The Heart of King Travis

Trouble

My choice was an instinct, so I pushed its consequences far out of my mind. Noah had told me to meet him in the entrance room of the castle, and I was doing it. I was going to meet him. Knowing the newer version of him, it could have very well been a trap. He could have hurt me or even killed me, but something told me he wouldn't. On my way out, I tried to stay in the middle of the group to seem as normal as possible. No one asked where I was going when they all went up the staircase and I headed to the left. He had to be there.

With a quick turn, I darted into the entry room. The room was large and the lights were all out, but I could hear quiet breaths coming from all around. There were obviously multiple people hiding. The hair on the back of my neck stood up as I realized they could very well be pulling some prank on me with Noah. My impulse to go to him soon faded, and I backed out of the room very slowly. Careful movements were the best option since they gave me time to think about what to do. As I backed up, I noticed several pairs of eyes peeking through the darkness and looking right at me. With a shiver, I began to move gradually faster. Soon enough, I would be out of the dangerous entry room and into my semi-safe bedroom. Only a few more steps...

With my back to the wall, I felt for the doorknob. After a few seconds, I grabbed it with shaking fingers. It was time to go. The eyes were still looking at me, so I started to wonder if they were fake. Right when I started to open the door, a gruff voice spoke up. "What are you doing here?" It took me a moment to slow my racing heartbeat. "A friend told me to meet him here," I replied calmly. It seemed like hours before the voice responded. I mentally wished that whoever was in the room wouldn't harm me. This was all just too dramatic.

"Oh, then you're probably with us. You've got to hide before our group leader comes," said the gruff voice. Not wanting to make whoever was speaking mad, I found a spot against the wall that seemed to be far enough away from the staring eyes. The longer I stood still in the room with these strange people, the more I wondered if they were ghosts. They wouldn't show themselves, but maybe that was just protection. Who were they hiding from? It didn't REALLY matter to me in this situation because I was against the authority, but I still retained an unwavering distrust of those strange people.

Soon enough, the door opened and the light from the main room came through. The situation was still very odd, but I needed Noah to forgive me. He may have been rude, but we were still friends nonetheless. A tall, slender outline of a person darted through before the lights were turned on. It was a sight.

The pairs of eyes that had scared me so much now had people behind them. Tan, rough faces with ripped denim and black clutches with gold studs. Scuffed combat boots as dark as night. Gold piercings and spikes galore. Dark red lips and vibrant blue contacts. Each one had horrendous posture and a sneaky smile. They all looked the same except for the one who had come through the door last...their leader. Noah.

He was dressed similarly for the most part, but a black denim jacket covered his original formal outfit. His hair was tousled and a red lip-shaped mark was printed on his cheek. It would wash off later, but it was permanently marked in my mind. 

Mika was correct. He was not the same person and had obviously gone through a huge change. When I say huge, I mean HUGE. When I went over to his house across the street from mine, he was always so humble and caring. He was supposed to move on to greater things, but here he was, standing in a room full of criminals, LEADING them. Knowing Griffin, I wondered how he could let Noah slip so far from the spot he had secured from him. Mika was a well-behaved girl, so she must have done something right. Before I could sink deeper into the ocean of mystery that was the Morecis, Noah began to speak. 

"Good evening, thugs," he said with a smirk. I could have sworn he looked at me, but that might have been just my imagination. "I know you are all very excited for tonight's venture, and that is definitely expected. We're going to open this with a bang!" he exclaimed. Everyone started to cheer, but I stood still trying to figure out what was going on. "Now, tonight we are going to do something that will affect the whole village, make the king mad, and satisfy us. All in one sweet move," he said. The thugs looked at each other and nodded, waiting for what he would say next.

"These scum bags rely on farming for a living, and we're going to get them new jobs by destroying their progress...the crops. Plus it will be fun to blame it on them when the ol' man Travis gets riled up," he said. I froze in complete shock. Travis was a bad man, but these people made all of their money farming. He would surely treat the peasants as the criminals considering they were of lower status than us. I surprised myself when I piped up amidst the excited roars of those who were with him. "Noah!"

He turned his head to me and let out a half smile. "Oh, hello dear. I see you've come to apologize to me." At that sentence, the excited buzz ended and everyone in the room looked at me. I wasn't scared. "You can't do this. Travis will punish the peasants and you could be responsible for hundreds of deaths," I pleaded. He shook his head and smirked. "Think of it this way. They could either live their live their miserable lives farming away for the king or they could move on to greater things," he said. When I tried to speak again, he cut over me. "You need to listen to me, Ardy. I'm the one in charge here."

For the first time ever, I found myself glaring at him. He claimed he wanted to help the peasants, but it was pretty obvious the words he spoke implied something else. That was when I remembered the ruby ring Spencer had given me that morning. It was still on my finger. If I called his name into it three times, he would come to my rescue. But that couldn't happen in here...I had to wait until we got outside. For the mean time, Noah couldn't think I was against him.

I gave my best half smile and nod to make him think I understood. He fell for it. "It's good that you can see my point of view, Ardy." What an idiot. With that, he let out his command. "We're going outside, punks!"