My Kidnapper's Mistake

Chapter 10: New Member

Clive's P.O.V.

I could hardly see how putting me on another team would work out this time around, but who was I to question the all important Boss? I checked my watch. Five minutes late, that would have to do. I walked around the corner and the diner came into view. My dad was sitting in his car, drumming his finger on the steering wheel. I knew that I would get another lecture about being late, or should I say another stern look and a 'you're late'. I had been here before him, standing around that corner, contributing my share to the lung cancer statistics.

I slid into the passenger seat and smiled from ear to ear at my father. He only glanced at me with a look that had made even some of the most hardened criminals tremble, but it had no effect on me. Let's say that if you had grown up only seeing your father every other month and then getting that look over and over again, you get used to it. The drive wasn't that far and we didn't say a word to one another. There just wasn't anything to say.

We stopped in front of a normal house. Two stories, a front lawn with flower gardens and a white picket fence. How I pitied the people that had to live here.

A guy who had obviously gone for the Gothic, emo look opened the door and stood to the side so that we could enter the house. When I passed he hadn't looked the slightest bit curious about my presence. Tough crowd. A brute of a man was sitting in the living room, with groceries on his lap and heart shaped sweets scattered across the coffee table and floor. I couldn't help but summarise that this team obviously had no regard for higeine.
"I'd like a meeting with you lot." My father called out. The brute stood up, taking all the groceries back to what I assumed was the kitchen. Two guys joined us straight away. The one was rather scrawny, he was probably the brains of this operation and the other really handsome to everybody's standards, I didn't really know where he fit in. A few minutes later two more guys joined, one looked like he would explode if he stood still for only a moment and the other one I guessed to be the leader.
"Julian. You too."
There was another one. This was an unusual group. The Orginizarion liked to mix people up. People from different ages, different continents. This group was all about the same age, except maybe for the brute and they were all American.

The brute returned and another guy came from upstairs.
"Now that you are all here. I would like to introduce you to your new team member." My father cut right to the chase and the guy who had been late, Julian, started to object.
"A new member? We don't need any new members."
"No, but he needs a team and this is final."
They were talking about me as if I wasn't even in the room. How flattering.

A loud bang echoed down from upstairs, like somebody walking into a door.
"What was that?" My father asked.
"Something probably fell over." Julian answered a bit too quickly and a bit to high pitched. Where I would have investigated my father accepted the excuse and I guess that was why I had been put here, to sniff out the rat.
My father gave me one final look that said 'Don't you mess up.' and left.

"You'll have to share a room with Tristan." Julian said and also left, without asking any questions or telling me who was Tristan.
"My name is Clive by the way!" I shouted after him, but he didn't give any sign that he had heard me.
The guy who I had thought was the leader, that I was now second guessing, clapped me on the shoulder when he passed me to go to the stairs and left me with a single sentence that I think was supposed to be advice, "Buy some earmuffs and something to cover your eyes."
Everyone else, except for the ball of energy, left without saying a word. The ball of energy draped an arm across my shoulder and smiled widely at me, as he started to lead me out of the living room.
"They call me Kevin. Come I'll show you to your room. By the way do you like live porn?"
I stared at him, was this guy mentally ill or something? I didn't get time to answer before he resumed his chatter. I couldn't stop the feeling that my father had put me with a bunch of guys who had escaped from an insane asylum.
"Doesn't look that way. You'll be pleased to know that the couch in the living room is very comfortable to sleep on. I'll leave some extra blankets on the coffee table if you want to make a quick retreat."
He shoved me through a door, pulled it shut behind me and I could hear him cackle as he walked away. These people were insane.

There was nothing strange looking about the room. Plain white wallpaper, two beds opposite each other, two bedside cabinets, two dressers. I dropped my backpack, that I had hastily thrown a few pieces of clothing in before leaving my mother's house, onto the neatest bed. No use in unpacking, I'd just pack them away as they were used and washed. A few minutes later the freakishly handsome guy walked through the door, rubbing his hair dry with a towel. He dropped the wet towel on his bed, took his keys and a jacket and left without a word.

* * *

I didn't know how long I had slept before the door of the room banged open. I shot up, thinking that we were under attack or that something had gone wrong, but what I saw was much worse. My roommate had a topless girl with her legs wrapped around his waist. He was trailing urgent kisses up her neck while she was tugging up his shirt. All that insane Kevin's words finally made sense. I got to my feet, ready to make a hasty retreat but they were blocking the door. Well this was just great, putting me in the room with the whore. This was Julian's way of telling me that I wasn't welcome and I knew it. Spiteful bastard. They finally moved away, after I had seen enough to scar me for life.

Everything was dark and I felt my way to the living room. Just like Kevin had said he would do, there were blankets on the coffee table. I got comfortable on the couch, but couldn't sleep. I stared at the ceiling, flinching at every creak. These people were insane and I was sure of it. They hadn't done anything exceptionally frightening, they hadn't preformed some satanic ritual or tortured children in their basement, yet I was too scared to sleep. My father had put me here on a hunch, what that hunch was I didn't know, but it was plain and simple that I had to confirm that hunch. My father had said that they would probably not mind to kill me if I posed a threat to whatever they were hiding. I had to tread carefully, no matter what, I better not give then any reason to suspect that I was a mole.