He was Almost Absorbed by the System

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty - I Will Never Leave You

Can't stay here! Can't stay here! Need to leave! Need to go somewhere!  I need Adam!

After returning home, Owen rushed off to his room, packed a bag with random clothes and underwear, then called his driver. He couldn't stay there anymore! What if she got him? What if she enslaved him? What if he never was able to see Adam again? Then he truly would die!

His driver was shocked about his suddenness and the strange destination given to him. What the heck was Night Life? He googled the location on his phone and found that it was a night club a couple of towns west. Now why would the young Master wish to go there? He looked at the state of the boy in his rear view mirror and wondered if he ought not contact the Master. But then, he thought a touch sourly, it's not as if his reports about the young Master's behaviour had been used for anything but twisted ammunition by the child's stepmother. He sighed and began to drive.

*****

Night Life was only just starting to lose its high volume for the night as the party goers went home or went elsewhere. It had been busy for a Thursday now that the Year 13's were done with sixth form and college. Adam tried not to yawn as he totalled up the woman's order upon the till. He smiled as he told her the final figure and asked for payment. Behind that woman, Harmony appeared. Tonight, she had swapped the dresses for tight fitted leather style jeans and a pretty top, embellished with gold chains.

"Um, two glasses of house white," she said from memory, "one gin and tonic, one barcardi breezer and a vodka and coke, please."

"Ice?" He asked.

"I don't think they would notice either way," she admitted as she glanced around at her group of friends. Adam chuckled as he attended to her order. "Heard you on Seven Chances Podcast the other night," she mentioned as she waited. "You know, you guys don't have to be so mean about your descriptions of us!"

"Sorry, old habit," Adam smiled. "Jordan seems to think it makes things more interesting when there is heightened tension."

"He should ask some of us how we feel," she muttered. "I don't need him rubbing salt in the wound and reminding me how much better Trinity is than me! I've never been able to beat that girl at anything!"

"Oh, you know her?" Adam asked. He calculated her bill and informed her of the total.

She rummaged around in her small handbag, frowned then placed items on the bar as she searched for her purse. "Um, yeah," she replied. "Don't tell anyone, but that girl just happens to be my cousin."

"Harmony!" Her friend squeezed through the crowd at the bar. "I forgot to give you this back earlier! Sorry!" The friend smiled at Adam as she handed back Harmony's purse.

"Thanks," The girl said, wryly and dished put some notes to pay for the drinks. She thrust the girl two of them and shooed her away, before returning her things to her bag, as well as the change. She held two of the drinks and looked at the last one. "I think I'll come back for that." Adam nodded and he served a young man a round of shots as he waited. He noticed the small figure of eight shaped case upon the bar and frowned, picking it up and examining it.

"Hey," his heart skipped a beat and his eyes rose to meet two pale ones, which looked at him with relief.

"What happened?" Adam asked him, but the boy simply shook his head as if unable to form the words.

"Final drink," Harmony smiled as she reapproached the bar, but Adam did not look at her, instead his attention was consumed by the young man standing next to her. "Knife? Hubby?"

Owen glanced up and noticed with some surprise who had appeared beside him. "Harmony, hey," he said, but there was not much enthusiasm in his tired voice.