Chapter 1 - Tedium - Phantom

The night out side was bitter cold, the wind beating against the windows, threatening to break in and reap vengeance on those inside for daring to be warm. The common room was strangely busy for an evening. Sarah Nade was curled into a puffy armchair, headphones blaring out some heavy bass line while here foot twitch in time with it. Patty Larceny was lounging out stretched on the floor her fingers racing over the key pad of her mobile phone at a tremendous speed as she updated and re-updated her facebook. Vic was lazily playing solitaire at the planning table with a deck of cards with a suspiciously large amount of aces in it. Various other people sat around doing whatever they could to fight the boredom of waiting for a job, not that Phantom really cared what the others were doing but he watched anyway. Phantom was sat bolt upright in his armchair, the only corner in the whole room that had it’s lamps extinguished, and the bulbs removed just to make sure, bathing it in a the warm embrace of darkness. His jammer sat idly on the small table, turned off due to the sheer amount of complaints he’d received from the other patrons of the common room. He wasn’t even smoking due to torrents of abuse that was cast his was, why were villains so health conscious these days, how times changed he supposed, it was there choice of coarse but why were they so preachy about it. So denied his few pleasures that were ‘socially impolite’ he simply sat there, gloved fingers interlocked, eyes half closed behind there blue tinted surrounds, he watched, waiting. Phantom finally stood up from his chair, a slight groan emanated from his chair, a few face around the room flicked towards his direction and just as quick to flit back once there eyes met with Phantom’s. He slid his suit jacket off the back of his chair and eased himself comfortably into it, which was when he noticed it. A scarlet envelope peeking out of one of the pockets, the seal of his employer stamped across it. Curiosity blew through the room like an unwanted draft; eyes returned to his corner as he sliced open the letter and quickly studied his assignment. A minute had crept by as a plan began to form itself. The room alight with hushed tones awaiting Phantom to proclaim his task, they were sorely disappointed when phantom merely grunted. Removing his silver cigarette case from his inside jacket pocket he placed a cigarette between the bandages to his teeth behind. The curious looks became looks of disapproval as he lit it, a curl of smoke mirrored in the glass that covered eyes. An ember splintered from the glowing cherry, floating on an air current in the room. Phantom swatted it with the envelope, with the flare of a magician it burst into flames. Without a word to anyone he flicked his collar up and left the room, a trail of smoke marking his movements and a cloud of ash hanging in the air around his chair.