Only a Game (Olympus Drive Chronicles)

Chapter 36: That boy had better be the death me

Metion

After much sobbing and protests I leave Viktor. He did hurt his ankle at some point, looks like claw marks. He got a fifteen minute lecture over not telling me about that, then the child thought he was going to get out of breakfast. Tried to cry off, saying he wasn't hungry. The boy is skin and bones. So I'm not bringing him with me when he especially wants to go.

Possibly that will teach him to listen to me. Probably not. However. I have to do something. He never listens. Is this how teenagers are? Is he only being a child or is it something else?

The boy's fourteen he's barely a teenager. And too clever by half. If only he'd use his wits to do something other than get himself into trouble. Thinking he can street-run down these walls. It's like he wants me to drop dead of a heart attack. Of course he's agile; he's a child but one slip means death.

And nothing I say seems to get through his thick head. I am nothing like prepared to live without that cocky smile though. All the happiness and beauty in the world is in that smile. He's impossible to be annoyed with when he's grinning like that.

Thankfully, he doesn't know it. Once he does it's all over. The girls will be on him in droves. That's a beautiful problem to think about. A normal, everyday problem. Telling him not to run about with stupid girls who fall prey to his charms. That's a problem I'd like to have. He's too clever. I need to get him into school. University. He'd do well there. Maybe he'd start eating again. I think he's doing it just to defy me.

He wants to be stubborn he likes being stubborn. That's all. With a million other things to be stubborn about then he'll be fine. He'll be fine. We will be fine. We'll go back to Zurich, maybe London. I'll get him in a good university. He'll have more than enough to think about.

But for now. For now. There's this.

"You should pay more attention to what's behind you," I say, dropping down behind Ariadne and not bothering to unclip my line.

"I knew you'd come," the girl whips around and hugs me with no warning. She's taller than I by now, and smells of sweat from walking through this place for going on twenty four hours.

"Did you bring me what I asked for?" I ask, patting her gently before she releases.

"Yes---inside, where's Vik?" she looks around hopefully. She and my boy were quite inseparable when they were small, which I disliked because despite being a good five years older than he she is no where near as intelligent as he is. I thought he could choose better companions. Anyway, he needless to say rejects my opinion on the matter and is besotted with the tall, manly girl.

"Inside because he's an idiot---who's this?" I nod to the boy who is with her. A small, weedy looking thing, maybe a bit older than my Viktor. He has thick caramel curls and looks like he lives in the stained Star-Trek t-shirt he's wearing.

"Hi, I'm Theodore---Teddy---you're Metion."

"I know. Enjoy the game," I am preparing to clip Ariadne to my line.

"He's coming with," Ariadne growls, "He knows who you are and he is going to help. He's fine."

"Fine," I say, shrugging. I can kill him if that's not true. Game leg or no, I can easily strangle him or just snap his neck the boy doesn't look like he's held anything heavier than a joycon since age ten. "How much does he know?"

"Can we do this inside?" Ariadne asks.

I shrug, undoing another carabiner for the boy, "The entrance is at the top of the wall, come here."

"Right---right," the boy says, stumbling a little, like he's never seen a human person before. I resist rolling my eyes. I'm definitely keeping the option open to kill him.