Young Writers Society

Lordy watched as the life drained from the boy's eyes.

"You..." Lordy began.

Tabitha smiled her unnervingly large smile as Lordy gripped his cane tighter. The entire room was silent.

He closed his eyes and clenched his jaw, "Now tell me dear. Why on the barren wasteland of a planet would you dO THAT?!"

Lordy swung his cane at the table next to him, splitting the top in half. He swiftly turned around and headed to the door. He didn't realize everything could go so horribly wrong so quickly.

---

Mercury ignored his question as they climbed on top of a railing to keep an eye on the hideout.

Vincent tried one more time, "Do you think the people just stay on the streets until they die?"

"You took away my plaything," was all Tabitha said, keeping her smile wide as they headed to the door.

---

"Obviously not. But you are starting to ask the right questions." He added under his breath, "which is better than asking no questions at all."

Just then, down the street their target burst out of an inn on the corner of the alley. A flying cat, something rare in these places, floating around them. It appeared they were arguing.

"Shh, shh. Look. Head down."

"You took away my ONE SOURCE of information, I do NOT want to hear anything from you right now." Lordy felt the rage bubbling in his head.

He stormed down the alley to the hideout as Tabitha and a few of his crewmates followed. He couldn't stand the way things were going, and a part of him was happy that soon everything would be changing.

---

"Hm, they don't seem like a happy crowd. I wonder what happened." Vincent scratched his head as he turned to Mercury, "Let's go ask them."

Tabitha scoffed. "I think you did that when you, oh I don't know, cut off his tongue?"

She smacked one of the guards with her tail.

---

"That is definitely not the way to go. How about--" Mercury squinted. "Wait a second..."

There... there were guards just escorting Lordshire. There's the cinch in their mission. He couldn't trust... any guard.

In a flash, Mercury fished out a poison-tipped dagger and tackled Vincent. He tugged Vincent's head up and held the dagger at his throat. "Did Lordshire hire you out?"

"What?"

"He has guards with him! Undercover guards. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't slit your throat right now." He pressed the blade against Vincent's flesh. "Try anything, and you're dead from poison or a cut artery."

"Tabitha, I will turn you in to CATNIP if you don't leave me alone. We will talk about this in the morning. Now I have a MUCH bigger problem on my hands because you." Lordy rubbed his temple as he spoke.

The walked into the hideout and Lordy made his way straight to the bar.

"Pour me a double on ice," He set his cane down on the bar table, "And bring my gun while we're at it."

---

Vincent smiled as he subtly pressed a dagger closer into Mercury's gut, "Did you lose some of your mind when you lost your eye, sir? I'm not quite sure if you recall but you're the one who dragged me away from killing Lordshire."

Mercury remained stone cold.

"If you wanted an excuse to get closer to me, you could've come up with something better than that," Vincent narrowed his eyebrows, "Now put your blade down before I show you why I only work for the inner circle."

Tabitha scoffed again. "Yooouuuu were planning on killing the boy anyway. I can't let you have all the fun."

To be fair, she was now having fun just pushing his buttons.

She pounced onto the bar and knocked over a half-empty liquor bottle. "Whoops."

---

"How do I know you weren't there to give him intelligence. You talk a lot of talk, but we are both seeing guards on Lordshire's side. Tell me that doesn't immediately make you suspect."

The bartender pulled a small revolver out from under the table and handed it to Lordy. He stuck it on his waist as he took a long sip of his drink.

"I said, go away. I will talk to you in the morning." He said monotonously without looking at Tabitha.

---

"You would have watched me kill him yourself if you had given me about five more minutes. Maybe that would have put your mind at ease?" Vincent was becoming frustrated.

"As a matter of fact, it's still not too late. You can sit right here and observe like you so very much wanted to as I bring back his head."

Tabitha, of course, did not go away.

"Tired of me, already, Lordy? Like it or not, you included me in your plans in the beginning, so you gotta include me on them now."

---

Mercury sighed and backed off. "No, I can't let you get to Lordshire until after you prove yourself. As much as I would like to believe your word, I can't. And Lordshire can't have an inner circle ally such as yourself." He rubbed his temple. "We need another in. We both work alone, but do you have any allies. Anyone who can be our... our in to whats going on the inside?"

Lordy sighed, "Believe it or not, I can include you in plans without speaking to you." He turned to face Tabitha, "Especially when you go behind my back and ruin my plans."

He finished his glass of sum and slammed it down on the table for no reason other than to relieve stress. He hoped Tabitha would take it as a sign to leave him alone.

---

Allies? He'd never really spoken to anyone outside of the inner circle before, at least not enough to become friendly with them.

"How about," Vincent put his dagger away, "You lead the way. Kinda hard to build trust when it's one side doing all the talking."

Tabitha growled. "So let me get this straight, Mr. Lordshire, you cut the tongue of your only witness then was planning on killing him anyway after you got no information from him because he couldn't speak, and then when I killed him for you, you get all saaaaad?"

Lordshire was no longer listening to her. Fiiine, if he wanted to go pout, then she would let him go pout. It was time Madam Kitshire connected with some old friends. She --invisibly-- stormed off.

---

Mercury was about to say something, but the hideout door opened again, and Lordshire, with his guards, stormed out. Mercury motioned Vincent to duck down again. While they watched Lordshire march through the alleyway, Mercury whispered, "you remembered me from the Academy --flattered, by the way-- so do you remember any others? Anyone we can contact?"

Lordy watched Tabitha leave before he decided to get up again.

"Alright everyone, we're going back to the barracks!" He pulled out his gun and cocked it, "This time, we won't be as friendly."

Him and a group of his partners stormed out of the door, weapons in hand, ready for the start of what was going to be a long ride.

---

Vincent had stopped listening to Mercury half way. He swiftly made his way off the roof before anyone could notice him and ducked behind a building so he wouldn't be seen. He watched as Lordy and his men carried guns and swords up the alley.

"Hm." He squinted as he tried to figure out where they were going.

When they reached the head of the alley, they continued marching straight. There was only one thing that could interest Lordy in that part of town.

The barracks.

Vincent cursed under his breath and began to follow Lordy and his goons on swift feet.

Madam Tabitha Marxil Kitshire had to find herself some followers. It reminded her of long ago. Long before Lordshire was born, even.

She found herself on the outskirts of the city.

She had to go back home.

---

Mercury didn't hear an answer. "Vincent? We can still talk--"

Vincent wasn't there.

Dammit.

Mercury wanted to trust Vincent so badly. Something was telling him that Vincent was different.

But Vincent had betrayed his trust once again.

He could not let him live.

Lordy reached the tent and saw his crewman still posing as a guard outside.

"Is it time, boss?" He asked.

"Yes my friend, it's time." Lordy said, walking past him once again.

A few guards were waiting for him inside, a few of whom were not his allies. One guard started to pull a gun towards Lordy, but was quickly shot by the guard standing next to him, another one of Lordy's infiltrators.

"Round them up boys! Leave no survivors and take all of their belongings! We need all the armor and weapons we can get!" Lordy shouted at them.

He watched as bodies dropped to the floor, as his men took the unsuspecting guards by surprise. He was also thankful that he didn't have to get his hands dirty for the second time that night. Everything seemed to be going smoothly until an unusually violent flap of the tent entrance caught Lordy by surprise.

---

Vincent moved as quickly as he could. The second he passes through the tent, he could feel the presence of two guards. In all honesty he did not care if they were real or not, he only had one target.

Using the hilt of his blade, he swiftly hit the back of the heads of the two guards, denting their helmets and dropping them straight to the ground. A few others turned in his direction but he was fast enough to have already be somewhere else by the time they looked. Soon enough, he found himself right behind the man he wanted, Lordshire.

In one smooth motion, he put his arm around Lordy's neck and held a blade to his temple, "I think you've done enough here."

Every one of his instincts told him to end it right there, but one single thought held him back, Mercury.

He debated with himself for a fraction of a second before he whispered in Lordy's ear, "You're coming with me."

Tabitha burst through the barn doors like an empress already. Strutting her stuff, she waded past the other cats who stared at her in shock.

Whispers floated around her ears, but she didn't care enough to listen to them. She was in full conquer mode.

An old, white and orange cat paced the back of the barn on a makeshift throne. He hissed at her entrance.

"Tabitha."

"Madam Tabitha, now."

"I don't care. You've been banished from this clan."

Tabitha purred and rubbed against him, sliding under his chin. She could feel his contempt. "Oh, Uncle, you know you can't keep a cat from entering somewhere."

He growled, deep and low. "When a kitten is out of place, it gets bitten."

Tabitha curled up behind him. "And when an angry old fool forgets his place," she unsheathed her claws, "he gets eliminated." She tackled the old cat.

---

Mercury double checked his assortment of weapons. Potions. Check. Dagger. Check. Poisons. Check.

He needed to figure out where they went. In his confusing of Vincent leaving, he didn't see where Lordshire went. This day just kept getting worse and worse.

Lordy pinched back a smile, "Oh no, it seems you've caught me."

"And you better understand that if anyone even so much as blinks the wrong way at me, you're dead." The voice behind him said.

"Oh no no, I understand, please have mercy on me." Lordy winked at his crew, "Everyone put your weapons down, let him take me. None of us have to get hurt today."

Everyone lowered their weapons and cleared a path towards the exit.

---

This was going surprisingly... well? Vincent didn't think it would be this easy.

"Now walk to the door, with me." Vincent whispered to Lordy.

Within a few moments, they reached the outside of the tent, but Vincent continued to hold Lordy close until he was sure there were no surprises. After they were a well enough distance away, he let Lordy go.

"Gah, that's quite a grip you've got th-"

Vincent knocked him at the back of the head and he dropped to the floor.

"Shut up." He muttered as he lifted Lordy up and put him on his shoulder, "Now where is Mercury. Still talking to himself?"