The Muse Gang
Chapter seven

The central jail in Norwich was very spacious. I walked alongside the invisible Marshall and Chris.

How coincidental? We just had to come when it was recreational time for the prisoners.

As they turned and found me walking past being escorted by a seagearnt, they frowned at me, pulling every face they could to make me scared. No one with two guardian angels by his side would be, so I walked nonchalantly along.

A huge guy, most likely a respected prisoner, cracked his knuckles as he looked sternly at me, wondering why I wasn't afraid.

Marshall looked at him. And shortly afterwards, the man gave himself a punch; Marshall's doing.

The rest were forced to mind their business.

The sergeant asked me to wait while he went to call David. It was visiting, right?

The prisoner who came along with him had a honey brown skin, corn rows hair and a tattoo on his left arm.

Was this the David that Chris called a good tushu? He looked like a thug to me. Like he even had his arm in a sling probably from going into a fight.

As he came along, he grinned wildly, "Hey Chris. Long time!"

The sergeant glanced at me in confusion, "I thought you said your name's Edward."

Actually, David was not talking to me and my real name is indeed Edward. The cop actually saw no one apart from me, who he then assumed David was speaking to.

I gave the prisoner a strange look to remind him that muses were invisible.

He laughed in response, "Yes sir. His name's Edward Christopher. I call him Chris.

The sergeant looked satisfied.

I then returned my attention to David, "How have you been?"

He rolled his tongue and jerked his bad arm, "Yeah I'm cool. With this arm in a sling, you can see I'm pretty cool."

"Don't worry, it'll end soon. I came to get you out, "I assured.

The cop pulled his confused face again, "Get him..." He glanced at the prisoner he was holding. David returned the look. The sergeant frowned as he noticed David's eyes lighten to a light yellow color. At that, the man froze in place and went into some kind of trance.

Marshall used the opportunity to possess him and David jerked his arm out of the cop's grip.

The prisoner then faced the possessed sergeant and spoke sweetly, "Now, go say goodbye to my prison mates. Tell them I somehow got bailed out."

The man replied, "Okay. Have fun."

David, Chris and I walked towards the prison gate, backed up by the man Marshall was controlling.

When we reached the gate, the cop said to the security guard,"Let him go. He is free now. Got trial."

The guard gave us a stern look before opening the gate. Immediately we got into the car and I hit the accelerator, my muse left the man's body and appeared with us at the back seat. The real sergeant now chased after us with the aim of stopping a MOVING car!

When he got the brains that he couldn't, he stopped and examined himself in confusion. Like what had he done?!

We all laughed happily as I increased speed.

David sighed, "Wow Edward you've got one cunning muse."

Marshall placed a hand on his chest and nodded, "Thank you, thank you. I'm flattered."

Chris spat cheekily, "I would have done better."

I steered the car to the highway and looked at the rear mirror, "Yeah you're great too. Beating yourself up is a unique tactic if you ask me."

"Heard that Marshall," Chris clapped his hands, "I'm better than you."

"You wish," my muse defended.

The aura was lovely. After a second or two of mirth, David inquired, "So Chris. What did you do to Alex?"

"Ahhhh. He's shaking hands with death right now," he answered him.

"You killed him!"

"He wishes. But really, he's like.. half dead right now."

"See why I love you."

Chris made the sign of the cross and bowed his head, "Jeez! No please."

I smiled at them. Like truly, my life had never been better. I took the road home because it looked pretty late to me. Although no one would have cared if I went home or not, the muse society needed some privacy to make strategy. So... Home, here we come.

***

The door was wide open when we arrived at my place. I walked into the home with shock on my face, looking around to see if I was at the right place. It was disgusting! Like they turned the house into a brothel and a club. My brother was drunk, asleep on a couch with his bae, Elina on him.

Some other dudes were playing video games while some were dirty dancing to music.

Some were still yet to go crazy, just sitting in the corner, talking.

Snack wrap and plastic cups were everywhere. And all these just got me staring.

Chris walked to my side and shrugged happily, "My type of life when I was alive."

I still had to get used to the fact that two of the people with me were dead. I glanced at Chris who grinned knowingly.

David pushed through us and analysed the place, "Edward you never said you live in a club."

"Sorry," I sighed tiredly, "I forgot."

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Marshall seemed to be the only mature one among the three who really understood what the depth of this was, "Your brother needs to learn some manners. Parents are away for a week and he's fucking with assholes." I turned to him and sighed sadly,"I would have talked to him, really. But I love my face this cute."

At that, I left the noisy parlor and we all climbed up to my room.

David then stated genuinely, "You have to do something about your brother so he could stop all the bullshit. Like look what he did down there."

Chris just released a weary groan, "That prison was all a waste of time. You learned nothing. You know, I still wonder how you got the courage to beat the police man up."

I laughed. Apart from his appearance, David really was a good tushu.

"I even had to teach him to say fuck," Chris exclaimed again.

Marshall was thoughtful all along while we played around.

Suddenly, he asked, "David. What do you know about the fallen?"

Good tushu guy answered with the flow, "Well. One of them is a mate at school. He has that little thingy we have on our right hand on his left. Remember Chris, the guy who hates us cos we refused to be part of them."

I watched the both of them with a worried frown, "Think your friend can lead us to the idol."

He laughed, "If you ask me, they do not joke with Kuma's abode. It's safe and secret. And for Christ's sake, he's got a muse. Any threats from us are balderdash. She would save him."

Marshall sighed and paced up and down the room, seriously thinking of a plan that could be a little possible.

David's muse on the other hand, raised his chin as if he had figured something. He asked David, "Have you noticed anything unusual about him? Maybe, somewhere he goes often?"

There was silence for a while as he tried to think. Moments later, he came up with something, "Apart from his girl's home, he's got this place he heads to with his muse everyday. Never tried following him. I ain't need no trouble. Besides, his muse, the cranky one is always there to back him up. Her nature alone gives me the creeps."

"Sounds like something a hot, fierce muse could handle," Marshall smirked.

"Or evil," Chris added meaningfully.

I gawked at the two in awe. How could they be thinking of.... Yuck!

"No!" I disagreed, "We need the dude alone. And no evil or fierce muse to do whatsoever sins you both are thinking of."

David chuckled calmly and spoke, "True. Now we have a dead end. Even if we could simply follow them, a big fight may break out and...."

His muse spat,"Oh shut up! What do you think? That we plan to replace the fallen and have a peaceful dialogue, win this, shake hands with them and walk away. Take your Earth sized heart somewhere else."

David rolled his eyes and watched me while I was lost in thought.

A bulb would have lit up above my head if it were to be a movie. An idea!

I hurriedly asked, "Chris, Marshall! Do you know any of the fallen muses? Like extremely, extremely well."

Chris shook his head in denial.

However, Marshall frowned sadly, "Yes I do."

"Who?" I looked at him worriedly.

He looked at the floor and folded his arms. After he raised his head to look at us again, he sighed, "My sister."

Another round of silence occured and we all stared at Marshall. This meant nobody actually knew about Marshall's sister being part of the fallen.

First of all, I inquired, "You and your sister are dead! Like what were your parents doing?"

"Living," he answered, "Well my sister caused our deaths. Leave that. If I know one, then what?"

I stared at him sadly and sighed. He was my muse, so I cared but if he didn't want to talk about it, then, "When you both were alive, do you remember any place, as in any place at all that she loved to go to. Somewhere she loved and maybe could keep stuff?"

Chris snarled at me, "She's in a group now. They wouldn't just leave it to any member to keep it safe. And let's assume they did, it will be a place with maximum security. Not some lonely graveyard someone goes to seek peace." Marshall smiled and looked at me, "But no. He has a point. Not just to replace the idol Chris. Eddy, I think I understand you. Muses can detect muse energies till a kilometer away. We could track Amaya down."

His sister had a cute name. I had to admit. He glared at me immediately. Like can't someone have a bit of privacy. Now I can't keep my thoughts to myself!

"How are you gonna be sure the energy you sense belongs to the fallen?" We heard David ask.

His muse smirked seriously, "I understand Marshall. Negative energy. It's a muse thing. You pathetic humans won't understand."

David and I shot stares so hard Chris felt the impact of what he said and laughed to clear the tension.

I shook my head and asked them, "So that means for any of you not to have ever felt the fallen negative energy, they have never stayed a kilometer or less near any place you've been."

Marshall thought about it and posed a question at David, "Where's that place he goes to?"

David gave a great grin and patted his chest, "In Oxford. He knows a lot about the state. That's how I knew."

"There's something about that place we need to replace out. Coincidentally, my sister's so called peaceful abode is also in Oxford,"Marshall stated.

I sighed happily, "Very good people. We've got ourselves some juicy bit of mystery. We'll have to tell the others."

"We ain't meeting till ten," my muse informed.

I checked my watch. It was still six and we were all hot on the gist. In the meantime, I went to check up on Alfred.

I stepped downstairs and found my brother awake, sending everybody and everything away from the house anxiously. I just watched him. When everyone was out, he began putting things away quickly. I knew what he was trying to avoid. And there was no way he could finish all this before my talkative sister came home and found the house like that. She was surely going to tell Mom and Dad.

I asked from the stairs, "Can I help?"

He turned to me and snarled angrily, "Oh shut up. Even with the hands of ten men, we wouldn't do this. Sofie will be back in about two minutes and the stench of venom......"

He just kept on talking something I was not interested in. I slipped my hands into my pockets and narrowed my eyes at him. Suddenly, he stopped and fell asleep again on the couch. I didn't mean to do that but I had no choice.

The garbage around the room literally vanished and the furniture all shifted to their normal positions. I had to admit, host powers were great. Unfortunately Alfred wasn't allowed to see it.

Sighing and being satisfied with the clean parlor, I teleported upstairs, "Why do I keep helping that guy?"

The three laughed and I heard Marshall say, "Well he's a brother. So there's still some good in him," a frown suddenly settled on his brows as he concluded, "unlike sisters."

I frowned. He had mentioned something about his sister causing both their deaths. I decided to leave my questions till later. I knew we could use the remaining four hours to argue if I asked them. Arguing with my muse was the last thing I'd think of doing. Or so I thought.