My mother was the person who knew me best, and she would always say that I will get into trouble all my life.
It was a long corridor. Right next to me was a person who I’ve meet in a very strange way. Who would have thought that my addiction could get me into this whole mess.
“Are you even listening? This whole meeting will determine if you live or die. Start taking this whole situation seriously if you don’t want this corridor to be the last thing you ever see.”
My head turned to him the second I heard him speak. His usually dead eyes were now flaming with anger. I knew he was determined to get me in this place, that’s why he wasn’t going to let me go into the next room without the information I needed to leave alive.
“Right, sorry. May you repeat what you said a few seconds ago?” I asked.
With an exaggerated sigh he continued “In the room at the end is the conference room. That is where we usually do our meetings and reports. When we enter, don’t be surprised that everyone is wearing a mask. It is a protocol that we use so nobody knows who anyone is in case someone goes corrupt and tries to kill another member of Simon.”
“Is that what those gas masks are for?” I interrupted.
“Yes. Mine is this one, while yours is this gas mask. Couldn’t find a better one, sorry.” He continued. “Some of the members have same colored masks, that means they work in the same department, or in the same part of the city. Max is the only one who knows how everyone looks like, he is our leader.”
“How do you know his name? You’ve just said you don’t know who anyone is.” I questioned him further.
“It is a code name. Nobody knows who he is or where he is. He leads everything just from phone calls. Nobody knows where he lives or how he sounds. His mask has a voice changer so even if we tried to find him just by voice alone, it would be useless. All we know is that he isn’t the tallest person out there, maybe 5’ 9”, and all you need to know is that what he says, you do. He comes last into the conference room, leaves first, and whether he is coming in or leaving, bow deeply from the waist down. If you don’t, you are done for.” he finished.
“I’ll take that as a sign he has a gun with him.” I tried to lighten up the heavy atmosphere, adding a low chuckle at the end of my sentence.
“Everyone does, multiple guns actually. Also everyone has a least 3 knives so be careful to sit at a distance where they can’t reach you with their arm span.” he added.
I nodded and continued following him. My eyes were glued to the carpet covered floor, the man’s feet leaving my vision in perfectly timed periods. He was tall, probably a good three inches taller than me, with a slim frame that went well with his slim face. His tired eyes seemed to be pulled down by the sides, almost meeting his high cheekbones, while his mouth rested quite low compared to the rest of his face. His hair was a dark shade of brown, matching his eyes, long and slicked back so it didn’t fall into his eyes. With a denim jacket covering his wide shoulders and his height, he looked quite intimidating.
I halted my pace down the hallway, with the guy noticing immediately and turning around to face me. I stayed quiet looking at the floor, while he stared at me. When I figured out he wasn’t going to ask me what is wrong, I looked up at him, immediately being greeted with raising shoulders as if to ask ‘what are you waiting for?’ I gulped and finally asked
“Why am I even here? What do you want from me?”
The man rolled his eyes dramatically and extended an arm, aiming to grab mine and physically pull me down the rest of the corridor. We were just a few steps away from the door. I retreated my hand.
“No! I’m not continuing until you answer me!” I shouted.
He quickly came over to me and covered my mouth with his hand and brought up his pointer finger to his mouth to show me to quiet down.
“Okay, okay! I’ll tell you but you have to keep quiet, there is a possibility they can hear us because we are close to the door.” He whisper-yelled at me. “Now listen to me because I will say this only once, you are not even supposed to know this.” After I nodded, he continued.
“One of our members was recently shot and killed by the police and we are currently a man down. Max asked us to look for somebody to recruit and tell him when we find someone. The guy that died was the main drug lord in your area and he knew everyone that sold drugs in your part of the city. I thought it would be easier to find someone who already knows all the drug dealers in the area to fill the empty place in our group, but I couldn’t afford to lose track of you, so I decided to bring you right here as soon as I could. Technically you are not even supposed to be at this meeting.”
“Oh cool, so my addiction actually has something else to it other than disappointing my parents.” I added sarcastically. His face didn’t even show and ounce of emotion so my self-degrading joke went up the wind. He handed me my mask, alongside with a knife.
“What is the knife for?” I questioned while looking at the black blade he gave me. By the time I actually looked back up at him, he put on his mask. It seemed to resemble a fencing mask, only it was covered with color shifting jewels. A cloth that was hanging off of the mask hid his neck, now the only skin showing was that on his skin.
“Self defense. Not that it will work in a gun fight, it is more of a comfort that you have a chance to escape if it gets to that.” he answered.
I let out a sound to show that I understood and put on my mask. For a gas mask, it was pretty hard to breathe with it on.
“One last thing. I don’t know how many of us are currently in there, may be 2, may be 19. With Max, there is 21 of us. I’ll sit down with the others, you will stand by the door. If only one seat is empty, stand in front of the door when we enter, if there are more members who have to show up, stand next to the door, your hands clasped in front of you. You need to show that you are not a threat. It helps if you keep your eyes closed while they pass. Under no circumstances are you to follow them with your gaze. Everyone remains motionless until Max appears. Also, if Max asks you anything, just say you don’t know. There were some bad instances before with people being killed by outing each other like that. Got it?”
I nodded and with that he turned and headed towards the mahogany double door. There was a finger pad on the left side of the door. In just a few seconds the light above the pad turned green and the man pushed the doors open.
The lights were a total contrast to the dimly lit hallway. The whole room was lit by chandeliers that were hanging from the comically high ceiling. The floor was a good meter below the entrance so there was a set of wide marble stairs. The floor itself was made of marble tiles, so were the pillars in the corners of the room. The walls were a burgundy red that matched the carpet in the hallway and decorated with expensive looking paintings. In the ceiling above the center of the room was a dome with renaissance like illustrations on it, contrasting the rest of the marble ceiling. I assumed that it was made of glass before, but remodeled so the room didn’t have any entrance or exit points despite the doors on separate sides of the room. Right below was a gigantic conference table made of mahogany to match the doors. And around the table were chairs. The man went up to take a seat in the closest chair to the door. With him seated, there was only one chair left empty. The doors closed behind me automatically, so I stayed on top of the staircase, clasped my hands in front of me and waited.
Until Maxes arrival I had all the time to examine the people sitting around the table. The man didn’t lie, there were people with similar masks. Just 4 chairs to the mans left was a person with a fencing mask covered in broken mirror shards. There was also a person who had color shifting jewels on their mask, but instead of a fencing mask, it was a cloth covered in flower corsages. The person had a really small frame so there was a chance it was a woman sitting between them. There was this eerie atmosphere around them all. After the man joined them, they sat there, completely motionless, not talking, not moving, just looking in front of them, as if they were robots waiting for a command.
Above the opposing door was a clock. The time was currently 21:59, 30 seconds until 22:00. He will probably come any second. I could feel my pulse skyrocket and my fingers twitch with every second that passed, so I gripped my hands tighter together and started counting down the seconds in my head.
Just in time, the door on the other side beeped and like on command, all the people around the table stood up in union and bowed. I bowed with them.
The voice was distorted just like the man said. A voice changer was in the pearl covered gas mask that lied on top of Maxes head. Even though his frame was smaller for a man, he had an aura around him that could make anybody obey him. He truly was the intimidating gang leader. He had a black denim jacket with singular red stripes on each of his sleeves, a simple white t-shirt underneath, baggy black pants and high lace up boots. No guns or knives were visible on him so I could probably say with guarantee that he had holsters in his jacket. There was no rush in his step while he descended down the stairs. His shoulders were loose as he moved almost mockingly, flailing his hands dramatically as he got to his seat.
“You have 10 seconds to tell me why you are here or you are lunch meat for my dogs. Use them wisely.” Max warned while he kicked back in his chair, lifting his feet up to rest them on the table.
“I don’t know sir. I was just told to stand here and wait.” I answered.
“And who told you that? Who brought you here?” Max pushed on with his interrogation.
“I’m afraid I don’t know the answer to that one either. I had a bag over my head so I couldn’t see who kidnapped me.” I lied.
Max hummed to himself after I finished talking, slowly rising from his chair. He started walking towards me slowly and I tried to remain calm, but my nerves were getting to me slowly.
“Relax, nobody here is going to harm you. But I have to figure out why you are here.” He joined his hands as if he is addressing to a child. “Tell me about yourself, but don’t say your name yet. It is kind of a thing for nobody to know who is who in this group, makes it a lot…safer.” He added.
The air became thicker and thicker the closer Max got to me, so by the time I finally got enough air in my lungs to start talking, he was already in front of me, showing me to lean down and whisper me his name.
“I like it. I like it a lot. Tell me more.” He pushed.
“I’m 27 years old. I live in the old part of town alone.” I continued.
“Alone in the old part of town, huh?” he questioned. “No girlfriend? I can arrange you one quickly. And in the old part of town you say? No money for anything fancier?” he finished.
“Girls don’t really like junkies. And that also answers the second question.” I sighed.
Max snapped his fingers, finally realizing why I was here. He turned quickly and went back to the table where all the other members were still sitting motionless.
“Now it all makes sense. Someone from the group brought you here for me to recruit you. Let me ask a bit further. How many drug dealers are in the old part of town?” He pressed further with the interrogation.
“You don’t even need to learn the new names. Honestly, you seem like a perfect candidate. I just have one more question for you.” He said.
“How many chairs were empty when you got into the room?” He questioned, shifting his weight in the chair to put his elbows on the table and plop his head on top of his laced fingers
My breathing and pulse quickened again. Man this mask is annoying, too heavy and too sweaty. I gulped and answered.
“One. Your chair only, sir.”
He stood the second I gave him an answer. Walking up to me he pulled out his gun. The sight itself made my heart stop, expecting the worst, not knowing the temper of the leader of Simon. I closed my eyes and bit down on my lip to stop a whimper from coming out, only to be greeted by a sensation of something being put in my hands. When I opened my eyes, Max was looking directly at me, holding the barrel of the gun in his hand, while pushing the grip into my hands. After grabbing the gun in my hands he checked.
“Have you ever shot a gun?”
“No, n- not really.” I stuttered.
“It is easy. Keep the hand you are gripping the gun with straight, and shoot.” He demonstrated with another gun and shot the clock on the other side of the room. It fell of the wall and shattered on impact with the floor. Throughout the whole shoot out, none of the members moved a muscle. They really had nerves of steel. I wondered what they had to go through for them to be that unbothered. Max really is an enemy you don’t want.
“If I am to recruit you, you have to know some rules about the meetings.“ he said and turned to go down the stairs again. “First, as I believe you noticed, there is no talking or moving unless I say so.” He continued as the climbed the table and stood at the center of it. “Second, these meetings are weekly and I expect to be given reports every week on every gain and every loss we have, whether it be man power, guns, drugs, materials, enemies… anything.” He started slowly pacing in a circle while he was talking. “Third, I don’t like to be lied to like you just did.”
At his words I froze. How did he know I lied? Am I really that bad at lying or is he really that intuitive? Even if it was just a guess, I revealed myself by visibly twitching at his words and faintly gasping.
“I know you know who brought you here because there is no other way for you to be here. As you noticed, the doors have finger pads on them, so anyone who doesn’t have their thumb in the data base can’t enter without help.” He elaborated.
“Fourth, I don’t like surprises. I believe the person who brought you here must have forgotten that rule. With that knowledge being taken into consideration, they are replaceable just like the idiot you are about to replace. So, as a sign of your loyalty to me, I will give you a simple task.” He stopped his pacing around the table top.
“Kill the person who brought you here. If you do, you are officially in Simon. If you kill somebody else, I’ll just ask the other members if you killed the correct person. In that case, then both you and the person who brought you here will die. Simple.” He ended the monologue with a simple shrug of his shoulders and got of the table and back into his seat.
My hands began to shake so much I almost dropped the gun in my hands. There were so many questions jumping around in my head I could feel my head buzzing like an angry honeycomb. Yet, my mind was completely blank, as if there was a fog around my head. My heart was beating against my rib cage so strongly I got concerned if it will break my ribs from the inside. Suddenly, it was too hot and too cold at the same time and my knees were getting weak.
“The stage is all yours. Come up here and give us a show we will remember.” Max called out and it brought me back to reality. Slowly, one shaky step in front of the other, I got closer to the group of people who are about to become my colleagues. Still no movement from any of them. I figured out a while ago that it isn’t as creepy as it was weird for a group of people to be so obedient to one man. I got up slowly on the table and stilted my movements when I got to the center of the mahogany piece of furniture. I decided to take a closer look at all the masks. I wondered how some of them could actually see what was happening, especially the guy who had a mask covered with streams and chains. When I finished taking everyone in, I turned towards the man who got me into the room and pointed my gun at him.
“Oooh, so it was you Johnny?” Max pondered as he let out a gasp of surprise.
“Someone had to find a replacement, so I took it upon myself knowing that the leaders of the old part of town won’t do jack shit.” Johnny spat back sarcastically.
“True, they are pretty useless, but it is the best we have. Surprised you wanted to get into that part of the city. I know how much you hate it, and I wouldn’t blame you. You were used to luxury, especially in the new part of town next to the water.”
“It was for the benefit of Simon. I’m glad I got to do one last favor to this gang before being killed.” Johnny chuckled.
“Take off your mask Johnny.” Max demanded.
Without any resistance, Johnny took off his jewel covered mask and showed his face to his members for the first time. He set the fencing mask on the table and looked up at his future murderer. His eyes were no longer dead and lifeless, they had quite the glassy shine to them. He was on the verge of tears, the fear of death finally getting to him.
“Is this the man who brought our soon to be new member in?” Max asked the other members. In union all of the members nodded their head once.
“You may continue.” Max finished.
“Make it quick.” Johnny pleaded, to which I complied.
“I’m sorry.” I mumbled. I grabbed the gun with both my hands, closed my eyes and pulled the trigger. There was a loud bang, followed by a thump, which I assumed was his body sliding off the chair and falling on the floor. There was a moment of silence before I heard slow clapping behind me. Max was already out of his chair as if to give me a standing ovation.
“Honestly, I was starting to doubt if you had the balls to pull the trigger. Congratulations. You are now a member of Simon.” He chimed.
I nodded and got off the table on the side where Max was standing. Clenching the barrel firmly in my fist I turned the grip of the gun towards him the same way he did to me. He happily took it back and pulled me aside.
“As a way to show you my gratitude and welcome to the group, I will show you my face.”
This was the first time the group behind showed any kind of human emotion. There were a couple of soft gasps and scoffs, but still no movements. Before I knew it, Max made me face the group, while he showed them his back. He grabbed the edge of his mask and pulled it up slowly, not taking it off fully. What I saw was a man my age, with blond hair, eyes as black as night and features so sharp they could cut glass. What I wasn’t expecting was to actually recognize the face, let alone a dead man’s face.
baratheonpilled
germansingergirl
kianamaiart
theartofmadeline
dailybridgerton
tangentwithtanner
titsay
romaincrisis
gummygunk
