ENTRAPPED ₂

5

FOR A LONG TIME, ETHAN DIDN'T SLEEP UNTIL HIS BODY FORCED HIM TO. He had been in survival mode since he was a young kid, and it was hard to shake yourself out of that.

He was always awake when Madeleine needed him, because he rarely slept. When they became friends, he would hear her sobbing and wake her. He tried so hard to protect her.

After they had started dating, when Ethan would visit her house in California, she would drag him back into bed if he tried to leave. Her fingers would wrap around his wrist, no matter how asleep she appeared, and she'd give him those eyes. He could never say no to Madeleine Aetos. She had a chokehold on him. Even if he couldn't sleep, there was nothing he would rather do than watch her breathe.

He had not slept for almost four days, and he was starting to hallucinate. He figured, if he was going to be forced to go on this shitty quest, he had better get a head start on rest. Gods knew he didn't trust Jason or Piper or Leo to watch his back while he was unconscious.

The Nemesis Cabin was a building done in dark wood. The front of it had two steps and signs that said STOP and TURN BACK. Old tires and chipped boards lay on the ground, and above the doorway, the symbol of Nemesis hung, a wheel akin to Pac-Man.

Ethan had no love for his mother, but he enjoyed the solitude of the cabin. For months, he had dreamed of Madeleine being there with him. They would return in the summer, have the whole place to themselves. They would finally be happy. They would finally be able to love each other, with no Luke or Zoe or James holding them back.

Of course it hadn't been able to happen.

Ethan had dreamed of James for a long time, which was why he hated sleeping. At first, he avoided it to survive his father's blades; but later, the image of Luke gutting James couldn't get out of his head. It never changed. It was always this: A blade, blood, and screaming. Ethan never wanted to hear anyone scream like that again. He hated it.

After the war ended and Luke died, Ethan's dreams were always of Madeleine. Sometimes they were good moments, and sometimes they were bad.

Tonight, Ethan dreamed of the Empire State Building, Madeleine's face streaked with tears, his heartbeat a roar in his chest. They had just watched Drew maybe be killed, and Madeleine was crumbling around him. He had grabbed the straps of her armor and hoisted her up.

They had been more intimate than that, both physically and emotionally, but in Ethan's opinion, that had been the most intimate moment of their relationship. For a handful of seconds, no one else existed. They had been holding each other up. If Madeleine had given into her grief in that moment, Ethan would have followed her. If Ethan hadn't kept her on her feet, she wouldn't have stood a chance.

Gods, he fucking missed her. He had gotten into reading because she had pleaded with him to. There were nights where they curled up on her couch, draped in a blanket, a book between them. She was always a faster reader than him, so when she would finish the page, she would tuck her face into his neck until she heard the crinkle of Ethan flipping the page.

Ethan missed her like a lung.

⎯⎯ ୨ entrapped ୧ ⎯⎯

Ethan woke early because he still had not managed to shake his survival instincts and he heard the door of his cabin creak open. He was on his feet with his knives in his hands, but he visibly relaxed when he saw it was just Drew.

"Woah there, cowboy," she said, smiling. "It's just me."

"I noticed." Ethan set his knives down gingerly and smoothed out the shirt he was wearing. "Why are you attempting to sneak into my cabin at five in the morning?"