"Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same."
-Anonymous
The alcohol war halted immediately.
Xerus and Athena's head snapped towards the twins at the same time.
"Me?" Athena blinked, her hands that she used as shield were still in the air.
Felix wanted to roll his eyes but knew he had to behave in front of Xerus. "Nope. Your grandma. Duh, yes it's you!"
Athena's heart sunk to her stomach, or further beyond, somewhere she couldn't detect. The goosebumps that surfaced upon her drenched skin made it far worse as it sent the chills to the brink of her neck.
A cold-blooded rapist in a room alone with her. Seven long minutes.
Sounds like everyone's dream, doesn't it?
Xerus bit down with so much force that his jaw began to ache. "You idiots must have read it wrongly." He got on his feet, his chair screeching backwards. He snatched the tile from across the other end of the table. "Give it to me! I'll read it!"
By the look on Xerus' face, Athena would rather die than to go ahead with it. The only feelings she could rely on were the fear, the desperation to avoid it from happening and so, she let her fingers ran freely at the patterns of Xerus' trenchcoat, causing him to look down at her.
He huffed loudly, throwing the tile away as he flicked her hand off, rejecting her pleads.
Felix was already up on his feet, about to go around the table to get Athena. Ricardo stopped him, his hand grabbing his wrist in a rush.
"What?" Felix gave his younger brother an unsatisfied look. "Let go. What the hell?" He tried to shake Ricardo's grip away.
Ricardo slapped his hand, giving him the eyes to stop struggling as he pulled him down to his level so he could whisper into his ear. "Fel, her freaking name is Athena! Doesn't it ring a bell? What if she's Athena Rose, huh? You wanna get another punishment so much? I sure as hell don't! Our father was ready to disown us the last time!"
Felix furrowed, considering his brother's warns, he spent a few seconds to observe Athena who was repeatedly pulling at Xerus' trenchcoat with two fingers, asking his help through the desperate expression that smeared her face.
Felix shook his head. "Nah, how can that be possible? If she really is Athena Rose," he laughed through a loud sigh. "Xerus would have burn her in an incinerator, let alone welcoming her into his home. You worry too much, Ric."He patted Ricardo's shoulder and ripped his hand free from him.
The trailing sound of Felix's footsteps gradually rang louder in Athena's ears, validating that she had very little time to persuade for help.
For this to work, it had to be someone who objected the idea of rape as much as she did, someone who had more power than Felix. She needed to drop her cracking dignity once more to the person who dominated Thieves.
However, the Viper wasn't easy.
Xerus refused to give in to her pleading eyes, and every time she'd allow them to grow fuller, more pitiful, he'd ignore it, looking straight ahead or somewhere else.
"This coat is expensive. Stop prying onto it," Xerus seethed inaudibly, pulling his coat away from her, but both of her hands were relentlessly holding on to it for dear life.
"How can you turn a blind eye to this?!" Athena retorted, her well polished nails branding into his coat the more he shove them off.
"Why can't I? This is my house, my rules. I can do whatever the hell I want!" He tried to remove her hands, plucking off one finger at a time just for them to cling back harder than before.
"No! Would you want to repay me again for another week? And what? Invite me over to your house as an apology and then let these bastards do whatever they want to me so the cycle can repeat?!"
Felix shook his head with a sardonic smug, his hands in his pockets as he towered over Athena, creating a vast shadow behind her. "Chill out, what are you getting so worked up for? It's not like I will do anything to you."
A crooked smile and an immense glower was Athena's immediate response to him. With her hands still strongly attached to Xerus' coat, she scowled at Felix. "Oh, really? Because the last time I checked, you were trying every means to turn my kitty inside out!"
Xerus couldn't take out the sudden sharp vex that bubbled in his chest anywhere else but the glass of orange juice in his hand as he turned away from both of them.
"But I didn't?" And I said a sorry like a thousand times. Now, the time is ticking, we gotta pick a room. How about this? I'll let you choose the room so you would feel better about it," Felix told her, his head tipping to the side like he was bored of waiting.
"Room my pretty cute ass! What makes you think I will get into one with you?!"
Felix gave several taps on her nose, rendering her to jolt backwards and smacked his hands away but he was quick to pull back. "Don't act tough now. Xerus hate it when any of us neglect rules, so why don't we all obediently follow the game rules, aye?"
Xerus gripped the bottom of his chair with pure vehemence, the only thing his eyes were having contact with was the dark floor. Felix certainly still had much to learn of him.
Sure, he detested anybody who flout with the rules, but if there was one thing he hated more than that was someone having thoughts or ideas of touching another without consent- something Felix was about to do.
He obviously had the authority to stop Felix, yet why did he not?
To answer that, if there was another thing he loathed significantly more than the two above was surely his childhood sweetheart, and no matter how greatly his systems screamed to object Felix's idea and help her, he deeply didn't want to. He had vowed that he'd make her life miserable in sheer purgatory, and he won't be breaking it anytime soon, despite almost surrendering to her imploring hands.
"Release my coat and get going," he demanded, driving her hand away.
Athena was hardly surprised she was stuck in this situation again- a situation in which she was automatically thrusted ever since she'd arrive at A-List. In the world of Thieves, it was only money, potency, sex and earning points for it. That was all to it.
She believed Xerus, however menacing and hot-tempered he can be, he still was better than the rest as he stood what was right and do not excuse the wrong. Like always, she was mistaken.
She hesitantly loosened the leather of Xerus' trenchcoat, accepting her cruel faith, she rose from her seat begrudgingly, flashing daggers at Xerus. "I hate all of you," she muttered, frowning hard.
"Whatever. You don't have to like us. Just do it," Felix mumbled into her ears.
Athena pulled away, eyes wandering over the remaining girls at the table. Perhaps, a girl would help out another in need, right?
Those unsympathetic girls only gave her bored, lazy looks. Even when she bended her knees and clasped her hand together as a sign of help- in case it wasn't obvious enough already- they again returned her with more tiresome looks. They were annoyed with Athena's persistence.
She looked to Ricardo and he'd frown, shaking his head, pointing over to Xerus.
Her eyes landed on him once again. "Xerus?"
He almost looked up, unfamiliar with her calling him in a soft, gentle tone that bore much resemblance to the voice of a nightingale.
"Is this what you want?" Athena questioned, making his resistance to lifting his head and look at her, ebb away. "You said you want to destroy me, right? Is this what you meant?" She urged.
Behind the blithe mask Xerus wore, a howling, violently rotating turnado razed beneath his skin, making emotions bundle in chaos.
He wanted to do this but he couldn't, he didn't want to do that, but his organs kicked him to.
He stared straight ahead, Ricardo could see his mask liquifying, his jaw clenched tightly- a habit he had when he battled with his demons within- only this time, the end of his eyebrow twitched rather untamely. Ricardo knew he didn't want this too. "Xerus, this would only look silly if they are paired. She don't look like she would enjoy it and this game is called seven minutes in heaven for a reason. We should skip this round."
"No!" Xerus denied instantly.
Ricardo sat back, feeling small. He tried.
Athena would have thought that her ears had played tricks on her if it wasn't because Xerus raised his voice which made the final in his tone firm and evident.
Her heart was drumming in her chest, ready to rupture through her skin. "You really have no heart, do you?! You would rather watch a girl getting ripped off of her virtue than stepping up to just tell this horny idiot!" She rammed a finger into Felix's face. "To cut it out?! How is that so hard?!"
She shook her head, looking at Xerus in disbelief, disgust, exasperation flooded in her damp eyes. "Do you even know ever since I came here, everything won't stop gushing downhill?! It's because of you! You and your stupid, crazy group! Thieves, you call it? Well that can never be more accurate. You are not only stealing virginities whatsoever, you fucking steal their whole life along with it! And people wither away because of that! All because of you guys freaking competing?! What do you take us humans for, huh?! As your little rotten toe?!" She poured out her pent-up feelings, catching a few breaths as she scrutinised Xerus' face from the side.
He was swallowing a bile that comfortably dwell in his throat. He blinked his eyes twice when he was suppose to do it only once. She knew for whatever matter, her words affected him and he looked like he was aware of the things he did even without her pointing them out.
His fist was clenched in the deathliest grip as he blew hot, angry breaths, suppressing himself as Athena continued, "This is only my first week here and do you know just how many times I almost got raped already?! If I had known this dark side of A-List, I wouldn't consider coming! The worst part of this is the problem has nothing to do with the school! It lies on the people IN IT!"
Xerus' usually quiet household turned into an amplifier of Athena's yells, the echoes bouncing about in there.
Athena drove a finger into Xerus' forehead. "They are all like this because of you! You're their freaking superior! No matter how much of a clown you look like, they listen to you! All of them, the horny teachers, the insensitive students, even them, this freaking assaulters!" She swung her arm to Ricardo and Felix. "You do bad things, they follow! You do good, they follow!"
Xerus fists quaked further, in fact, his entire being was. His frame was naturally broad, now added with his very tensed shoulder, Ricardo was afraid he would blow the house up if he so much as stand up.
Felix rendered a few steps back, his irksome ego now completely wiped out by the vast aura of the Alpha in the house.
Athena kept going, "From what I've seen, I can't even name one good attribute about you! You're not the indestructible God you believe you are! You're not the goddamn leader the Earth should worship! You're just simply a man who needs a mental check up! You're nothing, Xerus!"
Xerus slammed the weight of his arms onto the table, sending his seat soaring to the wall. "ENOUGH ATHENA!"
The courage that only emerge when his past was triggered finally showed its head.
It was the exact thing she had said to him when he was still the naive, compassionate, honourable little child. You're nothing, Xerus! You mean nothing to nobody! You mean nothing to me!
Athena ignored Xerus as she spat even more. "And because you're nothing, you're taking out on all who you think is shallow! You feel fantastic when you see someone crumble! You feel alive when you see ME shatter into fragments!"
"YES! That's right!" Xerus roared back. "I want to watch you break until you are six feet underground, and even then I don't think I'll be satisfied yet! If I have mental issues, you have thrice as much! What disgust me more is that you always act like you're the fucking holy being! Go join the gospels and sing Hallelujah, why don't you? With the devils living in you, I doubt you can get anywhere near a church!"
Athena went up to him in two big strides and on her tippytoes, she sent him a tight, powerful slap across his face with her monstrous strength.
By now, Athena should have been dragged away by Felix and Ricardo together for harming their leader.
Nonetheless, by Xerus' odd, inconstant behaviour, they'd be outrageously foolish to not realize this girl was indeed The Athena Rose.
Ricardo covered his face, recalling when she had lied to him about her name being, Alice.
Xerus' head was tilted to the left from the impact of the hit. His face showed no sign of pain nor anger, as though he was used to it, and he was. He used to get slap by her more often than any machine could possibly count when they were younger.
Felix tapped on Athena's forearm rather hardly using the tile with her name on it, careful not to graze through her skin at all, now aware she was off-limits. "Just follow me, dumbass, I won't touch you! It's only seven minutes! Don't cause any more trouble or I'll call Ace." He said it quietly.
She shook her head as she didn't want Ace to get involve in this big mess. While she was still hesitating, her feet moved on its own, taking slow baby steps away from the table.
Felix had no patience for her dawdling, he grabbed a handkerchief he always had from his pocket, closing it over her skin, he seized her arm and yanked her out of her spot.
Athena nearly toppled over when she felt a brawny hand snatched her free arm, causing her to jerk back towards him, her back sinking into his snuggly, unyielding chest. His trenchcoat was sizeable and had space to wrap her up.
"Be gentle!" Xerus directed to Felix with a sullen look.
Athena— at lost for words by his bipolar character, she inclined her head up to look at Xerus just for him to lock eyes with her.
Some things change and some things don't.
The things that did change was what made Xerus the man he is today.
Vicious, brutal, callous, mighty, no mer— he squinted his eyes, vanquishing the feeling of nostalgia when he bore deep into those running eyes.
Her orbs— a deep black, just like her hair, resembling a malovelent abyss. No matter how much he wanted to tear his eyes away, he was under her spell. That was the thing that didn't change. It never did. He had only been lying to himself.
This everlasting things made him want to willingly fall into those cavernous obsidians, despite not knowing what's on the other end of this endless hole.
It was at times like this that he hated himself, but he knew would detest himself even more if he had not gone with his guts because of past incidents; it would only end up with him regretting.
With one fixated thought, irregardless of all rules, he grasped her hand and ran with her behind, making them the final pair of that night's game.
______________________________
Guys, this wasn't even suppose to be a chapter I swear but I don't know how did I write and drag until 3000+ words. I'm disappointed. This scene is taking too long for my liking but anyways, I hope you guys would like it somehow, hopefully.
The next chapter would be the last scene of this. And then... It is the big reveal of what happened between this two lovebirds ❤️
And guys! We've reached 100K hooray! 🌹❤️ Thank you lovelies!