All For Not - Wednesday

Page 103

"I must admit, I find it quite interesting how you interact with people..."

The voice makes me freeze in place, head whipping to the side to lay my eyes upon the black robed figure.

Paused, I turn to fully face the mysterious intruder, "Who are you?" I ask, head tilting as I look upon them curiously, eyes narrowed and flickering at the threat.

"I can tell what you are, who you are, even with the news of the phoenix at Nevermore, I can feel it..." My head snaps to the side in an aggressive tilt, eyes flicking towards the gloved hand as it moves, "I wonder..."

Suddenly my mind turns foggy as she beckons me over, my feet forced to move in a crutching stalk. "I wondered if I could, I guess I was right after all, little birdy..." My mind has completely been taken over, control of my body numbed as my mind blanks and steams up, blurring all the lines and in between.

She moves towards me, stopping as I stop, hand continuing to lift till it sweeps a thumb over my cheekbone.

Mentally fogged up like a mirror in a steam filled room. I don't register anything but the need to do something I don't recognize, then her thumb touches my skin and I lock onto it, the finger pad wiping just a streak away, clearing a path through the wet rippled mirror of fog that's burdened my usually calm mind.

Then, it clears and my eyes widen, the fire crackling within immediately roars to life as my breath turns hearty, shoulders lifting as I begin to pant aggressively with a deep black smoke filling my lungs and pouring from my lips.

The figure's eyes glimmer with reflected sunlight from the treetops above us as failure hits her, her features shown to me now through the clarity of my mind and eyes.

Anger sparks under my skin and I light up, high flames consuming my body and licking her fingers, burning her whole hand straight through the glove making her yelp like a screaming cicada before she yanks away in pain.

Huffing and puffing I step back as she stumbles away.

She whips around to face me and my mind starts to fog again before I screech and stalk forward a few steps, completely submerged in my own fire that starts to lick white.

"You dare..." I hiss out as she stumbles back before darting off.

I'm quick to turn and follow, flames flowing and flickering at my feet till it spreads to the ground beneath me, singing all the leaves. But the sound of a pop distracts me from behind, a flare sent off above, close by.

Huffing and panting I stop completely and calm myself, forcing myself to extinguish with a groaning growl and singed skin, smoke covering my clothes and body. I'd deal with the woman whose audacity exceeded her abilities later at a much more opportune time. The fact she had some semblance of control over my mind was unnerving and dangerous.

Redirecting my attention, I turn back towards the direction of my previous destination, annoyance circulating through every part of my body as I walk, making my way once more.

The leaves crunch under my feet, my shoes having been overly flammable unlike my custom uniform.

The denser area of trees opens up the closer I get until a larger leaf littered space becomes viewable, my eyes locking onto an aggravating sight that makes the muscles below my left eye twitch erratically.

On autopilot I clench my fists, stretching my fingers as I walk over to a prone Ajax on the ground floor, face first in a pile of leaves and first. I shakily exhale a deep breath before lightly kicking at the side of his hand, my eyes somewhere else, "Up gorgon, now," I speak.

My voice is stern as I walk around him before I kick him again, my foot against his outer thigh this time, "Gorgon boy, up," I growl, a nasty nasally groan escaping his chest before he sits up drawing my mirth filled eyes, "a ridiculous scene...are you always this annoyingly embarrassing."

My eyes flit around till I see something to my far right, my eyes having had completely missed the sight of my siren. "Kent?" My voice calls out, softer, facial expressions softened at the sight of him in stone.

"What have you done you, you imbecile of a snake..." I hiss at Ajax as he slowly registers his surroundings, my feathers ruffling underneath my skin.

"Relax dude...oh man..." He groans, locking his sight onto Kent before he panics and grasps at his head, fingers running over his snakes as I turn to look back at him. "NO! He yells hand up, "Don't look!"

He stares up at me, jaw dropped, hand outstretched towards me.

"What happened?" I ask with a frown, looking at him, his snakes up and hissing still as we lock eyes, "You, you're not...you're fine?"

"Stop the babble Gorgon, what have you done to my boyfriend?"

He looks back at Kent, still gob smacked at the new revelation, a sort of glint in his eyes as he looks back at me in a new light, "The, the normies, they got the egg thing."

Frowning, I look back at Kent, "How long?" I ask, receiving a stuttering answer from the gorgon almost instantly as he stands up, "About a couple hours, sirens don't take as long as humans or really anyone else."

He grabs his beanie off the floor behind me as I move over towards Kent, a soft frown on my face as Ajax looks at the hat in his hands before licking his lips, thinking about what happened.

Glancing back at my peer I watch as he pulls his beanie gently over his snakes, covering them, another pop in the distance signaling the normies egg has been retrieved.

"...I am quite over this day, let us take him back to camp..."

Ajax gets up, dusting himself off before walking up behind me, "Hey, hold on a minute, you never told me you could do that," he furrows his brow and grabs at my elbow, pulling me sideways to look at him.

Looking up into his eyes I stare back, blank expression. "I didn't know, if you are referring to being unaffected by your stoning, then I had no idea otherwise I would have recollected and told you beforehand in case of any future incidents. Even then...we've not been on the best of relations have we?"

He lets go but his eyes trail over my figure curiously, something taking over his expression before it turns to guilt as my words set in, "Because of Xavier...I'm sorry, about that, all of it. It wasn't the best way to handle things, especially in the hallway last year."

My eyes shift between his but I don't give a nod or a forgiving word I simply turn away and look back at Kent, "Yes well, as of now it's the past and the future is quite annoying. So, let us retrieve my boyfriend's statue without breaking him, yes?"

Ajax stays silent for a moment before grunting a yes and moving up behind Kent's stone figure, hands moving up under my siren's arms, his frozen position making this an easy task.

"So...you really didn't feel it when you looked at me?" He asks as we work together to lift Kent and take him back to camp with my hands under his ankles.

"No, I felt nothing." I reply softly, watching my steps across the uneven ground.

He stays silent after that for a moment before once more trying to start a conversation with me, "We should put him in my tent so he can, you know..." he says, with an awkward tone of voice as the conversation takes an uncomfortable form for him.

"That is not a necessity gorgon, he shall be set in my tent."

Ajax makes a noise after my words, stuttering out a new bit of information to me while voicing his concerns for my idea, "Well, I really think he should be with me or one of the guys you know...it's just that, i know you probably haven't dealt with many gorgons and stoning but, oh my gosh, basically when the stone cracks apart so will his clothes..."

My brows raise in curiosity, "What do you mean gorgon?" I ask him.

"Uh...well. So basically his clothes won't be on? They turn to stone and fall off when you know, the curse or whatever you wanna call it wears off." He groans after speaking as if he was embarrassed to be saying anything on the subject at all.

".... So, he'll be unclothed?"