The Mysterious Demon Book 2 novel Chapter 20

-Dominic-

"I assure you, Arthur, everything's fine and I'll see you as soon as I can," I try to reassure Arthur who was on the other side of my phone call. He had been blowing my phone up this past week but because of everything that's happened, I hadn't been able to get in contact with him until now when I was less than five minutes away from my house.

He had told me that he needed me to explain everything to him, that he needed to hear the truth and that he needed to talk to Nick properly as well. I jokingly asked if he wouldn't lash out like he did before but he gave me an unsure, "I can't promise you" before carrying on. It was worrying sure, but there had been so much going on that this now seemed almost insignificant. Almost.

"Is he still mad?" Nick asks from behind me, the rest of the guys following pursuit too.

"Seems like it," I answer.

In terms of Nick's now former gang, they all separated to go home after that night but it wasn't a goodbye. Everyone left thinking that this was a new beginning, a new chapter to their lives. Some were comfortable in the environment they were in and wanted to continue in drugs and crime, no one stopped them. Other's thought they'd take the opportunity to start something completely different. In general, no one left angry or dissatisfied. The group even agreed that they would all meet annually and do some kind of event. This year was camping, maybe next year it'll be a dance. Regardless, we agreed we'd do it together and it would be crazy.

We also all agreed to stay in touch more, visit around and see each other more individually.

Agreeing to all of these things felt off to me as if we were making new year resolutions but in late March. It seemed so weird to be so happy and...peaceful?

My body wouldn't relax and I wasn't sure why. It wasn't that I felt that anyone there was a bad person, a lot of them were really friendly and didn't present themselves to have any hidden agendas. I would know since I've been around a lot of people who have. And yet my body felt it was ready to fight. That something would go wrong.

In any case, I stopped outside of the door to my house which made the rest of the guys pause too but although they probably thought I stopped because of keys, I actually stopped because even while I was here, I didn't feel comfortable. Granted, I never had.

I had only started paying for this house before losing to King. I built this off of reducing money, my last winnings, until I had picked up the business and afforded the place that way, but the feeling never left me, I'd go as far as to say it haunted me.

It was why I never liked being at home and left everything almost looking minimalistic. My room was supposed to bring me peace by being simple but instead, it emphasised my feeling of loneliness, leaving me trapped in my thoughts.

I'd often wake up, curling myself in as tight as I could to get away from the walls or I'd go to sleep tugging at my hair to try and stop my head from spinning. It never worked.

I didn't want our moment of victory and peace to be ruined in this way though so I pushed the feeling back quickly, knowing none of the guys would have noticed anyway.

I had forgotten that Arthur was on the phone because he hadn't said anything at that moment too, "Arthur?" I asked through the phone, looking down at it as I opened the door and let us inside, thinking I may have hung up by accident.

However, just as I looked up from the phone, I and Nick from what I felt, had been engulfed in a hug. It left us both pretty confused, especially since it was Arthur that we had received it from. He was still pretty tall in comparison to me and only a little taller than Nick so it wasn't hard to tell.

I had thought that meeting him again would mean another argument, a fight, a need to have him understand but this...this was unexpectedly pretty nice.

I glanced at Nick who had done the same to me and after conversing mentally a little, we both went to hug Arthur back with the one arm that we each had available, the other being too squished.

"I'm glad you're both safe," We hear him say which brings a warm feeling into my chest. Up until now, I was hearing nice things from people I hardly knew so the feelings didn't quite hit, not the way that these current ones did. Hearing my brother say something so caring to both Nick and me, was a calmer feeling on its own.

We pulled apart a little after, smiles evident on all of our faces, Nick's was a little more nervous though until Arthur's hand rubbed behind his neck and he says, "I'm sorry for being as angry as I was before instead of confronting you properly,"

Nick straight away shakes his head negatively, "No, you had every right to be angry, I'm sorry," he turned his head to me, "To the both of you," he continues, "I'm a dick,"

"Was a dick," Zack came in, swinging an arm around Nick's shoulders, "Now I think he the balls,"

Jake tutted though as he walked forward too, "Maybe just one ball, still needs to grow the second," he turns to Blake, "Right bro?"

Blake then makes a face as if pretending to think about it, the act was quite cute, "Sorry Jake, the way he disbanded the gang definitely took multiple balls,"

"Do they do this often?" Arthur whispers to me, I was relieved to think I wasn't the only one who thought this conversation was weird but I laughed anyway.