Olympus Drive Book 3: According to Plan

Chapter 76

Axel

I watch the clock, sitting neatly, quietly at the table. Waiting. Waiting. Eleven does not come quick enough. Nor does 1130 I stretch it's still not yet time. more stretched. Finally now 1145

Finally, finally, the hands hover over 1153.

Close enough.

I hop up, nimbly, and go to the opposite wall, where I stand, and then I take a running leap and kick the glass of the window.

It takes two tries, and on the second try I hear a tell-tale "He can't get through that glass—right?"

I spring through among shards of glass, slamming directly into one cop. I smoothly pull his gun and shoot his foot. He howls in pain. 

I put the gun to my own head and back across the room. Of course they all draw.

"PUT THE WEAPON DOWN—"

"Not a chance," I say, and I dive through the window and out into the alley. There were bars on that window but that does not stop me. I start running. Felix will be coming from the other side of town. I need to make time now before the----

Sirens. Then crash and a crumple then more sirens. I parkour up the wall of a building and narrowly avoid gunfire. Then I leap to the next roof. I run and then it's back down onto the street level.

A boy whips up to me, bearing a bronze shield and a long, metal spear. It's heavy. But it'll do. I take them both. He bows then runs away so quickly he vanishes.

 I slip my hands into the leather straps of the shield and then keep running.

There are more sirens in the distance, but cutting down a few more alleys I lose them. It cuts off my time but I can't be caught. And I will find him. I have all night and he has only the rest of his short life.

He sees me just as I see him, fleeing the big neighborhood, headed no doubt to the police station. I was excepting some sort of angry rebuttal. Some sort of denial that he did me wrong.

Instead he turns tail and runs the other way.

"FELIX YOU COWARD FACE ME!!!! I'M GOING TO TEAR YOUR HEART OUT. YOU SHALL NOT LIVE!!"

"That's murder---you can't—" he's panting I'm gaining on him.

"DO I LOOK LIKE A MAN THAT CARES ABOUT DEATH??"

He gets a good lead on me, I'm weighed down a bit with weapons, and we're well back into my own neighborhood and in fact quite near my house before he finally starts to show fatigue and falter. I keep coming.

"Axel don't ----I'm sorry I didn't mean----" then he screams because I throw the spear through his body.

I walk over, slowly.

"I didn't mean to kill him---Axel---- please—"

"Do I look like a man, who cares for mercy?"

"Please. Please don't do this," he's panting and bleeding out, as I twist my spear in him. "You don't want to do this---you don't want to become that."

"Do I look like a man who fears what he will become? You slew the only mercy, the only goodness that lived in me. Now you see what is left behind," I say, and then I pull out my spear. He screams. I plunge my hand through the hot wound, up into his chest until I feel the still beating, slippery heart. It's amazing how long he keeps screaming.

I rip it free, my fist tightening around the soft meat as it tries to pulse on out of my grasp. I smell the rich, warm iron, before I take a bite. Soft and hot and full of tangy blood. I swallow the bite and then throw the rest into the street for the ravens. Then I pick up his body, by the back of his neck.