The Hades Throne

Chapter 8 - Connections

I arrive, breathless, in the doorway of the loft's bottom level, and immediately wished I hadn't hurried.

The scream was Marli's. The cause? A bloody mess spread across the warehouse floor, a lifeless hamster body in the middle. I breathe in sharply, my heart rate slowing down. It is the poor rodent I had noticed Marli carrying around earlier, not one of my friends, whose life has been dented.

Jacob and Toby break through the stairs, halting when they take in the scene. We are almost caught in time, stuck in glass that has been poured around us to preserve this moment. No one knows what to say, what to do. The situation is so unexpected, just a dot on the horizon of the predicted future.

Jacob is the first to smash it, walking with too much calm over to Marli. She is on her hands and knees, not seeming to allow any interest in her mind that her pants are soaking up blood faster than her hands can absorb the tears. He rests a gentle hand on her shoulder, a simple gesture that speaks in a language of its own.

He lifts the solemn hand, and strides over to the wall, where a note that escaped  my notice is taped. It reads.

To Whom It May Concern,

This is just a warning. A show of what we can and will do. Be warned.

Then we are frozen again.

"Oh Mr.Scampers. He was my only friend!" Marli cries in agony, now on all fours over the catastrophy. Toby pushes away from the stairs, and attempts to grab Marli away. She rips her arm away from him, but he just picks her up with his rippling muscles and throws her over his shoulder. Marli pounds her hands into Toby's back, but he just keeps walking up the stairs. I can hear them even when they are gone.

"We're your friends, too, Marli. We'll get you another hamster." Toby attempts to sooth her, but there is some more yelling and shuffling before we can hear them again.

"Put me down you great big Oompa-Loompa." She hollers another series of curses of equal effort, their sounds eventually vanishing.

Jacob turns to look at me, and my knowing eyes meet his.

"What do you think?"

I shuffle over beside him, and bring my hand to the top of my head. "I think that anyone who purposefully kills a hamster has too much time on their hands." He nods in agreement, but he is focused on the blood splatter.

He tugs at his earlobe, a gesture that is as endearing as it is miss-able. "It's a strange target, that's for sure. Who kills a hamster?"

"Well," I say, after a moment to graze over his question, "someone would only purposefully kill a pet to hurt their owner."

He lifts just one eyebrow. "You're saying that someone is targeting Marli."

"I guess so, but even implying it creates more problems. Why would anyone target her, and use a rodent to do it? It doesn't make sense."

"But then there's that note. They talk about 'we', and showing what they can do."

I hear the question in his sentence even though it isn't posed. He is trying to point out that perhaps this is less about making an impact, being a demonstration instead. The thought is scary, but I pride myself on having no delusions about the life path I have taken. Little is it trod, and little is it normal, so I have come to accept that the situations I will encounter will be likewise.

We fall into a friendly silence, and I can only presume, correctly, that we are mulling over our thoughts. I am just pondering how such a task would be accomplished when Jacob speaks and puts a chisel into my thoughts.