All Night Long (Olympus Drive Chronicles)

Time: 22:47

Red

I don't know what I'm doing here. Why are my hands still shaking? I fixed the furniture mostly that's really good and I picked stuff up. And I moved the captives into a neat pile in the corner but I don't know what to do with them. and I felt okay right after the fight that let it all out but now it's building up inside of me again. Building up and burning and wanting to explode. I look at my now cracked phone. Dad please answer. Please.

"Hey," Ev runs up to me and hugs me impossibly tight. "Don't be sad."

"I won't," I say, feeling the tension lift as I squeeze the little person. "We're okay."

"We are. We got 'em good," Ev says, hugging me really tight still. "And my dad's here now!"

"Yes, your dad is here to take you away, while I and my grandson go look for his father," my grandmother says, drinking her martini out of a coffee cup.

"No. You're not going anywhere with them," I say, holding Ev, "My dad and their mom asked ME to look after them so I am."

"Mom lets me stay with dad," Ev says, sitting in my arms content all the same.

"I know, but this night is a little weird. And this is my flat when my dads aren't here. And I say we stay here," I say, firmly. "I told my dad I would. So we're staying."

"You do realize that your father is not going to live through a night unless someone with half a brain intervenes?" my grandmother asks, flatly.

"Really?" Ev asks.

Their dad nods. He also has a coffee cup of alcohol.

"Why?" I ask.

"Because that's how the story goes. But we're stupid, and we have hope. So we play it through again and again. Hoping it'll be different somehow for us," my grandmother says.

"That doesn't mean anything. What is going to happen to my dad?" I growl.

"Himself," she sighs.

Axel

"Looks like we're walking places," I sigh. The buses aren't running. Nor is the tube. It's going to be a long night. And I'm no closer to find finding Phoenix. Well. I am. They've been warned. They have a few hours to get me what I want.

"You okay there little one?" I ask, taking the blind fold off the girl as I head down the street away from the river. I'm not that great with directions and I'd have a map if I had my phone so I'm just going to have to find the London A-Z.

"Huh," she says, looking around, eyes dilated, "Strawberry?" she touches my face.

"No ah—don't, don't touch that," of course I'm splattered with blood.

"Can we see grandma?"

"I don't know where your grandma is but I'm gonna take you to someone who will," I say, as encouragingly as possible given our current situation.

"Tay," she rests her face against my bloody chest.

"What's your name?" I ask. I asked her before but now she's not crying anymore maybe she'll know.

"De-de."

"Dee? De—Deirdre?" I guess, trying to interpret her baby speech.

"Yeah."

"That's it?" she doesn't have a last name? I guess she's too little to know it.

"Yeah."

"Okay," she's definitely too little to know it. Damn. Well, Omar can question her he's good at getting information out of people. "Well, sit tight for me okay? We're gonna walk home."