27 LOSING SLEEP
ALL SHE CAN SEE IS DARK. A COLD EMPTY DARK, WITH FLOOR CARVED IN CEMENT AND BRITTLE STONE THAT CHIPS IN THE CORNERS OF THE ROOM. A THIN MATTRESS MOCKS ARTEMIS AS THE ROOMS ONLY ATTRIBUTE.
She can't remember how she ended up in this jail cell of sorts. All she remembers is Zeus and his stupid fucking grin and her yelling at the guards not to touch Adonis. She remembers watching his body go limp and then feeling nothing but black herself.
With a nasty glare, she stands from the crust mattress and looks around the room. In search of a camera or a one sided mirror, she needs to find out if their watching.
"Come on, Zeus! Let's settle this now, huh? Wanna fight? I'll fight you. Me and you. None of your minions," She snarled, her head whipping around and pounding on the steel bolted door. Her breath mingled with the sound of her fists excessively hitting against the stone. Rusted walls that were tinted with blood and sweat. She wasn't here to be used and abused. She was here to die.
At this point, Artemis was panting. The only sound in the entire room as her fists slowed down and crumbled with her body to the cold ground. Her knees met her chest and she hugged herself as tears melted down her face. She clenched her eyes shut and covered her face in her knees, not wanting Zeus or anyone to see her weak if there was indeed some type of cameras watching her.
Collecting her thoughts, she begins to count all the people that mean something to her, that she misses. Her mom, Leto. She may be an absentee parent, she but loves Artemis as wholly as a mom should. Orion, her first real love. She felt sick thinking about the kiss she shared with Adonis. Not because she did it, but because she liked it. A lot. Adonis, in such little time, he made it deep in her heart to make it ache at the mere thought of his own pain. She loves him. As much as a consort should. Apollo. At the end of the day, he is her brother. More than that, he is her twin. Deeper than that, he's been her best friend for life. She loves him. Just not as much as one should love her twin brother.
Her thoughts linger back to Adonis. His face, his confused and vulnerable expression as those disgusting men darted a needle into his neck. His soft neck that held no place for wounds. He didn't need any more heartbreak. Or breaking in general. He just needed to be fixed.
Please be okay, she silently wishes for Adonis' sake. Let him get out of this alive. Let him see the human way of life. She doesn't know who she's asking, she just hopes someone hears.
The door opens then, and her eyes about bulge out of their sockets. Thinking someone bigger than her is actually here to help.
But when Apollo's figure passes through the door, she knows this is only karma for all the bad she's participated in. A guard is in tow, Apollo turns to him, "Give us a moment." He orders and the guard silently exits. Closing the door behind.
"What're you doing here?" She sneers, curling her lips in the angriest glare she can muster.
"I've been here. Since the last time we met..." His voice shook, eyes dipping away in what seemed like embarrassment.
"You've been here? In the palace? Why?" Question after question, she couldn't help herself though. There was so many missing pieces. Unanswered questions. Too many to count.
Artemis hated being in the dark. Literally and figuratively.
She watched as his adam's apple bobbed in an unsettling gulp. He seemed nervous. Which was conspicuously unusual for Apollo.
He leant his back against the wall, folding his arms over his chest as a shield. Artemis soon realized he was having trouble meeting her gaze. It was laughable.
"Let me explain," he began and Artemis could've scoffed. She did. "Art-"
"No. Don't. I won't believe a word that comes out of your mouth. Brother." She protruded the word as if it was an insult.
Apollo winced at the insinuation.
"After our argument-"
"If you'd call it that."
He sighed, "After our argument, I began the trek back home but Zeus, he....approached me." A lick of his lips. "Offered me a position in his court."
"A position?" She echoed, narrowing her eyes.
He nodded, releasing a shaky breath. "I would become the prophet for the palace. For Olympus. The god of prophecy as I am said out to be." A smile washed over his face subconsciously but it disappeared just as quick.
"What's the catch, Apollo?" Artemis could feel her stomach aching. Maybe she ate too much at the dinner after all the time she spent eating too less. Or maybe she just already knew what the catch was. It was the latter.
"I would help in the assassinations of Adonis...an-and you." His voice was small and raspy. Like he'd been using it for too long and it was sore. Scratchy.
Artemis felt her eyelids begin to droop, she was faltering. Her brother. Her twin brother. Her best friend for life. After all they'd been through, protecting each other, fighting on the same battlefield, against the same enemy, and now they were opposing. Separating. And he would be her end.
"Why?" Her voice was little.
He lifted a shoulder, "Its all a means to an end. Your body is a symbol of forestry and animals. Love and peace amongst gods and nature. Olympus needs that kind of sacrifice. You will be martyr."
Artemis rumbled up a mocking laugh, shaking her head viciously at Apollo before menacingly stepping towards him, so close he had no other choice but to look her in the eye.
"A martyr? Not quite. To be a martyr, one must feel for their cause. Be fighting for that cause. There is no cause here. And I refuse to fight for Zeus. He is a beast." She wanted to scream and cry but she kept it all in and instead glared up at her brother.
"You have no choice."
"That's not fair."
"Nothing is fair."
"Stop that."
"Stop what?" He asked, watching her with intent curiosity. He was trying to memorize her, everything her. Their time together was dissipating.
"Acting like you want to kill me. You're giving me robotic answers. Everything you say is all rehearsed. I know Zeus coerced you into all of this." She took a step forward, bobbing her head up at the corners she felt held a camera. "Tell me the truth. Is he threatening you?" She asked in a whisper only for Apollo.
He briskly shook his head, biting down his lip, "Unlike you, I have choices. I am free to leave whenever I please. But this is what I want."
"I don't believe you."
"That's alright."
"Please," She begged, leeching onto Apollo's forearm. "Please don't do this. Don't let me die!" She begged and cried. Sobbed, really. But that was all rehearsed. Fake. She wasn't crying for her own life. She was crying for Adonis'. Her life was expendable, sure. But his...he needed to live, to see a day that he realized that he mattered. As much as everyone else did. Especially to Artemis.
He faltered. But only for a second. Before ripping his arm away from Artemis and pushing her until she fell. Her back hitting cold cement. It molded into her spine. The pain vibrated through her body.
"I'm sorry, Artemis." He murmured so quietly she almost missed it. The door clicked shut and she was once again alone.
Good, She thought. I like it better this way.
—
Artemis wakes the next morning to the shuffling of feet. She squints, pushing her body up from the mattress.
A guard sets a tray of food on the floor next to the bed, "Eat." And then he's gone.
She hisses as the door shuts. Her eyes fall to the tray. A red colored jello, a milk carton, and olives. Some meal. She kicks the tray away from her, pushes a hand through her disheveled hair that she unknotted from coils last night.
Idly, she wonders what Adonis is doing, what he's thinking. She selfishly hopes he's thought of her. At least once.
—
Another day, another tray.
Yesterday, the guard yelled at her for not eating when he came in the afternoon to give her dinner.
"What're you doing?" She asked the guard after he put the tray down and stood against the door with his hands laced behind his back. Apparently not leaving.
"I have orders. Cannot leave till the tray is empty." He recited.
Artemis coldly laughed, "Thats absurd. You're going to fucking execute me, what's the point of making sure I don't starve?"
He didn't answer.
"You're no fun." She huffed, staring at him, then the food. Olives, milk, jello. Same fucking thing.
"Eat."
"I will." His face seemed to lighten up. "If you let me see Adonis."
He gave her a bored look. "Not happening. Sorry."
"No. You're not." She turned her head, away from him. "But you will be."