Awakening From Ashes

Chapter 5: Trojan Horse

Three months later and an entire personality and physical change, Lucas was ready to go back for revenge. Hell, he was already in the same city as his old family, only a few streets away from them to give him a fair vantage point. In his time of waiting he had seen an ad by the Graham's, looking for some men to joing their security team. The security team would be with the Graham's for the most part and would be given quarters in the mansion. A tense thought but an opportunity that Lucas didn't hesitate to jump at to move to the next step of his plan. 

It took about a week for Lucas to actually get called back on the basis that he wanted to apply for the job with Graham's and another three days after filling out forms, submitting identifications, and undergoing a rigorous test to ascertain if he was fit for the job. On the other hand, Nicole was nowhere to be found in New York. Lucas had hired a private investigator to find her, but she hadn't turned up anywhere. It was like she disappeared into thin air. It didn't matter though. Lucas had told the private investigator to keep an eye out for her. It was only a matter of time before she was found. That's when he decided to go ahead with his plan b. Infiltrate the Graham mansion. 

Obviously, as he expected, he was asked how many gifts had been bestowed upon him. A question to which he lied and said that it was two. Not one to make him look like a nobody and not three to make him seem like he was better than the people he would be tasked to protect. It was an action that landed him getting closer to his goal.

In a few days, Lucas was called by the assistants of the family and told that he had been shortlisted for the job and was to come to the mansion the next day to meet his future employers. 

Now, it was the day after receiving that message and he was a bit nervous. Yes, he had undergone the interview, but he didn’t see Emilia or her son anywhere. Plus, they hadn’t been interviewed on the property like Lucas expected. They had a building reserved for the job applicants. 

By this time, he had already gotten some better clothes to match his new identity and also to suit his needs. That morning, he wore a plain black suit and paired it with black shoes. It was nothing special, but nothing too bad either. Lucas took a look in his mirror to make sure that he looked good, before tucking his mother’s pendant into his shirt and fixing up his now cropped blonde hair. When he was satisfied with how he looked and the way his grey contact lenses covered his brown eyes, he left the room and went downstairs.

“Good morning, Mr. Damien. Looking sharp as always,” the woman from when Lucas checked into the inn said to him with a gleam in her eye. 

He had changed the very next day he came in and had come back as a new and improved Damien. Grace, the woman at the receptionist desk, noticed the change and smiled at him, a small show in her like for his new appearance. 

“Good morning, Grace. Thanks for the compliment. I’ll see you later,” he said to her with a wave before he disappeared behind the front doors and blended into the crowd. Lucas got a cab almost immediately and was on his way to the Graham mansion. His actual family home. 

Twenty minutes went by before the cab dropped him off at the gate and sped off. Lucas looked up at the daunting gate before him. The last time he had seen it was when he had been thrown out of the mansion and into the street with his mother. He shrugged the thought away and turned to the security post close to the gate.

“Good morning,” he greeted.

“Morning. Who are you?” The security man questioned him.

“Damien Knox.” Lucas replied, giving him the false name he was now using. 

“Who are you here to see?” the bulky man asked Lucas as he took in his appearance.

“The Graham family.”

The man looked away from Lucas and checked what he assumed to be a list of visitors on his computer before turning back to him, with his brows raised in suspicion.

“Do you have an appointment?” 

“I was called and told to be here by around this time, so sure, I do.”

The man rolled his eyes before he spoke again, as if Lucas was some little child he was being forced to interact with.

“Do you have any official appointments? Like an email or something? The family wouldn’t just call you. They have more pressing business to attend to.”

“No. Like I said earlier, I was called and asked to come here. Didn't they make reservations for that?” Lucas reiterated, turning the question back on the man.

“Look, I don’t know what sick game you think you’re playing here, but I don’t allow just anyone to go through these gates and, since you aren’t on the list, then I can’t let you in.”

“But I was told to be here.” Lucas argued with the man.

“I don’t have time to be dealing with you. Get off the property,” the man yelled at Lucas, his hands angling at the gun he had in his waist holster.

Lucas frowned. He maintained in his mind that he was not going to be turned away because one of the staff was incompetent. This was an opportunity that he was not going to waste.

“I need to see the Graham family. It’s with regard to the job opening,” he spoke, moving closer to the security post, trying to convince the man to let him through the gates.

The man looked at him and scoffed, not believing a word he said. 

“Someone as scrawny as you can’t possibly get that job. It’s just not suited to you. Now, get out.”

Lucas knew that he wasn’t slim by any means and certainly not scrawny. He did have some muscle and a nice build, but next to the guard, he seemed small. Still, he was determined not to take no for an answer.

“I need to get in,” Lucas declared, balling his fists up, ready to fight his way to get to his b*st*rd family.

The man noticed Lucas’s determination, including his balled-up fists, and chuckled at the sight. To him, Lucas was just a wimp who wanted to get beaten that day. He stood up and stepped out of his box. 

“Oh, you want to tussle, eh?” the man questioned as he cracked his knuckles.

“I’m going to enjoy beating you up.”

The man moved to lunge at Lucas just as he brought forth water, ready to incapacitate him. They were close to exchanging blows when they heard a strong and stern voice call out.

“Stop!”

Both of them paused and turned towards the voice. The guard quickly bowed while Lucas looked at who was approaching them. Short blonde hair and striking blue eyes watched him while a deep seated frown was prominent on the person’s face. Was this who Lucas thought it was?

“What’s going on here?” the mystery man questioned.

“I was trying to remove this man from the property, Mr. Graham. He was trespassing,” the guard said.

Mr. Graham. To Lucas, it meant that this was the boy his father brought back to their home all those years ago. Tobias.

Tobias turned to him with a questioning look.

“What’s your reason for being on this property?”

“I came with regard to the job opening. I’ve passed the other requirements and was told to be here at this time.” Lucas answered, trying to be as respectful as he could. 

Tobias eyed Lucas from head to toe and cocked his head, a bit skeptical but not really concerned. 

“Hmm. Well, then, come with me. Oh, and Dan, we’ll have a talk about your employment later,” he said, causing the security guard to ball his fists and sneer at Lucas, who paid him no mind as he opened the gates and followed Tobias, walking a few feet behind him just in case. 

They both walked in silence into the mansion and all Lucas could do was stare at him. Tobias was the spitting image of his father and, although he couldn’t see any flaws as of yet, it was too early to say. 

Lucas already knew the layout of the mansion well, so he was sure that the room Tobias was leading him to was the blue room. It was the room where personal and informal business were carried out.

The door opened without either of them having to knock and they both went in. Five chairs were lined up equally on the right side of the room, all facing one point. There was a couch on the left side of the large room, leaving a huge space between them. 

Four men were already sitting and waiting. All of them wore normal clothes, making Lucas feel a bit out of place, but he saw nothing strange in all of them being in the same room at once, since he was sure that he wasn’t the only person who had passed the tests but what he somehow wasn’t prepared to see was her. The reason he was here. Emilia Lockhart was sitting on the couch in an almost sheer green dress and was looking hungrily at the men who sat before her. 

Lucas fought the urge to ball his fists and throttle her. The blood in his veins boiled, but he knew that he couldn’t do anything about it. At least not now. So he swallowed his anger and took a seat on the right side of the room, completing the men and making them five in total. 

Tobias took his own seat next to his mother and began. 

“I’ll cut down to the chase as to why we’re here, since I’m a very busy man. The five of you were selected as the cream of the crop among the people who applied to be here. We admire your work ethic and your gifts and, honestly, we would like to give all of you the job, but there’s one issue. Only two of you can get it.”

The men glanced among themselves, but Lucas’s eyes stayed focused on Emilia, whose eyes were set on him too. Both of them were watching each other as if they were the only ones in the room. Only when Tobias spoke up again did Lucas turn away from her.

“So, to cull the herd and get the best two out of all of you, I have prepared a test. Right here and right now, the five of you will fight one another and the last two people to remain standing will get the job. You just need to incapacitate your opponents. How does that sound?” Tobias said with a gleam in his eye. 

“Do we use our gifts?” one of the men asked.

“It wouldn’t be a test if you didn’t give it your all, now, would it?” Tobias asked him rhetorically. He clapped and leaned back in his chair as he gestured to the free space in the middle of the room. 

“You can all begin. And don’t worry, if anything gets damaged within this room, I will replace it so, please, go all out.”

The men all stood up and went to the center, watching for who would make the first move. Lucas moved the farthest from the group and watched them circle each other. He was not going to fight them if they would do the fighting for him. 

Before he knew it, the room felt hot and a burst of flames moved across the room. One guy had shot at another who luckily dodged it. Another one used his water quirk to make whips of some kind and flick them around to catch his opponent. 

Lucas watched on, impressed at how they could all move, but he was so much more interested in shoving Emilia’s head into the ground. With his mind preoccupied with Emilia and how he intended to deal with her, he didn’t even notice that one man had been knocked out for the count and the other three had turned to him.

“What are you waiting for, huh? You expected us to fight among ourselves so that you could take all the glory?” one of the men said with anger in his voice. 

Lucas glanced at Tobias, who looked amused at his approach, and Lucas’s silence only angered the men more.

“You b*st*rd!” one of them screamed before he shot fire at Lucas. 

Lucas quickly sidestepped it and used his water gift to douse it. The other man ran towards him, his whip ready to shoot Lucas down, but he just sighed and rolled his shoulders, ready to parry the attack. 

I really don’t have time for this, Lucas thought to himself, knowing that he could take all of them out in one blow.

“Sorry about this,” he said to the men before he proceeded to use his water gift, since that was one of the gifts he had put in his application file.

Lucas summoned his own water into his hands and shot at their heads, aiming to miss. The men laughed at his attack, but they weren’t laughing for long because the water he shot surrounded their necks, and made it difficult for them to breathe. Their hands went up to their heads, clawing to get them out of the bubble of water that Lucas had them in, but it was of no use. 

They were drowning in water, and it was all because they had chosen to gang up on someone. One by one they dropped to the ground, half dead, and one by one, Lucas removed the water from around their necks, giving them some leeway to breathe as they were already unconscious. They were the people in the room that he didn’t want to kill.

Lucas dropped his hands when the deed was done, making the water dissipate, and turned to see an impressed Tobias and Emilia staring at him, impressed by what he had just done. 

“I apologize for taking out all of them. I couldn’t choose who to keep awake,” Lucas announced, expecting the man to be pissed, but Tobias clapped and stood up.

“No need. I think we found what we were looking for. Starting tomorrow, you work for me. Uh, what’s your name again?” Tobias said with a hearty look.

“Damien Knox,” Lucas replied with a smile, knowing that he had secured his way into the house. The Trojan horse had been planted.