What was next..... was a lot of texting.

Except if you were the prisoner in the room of course, in which case you got to do a whole lot of nothing.

Guess who pulled the short straw?

Once I was no longer a dripping ball of misery, Apollo dumped me in his modified dollhouse prison.

That's right, upgraded to the presidential suite. Nothing but the most luxurious of cages for Maddison Trampth.

Once again, Apollo took up his seat in front of me, pulled out his phone and proceeded to ignore me.

Cause people whose phones weren't recently destroyed don't need conversation to entertain themselves...

That's fine. I'm an intelligent young woman, just as capable as keeping herself occupied as the next...

Who am I kidding? I'm too adorable to be alone! I need attention to suuuurvive...!

No. You can do this Maddison. Just stop talking to yourself and focus on something else!

With quiet desperation, I studied the room around me.

Like last night when I had finally entered my own apartment, it almost felt weird to be surrounded by furniture my size.

The place was pretty dusty in some of the smaller nooks and crannies like it had been cleaned by someone too big to do the finer details.

I walked around the room for a bit, investigating.

The place had a pretty simple design, almost generic, but was full of personal items that made me think this place had once been lived in...

A bookshelf full of classics, non-fiction stuff and... Comics, which would have been awesome discovery... If they were in English...

Knitting needles in the nightstand...

There were even clothes... But I left those alone after a close encounter with the underwear drawer.

All of this lead to one conclusion.

.... All the stuff in this house were way nicer than my stuff...

Which made sense... I guess... I don't really have any hobbies besides annoying people and begging for food...And all I ever do with my spare time is play with Monica and clean up after her evil fleabag cat...

I threw myself on the bed, face buried in despair.

Maddison Trampth.

Seventeen years of age.

Does not have a life.

Apollo was oblivious to my turmoil, still texting rapidly on his phone.

I turned my head to watch him, letting the covers beneath me soak up all evidence of my tears.

From the satisfied smirk that kept crossing his face, I could tell that, in the oven that was his brain, Apollo was baking the muffins of evil.

Full of the chocolate chips of cunning and waiting to be covered in the icing of deception...

"Apoooollllooo..." I whined, sitting up cross-legged. "Was freezing me to death not enough for you? Are you trying to starve me too........Apollo...?"

"Don't you have any of the Shrink Program's energy bars on you?" He finally muttered, not looking up from his typing.

Since getting food wasn't exactly easy when you're five inches tall, the Shrink program provided us with emergency energy bars we could carry around with us.

They tasted like sawdust and strawberries.

I hate strawberries.

"No." I groaned, propping my chin on my hand. "Vain looks after them for me. Even if I did have one, it would be soaked now because of you."

... Which might have actually improved the flavour, who knows?

Apollo glanced up from his texting, giving me an irritated glare.

"Do you seriously need to bring that back up in every single sentence?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Are you going to let me out of this stupid house?"

"No."

"Then, yes..." I fell back to lie on the bed, staring up at the white ceiling. "...I do need to bring up the fact that you tried to drown me in freezing water up in every single sentence."

Obviously.

"I wasn't trying to drown you," Apollo said sullenly.

I didn't say anything. Resentful silence speaks for itself.

With an irritated sigh of defeat, Apollo returned to his texting. "I don't have any food, so just deal with it."

"Whatever. " I glowered, promising myself that Apollo would rue the day he dared to come between me and food. "Just note that starvation is going on the long list of things I intend to do to you once I have my revenge..."

I let his disinterested sound of acknowledgment slide too hungry to demand he take me seriously.....Which was probably a sign that I was on the verge of death...

Welp. For lack of something better to do, I might as well annoy-

Gather Intel.

No time for childish things. This was my chance to discover Apollo's secrets.

Like a ninja.

Lazily, I rolled off the bed, and commando crawled my way across the carpet towards the glass wall.

Resting my chin on lace fingers, I lay staring at Apollo through the window.

"Soooo...." I called conversationally, studying his face carefully. "...who was it?"

Apollo didn't even spare me a glance.

"Come on, tell me. It has to be someone close to you." I pulled my most charming smile. "Who lived here before?"

He went utterly rigid, and I knew that I had hit the mark.

Better yet, I had hit a nerve.

Apollo slowly looked up, his face utterly expressionless.

"What makes you think I know?"

"You didn't want me to break anything." I half shrugged. "Plus, this place has been pretty well preserved... It's pretty obvious it holds some sentimental value to you dude."

He blinked at me, letting the information sink in, then just he shook his head, smiling to himself.

"Ha. Even though I was expecting it, it's still creepy to hear something non-stupid come out of your mouth. "

I frowned.

"Expecting it?"

"The Jack's infamous ability."

I raised an eyebrow, looking at him in confusion. "Ability? Like what, X-men?"

"No." Apollo calmly placed his phone on the table, giving me his full attention.

"Even among the scholarship student, the members of the Hill are special."

I raised an eyebrow.

Well, Special is one word for it.

"... I know we're strong, but come on, we're not Power Rangers..."

Apollo didn't smile.

"The Joker is impervious to Pain. The previous Jack has an incredible talent at misdirection." He listed off bluntly. "In his first year here, the King not only took over the Hill but the student council as well. No one outside of the Hill even knows who the Ace is."

He grimaced.

"And you're friend Alexander can get particularly nasty when he loses his temper.

I shivered.

... What an understatement.

"People don't just get on the Hill on a whim Maddison. Even you. "

"Ah... " I sat up, raising a protesting hand. "While I'll admit, I am exceptionally talented at kicking Ass..."

"Shut up." Apollo scoffed derisively. "You're a kinesthetic genius Trampth, but that's not what I'm talking about."

The word genius echoed around in my empty head.

"Huh?"

Apollo sat back in his seat with a sigh, meeting my eyes seriously. "Your real talent lies elsewhere, and it is one of the reasons I chose you as my hostage."

"....And here I thought it was because you were falling for my charming good looks..." I said, not really buying Apollo's story.

I would sooner believe pigs could fly.

Apollo's phone beeped, prompting him to pick the sleek technology back up.

He continued to speak, even as he started to text once more.

"When we attacked the Joker, you called out to warn him before we made our move. Why?"

I thought back to that time, how I had realised that they were using Vain and I as bait.

"Because it was a trap...."

"And before, when I had you in the jar, why didn't you just call Vain for help?"

"Because it was a trap."

"And just now, you deduced that I knew the previous owner of this apartment... "

"That one was just obvious!" I threw my arms up in frustration.

His gaze flickered up to me. "And if you were to take a guess, who would you say owned this apartment."

My arms fell.

"Well..." I sent a glance back at the room.

Just judging from the sort of underwear I saw earlier...

"A brother?"

Apollo paused in his texting, glaring at me almost accusingly.

"And it hasn't occurred to you that you see through things too easily?"

"Um... " I scratched the back of my head.

He leant forward as if proximity would get the information to penetrate my thick skull.

"Haven't you noticed that just from noticing small things, you can sometimes see the truth behind them?"

I sat back, remembering the King mentioning something like that.

"Deduction," I said, and Apollo nodded.

"Deduction, observation, perception, even perhaps instinct. It could be described as any of these." He stood up from his chair, looking down at me from his towering height.

"It is widespread knowledge among schemers at this school. Maddison Trampth is capable of making great leaps in logic." He shrugged " More than one plot has been thwarted because you picked up on things too quickly.

I blanched.

"Bullshit."

"It's not." He rolled his eyes like he couldn't believe he had to convince me that yes... You are a Wizard, Harry.

"Two months ago, a student snuck a taser to school. You disarmed them before they could even speak to."

"That guy came up to me with his hand in his pocket! That's just dodgy as- Hey! You were spying on me!"

"Students gossip Maddison. The point is, your observant." His arms crossed.

"Particularly under moments of great stress. This is your ability and is why you are the natural enemy of someone like me, who uses plots and traps to win. That is why I had to get you out of the way as soon as possible."

My teeth clenched in frustration.

... Never thought I would have to say this...

"And you're sure that I didn't just notice all these things because I don't know, I actually have a brain...."

"When did the dinosaurs go extinct?"

"Um, A really long time ago?"

"What is a compass used for?"

"The word is "crumpet", and it is a breakfast food."

"....What is one plus one?"

"...That last one was just a pity question, wasn't it?"

"Just answer."

"....window?"

Apollo closed his eyes in the way you do when you are silently counting down in your head.

To stop yourself from screaming and banging your head against the wall.

Finally, he lent down, giving me a gentle smile. "So now that we have disproved the misconception that you were born with a brain, tell me, Maddison, what can you deduce from this smile on my face."

Apollo smirked, in a way that just screamed success.

I looked down at his phone in his hand, the only link we had to the outside world.

"They are coming to save me," I said flatly, feeling my stomach drop in despair. "And they are walking into a trap."