Twisted Complications by Nikita Parmenter

Chapter Thirteen

Itake a seat at the table as my mind wonders over everything that’s happened recently.

“Morning, Firecracker.” Luc, grins, kissing me on the cheek and placing a coffee and a sandwich down in front of me.

“Morning guys.” I say to everyone.

They all grin, the majority of them having food stuffed in their faces making me chuckle. Its silent for a moment while we all eat.

“I miss Dad.” Jensen suddenly says into the silence and we all look at him.

“I miss my mom and dad too. This is the longest I’ve ever gone without speaking to them.” Trick replies.

“Yeah, and you know full well your mom is going to be freaking out.” Luc smirks, making us grin.

“I miss Rylie too.” I add. “I didn’t get to say goodbye and she was so consumed with Red that I didn’t even really see her that much before we went.”

“Hopefully you guys will all be able to call your parents soon.” Atlas says. “There’s a parent’s day in a couple of weeks, the detective might let them come to that, but I doubt it.”

“Yeah. Thanks man, I don’t think we want to put them more at risk by inviting them to that, even if they could come.” Trick mutters, before changing the subject. “So, I thought we’d all head out to see the bunker after lunch. Atlas and Jensen don’t have to leave for their job until after dinner, so we’ve got plenty of time.”

“Sounds good, Rage should be here any minute.” Atlas adds.

Lunch is finished quickly as my mind stays stuck on the people we’ve left behind. I really miss Rob, Jenny, and Kat especially, and I wonder how Kat’s relationship with Marc and Rich is going. I could really use a mom cuddle from one or both of them right now. Rylie, I was missing before all of this, but we connected so quickly that I refuse to believe that this is as far as our friendship goes. It may not be for a while, maybe even years, but we will be in each other’s lives again, I’ve just got a feeling.

After lunch, I make my way to the door to find my boots, the guys all hanging around either doing the same thing, searching the cupboard by the door for lanterns and matches or just sitting in the front room waiting until we’re all ready to go. I’ve just finished pulling my boots when the front door opens. Rage freezes when he sees me, a flash of regret darkening his eyes briefly before he steels himself.

Atlas’s gaze switches between me and him curiously, landing on his stitched forehead and then looking at me with surprise colouring his features.

I stand up and slowly walk towards Rage, he tenses like he’s expecting me to lash out at him but doesn’t back up, almost as if he thinks he deserves it. Which gives me a tiny glimpse into his past and makes me angry as fuck. I push that feeling away though. Standing up on tiptoes, I gently hold his shoulder and jump slightly, pressing a light kiss to his stubbled cheek.

His eyes snap to mine as he stares at me shocked, his hand drifting up to touch his cheek.

“Thank you.” I say, making sure he knows I mean it; his eyes widen even more before they dart away. “You saved me. You brought me back to the guys and for that I owe you, Rage.”

I don’t ever offer a debt to someone; you never know what they’ll want in return. I think Rage understands the severity of the offer I just made him though, as he studies me intently.  He nods slowly, seeming unsure.

“What’s going on?” Trick asks.

The guys all come into the hallway, having heard what I said to him.

“Rage is the one that killed my father.” I grin.

They each look at me concerned, trying to make sure if I’m actually okay with this or not, and Rage just continues to stare at me. As soon as they all realise that I’m fine and happy, they grin.

“Come on let’s go, I want to explore.” I say excitedly as I walk towards the front door and pull it open.

“She’s a force to be reckoned with, isn’t she?” Atlas mutters behind me, sounding both amused and proud.

“She really fucking is.” Rage replies, making me grin as I walk further out of the door.

“Don’t worry dude, you’ll get used to it.” Jensen chuckles. “Well, technically you won’t, she still knocks me on my ass.”

“What car are we going in?” I ask, changing the subject as my heart swells at Jensen’s words. “Oh, holy shit that was you following us the first day!”

I turn to Rage and his lips tilt up in a smirk as he nods.

“Your car is stunning.” I compliment.

“If everyone’s okay with squishing in, we should all fit in the SUV. I don’t want us separating at the moment if we can help it.” Trick orders, pausing and looking at Rage.

“What dude?” Rage asks, seeming uncomfortable.

“That’s just his thinking face.” I stage whisper out the side of my mouth and Trick smirks.

“I think it might be a good idea for you to come and stay in the house with the rest of us. I don’t like that you’re so separated.”

You can instantly see the effect that Trick’s words have on him as his eyes fill with heart-breaking hope. I swear when I find out who hurt him so much, they better hope that they can outrun my knives. Rage’s eyes dart to Atlas, seeking permission.

“I was going to ask you to move in after I came back from my last job, but I got a bit distracted.” He waves a hand in my direction and I stick my tongue out at him. “There’s a spare room upstairs or if you prefer, there’s plenty of rooms downstairs you can choose from.”

“How have we been here for several days and I still haven’t explored the rooms downstairs!” I exclaim, throwing my arms up in the air dramatically.

“Alright miss drama queen, we can do that over this weekend.” Cash smirks, trying to stop himself from laughing at my theatrics.

“Deal.” I say, with finality.

“Come on, I think the excitements getting to you. Let’s go explore your bunker.” Luc teases.

We all pile into the SUV and it’s a squeeze but since we’re not going far and we’re staying on academy grounds I figure it’s alright. Trick’s behind the wheel of course and Atlas gets the front seat all to himself although Jensen did try to sit on his lap and a wrestling match ensued that had me in stitches.

“Rage you can grab your stuff this afternoon. I’d rather you were in sooner than later.” Trick says from the front seat.

“Yes boss.” Rage replies and the guys chuckle as Trick rolls his eyes.

“He may be the boss, but he hates it when we call him that, so we call him that as much as possible.” Jensen explains to Rage a wicked glint in his eye.

Rage just chuckles.

“Guys are we going in through the same classroom as before?” I ask, “Is the school even unlocked on the weekends?”

“Shit, I hadn’t thought of that.” Trick frowns.

“I should be able to lead us to the entrance in the woods. The one we came out of.” Cash says.

“It would probably be best to go in that one anyway, we’re less likely to be seen that way.” Riot adds in.

“Good point, alright well I’ll park in the main lot and we can walk from there.”

“Urgh, walking.” Jensen groans.

“For someone who can fight as well as you can, without breaking a fucking sweat your lack of interest in any kind of exercise is baffling.” I chuckle.

“What can I say, I’m a mystery.” He winks and I let out a surprised laugh.

It’s not long before we arrive and I jump out of the car quickly, accidently elbowing Rafe in my excitement.

“Sorry!” I exclaim as I practically fall out of the door.

The guys burst out laughing. We gather all the supplies the guys had the forethought to bring while I practically bounce on the balls of my feet, far too excited.

“I’ve not seen you like this since you were a kid.” Rafe says quietly, as we watch the others walk ahead slightly all following Cash.

“It’s a mystery. I absolutely adore mysteries. It’s one of my favourite genres to read.” I admit knowing he loves books as much as I do.

“Mine too.” He agrees, reaching down and threading his fingers through mine.

“So, you’re just as excited as I am, but hiding it better then?” I tease, looking up at him.

His grin widens, a dimple popping in his cheek, but he stays silent.

“I knew it! I’m onto you Big Guy.” I mutter.

“My legs hurt.” Jensen grumbles from behind us.

“Dude, we’ve only been walking for ten minutes.” Luc calls back, incredulously.

“I know, we must’ve walked miles!” He groans dramatically.

“Hardly.” I snicker.

“Oh, you think my pain is amusing!” He exclaims with mock outrage. “Hey, Angel?”

“Yes Trickster.” I reply, looking back over my shoulder at him.

“Catch me.” He calls.

My eyes widen as he takes a running leap. I barely catch him and stagger, laughing my ass off. He whoops from my back. The guys all staring at him like he’s lost his damn mind.

“Dude, I’m going to drop you.” I giggle.

He gasps, “Are you calling me fat!?” He exclaims.

“Yep.” I reply popping the ‘p’, “Now get down.”

“Fine, spoilsport.” He chuckles, getting off my back. “How much further?” He whines sounding like a child.

“It should be just around this corner.” Cash replies, rolling his eyes.

“Sweet.” He suddenly darts past me and Rafe, running up to the front and around the corner.

“I thought your legs hurt.” I call after him, sounding amused.

“They’re good now. This is so cool.” He yells back.

I rush around the corner. We’re in an area of densely packed trees and bushes which means that unless you knew where it was and were looking for it you wouldn’t be able to see the entrance to the bunker. Trick and Rafe put their backpacks on the floor and start handing out lanterns and packs of matches.

“We didn’t have that many lanterns so we’ll use them to guide us to the bunker but when we’re in there, we’ll have to light all the sconces and candles so we can see everything clearly.” Trick explains.

“What are we looking for exactly?” Rage asks, accepting a lantern off him.

“Anything that could give a clue as to who was actually in the Phoenix. The names of the kids who disappeared would be helpful, so that if we did find out who was in the Phoenix at the time, we can match up names and see if they relate to one another.” I say frowning.

“We’ll figure it out, Sweetheart.” Trick says.

“I can do some digging when we get back and see if I can find anything about the missing kids.” Cash says.

“That’d be great.”

We pull open the old door and descend into the darkness. It feels a lot creepier travelling down than it did coming out. The place gives me the creeps if I’m honest but that just makes me even more determined to figure this mystery out.

As soon as we get down into the cavernous room, I start to light all the sconces and candles. It adds to the dark and foreboding feel of the room, the flickering light creating shadows along the mottled grey stonework. We leave the lanterns on to help add more light to the room. As soon as I’ve finished lighting the last candle on my side, I turn to look at the room in better light, we could barely see anything last time we were down here and a need to find a way out overtook the want to explore more.

“What the fuck.” I mutter, walking towards the other door that’s on the back wall.

The one next to the woodland entrance. We pretty much ignored it last time but now that there’s more light, I can clearly see the staining on the stone floor. It looks like it seeped out from underneath the door and started making thin trails towards the grooves carved into the floor in an intricate pattern. I’ve seen a lot of blood stains in my time. Old and new. There is no mistaking that’s what that is.

“Guys.” I call out gaining their attention and gesturing towards the door as I walk closer.

“Is that blood?” Cash asks.

“It seems like it, although it looks like someone’s tried to clean it up. It’s smudge all around the edges like it’s been spread in their efforts to get rid of it.” Atlas murmurs.

“Blood’s damn impossible to get out of stone.” Rage adds in.

“It’s coming from under the door. Or at least it did originally, that’s an awful lot of blood.” I reply.

“Which means there’s probably more on the other side.” Jensen says grimly, reaching for the handle.

He pulls it but it doesn’t budge.

“This time I came prepared.” He grins, pulling out a lock picking set.

He crouches down careful not to stand in the stain of blood and gets to work. It doesn’t take very long until we hear the lock click. We all shuffle closer morbidly curious as he pulls the door open. What lays behind is truly horror film worthy. I hold up my lantern to get a clearer look as Trick and Atlas shine giant torches into the room of horrors.

What it illuminates is truly disturbing. Like outside the door someone’s obviously tried to clean up but not succeeded. There’s a massive blood stain covering the stone floor. Arcs of blood decorating the walls in a macabre painting. The height of them suggesting arterial spray. Along two of the walls are displays of all kinds of weapons, some of them missing from their designated spots.   There’s even a practice dummy used to perfect hits. There’s drag marks leading from the large blood stain on the floor towards the door. Suggesting that whoever was killed here, there’s no way anyone could survive this amount of blood loss, was dragged out to be disposed of.

“If I had to guess I’d say that this room was used to practice weaponry and hone their skills. Something clearly went very wrong.” Atty mutters.

Cash cautiously steps into the room, moving around the space and studying it closely.

“There’s too much blood for it to be from one person.” He mutters. “It’s even on the ceiling.”

The rest of us lean further into the room and look up. Sure enough, the spray of blood is decorating the ceiling as well. They’d obviously given up trying to clean it by this point though as it’s a dark brown and some of it looks like you could flake it off.

Gross.

“Maybe those kids were killed in here?” I ask.

“Most likely. I can tell that it’s more than one person, but I couldn’t tell you how many exactly.” Cash shudders as he walks back out.

“Should we tell someone about this?” Luc asks.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. We know Phoenix are influential and they could easily sweep this under the rug if they have the right person in the right department which from what Pater was saying is highly likely.” Rafe explains.

“So, until we’ve got more evidence and know the right people to tell, we keep quiet.” Trick says and we all nod.

“Let’s see what else we can find.” I say, moving away from the room of horrors.

I’m now even more determined to find out what happened here.

We all spread out through the room looking for any more information we can find. Jensen firmly closes the door to the room of horrors.

“What about the guy that locked you guys in here?” Luc says suddenly.

“What about him?” Rage asks.

“Well, he led them down here, so he must know what’s behind that door.”

“If he does then he wanted you to find it. We won’t know the reason why he wanted you to find it unless he tells you himself and I don’t see that being likely.” Jensen reasons.

“That’s true, just so long as it doesn’t turn out to be a trap of some kind.” Rage replies.

“We’ll make sure we’re as prepared as we can be, in case that happens.” Trick assures, him.

While they discuss it, I keep looking around the room. My eyes land on a large phoenix painting, there’s several grime covered paintings hanging on the walls but this one is by far the largest.

Surely, they wouldn’t be that obvious.

I decide to check anyway because really, I’ve got nothing to lose. I’m disproportionately disappointed when the only thing behind the large, and might I add heavy, painting is just stone walls. Deciding to commit to it fully since I’ve already come this far, I decide to tap the stones and see if one of them comes loose like in the movies.

The third one I press shifts slightly and my excitement grows. No freaking way. I push against it harder as sounds of the guys rummaging around echo throughout the room. It doesn’t move any further back, but it does shift more. I glance around trying to find something that I can use to pry the stone out. I find this old letter opener resting on a padded chair next to the painting and I’m sure that it’s been used for this very reason in the past.

I alternate in sticking it in different sides and slowly working it out. Finally, it comes out and I can see a glint of metal hidden beneath. Once I’ve worked the first one out, the rest are easy to pry loose, and I carefully stack them to one side. They’re big enough that it only takes six to hide the large safe. They aren’t full size, as they’ve been broken in half so they’re much easier to move than the full-size ones would be.

“I don’t suppose any of you know how to crack open a safe?” I ask turning to face the guys.