STALEMATE [MAFIA] [MXM] ✓

34: THE TRUTH

The week goes by slow, but Salem gets done everything he needed to. The sculpture is ready to glaze, and Atlas has sent him his address. This is absolutely insane, Atlas was always so resolute about Salem never coming over, so he'd written the idea off. The fact that he's now been to the guy's house, met almost his entire family, and is currently on his way there... it's almost surreal.

Salem has his music loud, to keep from overthinking and making himself too nervous. He can't believe he's driving to Atlas' house right now. Oh, if freshman Salem could see him now. He'd be so proud. Well... probably more confused than anything. Whatever.

The Di Angelo house really isn't all that far from the Chief of police's. Only about fifteen minutes, give or take. It feels much longer, because the music really isn't helping all that much with his nerves. It's different, going there when he's drunk out of his mind. When he was like that, he didn't worry about anything.

Now? Now he's completely conscious of everything going on. The air freshener hanging on his rear view mirror, moving with every bump in the road. The song that's almost coming to an end, the music fading away and the next coming on. He has goosebumps, and he can't tell if it's from the chill of the air conditioning, or out of fear that he's going to mess something up.

What if Atlas doesn't like the sculpture? What then? Salem is planning on sneaking some sort of serious conversation in there, but what if Atlas isn't receptive to it? What if Salem says something stupid?

Oh, this is torture. Salem is almost relieved when he finally arrives, which conflicts quite a bit with his restlessness from before.

Salem doesn't know where to park, but the driveway is quite large so he just parks in front of the garage. He makes sure he parks far enough away from it that any cars within can still pull out, though. It's only as he's gathering his stuff and preparing to step out of the vehicle, that he realizes he isn't alone out here.

Atlas' twin sisters are both in the grass, about twenty feet away, staring at him. Salem can't really tell what they're doing. When he steps out, the more extroverted one is immediately speaking to him.

"Salem! Come here!"

Wow, Salem was not expecting to be met with a familial confrontation so quickly. He doesn't decline, though, he doesn't even think about it. He makes his way over, standing at the edge of the driveway. They motion him to get closer, so he steps on the grass despite the fact that he was taught not to do that. Once he is close enough to fully take in the situation, he feels confused.

They have a rat in a cage, and what looks like either a toy rocket or a firework set up. They also have duct tape and rope and—yeah, that's a firework. Salem isn't sure he wants to know anymore.

"Can you help us tape the rat to the rocket?"

The rat is alive.

Okay, Salem takes back what he said. These girls may be something to worry about. Who blows up live rats for fun? Why a rat? Shouldn't they be playing dolls or something? Isn't that what girls their age usually do? Well, clearly not.

"Uh..." Salem says, at a loss. "You don't think that's a little messed up?"

The girls look at each other, confused. Salem would think that common sense would be answer enough, but they still ask, "how?"

"Well, it's a... living creature," Salem says, unsure how to even put such a thing into words. Seriously, isn't it obvious why it's bad to explode rodents for fun? What about the clean up? Imagine walking outside and finding a piece of rat on your front lawn.

"Stella!" Salem hears a male voice, and he glances over to find Atlas walking towards them. He wasn't expecting this, so he immediately tenses, heart beating a bit faster. Ugh, Salem, stop getting flustered. He blames the fact that his mind has been deeply unclean as of late, constantly recalling memories that he shouldn't. Seeing Atlas just makes it worse. "I swear to god, if you're blowing shit up again—"