The Start of Pain

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Jonathan leaned against the pool table, twirling the cue stick along his wrist. He looked impassively at Alex who was taking a long drink from his root beer. Longer than necessary which made Jonathan very suspicious. Well, to be fair, he always is suspicious around this kid. Has to be suspicious. Droplets of condensation fell on his denim pants. “Are we playing or not?” Johnathan inquired edgily, glancing swiftly at his watch. “Unlike you, I’m awfully busy and –“

“It has come to my knowledge,” Alex interrupted smoothly, standing up from the black recliner and taking a cue stick for himself. He seemed unfazed with other guy’s intolerance. “That our dear Victoria has been missing in the premises for quite a while now...” He gave the older boy a meaningful look.

Which Jonathan returned with expressionless eyes. “So?” he retorted, looking closely at Alex as he arranged the billiard balls and deftly placed the white cue ball in the middle. “Am I supposed to know where the heck she is every second of the day?” Dang, too much words, he thought, suddenly alarmed though his features revealed nothing. He could have seen so much in that. He cursed himself silently and promised to be more casual.

Alex made a face of agreement with the boy’s incredulity and gestured for him to make the break-shot. “No, no. That’s not what I meant,” he amended, smiling thinly with his amber eyes glinting threateningly. “I just hope you know better than to feed and encourage her somewhat insane actions.”

Jonathan remained outwardly impassive and waved a dismissive hand, positioning himself and the cue stick. “I think you do that part better than I do,” he admitted with a hint of sarcasm. He gave the stick one quick and expert thrust, sending sixteen pool balls rolling in different directions. He watched as three of the balls swooshed inside different holes. “Isn’t that what the two of you do best? Support one another to the point of absolute stupidity?” Jonathan raised an eyebrow at him.

Alex laughed good-naturedly at the statement. “I suppose so,” he replied, still chuckling. He eyed the table keenly and went on the left side of the table where the cue ball lay a good few inches away from the edge. He gave the stick a few trying pushes. The stick made a clicking sound as it made contact with the cue ball. “Let’s just hope that she isn’t taking some matters in her own hands.” One more ball went in, only managing to budge the 8 ball as it rolled. He walked towards his mug of root beer and took a long sip.

Jonathan eyed him wordlessly. He quickly took his turn, only grazing the coveted black ball with one of the two balls he managed to send in the holes.

“The Council wouldn’t like that very much,” Alex continued as he took his turn, sending one green ball to its end. “Neither would I.” He levelled a blazing, significant, golden look at him.

Jonathan swallowed as he hit the cue ball effortlessly, finally ending the game as the 8 ball fell into the black hole. “Point taken,” he said, putting the pool stick down on the table. As he exited the room, Jonathan paused. “I don’t need you letting me win next time, kid,” he said, sounding annoyed, without turning to look at him. “Longest game we’ve had.”

Alex chuckled at his ill-tempered departure. “Longest game you’ll ever have,” he murmured ominously with a smile to match, gulping down the rest of his root beer.

xxxOOOxxx

Ian Kabra leaned back on one of the seats of the newly-crafted MS 760 jet, his laptop wide awake in front of him. He rested his head on his hands, not daring to open his eyes to check if something was wrong. Because everything is wrong. The Wi-Fi is horrible – can’t even open Yahoo! without getting a ‘Unable to connect to Wi-Fi’ memo every five minutes or so. If that’s not bad enough, a single page takes about ten minutes to load. Their basement had better reception than this! Hamilton and Jonah are on the controls, probably on the verge of sending this whole thing spiralling towards the earth, managing to set the whole thing on fire first while they plummet.