concealing ➸ tomlinson

xlvii

late-ish update for the occasion but this update's for christian!! happy days!! :D

-

jacob did, in fact, talk to the two boys luke had been chased by less than 24 hours later.

outside again, jacob exhaled a long cloud of smoke. "how ready are you guys?"

eli- the first boy, as luke had identified him as- shrugged. "when is she going to be ready, exactly?"

"kris won't be that hard to convince. emotional manipulation works wonders."

the second, joseph, glanced over at him. "if it does work, we'll still have to watch over the room?"

jacob nodded. "the new kids are headstrong cunts. especially michael, he'll probably end up being our biggest outside problem. but just do whatever works to keep them away."

the three of them stood outside in silence after that. jacob wasn't as edgy as they were about the plan. they'd had well over a year to fine tune every detail a person could possibly imagine. jumping from person to person, bringing in people and removing others, in a matter of the term. each of the remaining three knew that the first phase would have to be put into motion within the month. jacob was being optimistic with himself when he hoped for a two week maximum to finish things up.

"i'll explain things to kris before the end of the week." jacob decided aloud, snuffing out his cigarette on his jacket sleeve and dropping the rest onto the sidewalk.

he began to make his way back to the garage, but stopped just outside. after a few seconds of rather weak debate, jacob turned around again. "think you two can handle another quick job?"

eli and joseph looked at each other for a moment, then at jacob, smiled, and nodded.

-

there was a secret door.

that information itself was not new to a growing number of people. to kris, though, it was to be the first in a series of new revelations that would be coming that evening.

two days had passed since jacob had conversed with eli and joseph about their plan. he was beginning to get excited for what was to come, although he was rather quiet about it externally.

"why is this here?" kris asked, dragging her hand against the wall for some form of bearing.

jacob, keeping about three steps ahead of her, didn't answer for a while. he focused himself more on not running into the damn door. the "no proper lighting" situation was really an annoying one; to be fair, one to be short-lived.

"my guess," he said, brushing his hand against the doorknob, "the place had more rooms than they knew what to do with, and people just forgot about them. hid them."

kris could accept that. she heard the click of the door, and a few seconds passed before some lights were switched on. the door led into a room, maybe the size of the classroom she'd been introduced to louis in. aside from a few tables pushed together to make one and cabinets along the lower portion of the wall, the room was empty.