Anarchy's Mystery

Chapter 9

Samantha was worried. Ever since she'd left the school grounds, something had been nagging her at the back of her mind. 35 minutes later, and she still hadn't worked out what it was. She slipped through the door and pulled it shut behind her, twisting the lock.

"Hi mom, I'm home!" Sam called into the empty house, not expecting any response, and she wasn't disappointed. Well, she was, but it was what she expected. She tossed her bag in the corner and went to the pantry. The mostly empty wooden box stared back at her and she sighed. Nothing new here. Shutting the door and leaving it just as it was before, she headed into her bedroom to see her mom. The door creaked loudly as she opened it, and she flinched inwardly. Slipping through the door, Samantha looked in to see her mom fast asleep in her bed, tangled in her sheets. Samantha sighed and quickly changed out of her school uniform and went back to the kitchen. She grabbed her homework and sat down at the table to do it, but instead her head sank to the table and she lay there, hopeless and confused.

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Natalie slowly left the store where she worked, back in her Renegades 'uniform', hauling her bag with her work clothes in it over her shoulder, weaving her way through the streets as she headed home. The buildings seemed very tall and the streets very long as they loomed in front of her for the walk. Shadows seemed to follow her and strange things flew above her in the darkness. Her footsteps were loud as she crossed streets and walked through alleys. By this time, the house was silent and everyone inside was fast asleep. The door slid open without argument as she reached her house and sank down on the couch. She quickly changed and climbed under her blankets, curling up into a little ball, not noticing she had a fluffy black tail and ears.

She twisted her ring from her dad as she always did when she was anxious, and let her thoughts drift towards her friend. Alannah and Winston were locked up, and apparently they were causing trouble and not answering the Captain's questions. Natalie was scared that they would be forced to somehow answer, and that they'd be in pain.

Shifting under the blankets, Natalie sighed and eventually drifted off into a very interrupted and tiring sleep.

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Alannah ran her hand through her long hair for what must have been the twentieth time that night. Winston had long ago fallen asleep and was now snoring, his head hanging against his chest. The Captain had been in a few hours ago, but had gotten no information out of them. He was on a mission, but Alannah was determined that his mission would fail. He wouldn't learn anything about the Anarchists, or the truth about Natalie's family. The door creaked open and Alannah's head jerked into an upright position, her eyes narrowing into a glare. As if noticing the change in the atmosphere of the room, Winston stopped snoring. The shadow of a guard stepped through the open door, holding two trays of food.

"I... Uhh... just came to... uh... give you these?" He stuttered, his eyes avoiding the two prisoners.

"Just leave them there, we - might - eat them later." Alannah replied, her eyes narrowed on the nervous guard, who then proceeded to stumble backwards and hurry out of the room, slamming the door and locking it behind him. Alannah sighed as she heard the lock click and looked over at Winston's sleeping form.

"We've got to get out of here."

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Hugh paced the length of his office, back and forth, back and forth. Simon sat with his feet on the desk, his hands folded on his stomach.

"Hugh, stop pacing. That's not going to solve anything." Simon sighed, running his hand through his short hair. Hugh didn't respond, only allowed his feet to lead him over to the chair by the fireplace and put his head in his hands, closing his eyes.

"Deep down, I know that. But in my head, I can't help but think about the Puppeteer and Impaler. And pacing is just a reflex reaction." He protested, sighing. With that said, he promptly stood up again and returned to his pacing, closing his eyes as he did so. A moment later, he ran into a chair, sending everything on it to the floor as a loud crash echoed through the room. He sighed and slowly opened his eyes to a mess of books and papers on the floor.

"And here I was just about to say we should go to bed." Simon said, his eyes hiding a laugh. Hugh gave a little laugh and looked at his partner.

"You go, I'll be up soon. I'll just clean this up." Simon nodded and left the office. Hugh grabbed the papers and one fell out onto the floor as he placed the rest on the desk. He picked it up and held it over to the light, and saw it was a newspaper clipping from 9 years before; the Day of Triumph. There was an artist's depiction of the day, with Hugh himself standing with a pike, Ace Anarchy's helmet split, perched on the top. The article next to it was just about as fake. He sighed in annoyance, crumpling up the clipping into a tiny ball and hurling it as hard as he could into the bin, toppling it over as he did so. He sank down onto his knees and covered his face.

"Why is life so hard?" He whispered.

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Hi everyone!! I'm so, so sorry for the long time it took for me to update this story! And sorry it's a bit short again. I've been meaning to do it for ages, but I'm gonna make excuses, even though I don't really have any good ones. I was on school holidays and my family and I went overseas and I didn't bring my laptop, and the rest of the holidays I spent watching tv and movies and stuff. And... most exciting (at least for me)...

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR 1.2K READS!!!! This means so much to me, as I'm normally not happy sharing my writing with people, cause I don't like it myself half the time, but you guys are all so encouraging and lovely, whether you comment, vote, or just read. So, please don't give up on me, I'm trying. :)

And if you haven't already seen on my cover, I'm changing the name of this story to Anarchy's Mystery, just so you don't freak out like 'I don't remember reading this! I must stop reading this story now!' or anything. Just thought I'd let you know! :)

And ps, if you want a bit of a laugh and want to watch something funny, if you haven't already, this is a really funny video.

The bad lip reading of the royal wedding, anyone? 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKV6h_5XFbk - for anyone who wants to watch it!