In the middle of it all

July 18 '52

Arriving in front of a tall black gate, Kelvin honks. The gate slides open and both Kelvin's and Denzel's car, behind us, pass by. They park the car and we get off. We're surrounded by tall black gates and on each side there are men and women, some with tattoos, some without, either chatting, playing cards or reading. Kelvin and Tanisha nod as they walk by. Denzel was walking behind me but I'm sure he was doing the same. "I'll go find him." says Denzel, carrying Tyrell as we enter a house.

"Where are we ?" I ask, looking at Kelvin.

"This is the place where me and my people gather a lot." answers Kelvin.

"The crib ?" asks Keshawn.

"The kid's smart." says a voice behind me. I turn around startled and see two people behind me. One of those people is a girl. She looks around the age of 17, has long curly brown hair and is around 1,70m (5'7ft). Next to her is a boy. He looks older than me, he also has curly brown hair and looks about 1,50m (4'11ft). The girl smiles at me.

"Who are you ?" asks Keshawn.

Before the girl even gets the opportunity to answer, Denzel walks back into the room. He has this particular expression on his face as he nods to Kelvin.

"Let's go." he says.

We follow him as he guides us to the other side of the house. We walk through a dark hallway but I quickly see the light that's shining behind a door.

Denzel opens that door and a few meters in front of us are five people standing on a large step. A woman and a man on the left. A man and a woman on the right. In the middle stands a tall tanned man, holding a cigarette in his left hand. All five of them looked like the real deal. Especially the man on the right of the guy holding the cigarette, that man looked scary. If looks could kill, trust me when I say I'd be dead. More adults were surrounding the area, quietly analyzing us. Or maybe just Keshawn and me. In one corner I noticed 3 kids playing but out of those three I could only recognize Tyrell.

"What's going on ?" Keshawn asked.

"Patience. He's coming." answered Denzel. After a few minutes, the guy with the cigarettes starts to smile widely. "There he is !" he exclaims.

"Stand tall !" shouts the scary looking man next to him with a hoarse voice. In that same moment, everyone stopped talking and stood straight looking serious. Steps were heard behind me. "Respect." he adds, shouting in a hoarse voice. Denzel inclined my back down right after I caught a glimpse of the man that was marching by us and simutationly I realized everyone around me was bowing. Even Tyrell and the two kids next to him. The aura of that man was great. It was almost as grand as all five adults in front of us combined. Almost. Him alone was around 50% of their five auras combined yet something about them felt familiar. It's like I had already seen them somewhere... Keshawn had to tap my back or else I would've continued bowing.

"So these are the new recruits, huh ? Do they have names ?" asks the grand man in a gravelly voice. He was tall, taller than the guy with cigarettes. Around 1,90m (6'3ft). He was also muscular.

"Belladonna and Keshawn, sir." answers Denzel.

I look at Keshawn, his eyes are sparkling. He looks back at me. "Those are the people we saw yesterday. Remember ?" he whispers.

"Belladonna and Keshawn, huh ? You two come here." We walk up to the man and the closer we get to him the more we have to lift our head to see his face. It was a scary view. "Y'all wanna join the crew, huh ?" he asks.

I see Shawn nodding so I nod as well. A large smile is seen on the man's face. He glances at the five people behind him before continuing. "Welcome then. I'm Ace. This is my right arm, Cash." He backs up and places his hand on the scary looking man's shoulder. He has shoulder length black hair, is 1,83m (6 ft ), has droopy eyes and he's dressed in all black.

"Sky..." he proceeds while referring to the woman next to Cash. She was black and pretty short compared to the others, being only 1,55m (5'1 ft) but she looked pretty intimidating. She also had very short hair and multiple ear piercings.

"Blu..." That was the name of the tall guy with a cigarette. He was 1,81m (5'11 ft), tanned and had tattoos on both of his arms. He had a watch on one of his wrists and a silver bracelet on the other.

"Sup'." he said.

"Ray..." adds Ace referring to the woman next to Blu. She was 1,60m (5'3 ft) and tanned. Her hair was waist-length, wavy and brown.

"Wave.." That was the man aside from Ray. He had short black hair, with an undercut, average dark brown eyes, big ears and thick eyebrows. He was about 1,77m (5'10 ft) tall and was wearing a large silver chain on his neck. Both him and Ray were looking at us with piercing eyes.

"The two people behind you are JJ and Red..." The girl from earlier was JJ and the boy was named Red. Ace shifts his eyes to the three kids in the corner and signals them to come over. Tyrell and the little girl place themselves on Ace's right and the other little boy places himself on his left.

"And finally Tyrell, Baby Izzy and Nate." Tyrell and Nate looked about the same age but Izzy looked a bit older.

"How old are you ?" asked Izzy looking at Shawn and I. "10 and you ?" answered Keshawn.

"I'm 8. What about your sister ?"

I look down. It was my time to speak yet nothing came out of my mouth. "She's not my sister." defended Keshawn.

"Is she mute ? I'm learning sign language, maybe we can talk." said a small high-pitched voice. I look up and see Nate looking at me with sparkling eyes. I felt even more embarrassed.

"She's not mute, Nate. She's just shy.." said Tanisha in an appealing voice.

"I'm also ten..." I finally answered.

"Draco, let's talk." Says Ace walking back inside the house. Denzel follows him. We stayed there until the sun was beginning to set. We had finally met the crew.