james monaghan / twelve. fin

[gamemaker tallis 🧚🏽‍♂️kaitlin.]

elliot & noah & juliet & sidonie & justin & bailey

[gamemaker tallis 🧚🏽‍♂️kaitlin.]

j a m i e.  sixteen. prince.

[gamemaker tallis 🧚🏽‍♂️kaitlin.]

there was so much blood, there was so much blood,

and a heart beating –i want i want i want.

[gamemaker tallis 🧚🏽‍♂️kaitlin.]

prologue

I have so many fucking siblings it's actually fucking exhausting all the fucking time.

Now, I know what you're thinking. (I usually do, after all). Family is a blessing; family is what makes the world go around; family is the only thing that matters in this Ripred-forsaken god-damned abandoned town.

You're going to tell me that family will be there for me no matter what, that they're the only one's who will be there for me through to the very end. I should be grateful for all of them, should be grateful that I have an older brother to look out for me and an elder sister to do the same. I should be grateful that I came into this world with half my heart in another person's chest, that because of Jules, I will never be alone.

Well, I'm here to tell you one thing.

I'm the only god this district needs.

And gods don't need anyone.

[gamemaker tallis 🧚🏽‍♂️kaitlin.]

twelve's bleeding

The first thing he does is adjust his lapels.

Maybe it's futile, maybe he's a olive-skinned boy in a district where only the fair-haired and fair-eyed are supposed to prosper. Maybe he's a boy among men.

But Jamie Monaghan has never cared.

Juliet had been the one who told him to go and meet the Peacekeepers tonight, had been the one to call the shots, but it was Jamie who had come up with the plan, Jamie who had all the information on who he was meeting, Jamie who was in control. He was usually content to let Jules think that she was the one running shit around these parts, especially because it gave him an easy out whenever he couldn't be fucked with dealing with a customer who pissed him off.

But there was no mistaking it—this meet is Jamies, and he is the only one with all the information.

The three of them were gathered nearby. Jamie and his two seconds; Jeremiah, a man who Jamie had always had doubt about, but was big and broad and capable of protecting the supply when it needed transport; then Carlos, another olive-skinned boy who Jamie would trust in any fight.

"Hear about that shipment that's coming tomorrow?" Jeremiah said to the others. "Would love to see what's in that."

"Would rather steal whatever's in that," Carlos said backhandedly.

Jeremiah laughs, and Jamie is a picture of steady calm. He is all hard lines, stark colors to contrast with the dark of his skin. The wool coat hanging around his shoulders is form-fitting, dark black, emphasizing the clean cut of his hard jaw. Most wouldn't notice the flick of his eyes towards the shadows, wouldn't see the way his eyes settle for a half-moment on another one of his little soldiers, wouldn't see him nod at the darkness.

They have their own tasks.

Wordlessly, he signals to Jeremiah and Carlos to remove their weapons, leave them in the duffle bag he pulls out and stashes once it's filled.

"Rawlins isn't smart," Jamie speaks, finally. "But that doesn't mean he isn't trouble." He adjusts the links in his shirt sleeve, pulls them down slightly so that the crisp white of his shirt is exposed under the dark of his jacket. "Stay sharp, and stay fucking quiet."

The rules of the meeting are clear: only the leaders may speak.

Silently, he ducks through the archway into the district square where he's agreed to meet their connection to the network of corrupt Peacekeepers. A wind blows through the air, ruffling the hairs on the back of Jamie's neck. Across the square, a stray street lamp flickered, one of the few that was supposed to stay lit up at night time. The sound of footsteps across the way echoed through the night.

Rawlins and his men had arrived.

[gamemaker tallis 🧚🏽‍♂️kaitlin.]

control

Jamie's coat bristled in the breeze.

The wind ran down his back in rivulets, creating little waves in the fabric. The silence cut through the night, the sound of breathing harsh over the sound fo their footsteps across the stones. A low rumble sounded from one of Rawlins men, a chuckle deep in his throat that should have set Jamie's teeth on edge.

But he betrayed nothing.

Rawlins was a scarecrow of a man wrapped up in body armor, a man made up with all the wrong angles. The two men at his shoulders were massive things, brutes with trunks for limbs. No one in Twelve looked like that, not even the wealthy. Not even the victors, with more money than even a family like the Monaghan's could even pretend to truly comprehend.

In familiar fashion, Jamie's men stepped forward to weapons check Rawlins second.

Carlos made a little tsk tsk sound, pulled a gun from the waistband of one of them. He cocked his head to the side and pursed his lips slightly, berating with only a look. Without a word, he tossed it to the far end of the square where it landed on the ground with a hard noise.

Jamie stayed expressionless, watching Jeremiah pat down the other.

"Clear," Jeremiah said, and took a step back behind Jamie.

It was supposed to be easy, a breeze, easier even than the wind cutting across all of their cheeks. The deal was already agreed upon, had been dealt with time and again. Jamie would say that they're going to continue bringing in the shipments, and then Rawlins would hum and haw about the rules of the game and try to wiggle a discount or a cut of the profits, and they would go back and forth just to shake hands on the deal that Jules had gotten them to agree to a year ago. At the end of it all, they were supposed to shake hands and be on their merry ways.

Supposed to.

[gamemaker tallis 🧚🏽‍♂️kaitlin.]

sitting in the garden

"Winter's fuckin' cold this year," Rawlins says, making small talk while the seconds go about their business. Jamie makes some reply that's worthless, pointless, a waste of his breath but a formality he'll recognize all the same. They go on, and Rawlin's makes a joke about that bar in the Seam that serves what might as well be watered down gasoline. Jamie laughs.

They dance around each other with their words, throw false smiles and fake laughs until all of their cheeks are getting pink, the tips of their noses red from the wind biting at them. Jamie fidgets with his gloves, false nervousness maybe. Perhaps a force of habit. He pulls the leather up until its flat against his palms, runs his gloved fingers over the soft of them before wrapping them behind his back, assuming position.

He looks open, at ease with his hands behind his back.

The world knew better though—one wrong flick of Rawlin's eyes, and the Peacekeeper would lose them both.

"You know why we're here," Rawlin's finally says. "Your little family has everything; we just want our fair cut." Jamie made no face, the picture of ease. Next to Rawlin's there was no mistaking the fact that Jamie was still a child, that he was a sixteen year old boy with thin legs and even thinner arms, but no one could see the mind under that hat of his. They couldn't see the empires it could topple if it would just put in the work. "You get the profits from all the Peacekeepers that come through, it only seems fair that we get a bigger slice off the top."

"Does it?" Jamie replied dryly, eyebrows lifted. The look on Rawlin's face was worth the look he'd get from Jules later if Carlos told her that he'd used fucking sarcasm their connection. "Seems to me this is the exact arrangement you agreed to over a decade ago." Jamie didn't take a step forward, barely moved even an inch, but somehow he got bigger, got closer, hit home. "Maybe you've forgotten how things work in Twelve, but we Monaghans run the product coming in and out. You get paid for your services making sure it doesn't get stopped at the checkpoints, but beyond that you hold no responsibility—and none of the profit."

Before the Monaghans, even the wealthy struggled. The merchants had wealth, but it was nothing compared to the fortunes that the Monaghans had brought in—that Seam family with all the tenacity of those with nothing who wanted everything. And when there was nothing in Twelve for them to take, they figured out how to bring it in and have it all for themselves.

"Hey, we've all got to make money, Monaghan."

"Was the shipment you stole three nights ago not enough to sate the hunger then?"

And the night stood still.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Rawlin's responded, swallowing.

"We had a shipment of liquor and some other goods scheduled for delivery two nights ago, but it was ambushed just outside the fence by a group of wanderers." Jamie's voice hadn't changed, but the air had. "Supposedly."

Rawlin's took a step forward, a challenge clear in his eyes.

"You don't want to fight this fight, boy," Rawlin's says, and at his side Jamie can feel Carlos bristling. Jeremiah stayed stock still.

"And yet—here I am at your table."

"And what if I told you that I had some of my men pointing their weapons at the space between your eyes right this minute?"

[gamemaker tallis 🧚🏽‍♂️kaitlin.]

pink smoke

Jamie's laugh was unkind.

That tended to be the way of things with him, and if Carlos fessed up to Jules about how all of this had gone down later, she'd probably want to hit him upside the head for laughing in Rawlin's face. She'd probably ice him out for a few hours, roll her eyes whenever he opened his mouth, but in the end he'd be right and the job would be done and she'd need him for something else even while she pretended that she didn't.

And Jamie would laugh again, unkindly, and get the job done.

"I would tell you that you're in pretty dire violation of the agreement," he replies. "Not to mention the debt you'd surely be in if you really paid off two sharpshooters. I know you didn't have any in your arsenal, so you'd have to have hired on new men." Jamie tsks his tongue, his head tilting down to the side slightly. If he tipped it further, the brim of his hat might cover his face, hide the grin he wants to bear. He holds it in. "Not something you can afford I assume, given you're here begging for more money from me."

Jamie could feel the look Carlos gave him, but he paid it no mind.

"It'd be worth it," Rawlin's says, jaw tight. "Given the outcome."

"Being what?"

"You dead, preferably. Disabled at the very least."

"You want me gone so badly, Rawlins'?"

"The Monaghans might just crumble without you, leave room for someone else to come into some power."

"There's a compliment in there somewhere."

"Ripred," Rawlin's says. "Kids like you are just rats with pretty faces, aren't ya? All of you Monaghans are. I just wanna wipe that smug fuckin' grin right off your face."

Jamie replied quick as a bolt of lightning.

"So do it." In the shadows, Jamie's soldiers run wild, searching for the men Rawlin's says have guns, the one's that are supposedly pointed right at Jamie. "Stop talking and fucking take what you want, Rawlins."

"Jamie—" Carlos echos, but Jamie cuts him off.

"Give your orders, Keeper."

For half a second, it seemed like he wouldn't do it, like he was just going to back away now and take the money that he agreed to and live his life as it was, crooked but stable. But then— "Fire!" echoed through the square just as Rawlin's puffed up his chest, and a bullet buried itself in a belly.

"FUCK!" Jeremiah shouted out, crumbling in on himself.

"You fucking idiot!" Carlos shouted at Rawlin's, stepping to Jeremiah to help him. "What the FUCK are you doing violating the treaty like that?"

"Maybe I'll tell the other twin that her brother shot first," Rawlin's goes on, shrugging. "Maybe he offered me a cut and I showed my loyalty to her by taking him out. It's my word against your dead bodies—who's to say otherwise?"

Jamie tilted his head to the side.

"That's the plan then?" He says, not even sparing a glance for his man on the ground.

"That's the plan."

Jamie makes a humming noise, purses his lips.

"J's bleeding out, Jamie," Carlos says from behind. "He's really bleeding."

"Good," Jamie replies, and Rawlin's goes pale.

[gamemaker tallis 🧚🏽‍♂️kaitlin.]

nephilim

"I don't—" Carlos goes on, and anyone could hear the lack of understanding in his voice, the upturn of confusion. Jeremiah's groans echoed through the square, moans and sounds of pain bouncing off of every stone and wall. "Jamie, he needs a healer!"

"What he needs to be is glad I didn't have Jaden take him out with a headshot like Rawlins promised to take me out." He tilts his head to the side, still not sparing a glance for his fallen man. "An eye for an eye makes the world blind, no?"

From a district away, the whole world would have been able to see the look of horror on Rawlins face. The echo of confusion. The terror of trying to piece together the parts of a puzzle that you don't really want to solve. "How—" he starts, but Jamie cuts him off.

"That's his name, right? Your man on the roof?" He tuts his tongue again. "Jaden Carlisle and Edward Hall. Those are the men you spent all your coin on."

Rawlins stayed quiet, smaller than the world had ever seen him.

"That was your biggest mistake, Rawlins. Your coin had appeal, no doubt, but I operate on a currency much harder to ignore—secrets. And I know all of theirs." He still hasn't moved, hasn't taken a step forward or back, hasn't even taken his hands out from behind his back. He's won already, and they all know it. "Jaden over there has some urges that would make even some of your worst men blush; it wasn't hard to make him see my side of this fight was the one he wanted to be on. Wouldn't you say so, Carlisle?"

Another bullet cut through the night, this time cracking into the stone right at Rawlin's feet.

He jumped back, startled, eyes bewildered as he tried to process how he could have been outwitted this badly, how he could have lost a battle of wits to a sixteen-year-old boy with no weapon save for his mind. A boy who hadn't even bothered to tell his second what his plan was.

"Shoot him, Carlisle! Shoot him!" Rawlins shouted, desperate now. That made Jamie laugh, another cruel and unkind thing. "Shoot him and I'll still pay you! Now's the chance!"

"You think his secrets die with me?" Jamie's smile was callous, unflinching, cold as ice. "If I'm not back with my soldiers in an hour, if I turn up with a bullet in my skull somewhere, the first place my people will go is go knock on his wife's front door and his Captain's. I'll be dead, but so will he."

Finally, he looked away from Rawlins, stared straight at the roofline like he knew exactly where Jaden was standing. It should have been impossible for him to know, but Jamie had a way about knowing his surroundings that surpassed the possible.

"And dead men have no use for gold."

[gamemaker tallis 🧚🏽‍♂️kaitlin.]

can't pretend

Rawlin's opened his mouth to call out again, but Jamie was already there.

"Ah-ah," he says, voice short. "You're thinking about calling to Hall." Jamie purses his lips, tilts his head to the side. "I wouldn't, if I were you. He's no use to you here."

Rawlins looks back in disbelief.

"No," he says, shaking his head. "No, no, no, no, no." He open his mouth again and then claps it shut, looking remarkably like a fish out of water, gasping for the familiar. "Always one fucking step ahead."

"I'd say it's more than one, wouldn't you, Rawlins?"

"This isn't fucking over!" he shouts, and then reaches into the back of his waistband, drawing a gun out like it was supposed to be some kind of shock to Jamie. Carlos bristles at the gun, lifts his hands up in outrage. He looks at Rawlins with wide eyes, and then down at Jeremiah for a flash, confused and not putting it together immediately.

"Finally," Jamie says, rolling his eyes. He bends at his knees and throws his hands out to the side as he does it, a dramatic show of shock and relief. "What we've all been waiting for. Now Carlos can stop fussing over J."

"I—" Carlos begins, standing up, taking a step away from Jeremiah bleeding out on the ground. All attention was on Carlos, so Jamie took a step forward. Not a big one, but it'll be enough when he needs the extra inches. "But J searched him. I— Oh," he says, shaking his head. "Oh, J, you fuckin' idiot," he groans, disappointment and anger mingling in his voice. There was no way Jeremiah had missed the gun when he pat down Rawlins; the betrayal was clear as day.

The problem was Jamie still had a gun pointed at his chest.

He sighed, looked at the man holding the gun.

"Do you know what your biggest problem is Rawlins?" The man leveled his gaze at him, but Jamie didn't give him the chance to respond. "You trust lazy men. People who won't do anything that doesn't involve getting a pretty penny. Jeremiah over there?" he gestured to his dying man. "Lazy as they come, has been going to the same woman to get his eggs for as long as I've known him. So imagine my surprise when, seemingly out of nowhere, he started walking all the way over to the Keepers part of town to collect his eggs in the morning. That's an extra mile at least, right J?" He sighed, leaned his head in almost conspiratorially. "It wasn't exactly hard to figure out why. That's what happens when stupid people try and think outside their boxes."

And then he grabbed the gun.

It took only half a second for the whole ordeal, a single pop of his hand to lodge it right out of Rawlins loose grip. Then the gun was in Jamie's grip.

Dead-eyed and unafraid, he put a bullet between Rawlins eyes, and then looked at his seconds.

"If you two help Jeremiah get home, or send a medic, or do anything that resembles making sure he doesn't die a long, painful death on this dirty street, I'm going to make sure your death takes twice as long." He shoved the gun into the back of his own waistband, pulled his black jacket down over it. "Now go home."

Then Jamie turned his back on both of them and walked away.

The only sound left was the pleading of a dying man's final words. "Don't leave me," hung in the cold night air. "Please, don't leave me here, please."

Jamie never looked back.

[gamemaker tallis 🧚🏽‍♂️kaitlin.]

✨ zozo. Tom hehe 12 years later

[Tom]

Jamie is frightening, but I love that about him. Always one step ahead of others. I love love love his wit and the confidence he carries. The whole scene was so vivid and such a cool introduction to him. Amazing work, Kaitlin!