Grim Reaper

Chapter 7

    "I really don't want to sound rude, but why is he like that?" A soldier asks Addax after seeing the kids reaction to what happened on the training field. What had happened was a mistake. An assassination attempt. Clearly aimed at Addax. "Think of it this way, imagine one of your closest friends came with you to the army. You train together, you eat together, you do everything together including getting in trouble. Then one day your friend is forced to choose between his or her life and someone else's. They go numb, they hurt themselves out of guilt, they become a monster to everyone and a guardian in the army's eyes but they stay mostly normal to you other than a few changed behaviors. Jinx's heart is soft, he's in a constant state of pain, so he has the toughest shields out of everyone including the General. I can tell you now that once he's out, he'd rather take his own life instead of taking someone else's. Well, unless something happens and he snaps again..." Addax explains.

    "Snaps?" The woman just listened intently, clearly concerned and posing no threat as far as he could tell. "Well... I guess this isn't really a secret I'm sworn to keep. During the last few months of our training the trainers were getting onto him pretty hard. One day they forced a ten year old to fight him. He snapped knowing it was a life or death fight. They knew he'd snap back to them, or change to how they wanted him to be by putting him in a fight with a person who had zero chance of winning. What they didn't expect was for him to kill almost everyone in that room. Twenty kids, only seven made it out alive, one of them being me." Addax looks around to make sure no one else is listening. "If he snaps, I'm the only one who will make it out alive."

    "Oh... What's with his nightmares? I've heard him in the night a couple of times. My bunker is next to yours, I'm sorry if I'm asking too much." She realizes she seems like she's trying to weed out information from him. "I've already figured out you aren't an enemy." Addax reassures her. "I will check you for a wire after this and if you have it, I will destroy it, and then make you take a blood oath to not tell anyone else what I've told you." She gulps and nods. He knows the likelihood of her having a wire on her was slim. "Our final test is killing another person. He has nightmares about it and he can see things vividly in his head, so sometimes his nightmares of whatever kind are so vivid he feels stuck and like he's actually there. I have to wake him up before he hurts himself."

    "Aren't you supposed to be standing in front of the door?" She realizes he came from their bunker. "Oh he still thinks I'm there. I don't walk away that often. That's his punishment right now. Looking like a fool. Then I will have to stand there the next few times because he will try to walk out." Addax shrugs and soon Jinx walks over with a straight face. "I hate you." Addax smiles, "You love me, got it." Jinx just scowls.

    "You know, you guys look good together. Also, I promise I'm not going to do anything to either of you." The girl smiles at him and he just sputters and gets himself dinner. "He won't realize you're being truthful for a while. That's his one flaw. But he's oddly good at telling when someone is lying." Addax watches him.

    "You like him." She grins slightly, watching the sitting snipers head snap to face her. "What?! No!" Addax denies but his reaction is obvious and the way he looks like he's genuinely gotten caught doing something wrong. "Dude, you look like you just got caught stealing the grenades. It's obvious." She laughs. "Alright, Ezinma, maybe I do, but you are not telling him." He scowls at her and Jinx comes to the table with his food. "You look like you just got embarrassed by the trainers." Eznima laughs more at the situation and makes a zipping sound to show she wouldn't say a word. "Okay, I don't like that." Jinx looks at Addax, eyes demanding an explanation. "Not something I can tell you." Addax grins as his usual demeanor comes back. "I mean, you can, and should eventually." Eznima pushes it. Jinx just glowers at him, listening to her. "Why do you listen to her but not met?!" Addax acts offended. "Because I know you, and you seem to trust her which means she's safe to listen to." Jinx immediately replies.

    "I swear you're like a machine." Eznima takes the edge off the situation. "Trained to be like one." Jinx starts eating his food. "You could be a little nicer since these people are our comrades after all." Addax lightly scolds. "After what happened in that gym I'm not taking chances. And if you die, I die, got it?" Jinx locks eyes with him to show he was completely serious. "You should live to avenge me." Addax acts dramatic but his eyes show that he knows the kid is serious. "Revenge takes too much energy. Karma can get them instead. And remember some people aren't your friends, they're just afraid of being your enemy." Jinx goes back to eating. "In reality we're just suicidal kids telling other suicidal kids that suicide isn't the answer. We keep each other alive. You lose me, you lose him. But if you lose him, you probably won't lose me, I will take revenge." Addax explains the small but intense interaction they just had to the woman.

    "Well, if you both die then I'll avenge you, yeah?" Eznima tries and it earns a look at her from Jinx. He hadn't looked at her the whole time. It was a start. "Just know that if you die, unless I'm actually emotionally attached to you, I won't care." Jinx states to set the grounds and she nods. She's not even offended, she can already tell how he is. Snipers can't care. Caring is like already sacrificing themselves to the enemy. She should know. 

    Her best friend was a sniper.

(Short filler chapter for you since I've been seemingly missing for months. Sorry about that!)