When Arthur looks up at me from the body of his friend, his eyes meet mine immediately, and I can see him visibly flinch. He hurriedly moves his gaze away from my eyes, a show of respect saying that he sees me as his superior.
"Head up." I say very clearly, but not loud.
His head snaps to attention. He still does not look me in my eyes, and just keeps his eyes forward not really looking at anything in particular.
"Arthur…" I practically whisper, and doing that has the desired effect.
He shivers, and his body starts trembling. His eyes grow slightly wider from shock and my intimidating presence doesn't allow him to respond verbally. All he does is nod his head once, to let me know I guessed his name correctly. I smirk under my mask because I have not had the freedom to do this in a while due to graduation and other circumstances. I was brought here by force, but that does not mean I can't have some fun.
I see a key ring that was hung on his belt, and it is pretty obvious that he would be in possession of the key to the room that he was guarding. It just amazes me that it is just sitting there in plain sight. Now while I can easily swipe the key off of him, let's see how far this "guard" is willing to go for his employer. Mafia family is tight and people are willing to die for each other when in the same family… but I hope he is not that strong. Yes I am technically in the same family as him but that doesn't say much for me. I have never seen him before and he is from one of those soldier teams that make up the guards/armies of a Mafia family. Since I have never really paid any commission on my stealing, scamming and muggings, technically I could be thrown out of the 'Rocket Family'. A family takes the name of the strongest team, and a clan takes on the strongest family's name, and so on.
I use my eyes to motion down to his waist and his eyes skip downward to see what I am hinting at. He looks confused for a second, but my original guess seems to be correct about him being bright… Or at least he got an average Mafia schooling. Once he catches on to what I want all he does is shake his head. Honestly, he looks a little like a kid while doing so, but it seems he answered in this way more because he can not force himself to speak quite yet. Possibly due to shock of what happened to his friend, maybe because he is scared of the situation he is now in, etc.
I raise my left eyebrow at him in the form of a question asking, 'And why exactly not?' Immediately, he shook his head again, stammering,
"Th-that's not what I m-meant…" He clears his throat and continues in a bit more stable tone.
"What I meant earlier, by shaking my h-head was that I don't have the key to this room. Jim- ah, #906, had the key on him, but I am unsure where he k-kept it." Now this, surprised me. Giving the key to the dumb one? I typically would have thought that to be the case, but since Butch obviously has weird tendencies here in his team base, I thought he might decide to give it to the smart one since he knew how to survive longer. Even if you give the key to the dumb one, the whole point of giving it to him is that he won't understand that the certain key people are asking for is that specific one. This whole theory is pointless if you tell the smart one that the key is on the dumb one, he will have enough common sense to trade the key for his life. So yea, I'll admit I was a little shocked at who had the key, but I didn't let it show on my face. Then again, it's not like I mind. It just makes it easier for me to find it.
I look over at the body of Jimmy and notice that he has a chain around his neck. I slip past Arthur, just grazing his shoulder with mine, and I can feel him shiver and his muscles relax at the same time. Behind him now, I crouch down and peer at Jimmy's neck. With one finger of my gloved hand, I hook the chain and pull it out so that the necklace is now resting on the outside of his uniform. On the chain is a key and from the looks of it, it is the same kind of key needed to get into the room he was guarding "with his life".
I quickly unlatch the chain and take it off of the body, pocketing it in a pocket I added to the inside of my sleeve. That pocket comes in handy whenever I need to take something. The only downfall is that I have to sew the pocket into every one of my shirts myself… I stand up and turn back to see that Arthur has not turned around and is facing forward like his is still guarding the room. Huh, I would have thought he'd have run the second I left him unsupervised. He should have too, because that option would have let him live a few minutes longer.
I take a dagger from a holder on my thigh and just make a shallow cut on the back of his neck with the blade. He immediately tenses and falls to the ground. My dagger is coated in a higher concentration of Curare, enough to kill a grown man instantly if the cut is deep enough. I only made a shallow cut though because I want him to hear something that should have been told to him long ago.
"Betrayal almost always comes in sets of two… You betrayed Team Claw in return for your life, and I betrayed you, by killing you, because of your earlier betrayal. Your earlier betrayal tells me you are untrustworthy when someone threatens your life, and I can't have loose ends, now can I?" I whisper in a deep tone as I crouch beside him. Despite me only whispering the words, I can tell they reach him clearly as his eyes widen slightly before rolling back in his head. Arthur, #905, is dead.
I stare at the body. I wait for a moment, trying to see if it will hit me. It doesn't. The guilt of taking another's life continues to completely evade me. Looking from one to the other, I notice now that Jimmy and Arthur look a lot alike. I may have to do some research on that... After I fulfill my curiosity, get out of this place, and locate Rei.
Turning to the door, I slid the key into the lock and hear the satisfying click and clank of the old gears turning in this what must be ancient door. Despite its old look and noisy gears in the lock, it opens soundlessly. I walk in carefully, making sure that there are no alarms or traps meant for unwanted visitors like me.
The door opens to a much smaller and more narrow hallway. This hallway only seems to have four doors leading off of it. I open the first one and enter. I appear in a bedroom. There is a beautiful queen sized bed with a frame of cherry wood. Carvings can be seen all along the bedframe. Flowers, birds, ivy, and rabbits are carved into the foot of the bed. While the headboard is full of clouds, dragons, and the tops of trees, with an eagle even perched in one.
A vanity mirror and sitting area is next to the bed on one side while a nightstand stands guard on the other. An open door frame, leading to a closet next to the vanity. Across from the bed is a sitting area with a coffee table in the center of two couches and a chair. I see an unfinished needlework project of some kind laying on one of the couches. It looks like it was just thrown down and abandoned, the strings are all knotted and the needle loose.
What stands out most of all in this room is the layers of dust coating everything. Cobwebs fill the corners and moths seem to have gotten to the drapes. This room seems to have gotten lost in time. So, why were there two guards watching over it so closely?
Heading out of the room and back into the hallway, I notice something when a light wind blows through the room that I am leaving. Bars. There are bars in the windows of the bedroom. They look as old as the door. As though the bed and comfort was placed here as an afterthought. A way of covering up the true reason that this place was built. To keep something in. Or more likely… someone.
Moving to the next room, it is a bathroom and nothing more at first glance. Then you see the incomplete paint job, that is trying to cover a stain on the wall, probably blood, at second glance. Next are the cracks in the darkened mirror, at third.
Wondering who lived here and actually being interested in something for the first time in a while, I walk across the hall from the bathroom to find the door opposite is locked. Deciding to check the last door first, I find it unlocked. I walk through into a cement room with a glass roof. Looking up I can see the sky and the sun glaring down angrily at me.
The room is filled to the brim with plants that died long ago. The whole floor and almost every surface, including the walls are covered in plants and ivy that lived their prime moments in the years past. The only clear surface is a narrow and slightly overgrown pathway to a bench swing in the center of the room. Even the bench has old ivy entwined around its backboard and the chains suspending it in air.
This room looks just like the others. Dead and forgotten.
Sorry I have not updated in a while!
Here is a quick chapter, and I plan on writing more this week!
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