Condemned

Chapter 3

*****Sorry about that, one of my sisters was playing on my phone and I did not notice chapter 3 was gone until now.*****

Artemis P.O.V.

"Just a quick peek into the lab, make sure everything's alright. You can handle that, can't you, kiddo?" I sneered, mimicking Grandpa as I approached the large laboratory. I hated him treating me like a little kid; I almost asked Grandma to shoot him. The front door was locked, so I took a step back and kicked it, causing it to fly open. One of the double doors almost came off the hinges. I walked in and the entire place was empty. "Hello?" I called, my voice echoing off the walls. There was no reply. I rolled my eyes and turned to leave. "Why does he send me on bullshit assignments? I'm almost sixteen years old, not a baby. When my dad was eleven, him and Uncle Al were doing way more dangerous--" A loud clatter interrupted my rant. I whirled around, aiming an arrow in the direction of the noise. "Artemis, how nice of you to join us," a low, sultry voice called. A woman stepped out of the shadows, wearing a long, black dress that cut low, showing off a lot of cleavage. She also wore what looked like black gloves. Her dark hair tumbled past her shoulders in waves; she was gorgeous. I glanced at the ouroboros tattoo on her chest and glanced back up to her black-violet eyes. Her cherry-red lips tilted up in a smirk. "Like what you see?" she asked. I aimed the weapon for the center of her ouroboros when another voice piped up, "Are we gonna kill her or not?" I looked up to see a man sitting on a ceiling beam, looking bored. His eyes were a lighter shade of violet than the woman's, and his spiked green-black hair came down to his hips. His pale skin was mostly bare, save for a black skort and half-shirt. His ouroboros was on the outside of his thigh.

"We can't kill her, Envy," the woman hissed. "We need her." A third voice chimed in. "Aw, but Lust, I'm hungry," it whined. I couldn't find the owner of the voice. "Gluttony, we need her. If she turns out to be completely useless, you can have her," the woman he called Lust sighed, glancing back over her shoulder. A short, rotund man stepped forward to stand by Lust. He was bald, with small, beady eyes. He wore all black, and had a wide, toothy grin that was way too large to belong to a human mouth. He grinned, his tongue hanging out of his mouth. I saw the ouroboros on his tongue. Grief's voice rang in my head, 'Be safe.' That sonofabitch knew this was going to happen! I was pissed. I smiled at Lust. "Sorry, but I'm not being used for anything a homunculus needs." I glanced up at the other homunculus as I backed toward the door. "And, Envy is it? Yeah, I like living, so...not happening." Envy started laughing, a loud, rumbling laugh. "She's funny, I like her. Can we just keep her as a pet or something?" he asked Lust. The woman rolled her eyes. "Get her, Gluttony!" she ordered. Gluttony sped toward me, tongue wagging. He sure was fast for such a big person! I ducked to the left and he sped straight past me, crashing through the wall. I ran along the far wall, shooting at Envy. Two arrows caught him, one in the forhead and one in the chest, and he fell. He tried to pull them out, but blue light glowed from the transmutation circles on the arrowheads. He convulsed on the floor, screaming. His head split open and a hole burned through his chest. I then aimed my focus on Lust. She glared at me, a satisfied smirk on her face. I could hear Gluttony closing in on me. His ouroboros was on his tongue.

I turned around and let three more arrows fly. One struck dead between his eyes, the other two hitting the center of his ouroboros. He fell to the ground like Envy had, but he couldn't scream. He coughed up dark red liquid, pulling at the arrows. It was then I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder. "I was told to bring you in alive, but no one said anything about being damaged," Lust said as her sharpened finger retracted from my shoulder. 'She stabbed me!' my thoughts screamed. 'That bitch stabbed me! With her finger!' I placed my hand over my shoulder, pulling it away to reveal the warm, sticky red liquid. With a wicked grin, I raised my weapon and released two arrows that went straight through the palms of her hands, pinning her to a wall. I let another one fly, hitting her stomach. The alchemic reactions started and she shrieked, pulling at the restraint. I ran out of the building, as fast and far as my legs would carry me.