The Stronghold

Be Original, Evil People

"So your phone just exploded?" Dad said as Josh tied my hand up in a bandage. I nodded and winced.

"Too tight?" Josh guessed. As part of his soldier training he had to learn first aid, something he was very skilled at.

"He's just a wimp," Salt said, swinging his legs back and forth. Georgina tipped up the table he was sat on and he thumped to the floor, wailing.

"I'm a wimp?" I said scornfully.

"I was forcefully thrown to the floor!" Salt cried.

"I don't choose to have a bandage around my hand but apparently it helps with healing."

"So does quiet," Josh muttered. I promptly shut my mouth and gave Salt a stern glare. My brother stormed out of the room, grumbling. He passed Tom and Shaade in the doorway, knocking them both aside.

"What's got into him?" Tom asked. Georgina grinned and I gave her a warning look.

"Pepper has." She said it anyway.

"Oh? Is there something you're not telling me?" Tom said, trying not to laugh. Shaade bounced across the room and linked his arm through mine.

"Welcome to the family!" he said cheerfully. "Rainbow cookies are on the left, strippers are on the right."

I untangled myself from Shaade and slowly backed away. Josh rolled his eyes but said nothing, dragging Shaade backwards out of the room.

"Who phoned you?" Dad asked.

"I don't know. I sort of recognised the voice but it had been tampered with."

"The creepy skin people, perhaps?" Emmi suggested.

"Somehow I doubt it."

"We have freedom, remember?" Rebecca reminded her.

"So they should leave us alone," Sophie finished.

"People don't always keep their promises," Dad said, his eyes clouding over as he remembered something. "I know that for a fact."

"Human nature," Tom said wisely. "We get a secret, we feel compelled to share it. We make a promise, we forget. We forget, we lie. We lie, we hurt people. We hurt people..."

"They die?" Rebecca said a little too hopefully.

"No, they hurt us." Tom came and joined me in leaning on the wall by the window. "There is something seriously odd about her."

"Not my division," I shrugged.

"Neither is it mine," Dad said. "Despite me being the responsible adult."

"We're all adults!" Rebecca cried. "We can look after ourselves!"

Everyone turned to give her disbelieving, doubtful looks. She lowered her head and sent volts of electricity burning through the ground.

"Not nice!"

"Sanders!"

"Ow!"

"You're all wimps. Ouch!" I sprang up into the air as I got a blast of electricity, Pokemons flying at me, imaginary characters, ice, fists and claws all aimed at my face.

"Leave me alone!" I howled, ducking under the onslaught and sprinting out of the room.

*

Pacing my room anxiously I was well aware of the eyes on me. Tom, Georgina, Salt and Shaade were all sat on my bed. Sophie was crouched on the floor, Emmi was sat next to her, Rebecca was floating off the floor and Josh was stood by the door. Dad had his arms folded and was standing a few feet in front of me. Whenever I reached him I would spin on my heel and walk back the way I came, hands behind my back.

"Calm down," Georgina said, breaking the tense silence. "I'm sure it's nothing."

Let me backtrack slightly. The day after my phone exploded I received a letter. I don't understand what it is with mysterious companies and peoples sending me letters all the time but it still manages to freak me out when I receive one.

This letter was burnt, and battered, and water damaged. When I opened it the paper crumpled immediately, sticking to my hand.

I unpeeled it and read it aloud.

"Dear sir,

'We have already proved to you that we do not care for trivial pains. Your burnt hand and exploding phone show the detail, the care we put into our work.

'But for you we make another allowance. Your ineptitude at playing by the rules has shown us that you need special tricks to make you play our games.

'These tricks come in the forms of bribery, or blackmail, or even torture. But we do none of this - we play by our own rules.

'There are two people you may know held at a shopping centre near here. The shopping centre has multiple floors and these two people will be moved around a lot.

'All we ask you to do is play a game of tig. Our game of tig.

'Your freedom is over, Super Glitches.

'Yours, Hurricane."

"But what if they're being truthful?" I cried, raking my hands through my hair. "What if they do have two people that we know?"

"Then who cares? Our friends and family are all dead," Rebecca shrugged. "We don't have anyone to turn to."

"There's always my sister," Salt said quietly. We all turned to look at him and he kept on speaking, looking at the floor.

"She never died. She was taken, held hostage by Albin. Dad, sorry. But now you've left, she would have been given to another organisation. Hurricane, probably.

'She could be there."

"Let's go," I said immediately. "We are going to that freaking shopping centre right now."