Beautiful Crime ※ DogNut

twenty four

Adelaide sat at the edge of her part of the camp, Esme sitting in front of her, playing with some dirty looking dolls she had found. Adelaide looked around her cautiously while also tying Esme's hair into some intricate braids like she was wearing. The only sound between the pair was Esme's soft but somewhat off-key humming as she played.

After a while of silence between them, Adelaide finally spoke up. "Hey, you know Paddy, right?"

Esme nodded, her humming coming to a halt. "He's my friend, a bit weird, though."

Adelaide smirked, fully focused on Esme's hair as she finished the final braid and began to tie it tightly. "Yeah, well, when the time comes, I want you to stay with him, okay? I want you safe."

"But I wanna be with you, mama!"

"No, baby, you stay with Paddy and I will come back for you. I promise. And we'll go far away from here and we don't have to come back." Adelaide pressed a kiss to the side of Esme's head, giving her a tight hug.

"Ever?"

"Never ever."

The pair hugged for a little while longer, not saying anything to one another until Adelaide noticed Jordan and another person – a girl slightly shorter than Adelaide with light blonde hair – walking towards them. "Is it time?" Adelaide asked, her grip on Esme's body growing tighter.

Jordan nodded, the girl taking a step forward and placed a hand on Esme's arm, giving the younger girl a gentle smile. Esme slowly released Adelaide from her grasp and went towards the blonde girl, giving a small wave to Adelaide before the pair of them walked through the camp towards the Natural History Museum where the other kids were.

Adelaide noticed Jordan didn't leave, frowning a little she took a step towards him. "What's wrong?"

Jordan sighed, almost avoiding answering the question before he spoke up. "There was a vote, Addie. Almost everyone voted to banish you and your entire group and never be allowed to return. But I decided to give you a second chance on the one condition that you don't kill any of our own again."

Adelaide frowned, folding her arms over her chest. "You know that's a promise I cannot keep – not my problem you keep murderers in your camp."

I could say the same about yours, that was what Jordan wanted to say but he knew that it would only add fuel to the fire. Instead, he clenched his jaw and kept his cool. "Just don't let it happen again, Addie. I'm serious."

Sighing heavily, Adelaide dropped her arms and nodded. "Okay, I'll try."

Jordan just shrugged his shoulders and left Adelaide's part of the camp without another word.

Adelaide watched him leave, sighing heavily once again. She knew that no matter what she did, she would've been kicked out regardless. In order to keep her place in the camp, Adelaide knew she needed an alliance but she knew nobody in the camp would be willing to make one, so she needed to find someone who wasn't there. Nicola, she wasn't here. "Harper, I need you to go to Parliament."

~#~

Several hours after Harper left, the sky was dark and bonfires around the camp had been lit with kids surrounding all of them. Adelaide was sat in front of hers, frequently looking around her to see if Harper would return but nothing had happened yet. She was worried that one of her best wouldn't be coming back at a time when she needed them most.

Just another name in a long list of the fallen that have died by my hand.

Out of the dusk, the long blonde hair of Harper came towards the group, a large grin on her face. Adelaide stood up and almost screamed at her as she walked towards her. "Harper! Where the fuck have you been? You've been gone for seven hours!"

Harper shrugged her shoulders, the grin never leaving her face. "So?"

"It's a forty-minute walk!"

"Not my fault, okay? I got distracted."

Adelaide narrowed her eyes a little and took a closer look at Harper as the pair of them walked back towards their bonfire. It took her a while to piece it together and when she did, she almost shuddered. "You didn't... please tell me you didn't. You know what? I don't want to know. Do we have confirmation of an alliance?"

"Yes, we do."

"Great. But was it really necessary?"

"Probably not, it just sort of happened."

Adelaide rolled her eyes, sitting back down in front of the fire and poking the fire with a large stick. "Y'know, sometimes I worry deeply about you. It genuinely keeps me awake at night, just at the thought of how you somehow haven't died yet."

Several meters away, Ed and Brooke were sat in front of their own small campfire, Ed was glaring at Adelaide. "Why the hell did Jordan even vote to keep her in? Adelaide is nothing but a murderer – Kyle was right."

Brooke looked at him, shrugging her shoulders. "Maybe you're right, but we need Adelaide either way."

"Either way, it's clear that she's only here to wipe us all out."

"You really don't get it, do you? Adelaide isn't here because she wants to be, she's here because she has to be. It's all because of Jordan. That's why she's here. She owes him her life; he gave her a position back at the Imperial War Museum to ensure her safety, he gave her a machine gun to use at the battle of Lambeth Bridge – without him, she wouldn't be here... She'd do anything for him, she'd kill for him and this is the infamous commander of death we're talking about here, she doesn't kill for anyone but Adelaide would... Anyone looking at her and didn't know about her past with DogNut, they would've guessed she was in love with Jordan." Brooke explained, shrugging her shoulders once more.

Ed frowned a little, looking towards Brooke. "And how do you know that?"

"I lived with her for a year, I've seen the way she looks at Jordan and let me tell you – she ain't looked at anyone like that since DogNut. She looked at DogNut and saw the love of her life, she looks at Jordan and sees the light at the end of the darkness. And plus, Jordan looks at her and he sees the only person who matters to him; trust me, I've seen it. And besides, I'm a girl, I'm supposed to notice this love crap."

Staring into the roaring flames in front of her, Adelaide said five words that would later change her life forever – in fact, change the lives of almost every kid in the city. "I'm going to kill David."

Note

I feel like this chapter was the little slice comedy relief we all needed but didn't realise we needed it until it happened. Sorry this was such a mess, it's kind of a filler chapter because the next one will be long as hell and very important to the story. But hey, you got some drama, comedy, Adelaide and Esme adorableness and Harper's completely uncensored gayness.