Artemis Child

Artemis Child Ch25

After the silence filled the room more than the heat did, Toni broke it. "Two things." He said to me, getting my attention.

   "One: Your mom got drunk, so that makes you an accident." He said with a laugh, although he stopped after he saw my expression. "Two: How are we supposed to get to the underworld?" He asked, but he didn't direct it to anyone. He merely looked around as if he would get the answer from a crowd of imaginary people.

   There was a small knock at the door, and a small voice from behind it. "I don't remember wanting barbecue." Is what I believe was said. The lock started to wiggle, then turned with a such a quick shudder that Toni jumped. Not trusting anything opening a door since the train, Andrew was at the ready. 

   The woman from behind the desk was the person who opened the door, but she was still rambling. She looked up from her hands that were still messing with the locks on the knob. After releasing the knob and deciding that it was in the way she had wanted, she walked over to Andrew.

   Why she had come into the room was a mystery to us at first. It escalated very quickly though.

   "Ah yes, you desire your father's acceptance." She said with a gaze that lingered, even after she was no longer looking at him. Andrew backed away from her, and gripped his blade handle. "You desire your family." She mumbled while looking at Toni, and waving him away. "And you.." She stopped and looked at me with her gaze becoming cold. "Now that isn't something to want. You cannot want such an evil wish." She said, while fishing into her pocket for something.

   Before she could do anything, Andrew was quick to detain her. "She is a jinn." He said to me as he removed the small pipe from her pocket. "What the hell is a jinn?" I asked him, confused that my identification of monsters ability didn't catch that.

  "They read peoples desires and decided if they are good or not. They only kill and grind up the people with horrible desires." He said with the tiny woman squirming underneath him. "They are powerful, but they normally go insane from taking too many human desires into their body. You didn't pick up on this because, its a gene not a creature." He said finally, and broke the pipe.

   The building shook, for a second. The woman's body started to smoke and become transparent. I picked up Gena, who was too weak to move from her current problem. "Damn. She must have created this building." Was all that was said before we had to take off running.

   Cracks webbed up the walls around us as we rushed out, with plumes of dust, and concrete spreading fast. "Why does our luck have to be so bad?" Andrew shouted to us as we ran, and choose directions. This building had been long to get into, and getting out might be harder. Carrying Gena, and racing against a falling floor isn't much better.

  Toni tripped on a fallen piece of the wall, but rolled to recover. Which would have been pretty cool, if it wasn't for the fact that we had to keep moving. Andrew turned a corner, because the floor that lead out in front of him gave away. Not wanting to take the chance to see what the basement looks like, he turned.

   Every way that seemed to be great or right, started making us have to take detours. The sides of my ribs started to hurt, and my breathing was getting too heavy. "We have to go up, their might be a fire escape or something." Andrew yelled, trotted up the stairs that groaned next to us.

   We were soon four flights up, I had handed Gena to Andrew.  "An..." I Tried to say, but the stairs underneath me gave way to its groaning from the force that was acting apon the building. The railings that held stairs were stronger, then the actual stairs. It was the only thing that I could grab to stop myself from falling.

   "Keep going, I'll find another way out!" I yelled up to them. I looked and saw that I was on the third floor. I didn't have time too look around so I started running again. Turning a corner, I saw a window and got an idea. It was a bad idea, a really bad idea.