"You heard her. GET OUT!" Ares threw her back and she stumbled into the doorframe, cracking her head against it as she tumbled to the ground in the hallway. Dizzily, she looked up into the unforgiving faces of the gods, tears of pain and grief and fury and helplessness on her face as the door slammed, leaving her alone with the snarling, growling dog. Carefully, she got to her feet, backing away. It was hard to make her way down into the street. She wanted to avoid people, pulling up the hood on her jacket to try to hide her face.
By the time she reached the street, she felt a little less dizzy, a bit more able to walk straight and tall. But she slowed, seeing Ares’ car parked, waiting for him, and she glanced up at Melpomene’s building, and then back at the car.
It didn’t take much to find a brick, and it was so fucking unsatisfying watching the windscreen barely chip as she hurled it right into the centre. Wasn’t that just the fucking way? Rage flared in her, and she looked around again, for anything, anything, to vent it. An abandoned piece of steel pipe would do. She grabbed it and swung it at the car, and again, over and over, smashing off the wing mirror, cracking the windshield, scratching and denting the bonnet and the side panels. As she attacked her breath came hard through her teeth, and she climbed onto the bonnet to stab- stab- stab that pipe downward until she’d made a shattered hole in the reinforced glass.
Someone male and aggressive suddenly shouted out at her, and she looked up, coming back to herself enough to jump down and run without waiting to see who it was. She just sprinted away, and didn’t stop until she had covered a good two blocks, panting heavily, and she ducked into a clothes shop to buy a new jacket just in case she was being chased.
Except she stopped in the changing rooms, and she shouldn’t have, because it gave her space to think again, think of Kaden all alone. Kaden who was lost and scattered and had nobody in the world but her to mourn him. Surrendering to her emotions, she sobbed into her arms and the jacket, trying to muffle the sound, feeling completely lost and alone. Never again would she go near Ares, never again would she be proud of that part of herself. But at least she knew now, and her heart broke all over again. Oh Kaden... poor Kaden...
Back at the apartment, Ares turned to Melpomene in the sudden quiet. "She's had far too many chances," he said, and patted Nikkos' head. The dog relaxed a little, covering his teeth, pacing towards the bedroom and back with a low rumbling growl. Ares went to the kitchen to get himself a drink.