The Mysterious Demon

-Dominic-

“I assure you, Arthur, everything’s fine and I’ll see you as soon as I can,” I try to reassure Arthur who was on the other side of my phone call. He had been blowing my phone up this past week but because of everything that’s happened, I hadn’t been able to get in contact with him until now when I was less than five minutes away from my house.

He had told me that he needed me to explain everything to him, that he needed to hear the truth and that he needed to talk to Nick properly as well. I jokingly asked if he wouldn’t lash out like he did before but he gave me an unsure, “I can’t promise you” before carrying on. It was worrying sure, but there had been so much going on that this now seemed almost insignificant. Almost.

“Is he still mad?” Nick asks from behind me, the rest of the guys following pursuit too.

“Seems like it,” I answer.

In terms of Nick’s now former gang, they all separated to go home after that night but it wasn’t a goodbye. Everyone left thinking that this was a new beginning, a new chapter to their lives. Some were comfortable in the environment they were in and wanted to continue in drugs and crime, no one stopped them. Other’s thought they’d take the opportunity to start something completely different. In general, no one left angry or dissatisfied. The group even agreed that they would all meet annually and do some kind of event. This year was camping, maybe next year it’ll be a dance. Regardless, we agreed we’d do it together and it would be crazy.

We also all agreed to stay in touch more, visit around and see each other more individually.

Agreeing to all of these things felt off to me as if we were making new year resolutions but in late March. It seemed so weird to be so happy and… peaceful?

My body wouldn’t relax and I wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t that I felt that anyone there was a bad person, a lot of them were really friendly and didn’t present themselves to have any hidden agendas. I would know since I’ve been around a lot of people who have. And yet my body felt it was ready to fight. That something would go wrong.

In any case, I stopped outside of the door to my house which made the rest of the guys pause too but although they probably thought I stopped because of keys, I actually stopped because even while I was here, I didn’t feel comfortable. Granted, I never had.

I had only started paying for this house before losing to King. I built this off of reducing money, my last winnings, until I had picked up the business and afforded the place that way, but the feeling never left me, I’d go as far as to say it haunted me.Content from NôvelDr(a)ma.Org.

It was why I never liked being at home and left everything almost looking minimalistic. My room was supposed to bring me peace by being simple but instead, it emphasised my feeling of loneliness, leaving me trapped in my thoughts.

I’d often wake up, curling myself in as tight as I could to get away from the walls or I’d go to sleep tugging at my hair to try and stop my head from spinning. It never worked.

I didn’t want our moment of victory and peace to be ruined in this way though so I pushed the feeling back quickly, knowing none of the guys would have noticed anyway.

I had forgotten that Arthur was on the phone because he hadn’t said anything at that moment too, “Arthur?” I asked through the phone, looking down at it as I opened the door and let us inside, thinking I may have hung up by accident.

However, just as I looked up from the phone, I and Nick from what I felt, had been engulfed in a hug. It left us both pretty confused, especially since it was Arthur that we had received it from. He was still pretty tall in comparison to me and only a little taller than Nick so it wasn’t hard to tell.

I had thought that meeting him again would mean another argument, a fight, a need to have him understand but this… this was unexpectedly pretty nice.

I glanced at Nick who had done the same to me and after conversing mentally a little, we both went to hug Arthur back with the one arm that we each had available, the other being too squished.

“I’m glad you’re both safe,” We hear him say which brings a warm feeling into my chest. Up until now, I was hearing nice things from people I hardly knew so the feelings didn’t quite hit, not the way that these current ones did. Hearing my brother say something so caring to both Nick and me, was a calmer feeling on its own.

We pulled apart a little after, smiles evident on all of our faces, Nick’s was a little more nervous though until Arthur’s hand rubbed behind his neck and he says, “I’m sorry for being as angry as I was before instead of confronting you properly,”

Nick straight away shakes his head negatively, “No, you had every right to be angry, I’m sorry,” he turned his head to me, “To the both of you,” he continues, “I’m a dick,”

“Was a dick,” Zack came in, swinging an arm around Nick’s shoulders, “Now I think he the balls,”

Jake tutted though as he walked forward too, “Maybe just one ball, still needs to grow the second,” he turns to Blake, “Right bro?”

Blake then makes a face as if pretending to think about it, the act was quite cute, “Sorry Jake, the way he disbanded the gang definitely took multiple balls,”

“Do they do this often?” Arthur whispers to me, I was relieved to think I wasn’t the only one who thought this conversation was weird but I laughed anyway.

“But he did do it whilst almost shaking so I don’t know Blake,” Jason too? I started genuinely laughing at this point, Arthur and the other guys laughing in the background too until,

“Wait, The Skulls and Bones are disbanded?” The voice was a mildly familiar one but it wasn’t familiar enough to be considered safe. I grabbed the gun out of Nick’s backpack pocket and swiftly pointed it in the direction that the voice came from. However, I was left shocked when seeing who was there.

It was Jordan.

The rest of the guys were as shocked as I were. Despite not being in a gang anymore, it didn’t instantly take away their reflexes, they were armed and they were ready to shoot as I was. I just hoped it could be avoided or if it were to start anything, the house went down with it.

What ended up breaking us away from our trance surprisingly was Arthur, “Do you guys know each other?” I looked at Arthur with a confused look on my face.

“Do you know him?” I asked and Arthure looked back at me as if confused as to why I was confused.

“The Men of Mayhem were allied with the Scorpians. A lot of our information was gathered from them and Jordan became one of my closest friends,” What a small world. “I thought you knew since Jordan was also how Xavier got some of his information too, in terms of gangs and what The Men of Mayhem were doing anyway.” It was this piece of information that had me fully turn my attention away from Jordan and completely onto Arthur but before I could question him further, Blake took a step in front of me and questioned Jordan first.

“What are you doing here?” His voice was low and threatening, something I didn’t hear often but it sent a shiver down my spine, I enjoyed it.

“I thought I could talk to Dominic but since you’re all here, I might as well tell you all,” Jordan starts, looking around and getting a nod of approval from Arthur. “I left the Scorpians and we need to be protected.”

“We?” I asked whilst also noting what he said. It wasn’t surprising that he left, when I knew him from before the whole gang business, Jordan was a good guy, but to ask for protection from people he tried to kill?

After I asked my question, a woman emerged from the other side of the wall. She had a round face and her defining feature was her short curly ginger hair that shone under the sun but it was the combination of both which made me speculate.

Jordan seemed to know what I was thinking or trying to figure out because he introduces her, “This is Anna,”

“She’s..?” I start, in my head finished the sentence, ‘-the girl you used to tell me about?’ Jordan reads the question perfectly and nods with a smile, confirming it. It’s that which makes me lower my gun. If I were to guess the reason why Jordan joined the gang, it was to protect Anna. Her family being tied with people that also had strong links to the Scorpians was dangerous and he’d often tell me he wished there was a way to break her out of it.

This must be it.

I spent quite a while getting Nick and the guys to ease up to Jordan. I didn’t blame them for being so hostile considering the gang’s biggest enemy was the Scorpians in the first place but by using what Jordan did for me while I was in prison, I at least got them to listen.

I spent a lot of time with Anna as well. For some reason, I was able to feel at ease with her a little. Our upbringing was nothing alike but being with her was a lot of fun. I could tell I was helping her ease into the situation as well. It made sense she was uncomfortable around so many people she only knew for being violent and criminals, myself included, but after a bit, I got her to open up a bit and genuinely enjoyed her company.

It was midnight when we were able to settle things with some kind of agreement. There wasn’t complete trust but Jordan and Anna both thanked me for listening to them and helping them with Nick and the rest before they went towards a hotel they’d be staying. This truce we had would ensure that we protected them but as individuals rather than a gang so if they did get involved in something troublesome at night, we couldn’t say we’d be there for them and couldn’t risk getting caught up in it but we would be watching.

I couldn’t fully trust them either.

Regardless, after they left so did everyone else until my house was almost empty. Blake was going to go home too but before he could leave, I got anxious and held him back by holding a little of his shirt from behind. “Don’t leave,” I say in a quiet voice and he doesn’t question me any further, he keeps me company. We get to my room and on my bed, he holds me close. I didn’t think I’d be comfortable with it considering what happened with Tyler but with Blake all of my muscles were relaxed and I felt like I couldn’t be more comfortable and trusting with anyone else.

“I haven’t had you all to myself in a while,” he says softly and he plays with the ends of my hair. “I missed you,”

I look up so that our faces are only a couple of centimetres apart, breaths dancing together as I say,

“I missed you more.”

(Authors note: The next chapter will be NSFW so please take that into consideration before reading. Let’s just say, it’ll get pretty hot.

Talking about getting hot, I’d greatly appreciate it if you guys followed me on my growing Instagram y_siddiqui_ where I post about my stories as well as my recently added self-published book, Succumb To Beauty, which is now available on Amazon worldwide and it’d mean the world if you could check them out!

Thank you so much for your support and patience. From, Your loving Author)