I'll explain all about the 'silver
dime' later on, I can't fit it in right now, actually, I planed it so you
get to know a bit more about Roger's personality.
As far as characters go, you should by
now have discovered that Abby's a bit timid, Victor is unsure about his
leadership and Mark is over possessive. This chapter shows a bit more about the
friendship between Mark and Victor, plus it has a 'peek' about the sort of
person Dominic is in the eyes of Victor, it doesn't mean he is that
way.
As far as Sixkiller herself goes;
she's my mysterious character who'll be mentioned later on. Keep in mind
that you'll get to know a bit more about the inner personalities of my
characters, for instance, you should have caught that despite his huge size
Roger is silent and a bit slow in response, what he is inside is a different
story.
I'm jumping the gun aren't I? Well, I do want to explain since a lot of things in my story are only implied –which is what's keeping it in suspense- but I don't want to totally loose you at the same time, fortunately chapter four isn't at all difficult, actually, it's…thrilling – I hope.
Chapter Four
Broad daylight, two boys walked silently side-by-side, they did not exchange glances or converse. One simply stared forward while the other casually scanned their surroundings.
They weren't dressed out of the ordinary, jeans and sweatshirts are the trademarks of the average teen-boy, so no parents regarded them suspiciously. Even though they should have.
The two boys -both Americans- had dark hair and pale complexions, one of the boys had green eyes while the other had brown eyes. They were almost the same height, but the green-eyed boy seemed larger.
Green eyes was the one staring ahead, dark eyes seemed aggravated. After walking for three blocks the dark eyed boy spoke, "Mark, I'm not really convinced."
"Victor, you said we'd give it a last try." Mark snapped, obviously he was not in a good mood.
"You know I said that to keep you from running to the-" Victor paused, looked around and lowered his voice, "you do know what I'm talking about right?"
"No. I have no idea." Mark's infamous temper was starting to flare. His green eyes were freckled with brown specks.
"Okay, okay." Victor said angrily, "I get it, have it your way then. But I am telling you it's never going to happen this way, ever again."
"Whatever you say Victor, you're the boss."
"Why am I thinking you're just saying that for the sake of saying it? These days I don't feel like I'm the leader, no one's listening to a thing I say. And for another fact, no body's listening to whatever the others are saying, all of a sudden half of you seem to sprout a mind of your own." Victor shook his head in disgust. "I worry Mark. I don't know what tomorrow's going to bring, heck man, I don't know what today's going to bring either."
"We know what today's going to bring." Mark said impatiently, "Look, this is the house isn't it?"
Victor sighed, "Yes it's the house."
"He's home?"
"I wouldn't be wasting our time by coming when he's not home."
Mark turned to Victor, "Hey, genius, if he's in there, and we're out here, then how do we go in without him seeing us?"
Victor rolled his eyes, "Sorry, when I said he's here I meant he's going to be here. I sent Dominic to spy out the house yesterday night, turns out his room is the one at the end of the hall."
"Dominic?" Mark remarked slyly, "He's your classic peeping Tom. He loves jobs like these, huh? House at night?"
Victor rubbed his eyes, "There's no treat in this mission, Tom only has a little brother, and if Dominic is interested in him, then I think I'll throw up."
Mark did not comment, he simply snorted in trying to keep laughter from escaping his mouth.
"Or maybe resign," Victor mumbled, "I'm loosing my touch as leader of the gang."
"Whatever." Mark said his uneasiness growing "lets go in."
Victor marched to the front door like he owned the place. He pushed open the gate and walked right up to the door.
"Should we at least knock?" Mark grinned slightly.
Victor would have let loose a sigh of exasperation, only he was too pleased to see his old friend remerge. He returned the smile, his hand reached for the doorknob.
"Wait." Mark hissed suddenly, "What about the kid brother?"
"What about him?"
"Like wouldn't he be around?"
"No," Victor shook his head and gave Mark an are-you-stupid-or-what-look, "He'd be in school."
"And Tom wouldn't? I thought he went to college."
"He's taking a day off for the sharing. Can you believe this guy?"
"We better go in before the neighbors get suspicious," Mark said quietly, "remember, not a sound inside."
Luckily, the door was unlocked. After quickly checking the house the boys located Tom's room and found a surprise waiting in there for them.
"Whoa!" Mark mumbled, a dog was sitting on the bed chewing on a rubber duck. Surprisingly, he greeted the boys with a friendly bark.
"I'll take him outside." Victor said, "You wait here."
As Mark waited he barely took note of the room he was standing in, he leaned against a wall and counted the seconds go by.
"Okay, Mark," Victor said coming in the room and leaving the door ajar –just like it was before they came in- "I'll take the bathroom and you stand behind the door. Grab him only after he closes the door behind him. Don't, I repeat, don't, give him time to shout out."
"I think I've been through all this before." Mark snapped at Victor's patronizing reminders.
"Just checking man." Victor shook his head and went into the bathroom.
Mark did not wonder towards the window to see when his victim would arrive, fortunately, Victor was doing that; he had a great view from the small bathroom window. He tapped the door to warn Mark.
Mark heard two voices coming towards him, apparently, it sounded like an argument between two brothers. Mark did not pay any attention to the words but listened closely to the tense voices.
On the other side of the door Mark was standing behind; Tom laid a hand on the doorknob, but he did not enter the room, he was too busy trying to make a point to his little brother Jake.
"Don't be such a big jerk, you could hang with Marco anytime you want, the chances I'm giving you don't come by so easily."
"Hey Tom, why don't you get it past that thick head of yours that I'm just not interested."
"I've got influence Jake, you know that, I could give you any position you want."
"I'm not joining the sharing for you. I'm sorry, but I don't dig the 'be part of something bigger'. I don't want to be a part. I want to stay a whole."
"Whatever man, can't say I didn't try. Your loss."
Tom pushed the door partly in and then paused, he shouted, "Hey, Jake, where'd you put the phone? Are you keeping it in your room again?"
There came a muffled reply and Tom started to walk away from the door. Mark closed his eyes like he had a headache. "Come on." He mouthed, silently urging his victim to come closer. Mark opened his eyes and again he urged silently, "Come on!"
"Here it is," Mark heard a kid's voice say from the hallway, "Remind dad to get the cordless fixed, it's a pain having to carry all this around."
"You tell him." Tom muttered as he pushed open his door and started to punch the numbers in, "It isn't my problem."
Tom pushed the door closed as he got in, and immediately walked towards the window. Before Tom could finish dialing he discovered a very large , very sharp serrated blade pressed against his throat. The grip on his body was unyielding. A cold voice hissed in his ear a three word command; "Don't even breath."
Tom's entire body froze; the phone dropped and hit the bed right side up. Tom was a fit boy even though he didn't work out often, but he could toss a good fight if needed. Judging by the hands that grabbed him, it would not be a good idea to ignore the command, especially since another boy entered the room. Tom was outnumbered and worst still, caught off guard. He hadn't the slightest idea who the two masked boys were.
For Victor and Mark, the black ski masks were necessary, secrecy in this war is the key to survival, and even though their victim and only witness would soon be dead, there was no need to blow their cover.
"What do you want," Tom said quietly, he stared at the two dark eyes that regarded him coldly.
Victor took a menacing step forward, he had no weapon right then in his hand, but he looked threateningly enough. "You don't know why we're here?"
Tom cast a panicked glance at the door, as if expecting some savor from the sky to come down and save him.
The two boys knew that no such thing existed. For them Tom was already finished, but before he official became a 'dead man', Mark had requested that they force talk in him, see what the enemy had to offer.
"Is she with you?"
Tom glanced around nervously, but he said nothing.
"You're a dead Yeerk," Mark said tightening his hold, "Your choices are limited, you could tell us what we want and you die painlessly, you rat us around and we make sure you die slowly."
"Either way I'm dead right?" Tom challenged.
BIRRRRRRING! BIRRRRRRING!
Mark jumped, he sliced Tom's throat accidentally. He settled down and gripped him firmly. The cut was not terribly deep, but it was drawing a considerable amount of blood, some of it dripping on the light gray carpet.
Victor stared at Mark; somehow his brain had frozen and was unable to react fast.
BIRRRRRRING! BIRRRRRRING!
Tom tensed up.
BIRRRRRRING! BIRRRRRRING!
"TOM! Are you gonna get that or what?!"
"Let the machine get it." Victor snapped at no one in particular. Mark nodded.
BIRRRRRRING! BIRRRR-
At the eighth ring the machine took the call in, in the room, Mark, Victor and Tom were greeted with the voice of a high school girl. "Hi Jake, I know I'm calling soon but with the school letting us out early I thought we'd get together and plan something for this weekend. Anyway, get Marco with you; Rachel will be there as well. Bye!"
"Tom." The voice was outside the door, "Hey Tom, who was on the phone? I was expecting a call. Was that Cassie?"
No answer.
Mark and Victor were faced with the worst situation possible. But then Victor gave Mark the signal. Mark leaned forward and whispered in Tom's ears, "Get rid of him, don't run Yeerk, we'll hunt you down."
Very slowly, Mark loosened his grip, Tom walked towards the door and opened it a fraction, "What?"
"I said, I was expecting a call, was that Cassie?" The voice sounded annoyed.
"Yeah."
"Then give me the phone."
"Use the cordless."
"Don't you listen to anything I say? The cordless isn't working."
"You can't have the phone."
"Oh yeah? Why?"
At this point Mark and Victor tensed up, none of them liked what was happening, and none of them liked how long the conversation was taking.
"I'm using it." Tom sounded provoked.
"You were using it ten minutes ago."
"I'm still using it." He snapped back.
"Tough luck, I want it."
With that Jake shoved his older brother in the room, Tom could have resisted if he was truly Tom, but he wasn't and his Yeerk was waiting for such a moment.
As Jake came in, Tom grabbed him and flung him at Mark who was hovering behind him, Jake screamed in pain as he and Mark tumbled to the ground.
Tom fled the room with Victor hot on his heels.
"What the…?" Jake managed to gasp painfully as he stared down at the knife that protruded out of his side.
Mark too was equally shocked, but he didn't have a knife sticking out of his side, he wrapped his arms around him and tried to pin him down, unfortunately Jake was a bit more ready than that, he managed to squirm free but Mark brought him down and they fell to the ground in a tangle with Jake atop of Mark.
Jake who was sitting on Mark's stomach, ripped off his mask and managed to get a good look at his face. Mark jerked up knocking Jake off him, he grabbed Jake's head and slammed it at the ground; Jake's eyes rolled backwards and he blacked out.
"Damn, damn, damn," Mark mumbled as he jumped off Jake staring at the blood that was starting to drench the carpet..
He quickly ran to the phone and picked up the receiver with his blood stained glove, he dialed in a number, he tapped his foot impatiently looking down at Jake, "Yeah, its Mark. Abby, get the others and secure an escape route, we have a problem."
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Oh my, oh my, what did I do? *gasps* I left you hanging,
yet again with a cliffhanger! Did they catch Tom and kill him? What message did
they leave? What happened to Jake? Did Mark finish off his error, wiping his
sorry mistake off? Sorry Jake, but you just had to yank that mask off, right?
Well, your problem, you decreased your chances of survival; don't come
complaining to me if you end up dead.
Please review, the more voices I hear the faster I get to finish the fic, it's not that I wouldn't finish it, it's more like I need the motivation. You could e-mail me if you want; phoenix_sol@hotmail.com.
