Renegade

Griff's POV

We had fallen asleep together, and that was all fine and dandy, but Emily had forgotten one little piece of information I needed. The identity of the shooter. When I woke up, she was gone, and I had no idea what was going on. I knew that she had left me, asleep, at the Amphitheater to check out something in the Attic, and that was about it.

I walked out of the Big House to breakfast, looking for Emily, but I couldn’t find her, Jason Grace and Piper McLain, or my parents. It was like no one was coming to breakfast anymore, and it was easily ten o’clock in the morning. Weird.

I realized also that Nico wasn’t out here, but that didn’t bother me. I mean, the guy was spooked. For all I know, he could be chilling in a hotel room in Colorado. All he told me was that he’d be safe. And if it means what I think it means, Nico will be actually at Camp, just laying low.

I had a normal breakfast, and by the time that I had finished, none of my parents pr anyone else in that group had come out for breakfast. I was starting to get a little worried, but I was also trying to convince myself that I was being a little paranoid. I mean, Emily had been a little bit of an emotional wreck when I had found her last night. Admittedly, it had been great to cuddle with her and to fall asleep together, and it made me feel like we were more of a couple, but everything had been a bit strange.

Even so, after I had finished eating, I walked towards Cabin Three, my heart rate starting to rise.

Everything’s fine, I told myself, You are going crazy.

When I was about twenty feet from the Cabin door, Xavier came around the corner of the Cabin, grabbing me by the shoulder.

“Griff!” He said, forcing a smile, “You eat yet? I’m starving.”

As he talked, he led me away from the cabin, and when I tried to resist, he just tightened his grip.

“Let’s eat, man! I need someone to talk to,” He encouraged.

“I’m full,” I protested, “I just want to talk to my parents.”

“Your parents are still asleep,” Xavier said, a bit too quickly, “wouldn’t want to wake them.”

My mind was racing as fast as my heart rate, as I started to realize that Xavier was acting very strangely for a reason. But, not wanting to make Xavier do anything rash in front of everyone, I sat down at a table with him. He ate quickly, too quickly, and then walked quickly into the Big House.

My mind was moving too quickly for me to even move. I couldn’t think straight, and I couldn’t move until Xavier returned from the Big House, his full TFG uniform on, and a visible bulge in his lower back. Xavier was packing a gun.

He zoomed past me, walking briskly to the back of Cabin Three. I tried to follow him, but he ordered me to sit, his eyes menacingly close to breaking into a rage.

“Stay there, Griff!” He almost shouted, “I’m just going to make sure your parents are okay. You’re right, by the way. They have been sleeping for too long!”

I was paralyzed by fear as Xavier made a quick stop at Cabin Three and walked past me again into the Big House. Finally, I got my act together. Right after Xavier entered the light blue painted building, I sprinted to the door. When I got there, though, I was already too late.

As I opened the door, I found the worst sight I could ever see in front of me. Xavier had been waiting for me. But he hadn’t been waiting to shoot me. He was pointing a pistol, silenced, at Emily. Her eyes were wild with fear, and she was standing as still as she could,

“Xavier!” I shouted, “How could you?”

“Shut up!” He said back, pressing the barrel of the gun into Emily’s forehead, “Not another step. Not another word. Or Emily here will have an entry and exit hole through her forehead. Capische?”

I nodded in disgust, and spat at the floor, hitting one of Xavier’s shoes. He just smiled at me wickedly.

“I’m not even going to get monologue-y. I did that with Emily here. Bye, Griff.”

And with that, he put his arm around Emily like they were old friends, which they technically were. He holstered the gun and pulled out another, smaller gun. He concealed it under his robe so that it couldn't be easily seen. If she tried to escape, I realized, she would be shot.

As they left the Big House behind them, I could feel my palms sweating, my forehead spinning, and my breath shorten. Then, something steeled my nerves. Maybe it was the vision of Emily with a gun pointed to her head. Maybe it was the vision of Xavier betraying everything he had stood for, for so long. Maybe it was I don’t know, okay? I just knew what to do.

As soon as the door clicked closed, I sprinted the four floors up to the Attic. But the rifle wasn’t there.

Then why was Emily freaking out? I thought, It MUST be here.

I looked through the window and saw Emily and Xavier reach Cabin Three. He threw her inside, and through the window of the Cabin, I saw that my parents and Emily’s parents were tied up in a circle inside the building along with Nico. I saw Xavier quickly put on a gas mask and walk into the cabin.

Gas? I thought, Oh, Styx, he’s chloroforming them. He doesn’t even need the rifle.

In that second I realized what had happened. Last night, Xavier had realized that his sniper’s post had been found out, so he had abandoned his original plan. He had captured Emily and held her hostage while he tied up all our parents. I had no idea what he had against them, but they were tied up. Then, all he had to do was throw Emily in there, let them die of breathing in too much chloroform, which TFG likes to use, and continue with his day like nothing ever happened. But I had seen him exit Cabin Three after he had tied up our parents.

My focus returned to the missing sniper rifle as I looked frantically around the Attic for anything that could lead me to where the weapon was. Then, I realized that Xavier was old-school. The two pistols, the sword training. He would use old-school camouflage. I kicked my foot where the rifle would be, and found my foot clanging against something metal.

“Yes!” I screamed, finding the Mist Cloth that Xavier had used to hide the sniper rifle and tripod. I instantly dropped to a prone, pressing my shoulder against the stock of the rifle as I lay on my stomach, looking down out of the window onto Cabin Three.

I adjusted the scope of the gun as I aimed at the Cabin’s door. A terrifying thought went through my mind as I waited for Xavier to leave the cabin.

Wait, he has a gas mask on. What if he just waits until everyone is dead and leaves the cabin, staying in the cover of the cabin?

But I couldn’t get paranoid. And I could NOT worry about things I couldn't control. Not now. Now, for the sake of Emily more than anyone else tied up in that cabin, I needed to focus on my training, and more importantly, my breathing.

I breathed in through my mouth with a ‘Huh’ sound, and I exhaled with a ‘whoosh.’

I focused on the only moving person in the building, Xavier.

Huh.

Xavier kept pacing around the cabin, slapping some of the people tied up in the face. He looked like he was lecturing them with on his evil plans.

Whoosh.

Xavier then started to get itchy. He kept looking towards the door like he wanted to leave the Cabin.

Huh.

Slowly, he removed his gas mask and brushed his hair. He could only hold his breath for so long. Then, he walked towards the door and opened it, his gas mask removed.

Whoosh.

He started walking towards the Big House, and I inhaled one final time. A double breath.

Huh-huh.

Time seemed to slow down. I could clearly hear my heartbeats.

Ba-BUM.

I made one final adjustment to compensate for the morning breeze off Long Island Sound.

Ba-BUM.

Xavier’s face, his short blonde hair and his blue-grey eyes shone with a look of almost peace. He looked almost happy. Almost.

Ba-BUM.

Then, between heartbeats, I whispered,

“In the Name of the Gods.”

Then I squeezed. The bullet flew out of the window with a loud Crack!, flying straight through the window-screen and the glass window. It flew the one hundred yards to Xavier in less than two tenths of a second. It flew through Xavier’s head and splattered out the back of his head, burrowing itself into the ground five feet behind his already dead body. I didn’t even care that the gun wasn’t silenced. At this point, anything to kill the guy would have sufficed.

As the bullet flew, I thought about all the monsters I had fought with Emily. All the times that I had said that phrase to clear my name of the murder I was about to commit in the name of the Gods. I realized the Xavier was probably the most vicious of any of those monsters.

Ba-BUM.

Whoosh.

I breathed, smiling grimly to myself. Yeah, I had just killed my mentor, friend and Uncle, but he had been a traitor, and he had been about to kill everyone I loved. Then I remembered everyone tied up in Cabin Three.

“Oh, Styx,” I muttered as I got up and sprinted down the stairs.

Notes

AAAAAAND, XAVIER IS DEAD. But will the hostages survive their poisonous surroundings?

Enjoy,
Grafon