Smoking Power

Chapter 41

"Well you were right about it being disturbing," Declan's the first one to speak after Alfred hit us with his quite likely theory. We all decide to ignore Declan.

I stare at a spot on the wall while slowly lifting my arm up to rub the back of my neck. Clark's being tortured. I know that this shouldn't be that much of a shock to us since this is basically what Clarence spelled Gareth out to be; a monster. Still, it's a horrible feeling of know that you're friend and war buddy is being tortured in the room literally opposite you. I take a deep breath and look back up at the others. Clarence was right, we need to stay focused. "We need to get him. If he's being physically harmed, then the closer that we rescue him the better," I say seriously.

"Your right, we need to act quickly. If Clark's gonna keep bein' as loud as he is now, then Gareth may not hear us straight away," Amber refers to Clark's screams of agony.

"What's the plan, Boss?" Alfred staticky voice asks Charles. He knows how Gareth's mind works, he knows the how he does things and he understands the hogmers better then any of us, after all he helped create them. We all know that Charles will make the best plan of action.

One by one, we all turn our heads to look at Charles expectantly. He looks back at us all and takes a deep breath, "Is the door still open?"

"I'll check," Clarence obediently answers. Stepping over to the door from the room we're in to the hallway outside, he gently pulls it open a fraction. When the door's open just wide enough for his eye to see out, he stops moving it. Seconds pass, he's still standing there and we're all getting anxious. Finally, what feels like an eon later, he closes the door again and walks over to us, "It's half open. I could see two guards guarding the inside of the door. Apart from that I couldn't see anything. I guess someone left to get something." Clarence repeats the scene in The Room of Screams.

Charles nods thoughtfully at him, "Right, then we need to act now. We need to get in there and see what's going on. Before any of us can attack and rescue, we need info on the scene. There's only one person here that can do that," Charles looks at Declan before looking back at Amber, "Sorry Amber, although your chickadee is small, they'll still see you. Declan, your fast enough to go undetected."

Amber's nodding her head at Charles, understanding what he means. Declan on the other hand, is madly shaking his head, "No way! Definitely not! I'm gonna get spotted! I'm too young to die!"

Charles ignores Declan's pleas to not go, "You need to sprint in and get a good look at everything that's happening. As soon as you're finished, come straight back here. We'll open up our door so it's just wide enough for you to squeeze past, we'll leave it open too. That way if anyone does happen to walk past they'll just presume that it got left open. Good luck." With that, Charles pushes Declan towards the door.

Clarence, who's still closest to the door, grips the handle. Before he opens it Declan looks over at Amber and I with a scared and horrified expression. I can tell that he's hoping that we'll come to his rescue and get him out of going for his little 'trip'. But being the good friend that I am, I just shrug and give him a sympathetic smile.

"You ready?" Clarence asks Declan. When Declan looks at him with a scared face, Clarence decides to take that as a yes and continue on, "On the count of three. One, two, three!" With a flick of his wrist, the door opens up just wide enough for Declan to comfortably squeeze past.

Less then a second later and Declan's gone. A faint blur of his outline zipping around can just be seen. It's so faint though that you could easily mistake it for eyes in mid-blink. As soon as he leaves, we all slip into the shadows of the room. If someone does walk past it would be a bit weird for them just to see us standing there.