The Wild Ones - Part 2 - The Catalyst

7.

"And then Becky, the other girl - dark hair, dark clothes - hit him with a champagne bottle." Tom finished his extravagant tale of what had happened the previous day. He'd become aware of Daniel's blank stare about halfway through, but had decided to soldier on in spite of all this.

He continued to stare at Daniel for a while, hoping for some kind of reaction, or response, or anything really. But there was nothing.

"Oh, and Lily you did some stuff too right?" he hastily asked her, in a hope of taking the impossible task off of his shoulders.

There was a loud smash of glass from downstairs and everyone stopped and looked at one another.

"Probably my mother," Daniel shrugged.

"Your mum likes to come in through the window?" Tom said sarcastically, already tiring of Daniel's absolute naivety.

Tom, closely followed by Lily, opened the bedroom door and headed towards the noise. Daniel thought it might be best to follow.

At the base of the spiralling staircase Tom and Lily did their best to get past the awe at such a grandiose hallway; marble floors, tall dark doors and spacious rooms flowing into one another. Tom looked across into what appeared to be the dining room to the left, and saw several smashed windows, the glass splattered across the oak table.

Sitting at the head of the table at the end of the room, hands clasped together as if in deep thought, was a young man, no older than thirty, dressed in scraps of clothes poorly strapped together, his long hazelnut hair falling down onto his shoulders.

There were several other men and women around him, dressed in similarly crudely held together clothes, admiring the room and picking up and examining the ornate objects on show. Another was just making his way through the open window, carefully avoiding the broken shards jutting out around his hands. Many had bows strung across their shoulders, or knives visibly sheathed to their sides.

"Uh, what is...what...what...?" Tom tried to say something but his words barely trickled out. He'd never been faced with robbers before. Certainly not the type who looked so casual and nonchalant about the event. The man sat at the table looked up and gazed at the three. He had the tiniest smile on his face as he stood up. His arms swung around him as if performing as he spoke.

"Consider this the inevitable comeuppance, my young friends." His voice was aristocratic but austere; a slight sharpness to it. "A crude entrance, certainly, but we needed to make our intent clear."

"And what is this intent of yours?" Lily asked.

"To collect," the man said with a smile.

He made his way around the table and approached the three. Tom immediately stepped forward and met the man, whose patchwork clothing seemed to be losing threads everywhere as he moved.

"You see, the owner of this household committed a crime; one that with this amount of money behind it," the man said, looking around the grand dining room, "will no doubt get overlooked."

"You mean, you know the guy who was murdered?"

"My father. Yes, I knew him," the man replied, bitter sorrow in his voice.

Tom thought for a moment. He could hardly defend murder. But clearly this group meant business. They wanted revenge in some way, and if that meant harming the dunce they had recently added to their group then he couldn't let it happen.

"What is it that you want?" Tom asked at last. "More to the point what is this gang of yours?"

"I am Adam and this is my band of brothers. We are collectively known by the name 'Artemis' though it's entirely superfluous."

"Sorry, was that boy band of brothers?" Lily said with a grin. She looked around for support. No one seemed to get it.

"Derek Black murdered my father, this group's leader and mentor, in cold blood. The balance needs to be rectified," Adam pulled out another chair from the table and slumped into it. "So, which one of you is Daniel Black?"

Tom looked behind him. He wasn't quite sure how much of this Daniel had taken in, but he at least knew the guy was naive enough to turn himself over.

"That's me," Tom said, staring Daniel directly in the eye, hoping he'd take the message. He didn't.

"No. I'm Daniel," Daniel stated, sounding slightly confused at this fact himself.

Adam sighed and lay back further into the dark oak chair. "Courtesy won't do much good, boys. I just need to know which of you the murderer's child is; no immediate harm will come of you."

Everyone stared at one another. Lily gave Tom a glare of 'don't bother', but he remained resilient. They both noticed, however, how unusually fierce Daniel appeared. For once he seemed resolute; fully aware of what was going on and standing his ground. It seemed like he wanted the comeuppance.

"I said which one!" Adam abruptly stood up and threw the chair across the room. It violently hit the back wall and scraped a patch of paint away.

"I'm Daniel," Tom repeated defiantly.

"I am," Daniel matched.

"Idiots!" Adam yelled. He snorted a lungful of air out of his nose and composed himself. "Tie the two of them. We'll take both with us 'til one of them drops the Spartacus routine."

Adam turned away from the three of them. One of his female followers walked towards them with a thick piece of rope that she hastily cut with a knife previously concealed in her boots. She proceeded to tie each of the boys' hands behind their backs in crude knots.

"Hey, stop that," Lily interjected, trying to shove the woman away, who responded by pointing her knife in Lily's general direction.

"Lily, don't," Tom warned. "We'll be fine."

"Are you sure?" Lily whispered, laying a hand on Tom's arm.

"I'm always up for an adventure, me," Tom said with a limp smile.

"You look after each other, OK? The rest of us will get this sorted," she said to both of them.

"It was nice to meet you Lily," Daniel said, a similarly weak smile on his face. Lily was taken aback, and gave him a hug.

"Who are you, by the way?" Adam asked from behind. Lily turned around.

"What's it to you?" she said, perhaps a tad too bluntly.

Adam snorted, "Don't try anything, my dear," He looked her up and down, "You're one of us. aren't you? I've yet to differentiate specific species but...you're definitely one with the sky." He seemed entranced as he looked her over once more. Lily was surprised but took this as an opportunity.

"Then you can trust me, right? These two haven't done anything wrong. What Daniel's father did was--"

Adam swiftly interrupted her by gently placing a finger on her lips and shaking his head.

"Don't. Try. Anything," Adam said slowly.

Lily watched, dumfounded, as Adam, followed by Daniel and Tom, who were now escorted by two gang members, all casually left the dining room and out to the grounds in front.

The door closed behind the last member of the group. The emptiness echoed around the rooms. Lily stood motionless, staring at the sparkling fractured glass on the floor.

"Shit."