Frozen Embers by D. S. Novis (room on the broom read aloud txt) 📖

me either, Gabriel reasoned with himself. Michael is a part of my unconscious and that’s where I should leave him.

Besides, it wasn’t exactly a mystery why the surroundings had been so real-looking anyway. The bank that Michael had been about to rob existed in real life. It was right around the corner in fact. He would be walking past it on his way to school-

“Oh no, school!” Gabriel gasped as he looked over at his alarm clock. He had to be there in twenty minutes and he hadn’t even woken his sister, Molly, yet.

All thoughts about Michael had been driven out of his mind as he jumped off of the bed and ran to the wardrobe. He grabbed the Fairway Uniform that was crumpled in a heap at the bottom, as it had been chucked carelessly there the night before. He wrenched the top over his head, unceremoniously, and hurried to the door. Placing one leg into his trousers he stepped out into the hall.

“Molly!-“ Smash!

There was the sound of a cup breaking and Gabriel crashed to the hard floor in a heap; his backend, only half covered by trouser, sticking out in the air and his face cushioned by something warm and moist. He had tripped over a mug of hot chocolate and landed, face first, in a slice of newly made toast with strawberry jam.

Gabriel groaned in pain.

He could feel the hot chocolate seeping through his top. He climbed to his feet and walked down the long hallway of his family’s London apartment to the kitchen. There, reading the news paper and sipping her own cup of hot chocolate, sat Gabriel's younger sister, Molly. Fully dressed and ready for school.

“I made that breakfast with the expectation it would go in your mouth.” Molly said wearing a sardonic grin. She looked Gabriel up and down.  “But I like what you’ve done with it a lot more.”

She smiled and then turned back to the news channel she had been watching.

Gabriel scoured at her for several moments and then looked towards the television screen. The news reader was giving updates on the biggest piece of news that week, maybe even that month.

“Updates are coming through now about ‘The London Underground Bombers’.  Kelly Upton is outside Greyside High Security Prison in London.”

Then the scene cut over to a young and pretty woman holding a microphone. She was standing in front of a barbed wired fence.

“Thank you Richard. I’m here in front of Greyside Prison where the seven London Underground Bombers are to be incarcerated indefinitely following the verdicts reached this morning. A sentence of life without bail for each of the seven was given.” Kelly Upton reported.

Gabriel, like the vast majority of London, had been watching the news intently for any development in this story. These Seven bombers were incredibly mysterious. Little was known about them, or at least little had been disclosed. They were 'from somewhere in Eastern Europe' was the only real information Gabriel had learned about them thus far.

Nobody knew whether this was an act of terrorism or something money related. Speculations had suggested it was terrorism but backing religious or nationalistic causes they did not know.

The Seven had kept close to silent and their images were rarely shown.

“The count now stands at one hundred and seventy three deaths as a result of the bombing. It was originally thought that the tragedy was caused by an electrical fault in the engine of the train, however, after an examination of the train experts concluded that detonated explosives and signs of foul play were found in the engine. This led the police to believe that somebody had orchestrated the derailing of the train.

The spot light was put on The Seven after an anonymous phone call informed the police of explosives at the home where the men lived. After the police inspected the house they found not only the same explosives that were used in the bombing, but also detailed plans on how to orchestrate a derailing. This was enough to charge the East European men.

Since they all claimed to be the leader they all gained the same sentence. Police informed me that they will be held in a separate, newly built ward at Greyside with round the clock surveillance.

There is no evidence that these men are associated with any pre-existing terrorist groups at this point but they do share some characteristics. This leads the police to believe that this was a religiously motivated assault-“ 

“Gabriel! What is zat on your face?” shrieked a harsh German woman’s voice from the other side of the kitchen.

Gabriel jumped a foot into the air and revolved on the spot. It was Gabriel and Molly’s house keeper, Ms Clark.

Ms Clark had been with them for as long as Gabriel could remember. She was thin and mean looking with permanently alert brown eyes. Her hair was beginning to grey and her skin beginning to wrinkle in her old age. This brought with it a look of ever increasing frailty.

Ms. Clark, however, was frail neither by body nor mind. She was half nanny and half body guard to Gabriel and Molly.

Ms. Clark had been the one to teach Gabriel Martial Arts. She'd always been incredibly persistent on this, not letting Gabriel miss a single lesson since the age of five.

Why they needed a house keeper that knew martial arts, Gabriel never knew. From what he understood she had taken up the position of their house keeper just after leaving Germany’s Intelligence Agency.

Ms. Clark had told Gabriel and Molly that when they were younger there were eight body guards. They were fired one by one until only Ms. Clark remained.

This baffled Molly constantly. She believed that their parents must have some serious enemies. Gabriel however wasn’t really fussed. Ms. Clark made amazing blueberry pancakes and that made her, in Gabriel’s eyes, worthy of the job.

“You’re going to be late Gabriel. Hurry up.” Ms. Clark barked.

Gabriel sighed, turned and went to get changed.

Detour

2

Detour

 

 

          Gabriel didn’t know why he had panicked. Molly was rarely ever late, for anything. She was by far the most intelligent person Gabriel knew. Gabriel and she were extremely close. They were more than merely brother and sister. Though neither Gabriel nor Molly would admit it out loud they were, and had always been, best friends.

Molly wasn't Gabriel’s biological sister. They weren't even mistaken for biological siblings either due to the contrast in their appearance. Gabriel was pale white, with unruly blonde hair and deep blue eyes. Molly on the other hand was dark olive toned in skin colour, hinting at Mediterranean heritage, with long shiny black hair and dark chocolate brown eyes.   

 They had been adopted from the same orphanage. Both Gabriel and Molly had been abandoned at the orphanage around the same time. No details were taken from either set of biological parents. Gabriel supposed this was quite common. They cared so little about giving him that they couldn't even spare the time to fill in the paperwork. Gabriel and Molly's closeness was mainly due to the fact that they had had to look after each other from a very young age. Molly had been weeks old when adopted and Gabriel was around a year older than that.  

Their adopted parents, Cecilia and Braxton Fairway, were almost permanently ‘Away on Business’. This left Gabriel and Molly alone with Ms. Clark in their London apartment.

Oh, and it is no coincidence that they share their name with the academy to which Gabriel attends. Braxton’s father, Braxton Fairway the third, donated so generously to the academy that they actually renamed it shortly after his death.

Gabriel’s surname, thankfully in his opinion, was not Fairway. Cecilia and Braxton simply kept the name that the orphanage had given him; Gabriel Hawks. Gabriel didn't know whether this was the sole piece of information his parents had left or whether the orphanage had made it up. The truth was that either way he didn't care. He liked his name.

The same story could not be said for his now fourteen year old sister who had no last name. So Molly was awarded the surname Fairway. Gabriel, over the last few years, had come to suspect that the main reason Cecilia and Braxton had adopted him and his sister were more for aesthetic reasons than maternal and paternal instincts. Cecilia and Braxton were very rich and in the public eye a lot due to their business. So it would bode well for them to have a warm family side.

They were young and very attractive. So why go through the sticky and painful act of child birth when you can go out and buy a baby? They didn’t get involved with such monotonous affairs like their son getting kicked out of school for warding off five bullies at once using a cafeteria tray as a weapon.  Cecilia and Braxton just throw more money at other local academies, raising the price, until eventually someone takes Gabriel in.

Fifteen minutes after the breakfast incident Gabriel was ready for school.  

“Are you okay viv getting yourselves to school today?” Ms. Clark asked them both.

Gabriel and Molly took the elevator from their room on the fifteenth floor down to the lobby. Then from the lobby they stepped out into the street. The day was chilly and windy. Snow floated elegantly from the sky.

“Oh yeah I forgot to mention, here.” Molly said as she opened the doors and they started to walk down the main road. She held out two objects in her hand, an envelope and a parcel. Gabriel took them confused.

“What are these for?” He inquired.

Molly looked at him puzzled.

“You’re kidding, right?” She answered. But when Gabriel continued to look confused she went on. “Are you saying that you have no idea what today is?”

Gabriel took the two objects and examined them. What’s so special about today? He thought. What was the date anyway? December 15th... no wait that’s wrong, the 16th he corrected himself.

All of a sudden it came to him and he felt incredibly stupid for not remembering. How could he have forgotten? December 16th was Gabriel and Molly’s birthday. Well sort of anyway. It was the date that they had been adopted. Since neither knew their own specific birthday they took December 16th.

Gabriel supposed it was the dream that had bombarded most of his other thoughts from his mind. He turned back to Molly and tried to pass off his moment of stupidity as a joke.

“Of course I know what today is.” He said with what he hoped was a convincingly pompous tone. Molly did not seem convinced. 

“I’m surprised you even manage to dress yourself some days.” she said with a chuckle. “The envelope is from Cecilia and Braxton.”

Gabriel opened the envelope and slid out the piece of paper that was inside it. It was a check. No loving note lay inside. No funny birthday card. Just a check. Of course, he had been expecting as much.

He turned back to Molly. She had a concerned look on her face which made him suddenly very interested in the buttons on his blazer.

“Gabriel, they were probably just too busy that’s all. At least now you can buy something you know that you’d like.” She gave him a sympathetic smile.

“So, that means this,” Gabriel