Chosen

Chapter Twenty-Six: Julian

All the feelings were coming back, taking over my brain. I was angry, angry at myself, angry at Athena. I couldn't sleep. I just lay in bed with these angry, disgusting feelings rolling around in my head until sleep came, which was pretty close to sunrise, when Athena woke up to make sure Scarlett took her sunbane and woke everybody else up.

Like last night, I walked away without a word to go hunt for breakfast. Maybe taking a break would help me.

I ended up killing another rabbit, though I was lucky it even died.

I took it back to our camp and put it over the fire that Athena has magically conjured. I didn't speak the entire time. As soon as we finished eating, we started through the forest again, walking as fast as we could, not stopping for lunch, rather eating it as we walked.

Scarlett seemed to be the most hungry and tired of the whole group, and I wanted to comfort her, do something, but I couldn't.

The rest of the day was spent in silence, going through the forest, and hunting. Scarlett reckoned we were a quarter way through the forest that night when we rested that night. Athena went to look for edible plants and I went to hunt, leaving Scarlett by herself to sleep.

When we came back, I was still silent and grumpy. Scarlett was curled up, sleeping and snoring. I put the meat I'd gotten over the fire to cook.

"What is the matter, Julian?" Athena whispered.

"I don't know what-"

"You're acting like this over again. What are we going wrong?"

"It's nothing-"

"Obviously," Athena said, "there is something wrong."

"You want to know what's wrong?!" I yelled. "She is supposed to me my wife!"

"Julian-"

"She was supposed to marry me, and you're going and kissing and cuddling with her. It's obvious you don't care."

"Julian!" Athena yelled. "She warned you. She warned you that she didn't love you. She said that she didn't love men. And you said it was okay! You said you were only marrying her to save her. And here you go, throwing it in my face!" She was crying now. "I'm sorry!" She stomped off behind a tree. I could hear her sobbing and felt bad. A tiny bit.