Beautiful Crime ※ DogNut

twenty two

Adelaide didn't quite understand why she was required to go to a meeting organised by Jordan to decide who was going to be in charge. South London Crew didn't play well with authority, unless it was their own. They'd always been like that, ever since their inception over a year beforehand. She was there for a war, not for anything else.

Adelaide looked around the room at the faces of each leader; there was Ed of the Tower crew looking as handsome as he always did even with his scar, a scruffy looking fourteen-year-old with glasses by the name of Darren who was the leader of the Finchley crew. The only other girls in the room were Maxie of the Holloway crew and Brooke. Adelaide felt out of place in that room, surrounded by all these leaders. They all seemed so... together with themselves while Adelaide looked more like a savage compared to them.

Well, she was the infamous Adelaide, after all. The Queen of the Savages – a title she absolutely hated.

She was barely paying attention to what was being said during the meeting, just focusing on everyone else's faces. Her eyes focused on a boy with dark hair in the corner, most of his head and face covered by a hooded cloak but from what Adelaide could see, she knew his face.

"No fucking way... Dylan Peake? You piece of shit! What the fuck are you doing here?" Adelaide almost shouted, stepping towards him as she completely interrupted

"Adelaide Milton? What the fuck are you doing here?" Shadowman took a step forward until the pair were face to face with one another, Shadowman barely an inch or two taller than Adelaide.

The pair were silent for a few moments, just looking at each other before they began to have an argument over a mixture of not knowing the other was alive and Shadowman stealing Adelaide's cookies from her home while she was out over a year beforehand.

"They bicker like an old married couple," Maxie whispered into Blue's ear, just loud enough for both Adelaide and Shadowman to hear.

"We're not together!" Adelaide and Shadowman shouted in unison, the pair glaring at Maxie as they both simultaneously crossed their arms over their chests.

Jordan sighed, moving his glasses to rub his eyes. Listening to Adelaide and Shadowman bicker like small children was making his head hurt, even more than it already was. "Can we get back to the matter at hand, please? Before you two kill each other or change this meeting into a school reunion."

Adelaide and Shadowman looked at each other, then to Jordan, muttering a "sorry" before stepping back from each other awkwardly.

"Thank you," Jordan readjusted himself in his chair, looking directly at Adelaide. "Now, Adelaide, we need your opinion on behalf of South London crew; who would you propose to be in charge?"

"Is this a serious question? South London bows down to no man other than our own." Adelaide shrugged her shoulders, forcing herself to smile.

"But we don't take orders from murderers." Someone spoke up, causing Adelaide's head to snap towards them; it was Ed, his arms folded tightly over his chest.

"We might be murderers, Edward Carter. But at least we're honest about it. But you?" Adelaide took slow steps towards Ed and Brooke, her eyes cold and calculating. "You lie, you kill, you betray, you torture, you steal, and for what? So you can say you're the good guys? None of you are the good guys, none of you are even close to being good; every single one of you have blood on your hands that you've washed off to pretend was never there so you can carry on believing that you're the good guys. I may be the Queen of the Savages, but at least I'm honest about it."

As Adelaide walked towards them, Brooke gripped Ed's arm and hid a little behind him. Ed still stood tall against Adelaide, showing no signs of fear. "You used to believe that there was good in everyone."

"I was wrong. North London taught me that people are cruel and violent and selfish to the core. But don't worry, it'll all be over soon."

Adelaide stormed out of the room, slamming the doors behind her, a deafening silence falling over the room.

Eventually, it was Kyle who broke the silence by stepping forward to face Jordan. "And that, Jordan, is why we do not allow South London crew anywhere near us. They're nothing but cold-blooded killers; we've all heard the stories. Do we really want our people to be around theirs?"

"I see your concerns, Kyle. But we need South London Crew, they're the largest group and have the best fighters in the entire city. Without them, we might not survive this fight."

"Mark my words, Jordan. Sooner or later; that... bitch will kill one of our own and say that it's fair."

Outside, Adelaide angrily watched the kids around her before watching the leaders leave their meeting almost half an hour later. Honestly, she was regretting ever coming back to North London, even if it was to fight against the revenant. She despised almost everyone there, and they despised her back.

Before she could do anything else, one of her guards – Edison – came running up to her, completely breathless but composed himself enough to form a coherent sentence. "Adelaide, I know who killed Clara... he's here."

Note

Short-ish update but this is kind of a prelude to one of the biggest chapters in the whole story – shit is gonna get real.

Anyways; I am finally 20 (my birthday was on the 17th yay me) – I have left the realm of teenage-hood behind and I'm now somewhat an adult. I just have one question; who in their right mind let me adult? I cannot adult. I don't even know how an oven works. Like, that should be a dead giveaway that I should never ever be allowed to adult.