Cursed [malexmale]

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Two

"Are you fucking kidding me." It was more of a statement of dismay and anger than a question.

I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose as Hannibal glared at the big flat wall in front of us. Arikos groaned and slumped against the wall perpendicular to it so he could press his forehead against his knees, and Menoetius remained silent and stone-faced as Hannibal turned away from the wall to glare at him.

"You led us to a dead-end," he said. Menoetius stared at him blankly.

"This is where the tunnel led to, that's not my fault. I didn't build this dumb thing, you and your dumb people did," he responded. I moved between them before Hannibal could kill him. I'd noticed the hybrid getting more and more tense as time went on. I could tell that dealing with Menoetius in tight quarters and a desperate situation was getting to him. Even worse, he hadn't seen Akin in quite a while and I was positive that had something to do with his short temper.

Even I was about ready to snap someone's neck, but I knew that no amount of screaming and beating up Menoetius, no matter how tempting it was, would help the situation.

"It's not a dead-end anyway," Menoetius replied smugly and at Hannibal's pointed glare, he sighed and went to knock his knuckles against the walls, "Hollow, genius. Something's on the other side of it."

"So, what? We blast it open?" I asked, turning to Menoetius, who shook his head.

"There's a trap on the other side."

"How do you know that?" Hannibal demanded. Menoetius glared at him.

"Because I know more than you."

"Okay, that's enough," I said sternly, having had it with Menoetius's nasty little remarks, "I get it; you both hate each other and that's just fine. Feel free to gut each other on the sidewalks of Hell if it so pleases you, but right now, the fate of the universe and Apollo is at stake and I will be damned if it all gets blown away by Atlan because you two couldn't set aside your differences for two fucking minutes." Menoetius just gave me a flat, bored stare that tempted me to punch him in the nose. Hannibal turned away and went back to glaring at the wall as if it was all the wall's fault.

Of course. What was St. John thinking putting Menoetius and Hannibal in a group together? He had to know they hated each other. Did he do it out of a sick twisted sense of humor, or was there a real purpose to sticking us with Menoetius? Even more evidence that I was right about the Greek Titan, but I kept it to myself, because whenever I brought it up, Hannibal denied it.

I think it was more his not wanting Menoetius to be the Key, as opposed to the truth. I wasn't sure why he didn't want Menoetius to be the Key either. How would that even effect Hannibal?

"So how do we open this dumb thing?" Arikos asked, getting to his feet. I looked at Menoetius, who frowned for a moment, staring the wall up and down. He approached it and spread his hands out on the wall, not pushing or anything. Then he stepped back and cocked his head.

"Open," he said in Atlantean, and the door clicked. Everyone stepped back as the door opened by sliding back into one of the walls, revealing a glass chamber on the other side that was slowly sliding back into the wall along with the door. If we had blasted the door open, we would've broken the glass chamber open, allowing whatever poisonous gas inside free to kill us. Or at least, everyone, but Hannibal.

I turned to Menoetius with a frown while Hannibal and Arikos continued ahead very slowly. Menoetius stared at the wall, like he was honestly surprised it worked before he looked at me and frowned.