"Delicious, Nancy!" Ian exclaimed, leaning back in his chair and patting his stomach. Most of the others had finished eating long before Ian had ever started on his third helping, but for as long as Charlotte had known him, Ian had loved his food and loved taking his time in eating it. It was possibly the only thing he did at a slower pace, taking his time over meals, savouring each mouthful.
"Are you sure you've had enough?" Nancy asked, a real hint of concern in her voice.
"Yes he has," Wallace answered with a disbelieving smile on her lips.
Charlotte shook her head and exhaled. How any of them could be hungry she had no idea? Hunger seemed irrelevant with what they were facing. Bubbling unease filled her insides, stole her appetite and churned in her stomach. It was surreal to think, as they sat in the happy, cluttered dining room that anything great and terrible was looming over them. They would soon be facing battle to decide their fate and now they sat around a long table chatting about the weather and food and other matters of trivial importance.
"So what are your plans tomorrow?" Ervin asked, handing his plate to Nancy as she began to clear the table.
"We're going hiking," Ethan said without hesitation.
"Really? Some good hiking spots around here. It's pretty secluded".
Charlotte shifted her weight in her seat. Nicholls' would have liked it secluded.
"You would want to be careful, though," Nancy added. "Some weird happenings up here over the past year".
"Really?" Ethan asked, tucking his blonde hair behind his ear.
"Well surely you heard about the bodies they found up at a house not too far from here," Nancy sighed.
"A big house... a reclusive billionaire owned it... or so the rumours go," Ervin added.
Charlotte bit the inside of her cheeks, staring straight ahead of her. She could feel James' gaze burning into the side of her face. Matt was staring fixedly at his hands, almost as guilty as if he had killed them himself.
"They found... I don't know how many bodies up there, unmarked, unharmed... apart from the billionaire. He did away with himself in his panic room. Man alive, what sort of panic room was needed if he felt that was his only way out. Paranoid... money does that to people".
Nancy nodded vehemently with Ervin's appraisal of the events. "Strange thing though, the dead - they were all these missing kids... or they had been. They were all grown up, but the bodies that were found, those people at one stage or another had all been kidnapped from their families. Imagine what their parents went through... to know they were still out there after all that time only to hear they had..." Nancy shuddered.
"Like those strange... monster kids you see on the television nowadays," Ervin continued. "Bless my soul if anything so terrible had happened to any of ours. And then to find out that they were dangerous, murdering types. What's the world coming to if there are people like that in it?"
"Kids corrupted by evil and money," Nancy sighed. "Too many movies and comic books. Look what they did down in D.C. It's great to know they have caught some of them at least".
"They caught some of them?" Ethan asked, his tone mildly interested.
"Didn't you hear? A couple of days ago... in North Carolina I think? Twenty or so... younger ones mind you, but with them behind bars maybe the world will be a bit of a safer place".
"Locking them up won't do any good, Nance," Ervin exhaled. "See how they escaped last time. The world just ain't safe anymore. God knows what hell they will unleash on us next. And that Mr Ramsey is working endlessly to ensure an end is put to them".
"I hear he might be putting himself forward as a candidate in the primaries".
"He'd make a good president – has a good head on his shoulders".
Ervin's words faded to a tense silence, Charlotte stared fixedly at her hands, trying not to react.
"Well I think he's an ass," Ian declared.
"Oh Ian," Nancy laughed.
"And why would you think that?" Ervin frowned.
"Well for one, he had those creatures in his care and he managed to let them all loose. He endangered us all. Having us all living in fear with those half-devil creatures running around terrorising the country". Ian's feigned outrage cut right through the tension in the room.
Ethan began to laugh.
Ervin frowned. "I hear there were others in the way, others dealing with those kids..."
"Fienes and... and..." Nancy started.
"Maxwell Smith," Charlotte offered, recalling the sweat soaked agent who had quizzed her at the compound.
"Nah they were just pawns – Ramsey is the one to watch out for. He likes this... the fear he has caused. I bet there not even that bad, those Kingston children," Ian grinned.
"Not that bad? Ian you are quirky you know that?" Nancy laughed.
"So are you saying you would turn them away if they knocked on your door?"
"I would! And with a shotgun too!" Ervin declared.
"Hardly think that would help, seeing as they are so deranged," Kiya added. "Don't they have... magical powers or something?"
"I don't believe in magic," Cary grunted. "I bet they are just extremely good at what they do".
"Talented and devastatingly handsome too I'm certain," Ian said, banging his fist on the wooden table.
"Trained killers," Ervin said with a shake of his head. "That's what they said on the news, with powers and everything – witchcraft!"
"Trained killers? We hardly stand a chance so," Ian sighed, throwing his hands up.
Charlotte laughed, despite herself. Ian stuck out his tongue at her from across the table.
"What's the world coming to?" Ethan sighed, standing up. "Now seeing as we are the guests, we will look after the tidying up. Kiya... I think Nancy looks to be getting tired... take the dishes from her".
"Don't be silly," Nancy said in an effort to dismiss such talk, but Kiya had already reached for the plates, her fingers grazing the old woman's wrinkled hands. Her eyes instantly grew heavy and she yawned. "Actually, now that you say it..." Kiya slid the dishes from her hands. "I think I'll have to call it a night".
Wallace took the plates from Kiya and with one touch of Kiya's slender brown fingers Ervin was declaring he needed to go to bed too. They watched them go, issuing their thanks and praise to their hosts. Nobody spoke until they heard a door upstairs shut.
"Let's get this tidied quick. We need to go through our plan for tomorrow," Ethan ordered, once Wallace had signalled Nancy and Ervin were in bed.
With Ian and James' alterations the table was cleared in moments. They others gathered around it once more, gazing from one to the other. The warm glow of the lamps warded off the fear of the night, but Charlotte could feel the uneasy tension permeating the atmosphere of the room. The cluttered pictures and ornaments, trophies and ribbons, did little to dissuade the notion that they were there to plan a heist that could easily end with their lives.
"So now that us devil-creatures have a chance to talk alone," Ethan began. "We need to clarify what is happening tomorrow".
Ethan stood at the top of the table, a container marked flour in his hands. He spilt it across the table. "So from what I have gleamed from the trackers you caught in the forest, Nicholls' manse is extensive – Kiya can you help please". Ethan held out his hand to Kiya. Her slender fingers tightened on his pale wrist. Long moments passed and Charlotte knew an unspoken conversation was passing between them. Annakiya smiled, as she let go of his arm. "Pass them on to James," he nodded.
James stood up without hesitation, his blonde hair tousled and his green eyes burning. Kiya grasped his wrist and waited a few moments before letting go. James frowned at Ethan as Kiya sat back down.
"Please, James," Ethan gestured to the flour on the table. James inclined his head and lifted his hand, the flour coming to life and morphing into a giant house, surrounded by acreage and forest.
Charlotte stared at it. She didn't recall the exterior of the house. She had never noticed it. Its bowels however were still etched in her mind.
"So we need to get as close to the house as we can without being detected. If we can actually breach the building itself without detection that would be our ideal scenario".
"Okay we're presuming that The Mimic is here because of what the trackers had in their heads, but now we're presuming that we can just walk in without being detected?" Ian frowned.
"Hold your questions until later, O'Connell," Cary grunted.
"We have pretty formidable alterations ourselves," Ethan sighed, "so yeah we are going to try and make it in there undetected. That means dealing with whoever we meet silently and without drawing attention to ourselves. Those trackers were mediocre at best, they were sent after us to be caught. The Mimic wants us to seek him out on his own ground and he will be expecting us".
"Take out as many as we can before we have to face him," Charlotte nodded. "Cut his army down".
"Exactly. I want to surround the house and have groups pressing in on all the major entry and exit ways. We can slow them down, force them to fight, but the smaller we can make their numbers the better. So I've split up the groups. Ian, Harris and Wallace – I want you to enter through the kitchens at the rear of the house". The flour model spun, so Ethan could indicate the French doors at the back of the building. "Cary, James and Kiya you are entering through the front of the house. And that leaves myself, Charlotte and Matt to enter through the cellar door to the basement".
Charlotte stared at the model as it moved, pushing away her last memories of the basement. She couldn't leave the past hold her back.
"James you need to seal all other means of escape from the house. Windows, doors... everything. Learn this model. Once we're in, know how to seal every exit".
"We're going to seal ourselves in too?" Wallace frowned.
Ethan paused for a moment. "I don't see a way back from this. We win or..." he shrugged. "This isn't something we can lose and survive".
Silence enveloped the table again. The weight of their reality was beginning to sink in.
"It's what we're trained for," Charlotte finally offered. "We are not supposed to be afraid of death, and if we don't stop these people we are only going to fear living. We are an obstacle in their path. Our defeat is not their end goal. They want to dominate this world. They want to make the ordinary people second class citizens and rule over them with their alterations. They see themselves as Gods, and we are the only ones who can stop them. We are the only ones who even know about them. To the world we are still the villains".
"Charlotte's right," Ethan nodded. "If we win this, we have a chance, a slim chance, but at least a chance. It's bigger than us, bigger than what we've gone through and what we've lost to get to this point. We can't back out now. James and Kiya have had their lives altered beyond recognition. They have lost their past to these people. They have had their alterations stolen. We have been torn apart. We have been painted as the villain, driven from every sanctuary we tried to find. We have been hunted, attacked and demonised, all because they are annoyed we upset their way of life. They might have been happy working for the patrons, but we fought for more than that and we cannot give up now. Everything on Kingston cannot have been in vain. The friends that we've lost... Iseult... their lives cannot have been in vain. You know what we have to do – tomorrow before dusk we will make our way on foot towards Nicholls' and we will rip The Mimic and his followers apart".
Nobody cheered or yelled. Nobody jumped out of their seats with enthusiasm, but the unease that had permeated the room was now intermingled with determination and purpose. Charlotte could only imagine what the next day would hold, but at that moment, she felt she could defeat whatever it threw at her.
Thanks so much for reading Feared! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and that the anticipation is building! Please vote, comment and share my story with your friends if you would be so kind! I really appreciate all your support! Sorcha x