Smoking Power

Chapter 31

Declan, Clark and I sit close together, doing nothing but staring at Gareth while he sits on the other end of the large couch doing nothing but staring at us. To say that it's an unpleasantly awkward experience, would be an understatement.

The minutes tick down and still, none of us say anything. When I realise that no one will be saying anything for awhile, I let my eyes wonder around the room. It's fairly large with a massive oak table covering most of the space. Around the edges of the room there's long, black leather couches. To the far corner there's a small liquor cabinet that looks to be refrigerated. Apart from that, the room is empty of any junk or any other furniture.

My eyes then look for the security in the room. There's a couple of poorly hidden security cameras hooked up in the corners near the roof but there isn't any obvious weapons in the room. Subtly I check for any lumps of a gun or sword on Gareth or in the couch near him, but there's nothing. Still, I know that there probably is some, somewhere in here, I just can't see them. Finally, standing at the doorway there's a straight-postured-emotionless-faced guard. He's dressed like a average citizen, but anyone could tell what his purpose is.

The guards dark brown eyes that were staring at the wall directly in front of him, quickly shift over to mine since I'm still staring at him. He gives me a quick smile, which I'm pretty sure is meant to be comforting but instead only unnerves and puts me on guard more. It's fake and proves the point that everything nice about this place is fake. We're literally stuck inside a ticking time bomb that's about to explode with them attacking us.

I nervously shift in my seat. There's only one door out and I'm willing to bet that through the wall behind us is nothing but solid rock. Makes sense that they'd take us to a room at the edge of the facility so we're trapped in by all sides.

Heavy footsteps across the pavement followed by a loud thumping on the door, also known as very enthusiastic knocking, brings all of us from our thoughts which I'm sure are all very different. All our eyes are trained on the man as he steps into the room, briskly walks around the table, and stops in front of all of us.

"Averill, news on the missing Amber? I do hope she's not injured." Gareth respectfully says to Averill. I feel like scoffing at his words, he's worried about Amber being injured while we're all sitting here covered in cuts, rubble and a fair amount of blood.

Averill gives Gareth a quick shake of his head. I bite down on my lower lip, maybe it's only getting to me because I seriously hate Averill, Marco and everyone else in this foul place, but it's really starting to annoy me how everything is posh, fancy and perfect in this place. "No sir, but there has been a-" Averill seems unsure for a second as his gaze flicks to the three of us for the first time since he stepped in here. He continues when Gareth gives him a clear nod to continue, "There's been a sighting."

"A sighting?" Gareth says slowly, like he's unsure if he heard right. "Far off? Or close?"

"Not to far off but getting closer." Averill answers while my eyes quickly look between Gareth and Averill. Are they talking about a sighting of Amber? Or something else?

Gareth sighs and runs his hand across his face. He looks frustrated and annoyed. "Well can you sort it out? Or are you to incompetent to handle a task such as this!?" I blink in surprise when I hear Gareth snap at Averill. Gareth may not know it, but he just proved that he knows all about the hogmers. Calling Averill, a hogmer, dumb and not able to handle whatever the situation is, kind of points to the direction of Gareth not liking the thoughtless hogmers.

I watch Averills reaction closely as he gulps loudly and puffs out his chest slightly. Is he trying to make himself look more dangerous and confident than he actually is? I know that Gareths his creator and everything, but to cause a reaction like this means that Averills definitely scared of him. What sort of punishments does Gareth dish out when we aren't around?

"Yes sir, of course, sir. I'll handle it right away, sir. Sorry to interrupt you sir." I half expect Averill to give Gareth a salute on his way out after his flustered response, instead he quickly straightens his jacket, turns around and speed walks out of the room.

"What's a sighting? Who'd you spot? Why'd they need to get 'handled'? What's going on?" Declan rushes out a bunch of questions as soon as the door closes with a soft click. His eyebrows are drawn down in confusion and surprisingly, he doesn't seem that scared.

Gareth shifts in his chair slightly so he's now facing us more, and gives Declan a gentle smile. I can tell that Declans questions have made him uncomfortable though by the tapping of his foot and the light dots of sweat that has formed on his forehead. "A sighting is well," He clears his throat loudly, "A sighting is when we spot an approaching enemy coming our way. Averill is going to see what they want and send them on their way, away from here."

Somehow I think by send them on their way, he means that they'll either kill them, capture them and then kill them or interrogate them and then, well, kill them. Either way it's not going to go down very well for the 'enemies'. Deep down I'm curious as to who it is. Who would willingly come over here and how many of them it is. Knowing Gareth though, he's probably not going to tell me even if I ask him.

We then all slip into another awkward silence which seems to last forever. Again. This time though our silence is interrupted by only slightly quieter knocking on the door. The guard opens it to reveal a sad looking Marco. I can feel my face getting pulled into a confused one when Marco steps into the room with his face down. He walks slowly around the table until he stops in front of all of us in the same spot that Averill had been standing in, only minutes before.

"I-I'm so so terribly sorry," Marco begins while shaking his head sadly. I have no doubt that whatever he's about to say to us, he isn't sorry about. But my confusion levels still rise as he says this. What's happened? Where's Amber? Is this about her? "We found two bodies buried amongst the rubble. Some amateur had tripped over the explosives, accidently causing one to come on and roll away before causing a second blast. One of our men are dead too. I'm so sorry."

My breath hitches in my throat as I force myself to try to keep breathing. "What? What are you saying?" Declan says exactly what I'm thinking. I look at his wide eyes and panicked face. Yep, I'm exactly like you buddy, I think to myself as we wait impatiently for Marco to hurry up and answer.

"I'm sorry, but Amber's dead."

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A/N:

Another really short chapter, sorry guys. I know this is really annoying but chapters should start to get a bit longer again now. So, Ambers dead, don don don. Thoughts on chapter? It'll help me out a lot if you voted or commented, so please do. I'd love to get some feedback too.