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“Chronicles of the Eclipses”

-“What do we have to fear but fear itself.”-Unknown

**~Into Their Lair~**

He pulls open the glass French doors, stepping out into the balcony. His light eyes gaze over the quiet city below him as a gentle breeze brush his cheeks. Kevin inhales deeply, taking in the sweet odor of fresh flowers blooming in the early summer evening. He gulps and closes his eyes for a moment, shutting out the memories of his past. It hurts too much to recall his past life, his job that was forcefully taken away from him. Everything beautiful and peaceful that he held and treasured so close was taken away in one single move. He hated the gang, their violent ways, their leader, and most of all he hated himself for giving up and not fighting back. It has been too long of a battle before he gave up and accepted the gang. Everyday he woke up, he wished it was just a nightmare that would disappear: that all the agony of loneliness will simply disappear. But that wasn’t the case for him. He was stuck living in world of horror and violence where now instead of stopping the bad guys, he was the one committing the crimes, breaking the laws and getting away with it.

He grips the metal rail, his eyes downcast as he scans the orange glow horizon before him. He checks his wristwatch, gulping knowing he will be called to join the others. Seems more men were being forced to join the gang under Amerian’s order and that worried Kevin. How was he to save those if he himself needed saving. Walking out of the suite that was provided for him, he quickly exits the expensive condo and decides to hide in the silhouette of the building. After going through a few twist and turns in alleyways of the surrounding buildings, Kevin spots a lit modern metal building, taller than the other counterparts. He slowly walks to the dusty glass stain revolving doors, taking a side stairwell located in the lobby of the vacant institution in the corner. Upon reaching the bottom, a metal door blocked his further traveling. He pushes an ID code besides the door at the security box, placing his hands on the metal tray for identification: the door beeps and slides open. Stepping into a darkly lit room, the soft orange glow of the lights in the ceiling cast an eerie beam on the earth color metal tiles as he sees a large group of men already surrounding the perimeter of the room. Many of them whisper and chuckle, others remained silent as death, numbed and shocked to speak.

A man slaps Kevin on the shoulder as he nods, allowing a smile to crawl his lips. The man chuckles and points to the center of the room responding: “I heard three men were caught today. Looks like Amerian might make an appearance tonight.”

Kevin simply nods and watches from behind a row of men as footsteps echo over to his center left. Three cement steps leading to a small oval concrete stage was overshadowed by a large muscle bound figure. Kevin gulps, his heart picking up pace as Amerian cloaked in black, slowly descends down the steps. The tall man, their leader seemed to be only wearing a cloak across his shoulders, revealing his muscle tone tan chest and abdomen, his arms rippled in either the evening heat or dew from the room as he steps on the ground facing them all. The leather pants crinkle as Amerian goes down the steps. Everyone stops and watches in silence or out of fear as their leader makes his appearance. The silence in the room was unimaginable, Amerian demanded attention and he knew he will get it every time he shows up. Smiling, Amerian gazes around, his harsh blue within blue eyes capture everyone in his gaze. That was the one thing that Kevin feared. That man’s eyes: the unnatural color of it and how all that can be seen was the entire blue orbs, no whites of any kind.

Amerian hisses and smiles, running a hand through his shaven tan bald head. He is attractive man, one who can draw people to him with his physical appeal. It didn’t surprise Kevin to know why he himself was chosen to be a part of such a group and as he nervously gazes around to the other gang members: he could see the physical attractiveness that led each of those unlucky souls to become part of the Eclipses. Kevin sighs in defeat and hopelessness imagining what the new captured men must be going through.

“I want to welcome you all here.” Amerian boldly speaks: his deep bass voice resounds and echoes in the room as he steps closer to the center of the floor. “As you all know, today is a day of grand festivity. We have new brothers among us as we speak. I want you to meet them and begin showing them the ropes to our regulations and what we expect of them.” Amerian smiles: gazing around at some of the men in gang. “But before I reveal them to you, I’ll need assistance to train the men in everything from artillery to combat. Who among you will take on this task?” He hisses out, eying everyone slowly.

Kevin gulps and hears one of the guys behind him poke him on the shoulder and whisper into his ear: “This could be your chance to impress our leader Kevin.”

Kevin shakes his head, impress Amerian: that was a task within it self. Though the concept of taking hold of the new comers would help advance him to gain trust from their so called leader, it did seem like a good idea and he nervously raises his hand, taking a step forward.

Amerian gazes over at him and smiles, “Richardson. You want to uphold this task?”

“Yes.” Kevin whispers out confidently. Maybe he can find a way to gain access and leave this corrupt life behind. Even if it meant he’d risked his life, he would do what it would take to leave this gang life and get a hold of his once beautiful life that was stolen away from him. “I can help out the new ones and bring out the best in them.”

Amerian held smug smile across his handsome face as he nods, “Very well. But remember you’re being watched. If anything goes wrong, you’ll die and I won’t hesitate with anyone else. Do you all understand me?” He growls out, seeing all the heads nod quickly in respond. “Good. Well let’s bring them out then.” He claps his hands quickly as four gang members drag out three men from a dark cell behind the room. The three were dumped before Amerian’s feet, all three with their heads down, their hands tied together with rope behind their back.

Kevin gasps, seeing a familiar face among the new comers. ‘Oh God…they got him too.’ He thinks to himself, seeing his younger cousin caught a mist all the chaos. He watches in shock at the three men, they all seemed so young, in their twenties or so. His eyes gaze over a tall fair haired man who was shaking quietly in fear. Another man was heavily marked with tattoos down both his tan arms as he too seemed in shock. Kevin glances over to his cousin: the dirty blonde man slumped on the ground on his knees, lost in thought. Kevin glances up at Amerian’s voice.

“These three were just captured today. You are responsible for their artillery tactics and mode of regulations for them. They are to be trained for the next two weeks and become professionals by the end of those weeks.”

Kevin sighs and nods, approaching the three men who all seemed dazed and lost at the moment.

“They will be heavily sedated during certain hours of the days. We can’t have them running out into the streets and proclaim our activities to the world. So for two hours between one and four in the afternoon, they will be drugged. The less they remember about their past lives, the better we’ll be.” Amerian smiles watching the tattooed man hiss and scream out:

“HELL NO!! LET ME GO! I SWEAR YOU’LL DIE FOR THIS SH…” A.J. yells out, but was stopped immediately with a slap across his face from guard standing besides him. Amerian smirks as a fellow gang member was ready to smack the man again in case of further outbursts.

“Me die? My, that’s a rather bold statement from a man that was practically pissing on himself when he arrived here.” Amerian growls out, receiving a few laughs from some of the watching crowd. “You belong to me now. Do you understand? Nothing you do or say will change that at the moment. So I suggest you remain quiet before the real beatings begin.”

Kevin winces at a large hand print that forming at the young man’s cheek, a small bump raising from the force. He watches the tattooed man quiet down, his breathing coming out in rapid breathes as the blonde man gaze at him in pity. Kevin eyes his cousin as Amerian grabs the average height man and clasps his burly hands around his throat.

“Richardson, this man I have within my grasp is Brian. I have heard he was a relative of yours. If so, I don’t expect you to give more attention to him than any of the other two. This task I’m giving you is for all three to be perfected, not one more than the others. Understand?” Amerian smirks, watching Brian wince under his cold grip.

Kevin fought the urge to leap at Amerian and simply force a nod, taking a step closer to the huddle group of new comers. “I’ll make sure to live up to the expectations.”

“Oh but Kevin, this is expected. It’s a command. I know you’ll do it. You haven’t let me down before. I trust you can achieve this.” Amerian smirks, roughly grabbing the tattooed man by the shoulder of his tank top. A.J. stumbles and struggles to stand up as Amerian tightly grips him by the shoulder. “And this man is Alex, A.J. for short. I want to watch out for him. He seems like a fighter and we need to bring that out more for our work.” And Amerian shoves A.J. away from him, causing A.J. to stumble and trip on the ground before him, cracking his chin on the tile. Cursing up a storm and grumbling in pain, A.J. was dragged back in front of Amerian and pushed down to his knees to bow before the leader.

Kevin eyes the man in pity seeing Brian besides A.J. both kneeled on the ground before Amerian.

Amerian smirks, watching the fair headed man before him. Nick raises his head slowly, swallowing the fear and winces at the sound of Amerian’s laughter in his ear. Gripping Nick’s shoulder, Amerian pulls him up on his feet and forces the man to stand in front of Kevin. “And this one, in most particular is my favorite. He’s quiet and I like that about my members. I entrust you Kevin that you will care for all of them, most especially this young one.” Amerian smirks, kicking Nick in the back of his knees so he collapsed quickly on his knees before Kevin.

“Understand sir.” Kevin mumbles out, gazing at Nick who’s mouth was dropped open in shock. He had to help them, but how? How can he help these new comers escape and not get caught and killed himself. He could run back to the police station and announce what and where’s he’s been at the past two months but he knew Amerian is too fast. He would die before stepping out to confess. Gulping, Kevin nods his head as Amerian claps his hands and dismisses the meeting, herds of gang members exit the room, leaving only the four men: Kevin and the three members in the room along with Amerian and a three guards.

Smiling, Amerian gazes at his nails and pulls out a dagger from a sheath on his side pocket, flinging the blade at A.J.’s direction. A.J. gasps as the blade slices through the knot of rope that embedded his hands behind him, cutting the rope off and freeing his hands. The dagger crashes to the floor with a loud clash as all eyes fell on it. “You should be able to do something like by the end of the next weeks. I’ll be heading out Kevin, if you need any help the guards here will keep a close watch on them in case of anything. I have to head out now. If you need help, don’t call me, I won’t care.” He hisses, stepping to a side exit, leaving the darkly lit room. The guards all pull out their rifles aiming it the three captured men as A.J. shakily stands up.

He gazes at Kevin curiously as Kevin reaches out to touch his shoulder. A.J. leaps back and growls: “DON’T TOUCH ME!” He screams out, nervously shaking as fear clouded the man’s mind.

“I’m not gonna hurt you. But you heard what was said. You have to start training. And I’m to show you.” Kevin whispers, hoping to calm the man down.

A.J. narrows his eyes and backs away, taking a step back and stops at the pressure of the head of a rifle pushed into his back. “I’m not interested.”

“It’s not your choice now is it?” Kevin quickly states, hoping he can get the man to comply with him.

“Screw this! I don’t fu…” A.J. begins speaking but was cut off as he was hit on the back his head to quiet him down. A.J. stops and crumbles to the ground, the fresh pain invading his body as he lies on the floor stunned. Nick and Brian glance at each other in fear, both still on their knees as they watch the sudden display.

Kevin sighs deeply, “You all have to work with me here. This isn’t some gang you simply hear about it. It’s more in depth than you can imagine. A mafia is more like. What is said goes. It’s another form of government, only the rules regulated here account for your life. What you once knew about life will no longer matter. This is a life and death situation. As you can tell Amerian, takes no pity on anyone and death is the only answer to escape. So if you want to life, work with me. If not…” Kevin sighs, pulling out a silver magnum from his holster on his jeans waist and aiming it at them, “Then let me know so I can get rid of you somehow.”

Brian cringes and cries out, finally realizing the voice and man. “Kev, Kevin!! Oh God we thought you were dead!”

Kevin glances over at him and gulps feeling the security guards eyes on him as they help A.J. off the floor. “I’m alright Brian.”

“Why? Why didn’t you call any of us? Your mom was in shock! Your partner at the station sent out a whole crew of detectives to search for you. And here you are…” He stops, shaking his head in dismay. “What have they done to you? How could you?”

Kevin nervously places his pistol away gazing at the guards briefly, “Brian, there’s more to this story than lets on.”

Brian gazes at him confused and struggles to stands up, the weight of his arms pressed and tied behind him was annoying him: “Well explain.”

“I…I can’t right now ok.” Kevin scans over to him and Nick as two of the guards carry a drooped A.J. to the exit of the room.

“Why not? We’re not going anywhere. Looks like we have all day as a matter of fact” Nick speaks up, forcing himself to stand up unsteadily.

Kevin narrows his eyes and glances over at the two men, shaking his head: “I have a job to do. So let’s get to it.”

“NO! Tell me first Kevin! I want to know what happened to you! TELL ME!” Brian yells out, his eyes clouded in anger and frustration as Nick eyes the fighting pair.

Kevin narrows his eyes and approaches his cousin, “I told you it’s a long story. I can’t explain at the moment. I’ll tell you later. That’s not important right now.” He hisses out through clenched teeth.

Brian scoffs, rolling his eyes away from Kevin, “Fine whatever.” He shrugs his shoulders as the remaining guard grabs Brian’s shoulders and leads him away to the exit of the room.

Nick eyes Kevin quietly and gazes around the room: “I thought ‘The Eclipses’ was a story used to scare the kids. Never did I think it was real or that I would be here to see it.” He whispers out, his sapphire orbs entranced with the scenery around him.

“Yeah well there’s a lot of stories that you’ll see will come true now. I have to prepare you for the initiation. We have only a few hours for that.” Kevin whispers, leading Nick to the exit.

“Is it true?” Nick whispers, hoping the guard behind them couldn’t hear, “Is it true you once worked for the precinct?”

Kevin froze and slammed Nick on the wall, “Don’t mention that again. That was my life that was taken away from me. I don’t want to remember that.”

“Why? That’s who you are right?” Nick continues to push Kevin to his limits, a smug look crossed the young man’s face.

Narrowing his eyes, Kevin grabs Nick by the arm and pushes him in front of him as they continue walking out of the room and down a metal turned hallway. The harsh white lights gleam down from above them as they continue their journey through the long hallway.

“Where are you taking us?” Nick stops in front of Kevin, eyeing him.

Kevin growls and pushes Nick to continue, “You’ll see in a few, now walk.”

Sucking his teeth, Nick begins to walk down the hallway, confusion, anxiety and fear crawled in him as he sees Brian and a wounded A.J. wait with the three security guards in front of a large arc shape metal door. Kevin pushes his way between the group and reached the metal door, placing a number code on the iron security box. The door slides up, as the group shuffles their way inside into a prison like room, its black iron bars marked the entire room, in capturing them in what seems like a cell. The sandy haired man gazes the facility, focusing his eyes back on Kevin. “Well, what are you going to do to us?” His voice reflects the hurt and pain issued to his cousin as the ropes cut tightly into his wrists.

Kevin gulps, eying Brian as he waves the security guards away, “I’ll take it from here guys.”

One of the guards nod and cocks the rifle, fingering the trigger: “You sure? They might get hectic and you’re alone and three of them.”

Kevin smiles, “It’s alright. Amerian wouldn’t have given me the job if he knew I couldn’t handle it.”

Another guard shrugs his shoulders and cocks his head to the side indicting to the other two guards that its time for their exit. The guards clatter their rifles to their side as they leave the room through the same door. One of the guards turn back to Kevin before the door begins to slide down and close, “If you need help, just let us know. We’ll be waiting right here in case of anything.”

“Ok, thanks.” Kevin nods his head, watching the door slam shut. The dim yellow florescent lights glimmer dully on them as A.J. slumps in a rickety wooden chair, one of the few furniture pieces that the cell contained. Brian and Nick wonder around the cell, their eyes burning in hatred at the raven haired man standing there smugly.

“Maybe you’ll talk now.” Nick states, eyeing Kevin boldly down.

Kevin rolls his eyes and sighs, taking out a pistol from his holster and placing it on the dusty cracked oval mahogany table in the center of the room: “I’m not here to hurt you. Look, I took my gun out so you know I won’t try anything.”

A.J. eyes the pistol and back at Kevin, growling. “So what, is that suppose to make it better for us now? We don’t know you, this could all be part of some plan for you to kill us already. I personally don’t see why we’re all still alive.”

Brian inhales sharply at A.J.’s comment and eyes Kevin, “Why? Talk to me Kevin, why?”

“It’s too much to say Brian. I don’t even know what’s right or wrong anymore.” Kevin whispers dryly, his eyes glazed over, focusing back on Brian, “Tell me something. How is my wife? Is she ok? Sad? Is she healthy? Sick?”

Brian nibbles on his lower lip, hearing Nick blow out a puff of air in annoyance.

“You know this man?! Nice, family. How cute.” A.J. grumbles, his eyes locked on the pistol again on the table. His hands gripping the edge of his chair.

Brian nods, gulping slowly: “She misses you everyday. She still has so much hope that you’re not somewhere off dead. Kevin there has been no reports since three weeks ago when the police was out for what seemed like that hundredth time to look for you. But I had no idea you were involved in this…this gang.”

“It wasn’t my choice. I’m like you all. I was brought here against my will. That’s how this gang functions. It thrives on that.” Kevin whispers softly, believing he said too much. “Look I have a job to show you. You’re all to learn and master the art of artillery along with the selling and exporting of our drugs.”

“Drugs?! Wait…hold up! Did you just say drugs?” A.J. clambers up to Kevin, his head still banging with pain from the recent blow from it.

“Yes.” Kevin states, walking to a side door to open it: indicting to the three men to follow. “Come, there’s a lot for you to learn and your lives depend on it.”

Sighing, Brian shuffles over as A.J. and Nick glance at each other in confusion before slowly following behind the sandy haired man.
~*~

The black tinted Benz pulls up to the front of the police station as Howie quickly parks the car and sighs, gazing at the two women. He eyes Arianna sitting besides him on the passenger seat as Coral was flooded with her luggage in the back seat.

“Well we’re here. Tada!” Howie smiles: opening his door and steps out. Arianna follows and stepping out from her side as Howie opens the side door for Coral. Smiling, she slides out of the car and walks up to the sidewalk following Arianna to the entrance of the police station. Howie closes the side door was next to the women in a matter of seconds as they enter the well ventilated air conditioned station.

“This way Coral. Howie’s office is straight down the hall, the last door to your left.” Arianna indicts as she disappears to the woman’s bathroom. Glancing around the well litted station, the friendly officers wave and greet Howie as she feels eyes glance towards her direction.

Smiling, Howie calls her over to one man who was slumped behind an office chair in the entry way of the station. Nodding she reaches Howie and eyes the well plump pale skinned man who was turning a shade of pink from the growing heat and sun outside.

The man sticks out his chubby hand at Coral’s direction, his dark grey eyes roaming her body slowly. The small rolls of flesh beneath his chin waver gently with his movement as the friendly man nods his head. “You must be Coral correct?” His smooth silky voice responds, startling Coral.

“Yes I am and you are?” She asks politely, shaking the man’s warm palm.

“The private investigator of Miami’s department, I just got transferred here: Lawrence Walker. I don’t mind if you call me Larry, that’s what I’m used to around here.”

“Very well Larry.” Coral smiles: nodding her head.

“Well I should start getting her informed about the case, I’ll see ya later Walker.” Howie smiles: gently pulling on Coral’s arm to head to his office. Lawrence smiles and waves them off going back to his work of flipping through a pile of written cases.

Coral grins at Lawrence, waving bye to him before she follows Howie down the white panel hallway, turning a left at the end of it where a large thick mahogany door with Howie’s full name labeled in gold and black labeled it. Smiling, she nods as Howie opens his office. Holding the door open for Coral, he turns and smirks, “By the way, this is where I keep all the weapons. Tell me what you think of it k?” He chuckles, receiving a small giggle from Coral as she enters the office and he follows behind, closing the door behind him.
~**~

**~To Be Continued…~**