Volume VI: And Introducing Harley Morrow As - Herself

13. Between Black and White

        The family dealt with itself, leaving behind most of what we had left. Most of us were orphans anyway, either by choice or fate, that’s where we ended up. Layne still had family though, he had blood on his side; we weren’t all that shocked when his little brother joined the act. Introducing Grey Solace, baby brother to Layne Solace; both being the...pride and joy of Max Solace. Nobody asked about the boy’s mother, nobody saw her or heard from her. After awhile of this, people began to catch on. They called it into question.

        She was gone - she’d been gone for ages. Ever since Layne left.

        So hence, Grey stumbled into our able hands. Layne taught him all he knew, and then some. Bright kid, I’d been in school with him forever, I knew him since I was knee high. He was always weird, always eccentric, so his turn to us wasn’t that surprising. What took him so long to get here was his own concern. He had to know about us, word was spreading fast. Why the delay? Why not come when we started it?

                Because Doyle delivered him to us. When the cops were after him.

        That boy was all kinds of trouble. He’d been working back and forth for Doyle and Cassidy, moving between the operations. For those of us playing the at-home game, Cassidy worked under Doyle. He was the name and face for the public to associate with, but Doyle still pulled the strings. He would pull the trigger if he had to, no matter how much he liked Cass, if he ever forgot his place. He’d knocked him around a few times to cement the idea in his mind. He was good at what he did though, he could go anywhere in the dark and get away with it. In the light of day, it was debatable. But he was the ideal creature of the night. Perfect street demon.

        Grey joined the crew and we made room, as we were obliged to do, being real blood family after all. Sometimes you just have to make exceptions. He was part of the group on the sidelines for a while by association, but now things were in stone and legit. He was really a part of it. His presence only added to the tension though. He was Layne’s brother and we saw him as such for most of his first time with us. He would always be Layne’s smaller shadow, though he was the furthest thing from an accurate representation of Layne himself. Serkis was the one above all to know this - it wasn’t that hard to see. He was family, sure, but he could never be what Layne was. Never. Now that’s got to be frustrating.

        He got by, and we all did. But tensions grew, as were expected. He knew things that Layne had locked away, forgotten intentionally or chose to neglect. And he was eager to make new friends, a little too eager to share. And he couldn’t hold things down too well, drugs and alcohol anyway. He was a kid, as we all were at heart, but he was too young for this game. Then again, weren’t we all? I came into this young and here I am, two whole years later. And still kicking. But was I too young? Too foolish. Was I ready for this? Is anybody? How can you prepare for things like this anyway? They just kind of come up on you and you handle it or you don’t. Do or don’t. Live or die. That’s how the game’s played. Because in the end, that’s all this is. A game.

        An act. A show. Welcome to my world. You can take a seat down front.

        We’ll be starting shortly.

        There are a few things that can’t be done alone.

        Playing Russian roulette is one of them.

        The game is simple - one bullet, spin the chamber, put it to your head - pull the trigger. And then, it’s up to Fate. Whether you live or die is up to where that solitary bullet lands.

        Why is an audience necessary?

        Intimidation. For the sole purpose of psyching out the individual.