Chapter 1
The atmosphere inside The Castle could be described with few words. However, busy wasn’t one of them. The clock signaled the arrival of a new hour with a dull chime, certainly one of the loudest sounds in the place, and it may have been the only one if not for a few stragglers from this morning’s parade clinking their glasses against the aged wood tables.
“Hey, Cam.” Eliza emerged from the back of the diner, carefully drying a glass and giving him a joking glare. “Hurry up, will you? Can’t you see how packed this place is?”
Opening the till, Cam snorted, looking at the few measly bills they had gathered that day.
“Working me to the bone here, boss!”
Setting the glass down in it’s rightful place under the bar, she straightened, crossing her arms in mock disappointment while smiling at his grin.
“Pay attention. You’re ignoring Mr. Stanton!”
Mr. Stanton was somewhat of a joke between the two of them. A local had invented the monocled and mustached man while in a drunken stupor and trying to find a victim to pin the theft of his mother’s horse on. The authorities had found him on the horse the next night.
Turning, Cam placed his hand over his heart in mock surprise.
“Why, Mr. Stanton!” Pulling out a menu, he continued speaking to the air.
“You should have said something! My most heartfelt apologies, sir!” Pretending to listen for a moment, he nodded sagely.
“You’re absolutely right! Eliza should change the name of this old place!” Wiping a false tear away, Cam sighed. “You know, she just won’t listen to me. Perhaps you can talk some sense into her, good sir?”
“Hey!” Eliza interjected, elbowing his side good-naturedly, “It’s not my fault that I was eight years old! If you want to blame someone, blame my grandfather for letting me name it in the first place!”
“At least you didn’t name it Unicorn Alley.”
Their banter roused one of the bar patrons, who blinked sleepily at them momentarily before his head slammed down on the counter and he was once more unconscious.
The two sat down to play some cards, a usual occurrence when the diner’s patrons were few and far between. Eliza dealt the cards until they each had ten, Cam scowling at his unfortunate hand.
“These cards have a prejudice against me! I—”
Cam’s rant was interrupted by the Castle’s door slamming open. Jaye Trinder stood there, his face red and sweating. He took a shaky breath, mumbling incoherently and sinking to the floor.
“Jaye?!” Cam ran over, kneeling on the floor and trying to calm his friend. Ten minutes passed and yet everything was silent. It was when Eliza went to the kitchen to get Jaye some water that he spoke the first coherent sentence since his arrival.
The terrified look on Jaye’s face sent a shiver down Cam’s spine, his eyes widening as he barely managed to suppress a full blown shudder as his friend’s clammy hands gripped urgently onto his forearms.
“Cam…” He whispered, his grip tightening slightly. “She’s killing the children of Adderton.”
