion was there in front of me, pocketing the gun and holding out a chair for me, frowning. "Don't collapse on me, I've got one or two more surprises."

"Tell me everything."

"I should probably take you to the A&E, you look like someone's stabbed you multiple times," He awkwardly patted my shoulder. "I'm not good with handling my own feelings so please don't start crying."

"Orion," I snapped, my mood quickly changing. I shrugged his hand away. "I'm okay, I just need to know."

He looked unsure, afraid that I would burst into tears at any given moment. "If you say so... Maximal has taken Leo and the only reasonable explanation -other than him wanting Leo for butt sex- is because we have The Incomplete."

"But I got the impression that Maximal didn't want to break the Crystal Sphere."

"He doesn't," Orion shrugged. "Well, I think he doesn't. But The Incomplete doesn't not only give you instructions on how to break the Crystal Sphere but a whole lot of other things. It's powerful, the most powerful book in existence and makes a person indestructible if they happen to own it. Like, how Cade can't seem to remove Leo and I from Earth. We used The Incomplete to search how to not get thrown back in Ground Zero and it gave us an answer: if there was at least one person caring for us, or me, then that one person's positive feelings would strap us to Earth."