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He was about medium height, with completely gray hair coming from a receding hair line. A short goatee, peppered with stubborn patches of black, covered his sharp face. Tattoos covered every inch if his arms, while wrinkles distorted them till you didn’t know what’s what. His out-of-style, expensive clothing was ripped and torn, with a mangled cowboy hat covering part of the gray mass on top of his head. The man leaned heavily on a wooden cane, favoring his left leg. From what he could see through the shreds of the man’s pants, it looked to Zach as if the knee had been crushed. It was a mangle of bone and tissue, and Zach wondered how the man could walk on it at all. The cane was crooked, and looked as if it had been made in a hurry by someone who had never used a knife before.
“What the hell are ya’ll looking at? Haven’t you ever seen a sexy old man before?” At the last comment, the man slapped his wrinkled ass and laughed easily. His eyes ran up and down Kristen, grinning at what he saw. “Damn, who’s the owner of this fine lookin’ lady?” Kristen turned about three shades of red, causing the old man to laugh again. Had Sean not been so incredibly shocked at the appearance of the strange man, he would have slapped the old fool right then and there.
Meanwhile, Jordan’s cry had never completely disappeared. At the very least, the volume had gone down somewhat. At this point, the scream was replaced by another sound. “Oh my God! It’s Zach!”
No of them could deny it, the man looked shockingly like Zach. Oh the hair color was different, and the old man had a few more tattoos, but other than that, the old man looked like a perfect copy of Zach fifty years from now.
This threw the old man off a bit, but he soon recovered. “Yeah, Drag Queen said ya’ll would look something like us.” He flipped through the papers he held in his wrinkled old hands. “You guys are the group ‘Roughouse’, right? Ya know I’d hate to scare the shit out of the wrong group.”
It was Bret who finally spoke up. “Maybe we are, and maybe we aren’t. Depends on what you want with them.” His statement shocked everyone, but it surprised Sean most of all. Since when did Bret represent the group? When did he start to sound that cold and indifferent? Why? Didn’t he trust this man?
The man wasn’t fazed in the slightest. He even smiled, “Sean, is it not? The oldest, the one to take over when stuff gets ruff, the one who keeps everyone in line?” His smile widened at his genius.
“Not exactly. I’m Sean, that’s Bret, Zach, and over there’s Jarred. Kristen’s with me, the blonde over there is LeighAnne, and she’s with Bret. The girl with the black hair and the dark eyes is Amanda, she’s Zach’s. And the lady standing next to Jarred is Claudia.” Sean informed him, pointing to each in turn. Bret shot him a glance that would have wilted flowers. Sean glared right back at him. Well, somebody had to put him back in his place.
The man shrugged nonchalantly, “My bad. Hol’ up, Bret? As in Bret Willits? As in the shy one? The guy who likes to fix everyone else’s problems as long as he doesn’t have to face his own? Well I never expected you to answer.” the old man replied, eyeing Bret.
LeighAnne stared at the man in shock. How did he know that? Why does he know so much about us? She shivered involuntarily. What else did he know?
Bret met the man’s gaze without flinching. “Life’s just full of surprises, isn’t it?” The cold tone in his voice did not go unnoticed. “And who are you?”
This was getting weird, Bret was never this cold. His band mates were wondering which was more queer: the fact that someone was trying to hunt them down and kill them, or that Bret was acting so differently.
“Name’s Alexander James McLean, call me A.J. Now I was sent here to give you kiddies some clue on what the hell’s going on, but you guys wouldn’t be interested, would you?” A.J. grinned evilly. To his surprise, Bret didn’t immediately demand to know what he knew. Quite the opposite, actually.
“We might. Depends on whether or not you can be trusted.” A.J. frowned at this. That Bret character was seriously raining on his parade.
Jarred’s head snapped up when the man mentioned his name. A.J. McLean? Where have I heard that name before? He watched A.J. and Bret argue, trying vainly to outdo each other. It struck him suddenly and without warning. Jarred’s eyes darted uneasily between A.J. and his friends. He had to tell them, fast.
“Will you both shut up for a minute?” Sean snapped finally, stepping between the feuding pair. Jordan sighed happily, he was getting a little sick of Bret trying to show up the old man. I mean, if he went to all the trouble to hunt them down, wouldn’t he at least have a good reason? And who the hell was the ‘Drag Queen’?
Zach was still kind of in shock. This guy just shows up, looking like him, dressing like him, and acting way too like him for Zach’s taste. Who did he think he was any ways? Zach would have to teach this ‘A.J.’ a lesson.
Sean whirled to face McLean, “And you, what do you want with us? I’m sure you just didn’t come here to argue with Bret.” Jordan’s head jerked up in amazement that Sean could read his thoughts so well.
A.J. sighed, frowning slightly in annoyance. “Well, if you want to be so horribly boring and stubborn, I might be tempted to inform you why Ol' Kill-Now-Ask-Later wants you dead. Other than the fact that that guy is obsessed with killing everything and everyone. And you’re probably wondering why ya’ll were yanked out of your lives and shoved in the wonderful world of Kinsod.” as he finished, A.J. looked up to check their reactions.
Jordan raised an eyebrow slightly, but Zach wouldn’t give him the pleasure.
“Listen to me you mother fucker. You’ve done nothing but slink around the subject, get into fights, and, when you finally decide to tell us a little something, you talk in riddles. If I hear anything from that prick mouth of yours other than total facts, I’ll kick your balls so far up your ass that we’d have to start calling you ‘Miss McLean.’ Any questions, jackass?” Oh what a site it was, to see Bret’s eyes just about bug out of his head! Jordan’s head jerked forward so fast everyone later claimed they heard a crack, and they were convinced that Jordan had broken his neck. Jarred’s mouth dropped so far down, it practically scraped to rocky ground. Sean froze, totally shocked at what he’d just heard. Zach took a step back involuntarily.
All eyes turned towards the fuming Amanda. Her petite figure was raised to it’s full height. Her slim fingers were balled into fists, as if ready to carry out her threat. Her dark eyes flashed dangerously, her dark hair adding to the threatening pose. No one could believe it, Amanda had just said more words in the past five minutes than in the past three weeks combined. Not even Zach could recall a time when she had looked more furious or demanding.
The most surprising reaction of Amanda’s statement was from A.J. He looked exactly like a little boy who’s mother had caught him with his hand in the cookie jar. He managed to croak out a harsh “Yes, ma’am.” He cleared his throat and pulled out a small diamond. It was beautiful in every aspect of the word, sparkling even in the dim light of the setting sun. Inside it was more colorful than a thousand rainbows. He watched us all as we stared in awe at the diamond, “This, is why you are here.”