Demigods and You

Blair crept into her room, collapsing on her bed. She let time wash over her, laying motionless for who knows how long. Maybe it was practice for the very near future. She lay on her back, opening her sketchbook after a while and taking her knife out. Just ink, no bloodstains of any kind. It felt wrong inspecting it like this, so she just put it back in the book. So, she went back to being miserable.

Until about four minutes later when she heard a knock on her window.

She looked over after the initial terror was done, and there was Xaawo, smiling and holding some slip of paper in her hand. That was probably her prize for killing someone marked green. She opened the window, letting her tumble in.

"Ah, you made it home okay." Xaawo said, dusting off her expensive suit.

"Yeah." Blair replied dryly.

"Wow, that is one dry sounding throat." Xaawo said with a quick whistle. "Hey, wash it down with this."

She handed Blair her prize, a buy one get one free coupon for a donut and choice of drink under 2.99 at Mind Fuzz donuts. So she killed her only ally for a free donut at a mediocre donut place.

"So enjoy, and feel free to take a rest. Because girl, you look like you need it."

Xaawo left through the window, and Blair was stuck staring at the coupon. She'd put it in her mom's purse, she could enjoy it. She just has to figure out how to survive. There's eight more games, she's well past the halfway point. The question is, would anyone take her? Janet, maybe? Elijah probably wouldn't, and Tedros was almost certainly a no. Whatever, she had a day to figure it out. Just one more day.

Valerie went back home, ate reheated pasta for dinner, and went to her room. Now wasn't the time to relax. This was the endgame. And they had more information. The first thing she did was text Leon the information about the games reason. His response came a little later. Just a blunt 'thanks for the info'

Presumably, he'd tell Janet and Evelyn. Elijah would probably give her hell if he found she was giving information to 'the enemy' but it just didn't feel right to withhold information from someone she still considered a friend. But the question was now who exactly the enemy is, or if there even was one. She was told that someone related to the gods was a player, but did that mean anything beyond them being presumably stronger than the rest of them? She remembered watching a show about the Olympians, and how the god Zeus fought his father and sliced off his balls. Them being gods didn't mean they got along, and she no longer had any reason to believe that didn't happen for real. So maybe it was…Janet? She was rich, and a descendant of someone who founded the city, so maybe he had some kind of divine intuition to do it? It helps that she got past the halfway point despite nobody seeming to know what her powers actually were. But who else could it be?

And just then, she got a call from Elijah. The guy who always just texted instead. Obvious thing to do was answer.

"Hey, Elijah." She said, trying to sound casual.

"Yo, you thinking about the games?" He asked bluntly.

"Yep, still thinking about what it could be." She agreed.

"Cool, because I've been thinking about who the guy connected to the gods could be."

"Oh! Yeah, I've been thinking about that too. And my current guess would be Janet, because she's the descendant of-"

"It's Leon." Elijah interrupted.

"Uh…did he tell you?" Valerie asked.

"No, it's just obvious." He said coldly. "Think about it. Guy was adopted as a baby, so he doesn't know who his parents are. Then he ends up with some of the best powers here-"

"I mean, telekinesis is a pretty normal power. At least I think it is." Valerie whispered quickly. She didn't want him to finish his sentence, because she knew what he'd suggest.

"Still, if we were all put against each other and not allowed to help each other in one more fight to the death, my money would go to Leon winning. Money I wouldn't be alive to spend, but you get my point."

"But anyway, he did try tracking down his birth parents, and the history buff who went through old documents for fun couldn't find a thing. Something tells me his parents weren't normal people."

"Okay, but if he doesn't know his parents, then he's not a threat, right?"

"Demigods sound like pretty big threats to me." Elijah replied with a more authoritative tone. The one he used giving the spades a command. "Look, you aren't gonna like this, but we should focus on killing him if we get the chance. He's too dangerous, simple as that."

"Are you serious!?"

Valerie shot upright from her bed, gripping her phone with such intensity she was fairly certain it would crack.

"Leon's my friend! Your friend! Until last year you two did something you refuse to talk about and now you want to kill each other? What the fuck happened between you?"

There was a pause. The longest pause between words she ever had from Elijah.

"I can't tell you."

"Why not? Why is this the one thing you refuse to tell me about?"

"Just can't. Look, I'm going to the next game to kill Leon before it's too late, either join or don't."

He hung up, leaving Valerie clutching her phone.

Screw it, time to call Leon.

She called him, and he picked up.

"Hey, Leon, we need to-"

"My break ends in five minutes, Val. Sorry, but you gotta make it quick."

"Why don't you and Elijah talk anymore?"

"Oh, the big questions." Leon sighed. "Look, it's because I want to actually go to college and do something with my life, and Elijah wants to talk about cars and fight people in a junkyard for the rest of his. So I quit being friends with him because he's a pathetic loser."

"But you're still friends with me, the second in command?"

There was a brief pause. Leon talked slow, but he didn't really pause. He always seemed to know what he was gonna say several sentences in advance.

"You'll come around like I did. You're smarter."

"Leon, stop messing with me. I know you and Elijah did something. Something that might be connected to your old house burning down."

The pause was a little longer this time.

"Hm, you need me a little earlier?" Leon said, with some distance between him and the phone this time. That was artificial, it had to be. "Gotta go, Val."

He hung up, and Valerie was once again alone. So it seemed her only option now was to try and stop the murder attempts from both sides next game.

Oh, God. Or demigod she might be friends with.