ANTI-HERO, j.grace

TWENTY ONE

One fight.

One single fight was all that it took for whatever progress Jason Grace had made with Klein Maddox to be vanish with the wind. And it wasn't even the two of them fighting - no. No, it was King Midas and the Reaper of Men.

Jason wasn't sure he would ever be able to explain what had happened in the mansion to anyone else, much less understand it himself. One minute everything had been going fine, the situation was controlled and he would dare to say that the two of you had been winning. Then Klein was on the floor, bow in pieces.

And now she wouldn't even look in his direction.

And Klein was embarrassed.

She knew she hadn't been the best on the quest, okay? She did. She was pretty rude, she wasn't sure if she'd actually helped to solve any of their problems, and she'd almost cried.

Okay - technically, she had cried. She got hit, Kieran's bow shattered, and she cried.

Klein Maddox was not a crier: she was a yeller, she was the type to shut down. She wasn't the crier. She wasn't the quest-goer. She wasn't some hero.

What she was was embarrassed.

Klein sat at the very edge of the cave, so close that the snow billowing down from the sky was brushing against the tips of her shoes even from the cover of the stone. A few snowflakes even dared to brush against her face, but she let them stay. The girl could hardly see in front of her with the snow blowing through the air so hazardously, leaving her unsure if it was even night or day.

She didn't remember seeing the sun set again, but she also didn't remember climbing the mountains. The last Klein could remember, Jason was pulling her off the ground as the ceiling exploded and a thunderstorm rained down on them.

Klein Maddox was officially thrown. And it sucked because why couldn't she just carry in like everyone else? Why was she always the one left on the sidelines with the memories of it all weighing on her shoulders?

Why was she still trapped on August-fucking-eighteenth?

"Klein?"

Jason's sudden appearance had surprised her, but Klein have no indication of even noticing the boy as he sat down beside her. She kept her eyes locked on the blizzard ahead of them, shoulders slumped in on herself. Her left hand was clenched so tightly around the single piece of the bronze bow she had saved - the piece that donned the k1 - that the indents in her palms were beginning to blossom with blood, but she gave no indication of noticing that either.

When Jason had set next to her in the sewer tunnel when Piper revealed that Kieran had died, Klein was angry. This wasn't anger. He wasn't even sure it was sadness.

It was just... nothing.

"Klein, I-"

"Please don't."

His face morphed into one of confusion, "What?"

"Jason, just... leave me alone. Please." Klein shook her head, but she hadn't once turned to look at him. "This isn't your fault. It has nothing to do with you, and I really don't want to start yelling at you like it does. So please."

Jason nodded to himself, sitting in silent for a moment as he wracked his brain for what to say.

"You didn't want to come on this quest."

"Jason-"

"You've told me you didn't, but I already knew." Jason sighed before he continued, "You're not a hero."