This Is War

Chapter Fifteen: Temple Of Ruin

[ N A T A L I A ]

"I should help with some of the other work, I shouldn't get off easy."

"Shut up. You don't make the decisions, you're lucky you're even in this room to begin with."

Crossed arms, the snarky criminal glared. Leaning against the bar lazily, his leg's brace scraping against the floorboards with an unpleasant sound. After guzzling a health potion, Samantha had given him permission to walk without the aid of his creaky crutches as long as he was in no pain, to my disgust.

He didn't deserve to walk freely, but nobody other than me seemed to care about containing the man. Nobody seemed to care about who he really was, they'd all dropped their hatred as soon as he mentioned he knew where our family's were, and there was no guarantee that was the truth. Unlike everyone else, I decided against dropping my hatred, so I let it manifest beneath my skin as I snapped at him every so often. Sometimes, I even let myself release some of my anger on his still partially crippled form by shoving him through doorways or holding a blade to his throat when he said something too sketchy for my liking. But even small, subtle releases of anger weren't enough for the fire raging in my belly, eager to spill his blood with my own two hands. It was building with every sneaky, conniving word that slithered off his tongue. Every word that was surely a lie, a sick attempt to win our trust.

While watching over the infants yesterday, he hovered about, slithering down to the dirt and greeting the two babies with a grin and some baby babble in their direction. I pulled my blade, tightly gripping the pommel every second, even whilst he tried to engage in small talk beneath the swaying oak tree. I hadn't given him the pleasure of getting much out of me other than a sharp reminder of what would happen to him if he did anything wrong. After he'd spotted the glint of my knife hovering by my waist, whilst he'd been looking at the innocent infants, he gave up with the light chatter, clamping his gob shut faster than lightening itself.

But this morning he'd become rather chatty, treating it as if he was blessing us with his presence. I saw right through it, and with every passing word my tether was thinning.

"Nat, chill, okay?" Hushed Liam, seated on the edge of the bed, hunched over as he pulled on a pair of damp trainers, still muddy from yesterday's run through mushy grassland. Corey and Amber hovered, Amber's eyes focused on her own shoes, staring as if they were was some kind of beauty that she couldn't take her eyes off. I knew that wasn't true, she was avoiding the face of her father, the same way she had been since his first night out of the hospital.

"I would chill if he would just shut up."

Justin's laugh was unmistakable. I'd heard in too many times, usually right before he did something disastrous. It bubbled from his stomach and echoed manically, hearty and low, matching his evil demeanour.

He said after a laugh, "You really are a brat, aren't you? Seems your parents absence had sent you off the rails Natalia."

And it only took the slightest mention of my parents to send me flying over the edge of the line, a line I had been looming over since his arrival, since the night I missed my chance to kill him in his sleep. Like every ounce of madness had built up inside of me at once, I snapped, a little too ferociously, releasing the pent up hatred I had for him.

"I SWEAR TO NOTCH I'LL KILL YOU."

Launching myself towards him, there was no gripping arms to stop me. I flung my body in his direction, toppling the two of us to the floor, slamming his spine into the bar in the process. I fell to the floor on top of his stomach, my hands grasped firmly around his jugular, slowly closing in around his windpipe.