Virtue to Vice

There were five people in the room, four men and one boy, the boy just reaching the legal age of eighteen.

The oldest of them stood up, watching over his sitting audience. He knew that they all looked up to him, and not only because he was the only one standing, but they all had seen how far the man could go. Feelings were something that did not exist for him, and by that, neither did a conscience. But this didn’t stopped him from seeing other peoples feelings clearly, like he could see how the young boys eyes light up with hope every time the older man looked at him.

It amused the man, the feelings the boy had for him were easy to play on and it gave him very useful control over the boy.

All it took was a nod to the youngest and he was immediately up from the chair, handing out the papers the man had given him before the meeting. When he was done, he simply sat down again, making himself seem invincible.

“You all got your folders.” The man’s voice was smooth and cold as steel when he talked, it made the boy want to shiver every single time his leader talked like that. The voice was hard for the boy describe, and it was one of the things that made it so addictive for him too. “There in lays each of your commissions and the names you will use, starting from today.”

A man with dread locks and a nose piercing held up his papers. “Sir?”

The older man inspected him, noticing the hint of amusement in his face that got it to twitch in the corner of his lips. “Yes.”

“Skinny?” The man with dreads shook his head a bit and opened his folders again. “With all due respect Sir; I may say that your fantasy is not what it once was.”

“I do certainly do agree with you.” The leader let his eyes wander over the three other men, all looking with amusement on the new names they had gotten, such as; Nightmare, Bone, and as already discovered, Skinny. The leader’s eyes landed on the boy’s features, slightly impressed over not even seeing the hint of a blush. “And that is why our little princess was the one deciding the names.”

The man getting the name Bone looked surprised to his leader and the newbie. “You let the kid chose our names?”

“I think the names fit every one of you.” The boy’s voice was smooth and slow, it made the leader smile at himself. It wasn’t often the teenager opened his mouth in a room with more than the two of them, but when he did he got all of the attention on him from the very beginning.

“And you have chosen ‘Cat’ for yourself?” the second youngest in the room, twenty eight-years-old and with the code name Nightmare asked after looking over the boys paper.

“Actually,” Their leader grinned. “I was the one to decide that name for him.”

The three men stared at their leader, a smirk threatened to creep over the boys face, but he kept it back, he knew that as the newest and youngest member of this team he’ll get a lot of shit. Especially if he showed any reaction when their leader mentioned him.

“You... um, I mean, what’s your name Sir?” Nightmare mumbled, a bit taken from his leaders comment. “Did you or... Cat chose yours?”

“My name is Whiplasher. And yes,” Whiplasher noticed how Cat looked at the three older men with a self astimed look over his features, it wasn’t a look that showed that he was proud of himself, it was more as if he was looking down at the three more experienced men. “Cat decided it. And no more about that.”

Nightmare and Skinny looked like they wanted to bring the question further, but when their leader had put an end to a conversation that was it. No one said one more word about it again if their leader didn’t chose to talk about it. Continue it, or start it over another time, and you was doomed in whichever way the man decided. It could be mentioned that two other men had... disappeared over the years.

“Good.” Whiplasher smiled, it wasn’t a friendly smile, neither was it a hateful or forced, it was simply an expressionless smile. “That will be it, see you next week.”

The three men waited until their leader had left, eyeing the youngest intensely before he also stood up and left the room, only through the door opposite. The men exchanged looks before standing up and leave the room in silence.

The room was empty, the files taken; the meeting was declared close.

And it never had taken place.