Free Web NovelChapter 31: Knock Knock
A crow came flying toward the Grim Palace, perched quietly on the windowpane, it bobbed its head left to right. The night was dark, the moon high up. A hand with skin as white as the moon petted the crows head.
"What did you see?"
"Some real bull-crap." The crow responded with perfect enunciation, it’s voice deep and gravelly, like metal blades scratching over concrete.
***
A man in a butler uniform sat on a boulder. Behind him stretched the most dangerous forest in the world, pink and purple mist flew around with sparkles here and there. Just a whiff of it, and it would be over.
He held a piece of paper, his thin eyes narrowing even further as he read it.
"My, my... things might be getting interesting."
***
"Ya new here, young man?" The coach driver asked his guest. Holding his hat down, the guest smirked.
"Just reached today."
"Business?"
"Pretty much,"
"Hah!" The coachman whipped his reins and laughed. "That’s good. Crazy things are happening in Serenia these days. It’s best to do your thing and leave."
The tattoo of a cross with three concentric circles on his palm gleaned.
"I hope the same," said he.
The coachman didn’t say much after that, small talk, and the traveller engaged before their stop came. The traveller tossed him a bag of coin and got off, his suitcase tightly gripped in his hand.
"Hmm... Serenia city is very unlike the capital," he muttered. The man went through the streets, this area in particular was where most of the government employees were housed. 2nd Circle Street, close to the Ring Road, right behind the Tax Collector’s office.
His steps guided him across the buildings, until finally he stopped in front of one particularly old house. Old, it only seemed due to its architecture. Nothing about the maintenance of the place could make one think this house was not lively and vibrant.
He pushed the door of the premise and stepped inside, stopping in front of the house’s gate.
-Knock Knock.
"Who’s there."
"Hoo..." Lorenzo sighed. What kind of criminals asked.
"Hoo who?"
"Hoo who?"
"Who’s hoo? Hoo who?"
"An owl?"
"Hoo hoo!"
"Fucking hell. It’s me, Lorenzo."
Snap. The door opened. A bald man with a large scar running down his head looked at the guest with widened eyes.
"S-Sir Consigliere!" The caporegime of the Torville Gang was there, greeting his senior. "I thought it was someone making a joke."
Lorenzo, the traveller, pressed his hat further down and sighed. "It’s good to see you too, Almond."
Almond Nooran, the Caporegime, moved away and let his senior come in.
"T-thank god you’re here," Almond said. "They are going wild. We took our best chance to hide here."
"No one would expect you here anyway," said Lorenzo. He passed by the storeroom before going to the hall of the house, and pushed the door open. Tied up with their feet and hands were two men, one old and one young. Lorenzo asked, "Owners?"
"Yes."
"Hmm. Get some tea."
He moved to the living room and sat down. Other members of the Torville Gang were also hiding here, many of them broken up here and there but a vast majority in this house.
No one would have expected the criminals to have infiltrated the house where the City Guards’ treasurer and their son lived. The disappearance would be odd on other days, but with a leave application they coerced the treasurer into, a week or two would be no problem.
Lorenzo opened a notebook and crossed his leg. Almond sat near him while another member bought him his tea alongside some snacks. For all the infiltration, the Torville members were keeping the place well maintained.
"How many have been caught?"
"9 now, sir."
"And how many are ready to leave?"
"Of 27 that came here, 15 of us are accounted for. 3 we are unable to contact since day before yesterday, but they are definitely not arrested."
"I see... We’ll break into two. I want you guys to find those three, and I will go and get the arrested ones out."
"W-we are breaking them out?" Almond asked.
"Of course." Lorenzo smirked. "The Torville doesn’t abandon it’s people. That goes for you and I equally. None of us abandon each other."
That was decided. The plan was simple.
***
After smoothening their plans out, they set off. The night was for Lorenzo and the day for them.
Almond ran around here and there. They looked in sewers and in cafes. In abandoned houses and thief dens. Casinos.
They checked doors and alleyways, up and down, across buildings.
"Fuck, hide hide."
All the time, the guards were on the move. It was deeply difficult to keep themselves running.
The sun started to set, from North to South, then all the way to the East where they were eventually supposed to meet. Almond bit his lips, but he was sure.
The members of the Torville Gang all moved out and started looking for the three. It was difficult to find them, but the Torville Gang all followed a similar way of hiding. They were sure that the three wouldn’t be impossible to find. ƒreewebηoveℓ.com
And as if by rulebook, they found the three hiding in the very guardhouse that the City’s Wall Guards retreated in. At the edges, when the gate was closed and the guards were off to their own work, the Almond along with two more rushed into the Guard House, and finally found them hiding in the false ceiling.
It took till the night. Until Almond found the rest of the three.
All 18 members of the Torville were now together. Almond and the rest, now in a building near the East gate, peered toward’s the North where Lorenzo was coming from.
That’s when it happened.
A plume of smoke rising up.
Straight from the guest house.
And following it, a beam of black that shot into the sky.
"What... in the world?" Almond muttered. "What is that...?"
His eyes trembled.
"G-get me visuals!"
"[Enhance: Sight]!" One of the mafioso cast a simple enhancement spell on Almond and he peered ahead. He didn’t have to look far.
With his head bloodied and his clothes burnt at the bottom, running straight toward them along with 9 familiar faces was the Consigliere of the Torville Family.
It all happened too fast. Lorenzo, too, looked up. His eyes met Almond, sending a shiver down Almond’s spine.
From this far, Lorenzo could sense the gaze on him.
"Run South..." Lorenzo mouthed from the distance.
The next word, there was no mistaking it. Those injuries, that gaze, the fear.
"Corrupted," Lorenzo said.
There was no time to hesitate.
They were going to run.
"M-move!" Almond screamed. "We are running away!!"
