Artemis Child

Artemis Child Ch13

   As the teeth landed in my hand, I used my other hand to find the holes they left. Although I searched, I found no missing teeth only sharper teeth that replaced the fallen ones. I pocketed the ones in my hand, and acted like nothing happened. 'So I am becoming a monster. Damn it, why me.'
  The sound of my cell opening snapped me back to where I was. Being brought to a room for questioning. I was questioned back and forth. There was something about this town and this guy that seemed familiar. Even the the name T. Rivers was fuzzy to my memory. Like it was sponged from my thoughts each time it was almost apon me. When I saw him, I saw my father, or faulting memories of him and my father. A bone chilling uncanny feeling that was loosening me up to the words and questions. He moved to the one sided bench that lined the wall of the dim room. The glass that separated the officers from the people being booked or questioned provided a grim setting.
  Staring at the small scar on him, I shuddered. "What is that from?" I asked. "I'll tell you my story behind this, but you tell me what happened to your family after." He offered me, as he sat on the small cell bench next to me. "Deal?" He asked and tapped on the scar a few times. "D-deal." I agreed.

"Two friends of mine and I went hunting.." he paused to see if I was changing my expressions, like I should know this or something.

"We were hunting moose and deer." He started saying. "Well we got lost, because of a small snow storm. Nothing to bad, but it accidentally lead us into wolf territory. I guess because of the storm, the wolves had nothing to hunt. So they settled for the closest thing. Us." He said, but he flinched at the thought.

"I was building a small pile of logs to make a fire, until I heard growling from behind me. There were at least seven wolves surrounding the small camp we made. I had sent one of my friends to get more logs, but I had forgotten about him after seeing them. They closed in on us before I could start the fire or get my gun. My friend." He paused and told a small gulp of air. "My friend, who was at the camp with me, got attacked first. Three swarmed him, and ripped him to shreds quickly." Mr. Rivers's lips seemed to get parched as he replayed the memory in his head now, straining himself from break down that would arise from these thoughts.

"I grabbed my knife from my belt. I got bitten in the leg, which caused me to fall. I stabbed one, and kicked another, but the largest one climbed on top of me and took a bite. I stabbed its stomach, rolled from under it and ran. Before I could get far I ran into my friend with the logs." He paused and took a breath. "I explained to him what happened and we rushed back to camp. The large one I had stabbed was struggling to get up, but the others had escaped not before dragging my other friend's body away. The trail of blood in the snow showing their path, littered with tissue, clothing and blood. He looked at me and asked me for my knife..." I cut him off.

"Wait why? There is nothing to worry about, since there is only one left." I asked. "He did something unexpected. He walked forward an talked to the wolf. He said to the creature: 'I am sorry that you were hurt, but you were hurt in defense. I am going to give you an honorable death, fore you fought to feed your people and young. Goodbye.' He then with a fast and painless strike, killed the wounded creature. That isn't the weird part though." He continued and rubbed the back of his neck.

"A voice from the trees called to us: 'Even losing a friend, you keep honor in mind. You don't kill without reason or sport. And you don't waste what you kill.' The voice was from a woman who nimbly climbed out the tree. She had this weird glow to her, and she had this bow made of silver. She was cloaked, but she didn't seem to mind the parts of her skin touching the cold violent wind." He explained the way she looked. The mental imagine seemed to be so real. "I should probably tell you that my friend's name was josh travern and..." He paused.

"And Michael Mathews, your father. I suspected that you killed your family, and that you took drugs to get over it." He motioned to the dark veins on my arm, but didn't change his facial expression. "I remember being there when you first started swimming. Your eighth birthday. But then weird attacks happened around town and I never saw you all again."
"But that...that woman from back then was." I started, and he finished. "She called herself, Artemis. Which makes no sense, but after seeing her materialize an arrow into medicine..." His voice trailed off as he pulled at the tie on his collar. It made no sense to the man, but through the softening of his voice and actions...it was convincing.

"Ok your turn. Tell me what happened to the man who was the last connection to my old life." He demanded of me. I laced my fingers together and layed back onto the wall as I sighed. "Fine." I replied.

I explained everything, and left out nothing. He was a friend of my father. So I was taking a leap of faith to trust with telling him. I was up to the part where the jeep was stolen, until. A girl in a leather jacket and jeans, was rushed into a cell next to me. She was cuffed, yet it didn't effect her or displace the small crossbow attached to her hip. There was a knock on the glass that seemed to indicate the end of their discussion. I didn't know if the man believed or if the he would write it off as something to drown with therapy and medication.

"Sorry, but I have to get back to work." He said, then tighten his tie. He got up, left the room, and locked it. "So what is she in here for?" I walked to the door to try to listen, my hearing being good but this well built room masked a large amount of outside sounds.
   He asked the officer who brought her in. "She was caught on a stolen motorcycle." The other officer answered with a smug laugh. "What is so funny?" Rivers asked him, with a curious expression. The other officer went to his desk to get something before answering.
  Mr. Rivers returned to open the door to return me to the holding cell that was connected to the others. The other officer still spoke as I was being brought back.

"I would of never noticed, if the back lights weren't out." He answered as he wrote somethings on paper. I turned to face her, she didn't seem to notice me looking at her weapon. "What are you looking at perv?" She asked and turned to me. "No, I was just looking at your crossbow." I answered her, but looked her in the eyes. Which soon grew wide by me mentioning of the weapon.

She slid her hand from behind her, by sliding them down her butt. She brought it up under her thighs, then pulled her legs through. She grabbed the crossbow from her hip  with her still cuffed hands and aimed it at me. "What are you?" She asked as she pulled the string back into its loading notch by holding it with her thighs for a second. "Woah, woah. Calm your tits. I'm a demi.." She cut me off by the clicking on the safety of her weapon. "Oh. I'm a demi too. I'm the daughter of Hermes. I was just heading back to camp, then these cops caught me." She said, with a slightly friendlier tone. In fact this tone made her sound british, kinda made me feel less confused about where she was from.

"I'm Cory. Son of Artemis." I said trying to be less of a stranger. She put her weapon away, and pulled a paperclip from her coat pocket. "People call me, Trish." She told me as she picked the lock to the cuffs with the safety pin on the crossbow.

"Wait, why were you away from camp?" I asked, but I continued to watch her pick the lock. "My boyfriend, I wanted to see him, I come to see him every few weeks. I haven't seen him in a few months though. Everytime I went to go see him, he wasn't home." She explained, and took the picked cuffs off. "Well I would love to stay and chat, but I'm gonna leave." She got up to stretch, but stopped. "Do you want to go too?" She asked me in a serious tone.

"Can't, I have three other friends probably being interrogated as we speak. Sorry. Be safe on your way back to camp." Is all I said before her mood changed. "Wait. You are Cory? with a C, right?" She asked as she got closer to me. The only thing separating us was the bars of the cells. "Come here." She said and motioned for me to come close.

"Yeah, why?" I asked while stepping closer. Her hands moved quickly, but I could see it all. She pulled the silver, arrow head necklace, from my neck. "See I love shiny things, and I have this game where I take things from people with names of the alphabet. I'm on C again. Sorry." She said as she stepped back away from me. "Hey give that back." I said and reached for her. Even though I was fast, I caught nothing, but air. She pulled up her pants legs, to reveal small wings on the boots she was wearing. She pulled out her crossbow and fired it at one of the monitors. It burst into flames, taking full attention of the officers.

She used the small wings to float up, to the support pieces holding the cell. She slid through and escaped with ease. She slung three crossbow bolt quickly to destroy a lock and hinges of a door to escape.