Beware Mr Moore

Chapter 7 - The other building

Thomas

I awoke to the sound of my alarm.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Fucking evil thing. I sat up slowly in bed, leaving my eyes closed as I did so until I was fully sitting up in bed. My alarm was still blaring in my ears when I finally opened my eyes to glare daggers at it.

Five O'Clock in the morning is too early to function.

I hit the off button on the top to make the incessant high pitched beeping stop before swinging my legs over the side of my bed. Yawning, I rubbed the back of my neck and clicked my shoulders. I slid off of the bed and made my way to my wardrobe, the broken doors mirror showing me my own reflection.

My long white hair was messy around my pale shoulders. My deep red eyes caught the light from every angle as I glared at myself in the mirror. The pyjamas I wore were my usual blue and white checked bottoms matched with a light grey top. As I stared at myself, I took my hairbrush from the table beside the wardrobe and began to brush the knots out of my hair.

Being albino meant that a lot of people used to fear me, back when I was still hoping that my 'friends' would accept who I am. Now though, I use it as an advantage to ensure loyalty within my men, fear is the strongest motivation of them all. I used to want people to understand me, to respect me.

Henry ruined everything.

Once my hair was knot-free, I returned my brush to where it belonged and attached my walkie-talkie to my black leather belt. After one final glance in the mirror, I walked out of my room and into the hallways leading to the mess hall.

I was greeted by the usual sea of rough men eating and fighting each other, all still dressed in their orange clothes with their numbers on the back. Most of the cells which were part of the walls around the mess hall had their doors wide open, however, there were still a few with some of the inmates still inside.

We have rules here but only surrounding rations. The rest of the time, my people can do whatever they want. Play games, smoke cigarettes or, if they wish, murder one another. The ones who didn't comply with my leadership were taken care of when the others were still with me. The ones who did comply, the ones who accepted me as their leader became even more loyal after my...disagreement with Henry.

Sometimes, I think back to the day that all of my friends betrayed me.

It had been raining. There was a drip coming through the hole in the ceiling of my office, it created a rhythmic beat as the drip hit the bottom of the metallic bucket I was using to catch it. Henry and I had been arguing as per usual but that day it was worse; that day it hurt more.

"We need rules! We need order, Tom! Can't you see that? I know you know what you're doing as a leader but our men are slaughtering each other; over petty arguments."

"This was a prison. Do I really need to remind you of that? If we put too many rules in place then that is all it will ever be. They aren't injuring citizens. I told them all that they can leave if they please but they chose to stay. They aren't hurting citizens and no one has died yet. Don't be so dramatic, Henry."

"Kat put a new lock on her door. You can't just ignore that. She doesn't feel safe."

"We are all safe here. The moment someone is killed during a squabble I will put in rules until then we let them do as they please."

I always got the last word. I was his leader and he trusted me...or so I thought. When it all boiled down to it, they didn't stick by me.

I had to act.

I didn't expect that Kat would keep in contact with me. Not after what I did.

I snapped myself from my memories in time to notice one of the bigger males approaching me. Preparing to put my leader act on, I watched him closely.

"Sir, the others were wondering if we will ever get to leave the compound with you. They also noticed you've been leaving more often in the evenings. Is there anything we should know?"

At first, I just stared at the man before me. Then I let a smile creep onto my face. "My business is my own. You are free to go whenever you please as long as you do not bring cops to the compound. They're leaving us alone because we aren't causing problems. If there are doubts in my people, I'd be happy to get rid of them." It would have sounded like a perfectly innocent talk if I hadn't changed my tone to be warning. I wanted them to understand that I was still in charge and that I would be more than happy to end those who disagree with me.

Henry would pay for what he did to me. To us.

I am the king of this place and Kat will be my queen.

Edward

I spent the morning exploring the safe house with Henry, he showed me places we could go to relax and trade for coffee. That's how things worked there, we traded things that one person needs in return for something we want or need; trade objects instead of money.

Henry also showed me the roof. It was all the way up an iron ladder on the outside of the building but the climb was so worth the view at the top.

The roof itself was huge, part of it was covered with flower beds. Some of the beds were overflowing with the flowers they contained, others just held herbs and spices that grew almost perfectly up poles. Beside them was a trowel, watering can and book on gardening. I assumed it all belonged to someone else as Henry didn't mention them.

Moving my gaze along, I spotted a trunk with some material sticking out slightly. I wasn't fully sure what it could have been or why it was there so I decided to investigate. Opening the trunk, I realised that it contained pillows and blankets of various sizes and thicknesses. It wasn't cold enough yet for blankets, so I shut the trunk again and made my way across the rooftop to stand beside Henry.

From where we were stood, we could see the whole city in all it's shining glory at noon. I thought of all the people bustling around and rushing to their insignificant places in order to do what they considered to be so important to them. I wonder if they ever stopped like this to realise that they are only one person in all of the world, I wonder if they ever realised that they were no one in the grand scope of things.

My eyes scanned all I could see and focused on a small grey spot in the distance that appeared to be smoking. As I observed the building so far from us I realised that it was probably an equally long walk away from the baseball court for that building that is was for us. That began to arouse questions in my mind.

Kat had mentioned another group called The Rover's Ville boys. I couldn't help but wonder who they were and why they were always causing trouble. While I considered these mysterious men I also found myself thinking about how high the security was in our own safe house and wondered if that was due to these Rover's Ville boys.

"Henry...what is that building out there? The one with all the smoke." I asked gently, deciding that it wouldn't be best to just question him immediately on everything I was wondering. I glanced at him once I asked that and noticed that his gaze had shifted to also stare at the building.

"That's a bad place. I want you to stay clear of it. Understand me, Edward?" His voice was firm, ordering. As I watched him glare daggers at the building I knew that I had to find out more about it.

If no one was going to tell me then I'd just have to investigate myself.

"I won't go there."