5 Years Later
“NO!” I screamed.
The fire was engulfing the house I’d lived in for the past five years. After thinking I’d found happiness, I’d lost the person I’d loved again. First my parents, now Constance. Tears were streaming down my face, and I didn’t care who saw them…
A Week Later
Constance’s funeral was yesterday. It was a quiet one. The only people there were the servants, and some of her friends she used to have tea and cakes with on every Wednesday. I preferred it this way, instead of having everyone there. My parents’ funeral was packed, due to all ten of the victim’s funerals being at the same time, it was also a public funeral, so nearly everyone who lived in the suburb attended the funeral. I’d actually managed to avoid going back to the orphanage aswell. Before working for Constance, Spring and Cogg ran a small clock shop on Midland Road in town, and Constance paid the rent for them aswell as her wages, so they still had the shop. Above the shop was a small flat, which they lived in, and they had a spare room as well as their own room, and they said I could stay in that if I wished. I was very grateful over this, and accepted the offer. Today, we were moving into it.
Once we reached Midland Road, I could tell what the shop was going to look like, even though she shop was nowhere near our current location. It would be, cosy. That was the best word to describe it. Once we reached the shop, I was right. It was packed tightly to the other sides of the road, but it still was very welcoming.
After going in, the shop was still full of clocks, still ticking away and only very few out of time. They must have loved this shop. Going into the back half of the shop, it was near enough empty, apart from a desk and a door behind it. “There’s a flight of stairs behind that door, go up them and you’re in the flat” Cogg said, before he and Spring attended to the clocks in the front room.
I nodded and went up to the flat. It was exactly how I guessed it, cosy, and welcoming. By the looks of things, they still came to the flat during Constance’s life, but only every fortnight at the least. It was a cross between cream and orange (but not one of the sickly shades that you can get) throughout the room, and since it was only small, the living room, kitchen and dining room were all part of one room. Either side of the dining area, there was a door, and having a quick look in them, they were the two bedrooms. It was very welcoming.
Spring came up about five minutes later. “Do you like it here, Master Clive?” she asked. It seemed that Master Clive was going to stick, despite not living in Dove Manor any more.
“It was how I pictured how you two would live” I said.
“Well, you thought well, Master Clive” she replied. “Oh, and this will be your room” she said quickly, indicating the room to our left. After saying that, she left again.
I walked into the room Spring had said was mine, and it was just a plain, cream coloured room with a single bed opposite the door. A basic single room, but it was different to other rooms, it was mine now, for the upcoming future.
*
“I heard about the loss of your adoptive Mother”
I was sat silently in the office room Dimitri had provided for our plans against Bill. He had rented it, and we used it for information we didn’t want public ears listening to. “I know” I said faintly.
“I’m sorry Clive” Dimitri said. Dimitri was the sort of person who was generally nice, but his dark side was darker than most other peoples, fairly similar to what he described me.
Just as I was about to reply, one of our goons came in. We hired about one-hundred-and-fifty goons to help us with our plot, and to be almost like bodyguards for me and Dimitri. Most of them looked almost identical, but some of them looked different from the rest, and we gave these their own names. For example, two of these goons were Bostro and Fisheye. These two were mainly working to protect me, so that was why I knew them better than the others. The group was called ‘The Family’. “Someone’s at the door. They say they know Clive” he said.
Dimitri looked at me, obviously wanting me to give the answer. “Male or female?” I asked suspiciously. If it was a male, then I wouldn’t let them in on my life. Apart from my father and Cogg, none of them had been nice to me.
“Female, she’s about your age, maybe a bit younger”
“Let her in then” I sighed.
That was when someone I recognised fairly well walked in. “Kalia?!”
“I want to help pay revenge” she said quietly. “I found out about what you were doing, and I want to help pay revenge”
“Who is this?” Dimitri asked.
“Kalia was in my year at school. She lost her parents in the blast aswell”
Dimitri studied her carefully. After about three minutes of silence, he spoke up. “Welcome aboard” he said quietly. “I want you to go to room 5D, someone there will tell you what to do”
Kalia nodded before leaving the room. “So, Dimitri, have you got any plans on what we could do?” I said.
“Well, the idea’s coming to me all come with a downfall, Bill has too many guards to get away with it” he said. “What about your ideas? Any of them any useful?”
“Well, since he was so interested in time travel, why don’t we make a time machine presentation that goes wrong, but use something that will cover it up, so we can take him somewhere else, and the public will think he’s lost in the future. We could use fake identities so no-one knows it’s us, and also change our appearances slightly” I said. “I got that last night” I added.
Dimitri thought about it, before nodding. “That is a good idea, young man. Anyway, have you got yourself a job yet?”
“No…” I said.
“I found out how eager you wanted to be a journalist. That would help us get information we need that the press knows but not the public. Are you willing to try that out?”
“That’s fine” I said. “And I know how we can get the money to support all this”
“Where?”
“Constance adopted a child so that the Dove fortune didn’t go to the government. It’s all mine. The cash sum is more than you’d probably earn in a lifetime, even if you were a world famous celebrity”
“So you’re rich now?”
“But that money is going into the fund. If I want something, its revenge, and I’ll do it even if it means spending the rest of my life behind bars”
“I could always tell you were ambitious” Dimitri said. “But Clive, one thing”
“That is?”
“Once you step into the next phase of this, you can’t step down, are you sure you still want to go through with this?”
All I did was slowly nod.
