Decipher | Watty's 2017

XCIX. Skullduggery

Skullduggery

/ˌskəlˈdəɡ(ə)rē/

noun

underhanded or unscrupulous behavior; trickery

The morning following was filled with several shocking occurrences. Upon waking up on Luke's chest, I was informed that we were to have an emergent meeting concerning our next steps in antagonizing the bloodbath that was to come. Although I found the meeting to be extremely unnecessary, I didn't dare tell Luke that as I simply nodded at him.

He left soon after I had woken up, making me question why he would have to attend a meeting so early, but I didn't ask as I got dressed in my regularly worn black jeans and tee shirt before slipping out of the room. I found myself standing in Michael's room, wondering how I had gotten there  when I had clearly been aiming to check on Calum from his mental breakdown.

I caught myself tearing up as I noticed all of Michael's belongings were still lying in the room the same way they had been before his death. My head shook in a n attempt to block out those memories, but I couldn't stop them from replaying in my mind as I hugged one of his hoodies in my chest. Tears streamed down my face as I took in his musky, yet peppermint accented, scent. Nothing duplicated the smell exactly, and I would know as I tried to do so a few weeks after I realized he was truly gone.

Nevertheless, pictures caught my attention next, leading me to look at the pictures of a younger Michael hung on the wall. Only one picture appeared to be of his family, while all the others consisted of a young Luke and Calum hanging on each other and another held all four of the boys trying to fit into the tiny screen of the camera it was taken on. A smile covered my face as I tried to imagine how happy these times were, when all the boys had to worry about was themselves.

Although I knew that their childhoods were not as pleasant as some, I couldn't help but feel jealous of the adventures they were able to go on at such a young age. I still remembered the revelation of all of their extensive training being revealed to me as we came back from one of my first raids when Luke was injured. The feeling of pride had flashed through me for a short amount of time before the sorrowful feelings overtook my body.

I wiped the tears away from my face suddenly, not wanting anyone to notice as I backed my way out of Michael's room since I was too emotionally torn to manage to go through any more of his things; however, I was proud of my ability to remain in the room for that long as the time had doubled since my previous attempt. Once deeming myself well enough to enter Calum's room, I found the tanned boy laying across his bed with his hands running through his hair.

I knocked on the door slightly, watching as he jumped slightly before calming and relaxing his body into his comfortable comforter. He motioned for me to enter his room, which made me furrow my eyebrows as I stepped in and made my way over to his tired frame.

"Hear about the meeting?" he asked, opening his eyes for a split second as I nodded. His lips upturned into a bittersweet smile, almost as though he knew exactly what was coming from this meeting, but then again, so did I. This meeting we were about to attend was about to set our futures in stone, and none of us had a clue what that would look like.

"I keep thinking about her," he admitted with a sigh. I walked closer to his bed, sitting a few feet from his figure in order to avoid an odd closeness of our two frames. As I sat next to him, I took notice to the way his hands were constantly running through his hair.

"She wouldn't want you to be like this," I mumbled, catching his glares as I stated this. He appeared to be angry about my observation, wanting to wallow in his self pity a bit longer without thought of what Janice would think of his grief taking over a considerable portion of his life. I let out a huff of breath as he refused to listen to me. "Quit acting like you're the only one affected, Calum," I finally said, standing from my spot with my hands on my hips.