The Disappearances 02 by Gemma Malley

Author:Gemma Malley [Malley, Gemma]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Young Adult
ISBN: 9781444722840
Publisher: Hachette UK
Published: 2013-04-25T05:00:00+00:00

20

‘You like this music, Devil?’ Thomas turned around, a half-smile on his face. He was not a handsome man, but there was steel in his eyes that told Devil he had authority. His eyes were close set, his hair cut short, but his wrist sported an expensive Swiss watch and his suit looked hand made.

Devil shrugged. ‘I guess,’ he said noncommittally. It wasn’t his sort of music. Jangling guitars. The sort of thing played by white boys with long fringes. The sort of thing he might have listened to years ago. ‘It’s a new band. I think they’re going to go a long way,’ the man said, his fingers drumming on his thigh, his head nodding in rhythm. Then he grinned. ‘Actually, I know they’re going to go a long way, because I’m going to see that they do. You know the phrase “familiarity breeds contempt”? It’s bullshit. The more we hear something, the more we like it. I hated this music the first time I heard it but now I love it.’

Devil shrugged, a non-verbal ‘whatever’. He pulled his hood over his head. He didn’t really know what Thomas was talking about and so he did what he always did when he wasn’t sure about something and ignored him. ‘Ignorance is failure,’ his father used to say. ‘Ignorance is weakness. And if you’re weak, the strong will walk all over you. You have to be one step ahead. You have to see what’s coming. You have to be educated, informed, so no one takes you for a ride, you understand, son?’

‘You smoke that shit?’ Thomas was looking at his cigarettes.

Devil’s eyes narrowed defensively. ‘They’re no shit,’ he retorted. ‘Silk Cut. Genuine article.’ They were the cigarettes his father had smoked. ‘Middle-class cigarettes’, his father had called them.

‘They’re all shit,’ Thomas said. ‘They pollute your insides. Kill you if they can. Nothing good about being an addict, Devil. Nothing at all.’

Devil looked at him insolently.

Thomas smiled. ‘You’re angry with me because you think I’m belittling you. Right?’

Devil didn’t answer.

‘Maybe I am,’ Thomas shrugged. ‘But if you have a habit like that you’re asking for it. You’re giving power to the cigarette manufacturers, letting them own you. People used to belittle me, but not any more. Now they wouldn’t dare. I own my own destiny. I make my own destiny.’

Devil stared ahead, sullenly. He was angry, but he couldn’t do anything about it. He’d take it out on someone later.

‘How come you knew my name?’ he asked.

Thomas smiled. ‘Actually I know more than your name, Devil. I know you. Know all about you.’

‘Yeah?’ Devil shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

‘Yeah,’ Thomas said thoughtfully. ‘Shame about that kid, huh? Must make you feel like shit. I mean, it was your fault he killed himself, right? You’re going to have to live with that for the rest of your life.’

Devil just managed to stop himself launching himself at Thomas but just in time he remembered that he couldn’t win, not with these two big guys either side of him.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.