The Girl In Chains (Artemis Fowl x Female Reader)

10. Artemis Fowl POV

A bullet.

Butler's body gives one more shiver, makes eye contact with me, and relaxes.

I let out a breath. I feel the blood drain from my face. Everything seems to fade to a dull background noise, until only me and Domovoi's body are the only focus.

No, no, no, no. 

There isn't anything i can do. There's no freezer like last time, Holly can't do anything, for her magic would only worsen his condition. I have no time. Not to mention we're in the middle of a fight. What do i do?

He's dead.

"ARTEMIS!" A scream pulls me out of my daze, reality snapping back too fast. I turn to see who calls me, 

"ARTEMIS! GET THE ANTIDOTE TO THE BOMB!" Morrigan.

It was Morrigan who shot Butler. How could she?

"FOWL!" She hollers again. Her words register, and i pick myself up and run, run like i do in my nightmares, i run away from her like she's the nightmare. I hold the antidote so hard it almost shatters, and my palms are slick with sweat.

I reach the bomb. Standing in front of it, i see there are only 30 seconds left before it explodes. I see different coloured wires, i see the tank where the virus is undoubtably stored, meant to be ripped apart by the force of the explosion.

I force myself to stop thinking about Butler, to disassociate, to disconnect, and try to focus on the bomb.

For someone who's technology is extremely advanced, the bomb is surprisingly simple to break down.

After using up exactly 10 seconds to think, i carefully rip out the blue wire, and the timer stops at 15 seconds. I empty the antidote into the virus tank.

Now the task is complete, everything leading up to it seems too extra, too hard. Just like that, the bomb was dismantled, but the amount of sacrifice needed to get here.... the end result just feels so underwhelming. 

I stumble back and fall to the floor, then cover my face in my hands, and let myself sob. I sob from the emotional roller coster i just went through. I sob for Butler. For Holly. I sob for the people who've lost their lives at the hands of Morrigan.

I sob in my hate of Morrigan.

She shot him....

She shot him....

She shot him....

It's like a mantra that repeats itself in my head, steeling my loathing for Morrigan.

She shot him.

I don't know how long i sit there, but eventually, Holly and Morrigan stumble into the room, both covered in blood, Holly is exhausted, Morrigan isn't.

My blood boils and pumps deafeningly loud against my eardrums when my gaze settles on her cold one.

Cold. That is the only way to describe her. Monstrously cold.

She warned me to stay away from her. I see why now.

She shows no emotion when she sees me, no remorse tied to what she just did to Butler. We stare at each other, neither wanting to give in.

Holly glances between us and notices what happening. "Come on" She says, "Let's get Butler out of here"

We all leave together, with Holly between us. We're all collectively silent.

We reach the original place where the fighting had commenced, all that is left is blood and bodies, it's sickening, it makes me want to throw up, but i swallow my bile. 

It seems fitting that the only person who remains unaffected by the sight is Morrigan, who was the one to cause it in the first place. 

She walks up to Butler and bends down to pick up his body. I turn away. I can't watch.

We leave the building.

It's fully morning now, but there's no one around this time of day, since they're all at work or school.

We should be in school. I realize.

Morrigan hefts a heavy sigh and stumbles on the last step of the stairs leading to ground level, and falls onto her knees, Butler slides slightly on her back. 

Neither me or Holly rush to her aid, we just stop to stare as she tries to stand up again, walks a few shaking steps forward, just to fall over again. We can both hear her breathing now, in quick, loud and shallow breaths. She's on all fours with Butler draped over her like some weird blanket, covering most of her frame. For the first time, i notice just how small she is compared to Butler, compared to me. 

Her arms shake under the effort of keeping herself and Butler off the gravel and i realize that the ground must be hot under her hands, painfully hot, since it's been cooking under the sun for so long, but she shows no sign of the heat against her skin.

Her body heaves, and she stands up again, swaying on her feet. 

She's putting most of her weight on her left leg. 

She shakes her head as if to clear it. Me and Holly share a glance.

There is definitely something wrong. But we aren't in a hurry to help her either. I think she shares the same resentment to Morrigan as me for shooting Butler.

Morrigan doesn't look at either of us, undoubtably, she would have noticed our absence at her side, but she doesn't ask for our help. Instead she tries to walk again. But this time, instead of stumbling, her legs give out completely, crashing to the gravel again with tremendous force. 

She gives up on carrying Butler and sets him on the ground beside her, his face to the sky. She lifts her head and looks around at the landscape surrounding her. I can almost hear the knobs turning in her head. But her chest only seems to be heaving harder and harder, and her arms only shake more and more, her breathing only gets louder and more desperate. Holly takes a few tentative steps toward her, but Morrigan doesn't react.

She's blinking as of to clear her eye sight. 

She makes one last effort to stand, but gives an inhale of pain and her hands fly to the back of her right leg. Only now do i notice the blood, both new and dried crusted on her calf, the wound is bleeding profusely, turning her sock and shoe scarlet. I get a glance of her face: It's as expressionless as before, nothing to give away the pain that is stopping her from walking. It dawns on me just how good Morrigan is at controlling her facial expressions, even with a wounded leg, if i were to look at her face only, i wouldn't know that anything was wrong. How did she get so good at hiding?

She makes eye contact with me and gives out a command, her voice icy as always, also not giving an insight to her pain, 

"Get him to the hospital. He's not dead."

Then she faints.