The Devil's Crown

XXIII Red Protocol.

The streets were quieter than usual as Rick took his usual route through the slums of London to drop off his sister at her school.  He figured that it might be the pressure caused by the presence of the men from the Black Cross. ‘An act to secure the safety of the commoners in old London.’ That’s what they said.

He figured that there was no way that they would bluntly state that it was an act to secure the Nobles from them. Who else could be the culprit to all these attacks that are befalling Lauxdale? Obviously not a Noble. So, they have got no one to blame other than the powerless slum rats.

“Seriously, they should always be here,” said Joanna.

Elfric snapped out of his murderous thoughts hoping that his sister didn’t pay attention to him. But the look on her face told otherwise.

“Brother, you have been having these weirdest scary looks on your face these days,” she added with her brow raised. That look that she saw displayed on his face that day when she got suspended was still stuck in her mind. She saw a layer to her brother that she didn’t before. She found it surprising honestly that there were still faces to her brother that she hasn’t seen before.

She disregarded the thought, maybe she was just overthinking this whole when all she has done was stay lazily in her bed for the days that she has been suspended.

“Was I?” he acted dumb. “Guess the stress is finally getting to me.” He mumbled with a fake grin, ruffling his sister’s brown hair taking her attention to something else.

“Carol…” Joanna mumbled.

“What about her?”

“I don’t want to see her,”

Rick hummed as he glanced up at the sky that was tinted gray from all the fumes mixed with cars discharge…not the sight that he was searching for but he figured that he would have to make do with it. ‘Till one day I change this tinted sky to a clear one…with my own hands,’ he thought.

“I see why you are saying that,” he finally said. “But I think everything would be alright now.”

She scoffed. “What?” said she. “you think that she would just…I don’t know…change?”

Elfric chuckled watching the way his sister’s facials reflected her every word.

“I didn’t mean that but you never know what could happen,” said Elfric. ‘You don’t know what might have happened to her in these few days’ he added in the back of his mind.

That night at the Gotham tower. He was the one that saved her and her father – barely saved them but still, that doesn’t change the fact that she would have been dead without him.

‘Right, you forgot to get rid of that blonde and her father,’ Orathan exclaimed out of the blue.

‘Stop stalking, devil,’ Rick said as he glanced to look at his sister who decided to ignore his existence.

‘I can’t just unhear your conversations,’ Orathan protested. ‘What are you going to do?’

Rick took a deep breath. The Frankensteins didn’t slip his mind but…he believed that it would be a waste to just put them on fire as well, not when they haven’t witnessed much anyway.

‘They have only seen me threaten Crane that day,’ Elfric explained. ‘I doubted that understood half of what Crane was saying back then, not in the position that they have been in. It was hard enough to grasp they were going to die.’

‘You have a point,’ Orathan finally agreed.

“I always have a point,” Elfric said out loud.

“What are you talking about?” Joanna puzzled. It was hard not to hear Rick in this pin-drop silence despite the same amount of people on the street as every day. She figured that it might be because of the continuous patrol cars of the Black cross. ‘They didn’t want to catch their attention,’ Joanna knew that much at least.

“Nothing, sister,” said Elfric. “Just talking to myself.”

She blinked dumbfoundedly at her brother who didn’t spare her a glance. What happened to him that he has changed so much? She wondered. That once warm and affectionate aura was slowly starting to fade from around him, not that she was scared or anything…just curious about what happened in a week that would make him change so much.

“Oh my god, where are they taking them?”

The gossip from the crowd ahead of the two siblings caught their attention but they never stopped. There was no need to see how two Black Cross guards dragging a middle-aged man to the back of their car. Completely ignoring the cries from him as he pleads innocent. “Where are you taking me!” the man cried out. “I was only stopping to check my bag?!” he struggled but the grip from the two men was too much for him.

“You can plead innocence before the judge,” said one of them. “If you are truly innocent then you will walk freely. If not that means your adding to charges of treason!”

Elfric scoffed in mock, disbelief, and anger. Dragging a man from the middle of the street based on pure speculations. “Show me the warrant for my arrest at least!” the man exclaimed still caught in the harsh grip.

The two guards gazed at each other for a moment. guess the request was too hard for them as there was no such a warrant. One of them turned to look back at the man who seemed to have the slightest bit of hope of now as he believed that he cornered the other two.

“The Black Cross has issued the Red Protocol in London city,” said one of them. “Now get a move one!” he forced the man into the car slamming the door away before he caused any more commotion.

Red Protocol…the word made the people around the jet black sedan quiver in fear. Fear that Elfric was able to smell – he wondered if it was an ability gained. But no, there was no need to have anything special to see the fear that coated the eyes of these poor people.

Their daily lives were already living hell, Red Protocol only added to it.