Private Games

Chapter 119

LIGHTNING INSCRIBES THE sky and thunder booms like close cannon fire as I bellow at the crazed crowd trying to escape the stadium, ‘For these reasons and a thousand others, the modern Games must end. Surely you understand!’

But instead of screams of terror, or even calls of agreement, I’m hearing something I did not expect in return. The monsters are booing me. They’re catcalling, and casting filthy slurs on my genius, my superiority.

These are the final indignities of a martyr for a just cause – stabbing, hurtful. But nothing like a roadside bomb, or even a rock, nothing that can stop me from seeing my fate fulfilled.

Still, this rejection is enough to raise a wave of hatred in me like no other, a tsunami of loathing for all the monsters in the stadium before me.

Looking up into the thundering dark sky that is now spitting lightning and hurling rain, I cry, ‘For you, Gods of Olympus. I do this all for you!’