Young Writers Society

~*~

The wooden surface gave into the knife far easier than I’d thought, or maybe it was that I was being too forceful with it. But either way, the sharpened blade slid into the center of the wooden tabletop without as much as a resisting creak. I pried the blade from the wooden walls that encased it and slammed down on the table again, causing it to shake with a dull thunk, but no resistance.

“Hunter, calm down,” Grey said, flicking a chess piece in my direction. “Cutting up the table isn’t going to help time move faster.” As her arm moved, her brown hair readjusted itself on her shoulders and down the length of her back. She was relaxed as ever.

“I don’t understand why we attack at night,” I muttered, slashing another deep gash in the length of the table. “We have the power to make ourselves invisible. Our arrival is always a surprise because even if people are expecting us, we can just make them forget that. That’s how you use the influence right?” As I moved back to the starting point, the wooden fibers weaved together and ejected the blade of the knife out. I cast a withering look at Grey.

She didn’t flinch or even respond to my gaze as she set down the pawn between her fingers next to the growing pile of chess pieces beside her mask. Then, in another movement, she picked up a bishop and knocked over one of Blaine’s knights. “Check,” she said with a smug smile.

Blaine knotted his eyebrows and concentrated hard on the board. Grey turned back to me and looked through me with her crystal blue eyes. “It’s not about being seen; it’s about variety. Our last six attacks were daytime, havoc wreaking raids. Sir wanted to take a more tactful approach.”

“But we’re still raiding homes, killing people and instilling fear,” I hissed. “What’s tactful about that?”

“It’s about the message, Hunter,” she replied calmly, holding her smile tight on her lips. “Isn’t that right, Blaine?”

The other admin didn’t look up. Instead, his shaky hand reached for a pawn and moved it forward one more square, before looking up to signal it was Grey’s turn. Blaine was always more tense than Grey, especially around me, since he always kept his mask tightly on and guarded his thoughts carefully. Or maybe that was because he didn’t want Grey cheating again.

She chuckled and moved her knight closer to the pawn. Each of her moves appeared spontaneous, and it appeared she hardly needed any time to think ahead.

I stuck the knife in the table again and watched the pieces shudder. “Well, why do we have to sit back at home base when we were on the site just last night?”

“It’s not like it took you much effort to go between the two,” Blaine mumbled under his breath, still mulling over his ever limited options.

“There are several reasons, Hunter,” she began, her sweet voice taking on a tone of mock. “First is the fact that you were ordered. You’re a captain, Hunter, and you still do what I tell you to. Second is that it was in Sir’s plan, and going against that is treasonous and under heard of. Don’t be the first. And third is that… it’s just fun to watch you irritated. Just shows that you’re growing up so fast.”

As my scowl deepened, she let out a loud chuckle that bellowed from her stomach. It was a blend of cruelness and real elation, topped off with a confident smirk as she turned back to her game. Blaine put his finger on the pawn again, scanning the board carefully for any tricks or traps that Grey undoubtable laid. As he thought, he added to her points, “Besides, you’re privileged enough to walk with the admins, and admins don’t do grunt work.”

At that, he pushed the knight aside with the pawn and snatched up the piece.

I hated the use of “grunt work” for the fun parts of the raids. It was the attacks, the shrill screams that filled my ears that made it all worthwhile. As well as the occasional recruitment, whenever my previous husk graduated to grunt.

Grey let out a triumphant noise and pushed a rook into the unguarded queen. “Checkmate!”

There was a moment of pause. “That wasn’t there,” Blaine began, examining the board harder. “That was definitely in the spot over.”

“Please, Blaine,” Grey said, picking up his king from the board. “You were extra clear about the no influence rule this time, remember?”

“I’m positive that wasn’t there.”

“I’m not a cheater.”

As the discussion of the game’s validity began, I decided that was my cue to leave. If I didn’t, then I’d be dragged into another ‘exercise’ or ‘test’ to show that Grey couldn’t possibly have rigged the game again. She was too powerful for her own good.

Besides, the game was over and it wasn’t that interesting to begin with. I wanted to fight, to spar, to get my muscles moving and push the energy boiling inside me into something useful. If I was lucky, I might find Raine down in the empty fields, since the important grunts were marching to the field, scheduled to arrive right as the night fell, and the rest were in forceful sleep until the raid was finished.

I left my mask on the table beside Grey’s, snatched up my knife, and ducked out the room before either of them noticed. Her giggling was the last thing that followed me into the empty corridors once again.

The rest of the walk was a restless silence as my fingers twitched against the handle of my knife. Raine still owed me a spar anyway, since the last one was abruptly interrupted by her own husk trying to take their life. I had hoped I had been there to witness it, but Grey had another task for me that day. Maybe her long awaited rematch would finally occur.

Editing Notes

Most of the lights in the massive hall were dimmed, with just two fields lit up. The area was just as empty as it was dark, though I sensed one figure moving in a lit field in the hall’s center. Undoubtedly, it was Raine.

I approached quietly, muffling the echoes my shoes made on the polished steel floors. Her influence was dampened as she self-imposed a terse concentration on the movements of her weapon. Lucky for me, I didn’t have to do it myself. It was fascinating to watch her practice with such an old, outdated weapon: a long sword just over four feet in length. For her size, it was almost too long.

But she still tried to maneuver it with control and concentrated hard of focusing where she wanted to blade to go, and correcting it whenever it swerved too far left or right. She’d lunge forward, slashing down to the ground and crying out with a loud grunt. Then, she’d quickly recover her balance and turn around without moving her feet. The momentum of the blade was often too much for her to stop.

Over the course of the next ten minutes, I just watched from the shadows and she danced with her blade, heaving and grunting and calling out to an enemy that only she could see. She was proficient at best as she moved around the small, circular fields – one of the smaller ones our grand training hall had to offer.

As she walked away from me again, about to twirl around on her heels, I stepped just out of the shadows and began a slow saunter towards her.

She turned around, sword held out, and in just seconds we were facing each other, unique masks glinting in the spotlight.

If she was startled, she hid it well since she simply lowered the blade down to brush into the loose gravel in the field. Her voice is cool, wispy as she flows around my mind. How long were you watching? The purple flames eating the cheeks of her mask glint and glimmer as she cocks her head to the side.

Long enough to be glad to know we don’t use long swords in actual combat anymore. There was a slight mock in my tone as I poked fun at her, but her eyes under her mask narrowed at me. Maybe she was a bit offended.

I pull off my mask again and toss it into the sand. Despite being a largely public area, there was no one but admins a few other captains around to see me without it. And even those wouldn’t be out in the field training just for the heck of it. That was something that was left mainly to Raine and me.

After a moment’s pause, she gave and followed my lead, letting the sword fall from her hand and dissipate into the air right before it would have fallen onto the ground.

“You grew tired of chess?” she asked.

“Even if I were playing,” I agreed. I flexed my fingers against the leather containing my knife. The thought was in the air, shared by our equal ability to sense the thoughts of the other, but neither of us issued the challenge.

Instead, I danced around the topic with another snide comment. “If you’re going old school, I’d figured you’d at least use a musket. Your aim has always needed improvement.”

She stuck her tongue through her teeth and replied with a smile. “Why do I need aim when I have the ability to just correct the bullet’s path?” Both us of knew the answer to that.

Another fractured pause flittered between us as we watched the other. She caved first.

“Night is still hours away,” she began, her words trailing off as she turned her head towards the enormous, empty room, “and we’re already in the right place.”

“I’ve always wanted to spar in the dark,” I said with an added chuckle. Not that the dark would hinder either one of us.

“Well, there’s two to choose from: the ring or the long field.” She directed her finger to the far end of the room, where three lights illuminated a much longer, less compact field, intended for more than just a sparring match.

“This will do,” I declared, walking towards the center line splitting the circle into two sections. “It gives you less room to run in.”

She sauntered after me. “If I recall, you were the one running last time. You barely landed a hit.”

“And you landed none,” I countered, spinning back around to face her. “Combat isn’t all about striking, you know.”

“Then prove it,” she challenged.

“What are the grounds?”

She pulled a short, curved, metal dagger from its sheath on her hip and presented it to me. “One weapon of choice, with no ability to swap out and a length that either matches or is shorter than this. Street rules with the winning conditions being either a forfeit or a possibly fatal wound. That includes cuts along arteries that may bleed out, but no severe injuries to vital organs or the spinal cord. Those were the terms last time.”

The blade was different from her previous knife, which used to be fashioned similar to my short throwing knives. She enjoyed getting up close and personal, but now she opted for a bit more range for tactics. It proved to her disadvantage last time to have to get so close for a strike.

“Agreed,” I said, finally flipping the buckle off my own sheath and listening to the metal scraping against the leather as I exposed my beloved knife. Its hilt gave to my fingers as I positioned it in my hand.

“The same one?” she asked, eyeing me with suspicious. “Are you sure? I have a brand new weapon.”

“I have no need to change.”

She shrugged and then walked to the edge of the circle opposite I was facing. I took steps backwards to line up with her. There were the moments of tense silence as both of us stood, waiting, equally prepared and ready to settle who could actually wield a short blade better.

Editing Notes

I knew she would move first. Her fingers were too twitchy, her grip uneven across the hilt as she stared me down, hoping that I might to attack first so she could meet me half way. But I didn’t, which left her only option to leap across the ring towards me.

Because of her influence, she seemed to disappear and reappear on the center line in the time it took me to blink, but she didn’t account for the fact that I could always sense her moving, and I could always sense her pushing against reality. By the time she’d made it over to me, I’d step just an inch away from where her blade would have landed and parried her follow up blow with a lazy extension of my knife.

Our first time, this was much easier, since at that point my influence was far more developed than hers, and the illusions were easier to contort in her head. But as my abilities leveled off and she quickly approached, so it was more difficult to breach her mind this time.

As she moved towards me, her movements half a blur to my naked eye, I could feel her concentrating on keeping me out of her head. Her focus consisted on holding my energy constant in her mind’s eye so that I could shift and shape her reality falsely. It didn’t make dodging her any more difficult, but it simply gave me less of an advantage.

The curve of her dagger allowed her to easily move out of the parry and jab forward again, which I met with two steps back.

My heels danced against the edge of the ring, tiptoeing on the red line painted in the sand. I quickly sidestepped, trying to move around Raine, but she met me with another blow, which I barely blocked. She anticipated my movements, keeping me unbalance against the edge with the penalty of a default loss.

I would admit, it was a wonderful strategy. Though annoying to be cornered and in a less than optimal situation to attack. Attacking was the only way out though.

We continued to match blades and hobble along the edge of the circle, falling into a monotonous rhythm. I could feel her frustration building, since she never got any closer to landing a blow on me or knocking me off the edge.

Finally, I turned and moved my body against her, jabbing my elbow into her side and sweeping my blade out to extend her hands away from her body. She took a tumble, momentarily unbalanced before she was able to recover and attempt to jab her dagger into my side. I spun off her jab and managed to regain some ground towards the center of the ring.

She let out a slight curse and quickly advanced towards me again, determined to keep her unrelenting barrage of blows going against me. But it was now my turn to land a hit or two.

I made a wide slash, almost nicking a piece of skin off her knuckle and driving her one, almost two, steps backwards. She tried to retaliate by jabbing underneath my stomach, but with my blade flat, I pushed against the curve of her dagger. We parried a few attacks of the other and battled for control of a few steps between us. Her mind continued to hold the vision of me tight in her mind. It was unrelenting.

Then, I stepped around her, moving large steps with quick motions made of pure skill. Her focus tightened and she let out two more slashes, hoping to land some against my exposed shoulders. But she didn’t account for the extra strength I pushed into a blow, using influence to guide the knife forward and knock her blade aside. She was probably more than startled.

While her feet didn’t stumble, her blade placement and balance was suddenly extremely off, since I continued to hit with more strength and movement and advancing ever closer to her chest. Finally, she dodged out of the way and let me take five steps extra into the space she used to be.

I turned fast, barely meeting a fast, hard strike down against my back, meant to be another finishing blow but ended up skidding down and landing against my wrist. So she drew first blood.

I recuperated quickly and landed a quite savage cut against her left arm. Sadly, it wasn’t the arm she was using for the attack, but it might throw off her balance some.

Our move grew fiercer and sloppier as blood soon began to drip into our handles and mess with the intense grips we had on the blades. Perhaps this was something that I was more experienced with, since she seemed to be struggling to keep the blade in the same spot to properly slash, jab, and advance. All I needed was for her to take another shot at the defense to fully disarm her.

The rule went that one cannot summon another weapon once disarmed and normally, the fight would be over. But knowing Raine, she would dive for the weapon in an attempt to redeem herself. If we ever got to that point.

We continued to dance around, barely landing nicks and shallow slashes that drizzled out tiny streams of blood. I finally landed something against her right arm. It was a deeper laceration that she could have healed without a second thought, but her fear of slipping and let me in forced her to bite down and fight through the pain.

Those tiny moments eventually lead to her downfall, since I finally managed to get her hand in a position that her grip on her dagger was weakest and as she tried to parry an oncoming blow, I switched it up on her and forced it up and out of her hands. My reaction to the event was faster as I quickly imbedded my knife in her stomach and grabbed her wrist to keep her in front of me.

She screamed out, fighting her arm from my grip and moving her hands down to her bleeding abdomen. My lips twisted into a crooked smile as she crumbled, trying to nurse her bleeding stomach and pull out the knife that was buried down to its hilt.

She looked up at me with a mix of hurt, anguish and anger before she said, “I guess you won. Again.”

Editing Notes

The last few days had felt like weeks dragging by with new issues rising at every turn. With the sudden resurgence of small scale Splinter attacks across the country, there had been a lot of pressure on the DAI to do something about it. But, as Ms. Reich had feared, the death of those six agents, especially in the city of one of our largest operations only further drove the fear in the hearts of the public. I’d never been one to wear the field agent uniform, but I’d recently felt more compelled to hide my face in public.

I couldn’t help but feel that their deaths were my fault, even if there wasn’t anything I could do about the fact that a captain – or worse an admin – was in the city. But the devices that were on them should have helped them in some way, shouldn’t they? I’d designed them to combat influence, but not to protect the individuals against large chunks of shrapnel from impaling them being controlled by that same magic. No matter how many times I tried to explain that to people, and how sure I was in that before, the questioning and scrutiny just made me keep doubting myself.

At least William seemed to be on my side this time.

The walk from my apartment was another stress filled, dreary journey by myself. Eric had been called in early, probably to get ready for one of those heightened patrols Forber ordered around the city. With Ms. Reich in town for another two days, he was even more tightly wound than normal. It just made me worried for Eric and Amelia, Shay, and Shawn too.

The HQ building wasn’t too large and flashy, and probably most citizens wouldn’t know this building dwarfed by those surrounding was the home base for their protectors. Which was a good thing, since it probably deterred Splinter for a bit longer, even if their influence made discovery inevitable.

I strode into the building, flashing a badge at the security guard sitting at the desk. Not that he needed it to know it was me. Then, I practically fled towards the stairs to walk up twelve flights to the top floor. That way I would be alone for another five minutes.

Once I reached the top, I slipped into my office just a few doors down, where I quickly closed to door behind me and set my bag down on top of the shelf.

“Trinity, you have to start using the elevator.”

I spun around to see William sitting in my chair, legs propped up against my desk between the two computer monitors. “Why are you here?”

“More importantly, why are you here?”

My arms cross against my chest. “This is my office?”

“Ah yes,” William said with a smirk, mocking looking around. “So it seems. But you have a day off today, so I didn’t expect you to be coming today.”

“Then why are you sitting in my office?”

He chuckled. “That is a very good question. I guess I was just making sure you got the memo.” With that, he pried himself out of the chair and walked over to me. “Oh, and if you were wondering, Eric and the rest of the group were finished up a few minutes ago. The rest of their day is looking pretty empty as well.” With that, he pulled the door open and brushed past me before vanishing down the hall further into the research unit.

I’d never understand William, that I was sure.

At that, I picked up my largely empty bag and turned back to the stairs from which I came. Normally Eric and the rest of the team met together just a few floors below me, so I half sprinted down the stairs to their floor. I felt giddy, excited to finally have time with the team again, since the deaths of those agents had both of us all wrapped up in tasks and precautions.

Once I got the floor, I stepped out of the stairwell and strut down the hall to the office spaces closest to the door. A cloud of laughter drifted towards me from one of the doors propped open. Then suddenly, I could hear Amelia’s cheery voice piercing the air as she trailed off into another fit of her giddy laughter.

I crossed the final space and then poked my head in. Shawn was sitting at Eric’s desk, leaning back against the wall. His eyes lit up when they saw me and he said, “There she is!”

Shay, who was sitting on top of the desk, hopped off and turned around, a smile reaching her face as she said, “She actually did come.” Amelia was the first one to get up, jumping out of her seat and moving across the room in a flash. Before I could blink, she wrapped her arms around me and let out a shrill shriek in my ear.

After a tight hug, she let go and said, “It’s been so long.” Eric was the only one still silent as he sat in one of his chairs propped up on a wall to my left. A sad smile hung on his lips.

“Well hello to you all,” I finally said, forcing my way past the overly happy Amelia. “Were you waiting for me?”

Shawn, still settled deep into the chair nodded his head, “Why else would be lounging in your boyfriend’s office? We were waiting for some action?” Eric moved her head away, further avoiding eye contact as his cheeks turned a deeper shade of pink. I noticed that today he was still wearing a long sleeve shirt underneath his uniform. Lately he hadn’t been without one, which was such an odd thing for Eric, the man who overheated far too easily.

But I forced on a smile anyway and replied, “Sorry guys, but you’re going to have to find another venue.” The others laughed and looked between the two of us. I set down my bag on the floor and leaned up against the tiny table by the door.

Editing Notes

The rest of the room laughed. The fact that Eric and I were dating was a carefully scrutinized secret, constantly questioned by the fact that he scarcely showed emotion in public and I was far too awkward to ever pry him. Thus, the facts felt like rumors teenagers would spread in the depths of social media. No one had any proof for or against it.

After a moment of silence passed, I adjusted my position and asked, “You seem to be back pretty early.”

Eric finally spoke up, not looking at me. “It was an easy sweep. Just a few old buildings close to the western half of town. Most of them touched the ocean and were abandoned before any kind of storm had a chance to tear them down.”

Did this count as proof against us?

The account felt cold and much less jubilant than I’d imagine, considering it was a simplistic task that allowed the entire team to go unscathed for another day. Unlike other groups that were running into several class three groups. Not all of the agents made it back and if we weren’t in an essential state of emergency, there would be a lot of funeral preparations going on. Not that there wouldn’t be later.

“Yeah,” Shawn added, spinning his chair a bit more to face me. “Like Eric said, it was a bunch of dust bunnies and a few rusted out old pistols that were taken apart like in the sixties.”

“It sounds exciting,” I said with as much boredom as I could muster, trying to push back a smirk on my face. “Did you at least bring back a souvenir?”

Ame laughed with excessive enthusiasm and turned back to him, “We really should have. We could have found one of those pawn shops like in those shows you watch! What if we found something ancient?”

“They weren’t ancient,” Shay mumbled, rolling her eyes as she looked back at Eric. He was rubbing the long sleeve of his arm and fidgeting with a rogue thread at the end of his right sleeve. He seemed visibly uncomfortable and refused to meet my gaze, even though I’d been staring at him for longer than thirty seconds.

I just gave up after that, looking back at the lively side of the room. “So then Forber just decided that was it and let you rest?”

Though it seemed the room was rotating speakers and next it was Eric’s turn. He took on a matter of fact tone and actually looked up at me as he said, “He thinks something is going down and he’s rather have some spare hands available if he needs some extra back-up. Hence why we’re not home.”

“Oh phooey,” Amelia said as she walked over to him. “You love us and enjoy hanging around with us, no matter how obnoxious you claim we are. We’re the team of your dreams.” Eric cracked a smile at this. I wasn’t sure how to feel about it: more relaxed or a bit upset.

I chose the latter. “Guess he had to choose from the bottom of the list then.”

“Definitely,” Shawn agreed. “He’ll probably drag you down with us and get rid of five birds with one stone.”

“Nah you guys,” Shay said with a laugh as she took a pen and began to twirl it between her fingers. “I think if Forber wanted rid of us, he’d just fire us and be done with it. The other way of dying is pretty bad publicity. Just ask Vanessa.”

I flinched at the mention of her name. “Don’t get me started on Vanessa,” I bitterly spat. “She’s been breathing down my neck the past few days questioning every decision I have had the jurisdiction to make. She’s made William confirm just about anything I’ve said to the point that she didn’t believe I could even have a break for tea. The woman is insufferable.”

“If you ask me, she’s just jealous,” Shawn teased. “She probably wants a taste of tall, dark, and handsome over here but he’s too faithfully attached to his boo standing by the table over there.”

“Vanessa hasn’t talked to me,” Eric replied, scarcely seeming to listen to any of the conversation going on around him. I figured I’d ask what was wrong tonight, but he seemed a lot more absent minded and away than he usually was. I never knew how worried to be with him with how independent he always was. If I got too touchy feely, he’d often close up even more, a problem I’d never been able to figure out.

The room felt a lot colder and emptier, as if everyone else had gone just as still as I had. His direct blow to the fun, joyous atmosphere felt like it had finally killed it and none of us knew where to go next. Obviously, Amelia was more uncomfortable, since she moved back and forth two or three paces between where Eric and I situated.

I couldn’t be sure if she tension was between us or if something else had happened I didn’t know about, but I felt unsure whether asking was the right way to go. Shay glared hardcore at Eric and Shawn looked up at me with sympathetic eyes. Something had to have happened.

“Well,” I began, testing the waters of the uncomfortable silence, “at least we know she’s leaving in the next two days and all of this will be over, right?”

Again, there was silence. No one else spoke. But Amelia decided she wanted to be by the door and quickly crossed the space. When she did, she gently pressed it the rest of the way closed and held her tiny frame against it. Not that it would stop anyone significant if they wanted in.

I spoke again. “What’s going on?”

“We saw more than old antiques,” Shay muttered. “I was just waiting to see how long it’d take to get to that.” I wasn’t sure how to react to this.

Editing Notes

The silence continued for a while longer while all eyes fell on Eric. He was the leader of the group; of course he would have to explain it. But when he didn’t even look past his hands in his lap, tension began to fester in the space. Why was this still happening? Why was everyone acting so weird? Eric especially.

Usually when the five of us were together, silence was a fleeting memory that scarcely dared to peek its head between us. We were always laughing, talking over each other until every single one of us was yelling for one reason or another. We were the obnoxious group that demanded all eyes fall on us with hardly any regard for anyone else around. We just fit together, just felt at ease together, so that we never bothered to hold back.

I knew everything about Amelia because she never stopped talking, and so we all knew about how she lived her life traveling between various apartments, various roommates before she was recruited into the ranks of the DAI. We knew about her never ending trust and the sticky situations that led her in and we knew about the compiling list of people who had abused it. We knew about her family consisted of a half present mother and an older sister that carried her through her life. We at this moment, she was uncharacteristically silent.

I knew a lot of thing about Shay and Shawn too and how their super close friendship almost crashed because of a careless attempt at something more. Something they both later admit neither of them was ready for and neither of them would ever try again. I wasn’t around for that time, since they were both at a different base altogether, but a part of me wishes I was able to contribute to the wild tales they have of when they were a couple. It fits them nicely though.

I also knew a lot about Eric, considering we were supposed to be the one serious couple in this group, but this moment makes me doubt what I knew. I knew he was generally closed off to people from the moment I laid eyes on him, but I only knew why after prying his lips open with my own. It took lots of wear and tear to get him to talk about his childhood and what he called before, when he still had a family. I knew he cared about people by the way he threw himself into the leader position every time they stepped out of this building as a team, but to know why would be like knowing the creation of Eric as a being. It was magical and wonderful and heartwarming that he trusted me with the secrets of him.

But right now I couldn’t even get him to look at him.

I knew everything about the group and its missions and what happened when I couldn’t get away from the desk because I was on the verge of a real breakthrough. But I also knew every painstaking detail of the times I was with them, when my senses were heightened and adrenaline etched the memories into the back of my eyelids.

I knew everything about this group and they couldn’t tell me what I didn’t know.

“What else did you find?” I asked into the void, trying to wrestle an answer from the mute and plead to the deaf to speak.

More silence followed, and at that moment, the only thing I could think to do to grab their attention again was to storm out of the room. But I planted my feet and stood my ground and slammed my hand of the table. “What the hell is wrong with you guys right now? What’s going on?”

Finally, Eric snapped his head up, gripping his left arm with his right hand and looked at me with big, scared hazel eyes. “Besides the taken apart guns, we found some skeletons.”

“Skeletons?”

“Old skeletons,” Shawn added. “Like from the sixties.”

“And this is what you couldn’t tell me?” I felt anger flaring inside of me, rising up as bitterness started to pit and clump together. What. the. hell.

Shawn looked at Shay, who glared at Eric, who still didn’t make eye contact with me but gazed into the room as Amelia looked around just as lost as I was. “Not to mention there were some fresh bodies. Not our guys, but guys from Splinter. Like disposed.” It was still Eric who spoke this.

“No way,” I breathed before I could think of what to say. Members of Splinter just found dead in a building?

“They looked like they’d been killed last night too,” Shay added, not even bothering to pull up her bored façade. “It was the creepiest stuff. Their masks just fell off their faces when we touched them and their lifeless eyes just stared up at the ceiling as if looking for something. It still gives me chills.”

“You told Forber, right?” I asked.

Eric nodded. “Some other agents went out to inspect, as well as some researchers, but he’s trying to keep it low. He doesn’t want press or too many other agents to think about it.”

“But can’t we consider this good new?” I ask. “That the members of Splinter might be held in contempt and the organization is coming apart?”

His head snapped towards me and there was a fierce look that burned across his face, etched into his eyes as he said, “No that’s not the case. The people part of that are far too gone to be able to try and create mutiny. It’s something else much more sinister. I’m afraid that all of this is a setup, a trap to get some more agents down before something much, much bigger starts to happen.”

The next question I wanted to ask was how Eric knew about all that, but then my thoughts wandered further. “What were the masks?”

“Simple class ones,” Amelia finally chimed in. So she did have a clue afterall.

Editing Notes

I shook my head. None of it made sense. We’d been on a decline of Splinter activity, especially in the larger cities, since extra precautions were started around the borders. That was almost two years ago and it was a magnificent leap forward on the part of the DAI. Maybe they were finally starting to crumble. But this one week had come back to hit us in the face and it still felt like the mastermind behind Splinter was still laughing in our face.

First the six agents in the alley way, which served as a good scare for the entire country and really set our city straight. Safety precautions were revved up, much to the agitation to the citizens of the city. I could hear their wild complaints again form Forber’s press conference.

If the last safety measures were ineffective than how will they help any this time?

Forber just held a smile on his face and gave a calm, well thought out response. We saw just how effective it was once attacks over the past two years had significantly decreased with no instances within the past six months. An increase and a rejuvenation should essentially eliminate the issue in our city.

Everyone knew it wouldn’t be that simple, but the fact that we had a plan gave some reassurance to the public. But now, after many more encounters with groups of class ones and a few class twos, the issue only seemed to be getting worse. Now with this, was this a step in the right direction? Obviously the death of any Splinter goons was good but this was so ominous, and not conducted by anyone in the DAI. Forber would know about it then.

“So what does this mean for us?” I finally asked. Everyone had been staring at me in the silence, waiting for more of my response. They could tell I was shocked as they were, but I might have been handling it better. There were lots of confused exchanges of looks.

Eric finally began to speak again. “Gauging how Forber reacted to the news, it might mean that he’s nervous about something else happening. If they’re starting to purge their own members, especially in the streets of the city housing DAI’s largest headquarters, not to mention with little activity elsewhere, I would be nervous too.”

“Do you think it’ll go as far as a raid?” I asked.

“Knowing Splinter, yes,” he said with a solemn tone. “And that also might mean they’re after Forber or Vanessa. Or maybe both.”

Shay pursed her lips and let out a condescending huff. “We can’t just start jumping to conclusions. We went over this already and Splinter doesn’t always target someone on their raids. It’s just a fear tactic.”

Eric shot her a withering glance, but she scarcely noticed. He picked up after her by saying, “But if they wanted fear tactics, they wouldn’t go after the city with the HQ that happens to have both founders of the DAI. They haven’t had a demonstration in years, meaning if there was any time to do now again, now would be the time. You have to think of their patterns.”

“Eric’s right,” I muttered under my breath, only half wanting the rest of the room to hear me. “And usually before demonstrations they have some lead up events. In the past, some of them have been give-mes to the DAI with pathetic groups together to gives back some confidence and hit harder during the raids. That’s even more common before a demonstration to let agents put down their guard when someone important is around. Remember Benedict?”

Of course they remembered Benedict.

Just a year or two after the first massive raid on a city, Splinter attacked the capital of our nation, storming the home of the president and dragging him and his family out onto their grand white stairs. It was the first time the Leader had revealed himself to the world, yet still hidden behind his illusion and his mask. But he’d stood there and talked to the world, helpless and speechless as they watched him behead one of the most important men in the world. The rest of his family was brutally murdered in much quicker fashions. Splinter then dispersed, having left their mark in the hearts of everyone who witnessed it.

The rumor was that it took almost two and a half years to get the blood stains from the stairs and some of the blood that had splattered on the magnificent columns near the execution area had yet to be scrubbed clean. Maybe that was a reminder to all of us of what we were fighting against and who we were fighting for.

Splinter was a group of monsters that had only grown exponentially since their rise almost two decades ago. They were heartless terrorists that only had the goal to secure their rise to power, starting with the legalization of their main weapon, magic.

“Well should we tell Forber?” Shawn asked.

“Do you think he already knows?” Shay countered.

Eric nodded. “Forber’s a smart man. He knows the patterns and he was an entire team of researchers on the task now, trying to determine what it was that had happened with those grunts.”

“But he should know every piece of information from every source,” Amelia added meekly.

“Is he still in the building?” I look around the room and the each shake their heads no. That was probably smart of him. “Well I can call him then…” I start to take out of my phone and replace my earpiece when a loud screeching sound blares through the halls.

It’s something I haven’t heard since training but instinct kicks in immediately. Taking one final glace at my friends jumping from their chairs in the room, I dash into the hall and watch the red sirens flare to life, illuminating escape passages. The closest one was to my right, the stairwell from which I came.

“What’s going on?” I could hear Shay screaming over the alarm.

“Looks like we were right,” Eric said, so quietly he was almost drowned out by the noise.

Editing Notes

So I'm going to link for an imgur album of the pictures for Chapter 6.1. Tenyo if you want a better format or want me to change it up somehow let me know ~ But it's late and I'm tired xD

Chapter 6.1

This is an imgur album of Chapter 6.2 written out since I don't have the time or resources to type it all out. Yay xD

Chapter 6.2