Categories > Cartoons > Class of the Titans > Demons Within Me

Inner Turmoil

by Demenior 4 reviews

Archie is confronted about not being at school, and Atlanta relaizes that there's something more to their relationship than there was before...

Category: Class of the Titans - Rating: PG-13 - Genres: Angst, Romance - Warnings: [!] [?] - Published: 2006-06-27 - Updated: 2006-06-27 - 2755 words

0Unrated
Demons Within Me

Disclaimer: See previous Chapters.

Warnings: Sexy shirtless Archie oogles and it appears Atlanta's inner girl has awoken and so now she has a 'second opinion' on things... and I have the strangest feeling that Archie and Atlanta went WAY out-of-character on me.

Pairings: same as always

Authors Note: My goodness, guys! I HAVE OVER 100 REVIEWS!! This is all thanks to you, and in the celebration, I've typed up and am going to post TWO new chapters. Thank you so much, everyone, thanks for sticking with me, critiquing my work, giving ideas/thoughts/suggestions, reviewing and even just reading this story. This is still going on thanks to you guys out there who are still reading my useless junk! Thank you SO MUCH! I LOVE YOU!

Chapter 14: Inner Turmoil

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000


Atlanta walked out of gym class, feeling stiff and sore now that Chiron's pain-killers were wearing off on her and the mild cuts across her front were now starting to ache again. She couldn't even imagine how Herry was coping with his big cuts, but then again, Herry was a tough guy. Then, worried slightly, she wondered how Archie was. He had been fairly torn up by Tulais, but Chiron had managed to 'pop' his dislocated shoulder back into place and gave him extra-strong pain-killers so he should be feeling... okay about now.

Atlanta picked up her feet and went to Archie's last class of the day, English. She, and all the others, knew that he secretly loved reading, even if he tried to hide it form them a lot, and so he'd probably still be in the back of the class, reading. She giggled slightly at the thought and peeked into the room. A little surprised, she found that his desk was empty. He must already be at the truck with everyone else, waiting for her.

As she neared Herry's big, repaired truck, she realized that Archie wasn't with them. Everyone else seemed to have their mullet-haired friend on their minds as well since Atlanta noticed the surprised looks on their faces when they saw that Archie wasn't with her.

Jay opened his mouth to speak but Atlanta answered before he could, "I don't know. I thought he was here with you guys."

"Is he still reading again?" Theresa snickered.

Herry unlocked the door, having just jogged up with Odie at his side, "Actually, I didn't see him in math today. Maybe he got really 'sick' and went home? You know, after yesterday and all..."

Everyone looked around, a tad edgy, before Jay spoke up, "Yeah, Herry's right. Besides, if Archie is just wandering the school or something, he's late. He can just find his way home," their leader added with a forced laugh. Everyone else snickered lifelessly as well. They were all thinking back to yesterday when Archie had gone off on his own.

"C'mon, I want to get home. I need a shower," Neil sighed, trying to brush down a loop of hair that just didn't seem to want to co-operate and stuck up like a tail.

"Yeah, he's probably at home, and he'll... he'll be fine if he has to walk," Atlanta said after a moment, "lets jus get home."

As they all loaded into the truck, Herry spoke up, "You know, guys, while I was visiting Granny during lunch today, she asked if we could take some of her furniture for a few days, since she's getting the den repainted. It's not much- only a table, a chair or two and her foosball table. Would that be alright?"

Jay grinned, "Sure, I love foosball and I'm pretty good at it."

Herry raised an eyebrow, "Oh, really? Well I am the champ from where I come from, so let's have a game. You versus me, and we'll se who's better."

Jay nodded, "Deal."

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Archie awoke with a groan, immediately feeing a sharp pain all over, but more directly form his shoulder and arm that Tulais had used to drag him with in the first place. His head was sore and he felt hot. Pushing the blanket off of himself, he sat up slowly, using his not-as-sore arm, but it was asleep and he nearly fell over again.

Well, the reason that he was overheated probably had to do with the fact that he was in a sweater, had just been curled up in a blanket and it was quite a warm, sunny day outside.

He tried to pull the sweater off, but it hurt, a lot. He sighed with a slight grimace, and tried to push past it thinking 'I've been hurt worse than this' and trying to think of a time where he'd felt more pain. But the only memory that came to mind was back when he'd first hurt his ankle all those years ago...

No! Archie jerked himself out of this thoughts, he didn't need to remember that right now. He waited a moment as he realized his heartbeat had increased from just brushing against that old, fearful memory.

{Well, now I have pain for future references. Once I get this sweater off}

Archie gritted his teeth in pain and managed to pull the sweater off. He hissed as he felt a wave of pain spread over his body, emitted from his shoulder which was still bandaged up. While recovering from that wave of pain, he managed to get his white under-shirt off. Biting his lip in an attempt not to cry out in pain, Archie leaned back against his bed and took in a slow breath.

He was able to get to his feet well enough, and tried to look at his shoulder, but he could tell that he needed a mirror already. Pushing himself to his feet, he stumbled into the bathroom down the hall and slowly, painfully, stripped off the bandages and winced at the big blue, purple, yellow and black bruise completely covering his shoulder. There were multiple bruises on his chest, and turning around, he groaned as he saw numerous more bruises covering his back.

Wait a second- bruises? Shouldn't there be CUTS or PUNCTURE marks in his skin? People didn't heal that fast! Then again, Tulais hadn't bit him all that hard, save for his shoulder where, thankfully/no-so-happily he could still see the large bite he had received from the Demon.

No human on earth could heal that quick- Archie cut himself off in midthought. People, HUMANS, didn't heal this fast... but maybe... DEMONS did. He'd try to find that in the books he'd gotten from the library once he bandaged up his arm again.

The library. Archie stopped and looked in the mirror. Did he really look like a demon? Was he really so dangerous that he was supposed to be killed? Right now... he only looked like some scrawny, pale kid covered in bruises who looked like maybe he was TOO skinny. His shoulders were slumped and his eyes were still a little red from his despaired sobbing earlier.

Why would the gods have anything to fear from him? Why would they want to KILL him? WHY? Archie turned on the tap and splashed some cold water onto his face and tried to forget. There wasn't much he could do about it right now. To challenge the gods upfront would be suicidal, and to just pretend he'd never heard Hera and Ares talking would mean his death. He'd have to come up with a plan, but not when he started freaking out like this every time he thought of it. He'd get nowhere if he tried.

Archie pulled out the extra gauze and antibiotic cream, then decided he didn't need the cream and out it away. Slowly, just ever-so-slowly, and gently, he wrapped up his shoulder as best he could with one hand, wincing every time he irritated the bruise/cut. He had just finished putting everything away when he heard the door open...

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

They had taken a little longer than usual since the gang had decided just to drop by and grab the items they would be 'looking after' while Granny's den was being painted. Now, they had a de-assembled foosball game among them, a chair, a little coffee table and a rug or two. There was a couch and two chairs in the trunk space.

Herry parked the truck in front of their brownstone and they all hopped out, carrying all that they could into the house. Herry carried in the couch on his own, while Theresa and Jay then managed to carry in one of the chairs.

They left everything in the living room and Atlanta quickly ran upstairs, hearing the water running.

"Archie?" she called worriedly.

He stepped out of the bathroom and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and then looked up at her with a more-or-less forced grin, "Yeah?"

"Where have you been?" she cried, relieved.

"You weren't at school," Jay said more as a question than a statement as he steppe dup beside Atlanta, mentally he cringed at the hints of a large bruise under the wrappings on Archie's shoulder and the numerous ugly splotches along his torso.

"I got sick," he mumbled with a shrug, "so I came home."

"How early? You weren't in math, and that was second period." Herry said, coming in from the living room.

Everyone's eyes widened, SECOND period? They had assumed math was more like... fourth period, or even just after lunch! Archie had left that early?

"If you are that 'sick' then why'd you go in the first place?' Theresa demanded, shocked at the inference that Archie would skip school.

Archie shrugged again, nervous as he was half-naked and under six unwavering gazes, "I thought I'd be okay. Sorry," he muttered quietly and turned to leave.

"Don't just walk, Archie," Jay said in his serious tone, "you just told us you were so sick that you had to skip an entire day of school, without telling us, and right now you look perfectly fine to me! I understand if you at least would LIKE to have a day off, but don't trick us by making us think you're going to school to go to classes- not going and then leaving somewhere else!"

Archie flinched at Jay's words.

"SO what do you have to say for yourself," the Leader finally demanded.

Archie opened his mouth to speak but closed it immediately. If he said he'd gone to the library, Jay would want to know what book was so important that he couldn't just sign it out and go to class, and Archie had a feeling that if he even started talking about ANY library he was going to start shaking and crying and blurt out the whole story about what he had heard Her and Ares saying about him. But they wouldn't understand, he realized, he couldn't share this with anyone because they all trusted the gods. What was he going to say?

No, Archie didn't have to make up excuses to please Jay! How DARE Jay think he could just stroll up to him and command to know every itty-bitty detail of what Archie had done that day. That was none of Jay's business!

"I skipped school. I won't go tomorrow if I'm not feeling well. Is that good enough for you?" he spat angrily, startling the others with his sudden outburst.

Jay seemed to have lost his voice, as had everyone else, at the fact that the 'sick' boy had just snapped at them with nearly the same intensity that Tulais had the day before. And it was only Odie who noticed something strange as Archie walked away, the limp on his heel more obvious showing that he was tired, but Archie had no cuts on his body...

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

"I got sick, so I came home."

Those were the last words Atlanta heard as she found herself, admittedly, checking out her best boy-friend's body.

Though speckled with large bruises, Archie still had his in-serious-need-of-a-tan pale skin covering his entire body, a very faint tan-line at his neck and wrists thanks to his hoodie. He was quite thin, almost to a point where it seemed unnatural, but she knew that he wouldn't be the same 'gangly' Archie if he wasn't so toothpick-like. But even though he was thin, it was easy to see the strong, fairly-developed muscles under his skin. She had to admit, if he wore clothes that did more for his body, he'd probably get more dates and could possibly even turn her head once or twice- not that she'd ever admit that. Thanks to their little rounds of comparing scars, she could pick out all the pink marks on his smooth skin, but it didn't seem that he had much else to disfigure his figure, other than the bruises-

"I skipped school. I won't go tomorrow if I'm not feeling well. Is that good enough for you?" Archie suddenly spat in their direction. Seeing as no one replied, he turned and stormed off to his room, slamming the door shut.

Atlanta blinked as she realized what had happened... she had completely spaced out staring at Archie! She felt her cheeks flush and quickly squeaked out something like 'I need the bathroom!' and rushed into the small room and closed the door swiftly behind herself before anyone could see her red-streaked face.

"No, Atlanta, no! You are NOT falling for Archie! Archie is NOT attractive! You need to STOP being such a creep and hanging around with him all the time and actually act like a GIRL!" she hissed to herself, in fear someone might be listening on the other side of the door.

{And maybe if you act more like a girl, Archie might even ask you out dearie!} A giddy voice popped up inside her mind. Where had THAT come from? Was that the inner girl she had tried so hard to suppress?

{I mean, if you haven't noticed, honey, he only seems to be romantically attracted to GIRLS. Not girls who are pretending to be guys, like you hon, but girls who act how girls should act!}

Atlanta winced at the harsh tone, than calmly replied.

{But Archie doesn't act around Girl-girls like he does around me. He... he acts normally around me, not macho and manly like he does for other girls. I don't want him doing that to me... he just acts like an idiot.}

{But he only treats you how any other guy would treat another guy! Face it, Atlanta, unless you change, you'll never get his attention!}

"I'll talk to Theresa," Atlanta finally murmured, barely moving her lips.

She checked herself over in the mirror to make sure her inner turmoil wasn't showing up on her face, and gathered up her books and left the bathroom, heading right for Theresa's room.

The said redhead was brushing her hair back into a ponytail, sitting comfortably on her large bed.

"H-hey, Teresa," Atlanta stammered nervously.

Theresa looked up, slightly surprised, and then noticed the faint blush on Atlanta's cheeks and grinned, "Do you have another crush again? Hopefully he isn't another bad boy, eh?" She was referring to Pan, who, Atlanta hated to admit, still held a small sliver of her heart.

"N-No!" Atlanta spat out too quickly, "I was just wondering i-if you could, show me how to use like, some eye shadow or something 'cause me and Archie were going to go out and..." she trailed off, wondering if Archie would even want to speak to her after his seething remark earlier.

Theresa nearly went into a fit of giggles, "You and ARCHIE? Finally? You're going on a DATE?" Atlanta's eyes widened at her friends assumption.

"No! Nothing like that! We're just going to refund my tickets for the circus tonight... would you want to come?" she asked hopefully.

Theresa sighed, blowing some hair out of her eyes, "I'd like to, but I have to go see Persephone. She said something along the lines of 'it's time for something new'. So I have to go, probably for more training, sorry."

Atlanta nodded, "That's alright."

Theresa smirked, "Now, how about some eye shadow?"

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

So there, the next chapter

If you guys are good and review this and the next chapter, I promise the next chapter will be out soon. I'm sorry about the long wait and my hand I cramped beyond ever repairing again after typing twelve pages (on Microsoft Word document) in like two hours... ouch... I feel pain...

Review please!

~Demenior
Sign up to rate and review this story