My friends and I all stood around my living room. We had been arguing for a few minutes, mainly because I refused to believe that I had to fight Maltor.
Asbel, who was now about my height, heavily argued against me. His mop of messy black hair was tied back into a man bun, presumably because of his frequent work. His brown eyes were both reasonable and angry as the two of us roared at each other.
‘We have to prepare!’ he argued. ‘This is going to escalate, you said so yourself!’
I did not speak for a moment. I stared at the ground determinedly. I gritted my teeth before snapping my head up and glaring at him.
‘You think I wanted to say that?’ I yelled, my voice rising. ‘You think I’m actually ready to fight him?’
‘Well, maybe if you didn’t say things like that then we all wouldn’t think it!’ he fired back. ‘How do you think the City’s gonna feel when they watch you crumble at the sight of him after that speech?’
‘They’ll just have to watch, won’t they? I can try my best but all of us know damn well that I don’t have it in me to kill him again! I wasn’t even myself when I did it the first time!’
‘Oh, what a great and fearless leader we have!’ Asbel shouted in mock happiness. ‘I’m so glad we have such a brave warrior to help us push through a war!’
‘Look at it from more than one perspective, why don’t you?’ I screamed, my anger rising. ‘Or are you too thickheaded to do that?’
‘What other perspective is there, huh? We’re all in the same boat! Or have you forgotten? Has being Prime Minister shrouded your view of the real world too much? Have you forgotten that you’re still just a normal kid?’
I stared at him, aghast. ‘Are you actually stupid? My perspective! He’s my best friend! We fought together for seven years! We were cage neighbours! We watched children meet a fate that we were too powerful to! We’ve saved each other’s lives more than we can count! Do you expect me to just forget that now that he’s trying to kill us?’
‘Yes!’ Asbel yelled, pointing at me. ‘Exactly! That’s exactly what we expect you to do!’
‘Well, tough!’ I fired back. ‘Sure, maybe one day I’ll see sense and be ready to kill him again, but today is not that day! I don’t hate him! He was brainwashed by Amy! We don’t even know what his goal is! I can’t make the City fight him if all he wants is my head!’
Nobody spoke for a moment. I could almost hear everybody’s breaths through the silence.
‘And if you don’t wanna fight him then don’t,’ I said, scowling at him. ‘Stay at home. Let everybody else handle it.’
Then there was a knock at my door.
‘Yeah?’ I called back, not removing my gaze from Asbel.
I heard the door open. Slowly turning around to see who it was that had entered, I saw Joseph Roberts, one of my Aid members.
My Aid was the group of people that were tasked with the job of helping me make decisions, as by RoCitian Law I was underage. They did not directly make the decisions, as that was of course finalised by me, but they were there to help me see the advantages and disadvantages.
My Aid would be officially disbanded on my fourteenth birthday, which meant I had a little less than eight months left with them. After I turned fourteen, I would still be able to call upon them in dire situations, but I would not be able to ask for any help once I turned eighteen. After that, I was all on my own.
Joseph was a man of average build, with close-cropped black hair and warm brown eyes that immediately began to scan the room upon entering. He was wearing a black and white suit, the outfit arranged seemingly perfectly.
Joseph was also a son of Aphrodite, meaning that if you didn’t think about it too hard, he was Natasha’s uncle. Ethan had mentioned this when Joseph was first appointed, before being reminded by Quinn that Godly DNA did not matter. But, if you ask me, it was still a bit weird to think about.
His eyes finally rested on me and it was then that I noticed the worried look coating his face.
‘Sir, if you wouldn’t mind, you are needed in The Hall,’ he said slowly.
I remained silent for another moment. ‘What for?’
Joseph took a deep breath. ‘We need to discuss precautions.’
I could tell that Joseph was hiding something. He needed to tell me something that my friends were not allowed to hear.
I sighed. ‘Alright, you lot, outta my room.’
I followed Joseph out into the corridor, before locking my door once my friends had all left.
Ethan patted me on the shoulder as he walked past. ‘You’ll do the right thing.’
I stared at him. As nice as it was for him to say that, I wasn’t too sure whether I would be able to do the ‘right thing’, Aid or no Aid.
The two of us smiled faintly at each other before I turned around and followed Joseph into the lift, which quickly took us down to the ground floor.
‘You’re hiding something, aren’t you?’ I said quietly to him as he quickly marched through the lobby. ‘What can’t my friends know?’
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Not even pausing to speak, Joseph said sternly, ‘Sir, we are in a hurry, we do not have long.’
I quicked my pace so that I caught up with him right before he opened the front doors. Firmly placing my hand on his shoulder, I was surprised by the fact that he kept walking.
‘All shall be discussed in The Hall,’ he said calmly. ‘The car is already here, we must go now, sir.’
The car outside was a jet-black SUV with tinted windows. A standard government vehicle. The inside was also standard, and Joseph and I sat next to each other wordlessly, as he was surprisingly not the driver.
As we neared The Hall, I felt strangely both hollow and as though I were about to burst. So many questions flew around the inside of my mind that my head began to throb, but at the same time, I was unsure that I truly wanted those questions to be answered.
I could see Joseph glancing sideways at me throughout the drive on multiple occasions, but having a tense relationship with one of the people that was supposed to be closest to me was not something I wanted to do. I determinedly stared at the headrest of the seat in front of me, battling my inner thoughts and trying my absolute hardest not to look as though I was breaking.
‘We’re here,’ I said quietly as the car slowed to a halt, as Joseph seemed to have not noticed.
I saw him nod slightly and the two of us opened our respective doors and stepped out onto the pavement in front of The Hall.
It was quite an impressive building. It had the form of a free-standing Corinthian temple, with huge rusticated stone bays connecting the base of the building to the gable roof. A huge set of wooden double doors situated at the top of a small flight of stairs adorned the front of the building, complementing its impressive look. I had been inside The Hall countless times, yet it never failed to put me at a complete loss for words.
As the SUV began to drive away, Joseph and I began our ascent up the small set of stairs, and with every step, I felt more uneasy. A dark feeling had fallen onto my shoulders, and the weight grew every time my foot hit the floor.
And that feeling only worsened when Joseph opened the doors for the two of us. The inside was nothing short of luxurious. Dark red carpet lay on the floor, and paintings of previous Prime Ministers decorated the glossy oak walls on either side of the front room. Numerous guards were situated around, but they all took a single glance at us and realised that we meant no harm. Some even bowed their heads to me and others just gave me a small smile.
My eyes rested on Grandad’s painting for a moment. The painter had certainly done a spectacular job, but something was missing from his eyes. The sparkle. Nobody would ever be able to recreate, or even come close to recreating that sparkle. The painting smiled at me and a strange warm feeling began to spread throughout my body and I thought back to that night. The night I had failed to save him. I gritted my teeth. My fault. It was all my fault.
‘Please, sir, everybody is waiting,’ Joseph said.
Taking a deep breath, I followed Joseph down the short corridor on the right, towards the Meeting Hall. The Meeting Hall was where the government discussed anything and everything. Usually, it was the pressing issues and possible new laws.
New laws could be formed in one of two ways. Either the government would suggest one to me and my Aid and await our decision, or my Aid and I could form one ourselves.
The Meeting Hall was less of a Hall than it was an ordinary room. Rows of blue-cushioned chairs lined the sides of the room, ascending as they got closer to the walls, in the sort of fashion that you would see at a cinema. In the centre of the room, there was an enclosed wooden stand, which looked not unlike four lecterns connected by their corners, which was where I always stood.
A few dozen people were already sitting in their seats, and although I could tell that they had been talking, their chatter slowly died down once they realised that I had arrived. Joseph separated from me to take his seat near the far end of the room, whilst I opened the small door to the stand and stepped inside.
I took a deep breath as I glanced around at my politicians, before realising that they were all waiting for me to begin.
‘So,’ I said slowly into the small microphone in front of me, ‘he’s back.’
A general murmur arose from the politicians before one spoke loud enough for me to hear.
‘Sir,’ said Nicole Davis, a daughter of Ares, ‘forgive me if I come across as rude, but we do not have long. I believe we should first discuss the LOC, as I am sure it is your first priority to keep the citizens safe.’
‘LOC’ stood for ‘Level Of Caution’. There were five levels, and each had different restrictions. Ideally, we would always be at LOC 0, the lowest level. But, with the current situation, I could easily see why they would want it raised to LOC I.
‘Of course, it is,’ I said quietly. ‘But what LOC do you propose? We don’t even know if he wants-’
‘LOC II seems appropriate,’ said Sarah Williams, a daughter of Dionysus. She certainly knew what she was doing when it came to politics, but she was easily one of my least favourite colleagues. ‘But we shouldn’t be surprised if we need to move it to LOC III.’
‘Now, that’s a bit far,’ I said cautiously. ‘This isn’t gonna-’
‘Escalate?’ Sarah cut me off, her voice cold. ‘But, with all due respect, sir, what if it does? Mr Confussée is like any other threat to the city. If this does escalate we shall treat it as such.’
‘What if we can negotiate with him?’ Joseph called from the far side of the room. ‘As Mr Santrrer has said in the past, we still don’t know what Mr Confussée’s goal is. If he simply wants revenge on Mr Santrrer, then we cannot push it as far as LOC III.’
‘It depends on how far he’s willing to go,’ Sarah said, turning to face Joseph, although the two were sat on either side of the room. ‘Revenge is a powerful tool. We have to be prepared to-’
‘But what if we don’t even have to go that far?’ I called desperately. ‘What if he doesn’t escalate? I can fight-’
‘We have to consider every possible sit-’
‘Then consider the situation where he doesn’t escalate! The situation where we don’t need to get the whole city involved like last time! I can fight him in a one-on-one!’ I said, frantically trying to get them to see reason.
‘Can you? Because the last time the two of you fought I believe he was not killed,’ she said sternly, her blue eyes now steely.
I stared at her, aghast. ‘It was the situati-’
‘What situation? You saw him and didn-’
‘Don’t interrupt me,’ I said quietly. ‘And I’d like to see you kill your best friend that you previously thought was dead. With less than a moment’s notice.’
‘We still haven’t agreed on the LOC,’ Nicole said awkwardly, clearly trying to remove the tension.
‘I say we proceed with LOC 0,’ I said coldly into the microphone, not taking my eyes off of Sarah. ‘If Maltor escalates this whole thing, then we’ll go from there. In small steps.’
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Joseph check his watch and then look around the room in concern. He was clearly in a rush, and I was dying to know what for.
‘What time is it?’ I said into the mic, loud enough to make Joseph jump.
He looked around awkwardly for a moment before saying, ‘14:58.’
Most people in the room shuffled and looked at me sheepishly. Maybe it was not Joseph who was in a rush, but me. Maybe I was supposed to be somewhere and he was supposed to get me there.
‘Is something happening at three o’clock?’ I asked, feigning innocence.
Everyone continued to awkwardly stare at me and my feeling of unease grew. But still, nobody said a word.
‘Well, if that is how things are going to be then I suggest we resume our discussion about the LOC,’ I said, smirking slightly. ‘I still firmly believe that we should keep it at LOC 0-’
Then I just wasn’t there. One minute I had been standing in the Meeting Hall, and the next I was in the most strangely beautiful place I had ever had the pleasure to be in. A strange, familiar feeling spread throughout my body and a sinking feeling grew in my stomach.
I knew exactly where I was. I was on Mount Olympus.