Caught Red Handed

Chapter Nine, Reconciliation

Tom's Perspective

He continued to cry uncontrollably for about eight minutes and counting before settling down and attempting to calm his sporadic breathing. He sounded like a damn asthmatic after having an asthma attack. I kept myself from snickering at my thought and held the recovering man. Once he had enough time to speak between harsh inhales, he did. "Do you really th-think so..?" He asked, referring to my assurance before. "Yeah.. Besides, Matt probably forgot again like an idiot." I joked and he laughed weakly. I smiled and looked up at him as he pulled his head away. "Pff- you totally messed up your hair Tord-." I snickered and began straightening the frayed mess. He smiled and watched me. I paused what I was doing and looked at the Norski. "Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked, suspicious of his smile per usual.

"Can you tell me that you care about me again?" He requested and I raised a brow. "I care about you Tord, even if you don't think so." I told him and he smiled warmly. "So, how will we be doing this?" He asked, referring to working out his wrecked friendships. I thought for a moment and shrugged. "Let me video call edd and I'll take it from there." "Pf- video call- just say FaceTime or something you oldie-." He snickered and I rolled my eyes playfully. "You're older than I am Tord." I reminded him and flicked his forehead. He chuckled and let go of me. "Well, I'll let you use one of our discreet laptops. Wouldn't want us getting tracked, now would we?" He said in a teasing manner and got out of his chair. I visibly flinched when his cold metal fingers interlocked with mine. He may not have noticed because of how happy he was right now, but I had.

I strongly considered pulling away my hand, but I have to stick with comforting him. And part of comfort is holding hands and hugging. Kill me now-. He walked through the halls with a smile, ignoring the strange looks he got from passerby's. "Excited huh?" I asked and grinned at the ridiculous sight. "I have almost never been this excited in my life." He admitted to me and I curiously looked at him. "Almost?" I questioned and he grinned. "One time my papa gave me a sniper gun for my birthday. That was the most exciting day of my life." He told me proudly. I'm guessing that was from Paul, not Pat. I could only guess though, because Paul doesn't seem intelligent enough to understand the consequences of giving the spawn of satan a sniper gun. "And I still have it! I killed soooo many people with that sniper gun!" He joyfully recalled. I cringed at the thought of watching him on a sneaky murder spree with a sniper gun. Chaos. "Y'know, that was the second gun I ever got. First long-range I ever got as well, so it's very special to me. That and my dad used to use it." He boasted and I rolled my eyes. I can only imagine what the first gun could be.

"Tell me about your childhood Tord." I prompted and he gazed down at me. "Oh it was full of blood and screaming and terror. I loved it." He said with a toothy grin. "Uhh.. Elaborate-." I said nervously and he shrugged. "I attacked a lot of the other kids, bit people, and acted like a little nuisance." He explained further and took his hand away from mine. "Didn't your parents discipline you?" I asked worriedly, though I doubted it. "Pf- try telling me no Tom." "... No-." "Why?" "Why not?" "I'm not stopping until you tell me why." "You don't need to know." "Well I guess it won't hurt to keep stabbing my classmates with pencils, huh?" "Wh- Tord- that's bad-." "Why?" "It hurts other people- and that's bad-." "Why is that bad?" "Because you're ruining little kids-." "Why is that my problem?" I huffed and gave up, putting my hands into the denim pockets. "And you can probably tell why beating me didn't work-." He said amused, snorting at the thought. "Uh.. Why not?" I asked curiously.

"Because I'm a demon. If they tried to hurt me, I'd just screech until their eardrums pop. That's why my papa homeschooled me. Teachers hated me." He told me and stopped at the entrance of a room labelled "covert communications". He opened the door for me and I walked in cautiously. I didn't trust anything in this place still, even after being here for two or more weeks. Tord turned on the announcement speaker and cleared his throat. "Peter Nilsen og Eir Olsen, vennligst kom til cc-rommet." He announced in his usual thick accent before letting go of the announcement button. "This way." He told me and walked off to a little setup that seemed really cozy and comfortable. It had a couch, a glass coffee table, and decorations like an ocean blue rug. I sat down and got comfortable on the leather white couch, enjoying getting to sit and relax. "Are you ready to see them?" I asked and looked at the caramel-haired devil. He nervously looked away and his leg bounced against the soft rug. I understand why he's nervous, I would be too.

We went on fun, random adventures and then he left us for years only to come back and attack us. Well, you know the story by now. I hesitantly reached over to his fidgeting leg and kept it still. "It'll be fine Tord." I assured him and took my hand away. Touchy touchy is not my thing, especially with someone who I hate for the most part. Once the two requested specialists arrived, Tord stood up to address them. They were in the usual saluting position, loyal to the bone. They didn't even glance at me, keeping their attention on Tord the entire time. He conversed with them in Norwegian for a while before sending them off to follow his orders. "You're really respected around here, huh?" I remarked as he sat down next to me. "It's not anything less than what I expect. No tomfoolery is allowed in an army base, not mine." He said simply and got comfortable on the white leather. "How do you keep them so obedient?" I asked, a bit concerned.

"It's very simple. Here, they don't need to be accepted by society. They have something to fight for and believe in, and that cause drives them to try their very hardest. They know that if I am in charge, society is making drastic changes. The scars that made them such societal rejects will be healed. They have hope, Tom. And they will die for it." He explained darkly. What it whittled down to was that they were like him. Social trash that needs a home. Probably orphans, lunatics, traumatized people, and people who just want to make a change to this world. And there are a lot of those people in this world. A shocking, terrifying amount of people. And they were all collecting here to overthrow the world they live in. "Wow." I uttered in amazement and terror. It's like society's worst nightmare. The people they've stepped on coming back to bite them in the ass. If I looked at his growing army this way, I don't find it evil. The broken fixing the broken world. It was a very life changing idea. An idea to consume another time.

"Are they done yet?" I asked impatiently, earning a laugh from the Norski. "Almost Tom, just give them a bit of time. It takes some preparation to set up so many anti-tracking systems and such." He reminded and and I blinked tiredly. "I just want to see my friends." I pouted. Tord went oddly quiet, his nerves probably setting in once more. Right, I forgot. "You're my friend too Tord. I don't forgive you, but you are my friend." I told him and waited for his reaction. He looked down at me and smiled warmly, his red pupils glowing with joy. "Thank you Tom." He said with emotion clear in his voice. He was really happy. "Yeah whatever, don't make a big deal about it." I muttered and crossed my arms. "Tom, you haven't scratched at that collar at all since I've put it on you. Do you still want me to take it off?" He asked curiously. Honestly, I'm not sure either. I've been wearing a collar hugging my neck for long enough that I had even adjusted my breathing to account for it.

"No. I want to keep it." I told him and slowly rubbed the black material on my neck. "Oh, alright." He responded simply. I don't understand it. I've been tortured for weeks and I constantly despised the collars, attempting to shred them at every opportunity. Now I kind of like the feeling. It's like a gentle hug on my neck that makes me feel secure. Ew, maybe I'm developing a fetish or kink or something. I cringed at the thought and pulled my hand away from the collar. Soon I get to call Edd and Matt and see them again. I'm so excited that I'm visibly bouncing. That got Tord to laugh and he held my shoulder to help me settle down. I stared at his relaxed hand and contemplated whether to be bitchy or not. I slowly pushed off his hand from my shoulder and continued bouncing happily. I was overjoyed to see Edd and Matt. "Her sir, vi har satt det opp for en samtale. vennligst gi oss beskjed hvis du trenger noe annet." The young blonde male with freckles said before setting a laptop onto the coffee table.

"Takk, det vil være alt kamerat." Tord dismissed the young adult before arranging a call on the computer. "trenger du å rydde opp, Tom?" He asked before laughing at himself. "Do you need to clean yourself up a bit Tom? Are you ready?" He asked and I shrugged. "I can't see myself, how would I know?" I reminded him, though it was pretty obvious. He blinked for a moment and just stared at me. He's slow today huh? "Ah- oh yeah-." He said and laughed at himself. "Here, hold still." He told me. I stayed still though I wanted to rebel any orders that he gave me. He turned my head towards himself and began fixing my very messy hair. I didn't comb it this morning at all. He sighed at the messy style and smoothed it out with his hands. "You still smell like watermelon." He commented and I cringed. "Don't smell me you creep-." I hissed before pushing him away. "Okay okay calm down-."