Page 33

THIRTY-TWO

“Are you sure I look, okay?” Rose asks looking at me through the mirror.

I dressed her up un my clown outfit from the club and she looks sexy. Almost too sexy for me to let her walk out of her dorm room on a Saturday night to a college party.

“You look hot. Your boyfriend is going to go nuts when he sees you in it.”

I turn her dace so I can finish applying makeup on her lips.

“You look hot. I look like I’m trying too hard.”

“I think you look sexy,” I say dropping my gaze to her chest. “I’d do you.”

I look up and her eyes find mine and there’s a question there. Am I serious or playing around? If she only knew.

“Have you?”

“Have I what?”

“Been with a girl?”

I line her lips trying to give myself time to answer. I haven’t and it’s not hard to tell her the truth but how do I tell her I want to try. With her. It’s not like I’m cheating on Draco. The other night was the best night of my life. I almost didn’t want to leave the warmth of his arms but I promised Rose I would go to the party with her. I’m not sure how I’m going to make up the money for my rent or what is really happening between me and Draco but I know I want this. I want to experiment with her. I don’t know why but feel it the same way I feel things with Draco.

It’s like sharing a connection with someone you can’t explain. I have a connection with Rose.

“No.”

“Would you?” she asks almost causing me to drop the lip pencil from my fingers.

“It depends.”

“On?”

“If she’s into it. It has to be the right person, you know.”

“Yeah, I get that.”

“So who is really at this party?”

She smiles. “Everyone.”

She turns on Averis street and stops in front of a large double gate. It looks like it’s a gate to a castle. There is a screen on a large black call box. She pulls forward and the gate suddenly opens.

“Do they let just anyone in?” I ask looking at the tall trees. The moon peeking through the tall branches.

“I don’t think so. I guess since it’s a party.”

“Whose house is this?”

“It’s the Hades mansion. Well, used to be. No one really knows. It was sold off to some company a long time ago. A trust or something.”

She pulls forward down the dark road that opens up to a circular driveway that leads to a five car garages with carriage lights. Another path down the center that leads to the estate’s large double door entrance.

It doesn’t look like there is a party going on except for all the cars parked all over the side of the driveway and on the grass.

“Who lives here now.”

“No one knows. I guess that’s the mystery . Probably why everyone showed up. No one has been able to get inside.”

“It all seems familiar somehow,” I say quietly. “Like I’ve been here before but that’s impossible.”‘

“I know right,” she says staring at the doors that leads inside. “I get that feeling too sometimes.”

I glance at her wondering if she feels it too. Like something big is about to happen, or the electricity running through my veins ever since we crossed those gates.

“Well, we aren’t going to find out sitting in here.” I open the door ignoring the cold bite of the wind through my coat. “Come on, let’s get inside.”

When we walk in, the house looks like a gothic mansion. Gorgeous. I can smell the earthy scent of wood but now it’s tinged with alcohol, perfume, sweat from all the bodies. Grinding against each other wearing masks, some wearing nothing to the imagination.

There is no way cops would be called for a noise complaint. The house must be built like a fortress because the music thumping couldn’t be heard from outside.

The crowd parts for a few seconds and I see the staircase that leads to the rooms but then a voice snaps my attention toward the back room that looks like a family room. There are black leather couches and a dark brown coffee table.

“I didn’t think you would actually come,” Nick says looking between me and Rose.

Kevin appears beside him both with their masks resting on top of their heads.

They didn’t put any effort in their costumes since they’re dressed in jeans and a sweater.

The way Nick rakes his gaze over Rose has me snaking my arm through hers. It doesn’t go unnoticed by Nick and Kevin. Nick flicks his gaze up and I swear if I could catch fire for the way he wants to rip me away from Rose I would. It’s too bad that isn’t going to happen.

A couple of girls walk up with Mia in tow. She takes one look at me and then at her boyfriend. The other girl with red hair that must be a wig trying to look like Jessica Rabbit but failing miserably gives Nick a “what the fuck is Rose doing here” look. It obvious they’re fucking.

I’m not sure how Rose feels about it though but I feel her stiffen.

I guess she didn’t.

“I guess you’re having fun without me,” Rose says to Nick.

He looks nervously at the red head. Busted.

I glance at Mia and I see it in her eyes the real reason she’s here. She is hoping to run into someone. My guess it’s Kaden.

I glance around at all the different faces I don’t recognize since most are wearing costumes.

“How do you two know each other?” Kevin asks.

“They hang out. She sleeps over Rose’s dorm sometimes,” Nick divulges.

Rose glances at me. I forgot that I didn’t tell her that we’d met the last time I slept over.

“Sleeps or fucks?” Kevin says with a knowing grin. “You do get around, huh?”

“Not like you do, Kevin,” I say in a sultry voice.

He smiles but its dark and I want nothing than to strangle him but I can’t.

There’s a tap on my shoulder. I turn my head and my eyes widen when I spot the woman with the white hair from the Circle of Freaks. I don’t know why she is here but she’s holding two red cups out to me and Rose.

“I’m sure you’re thirsty,” she says with a smile.

Her makeup flawless, not one smudge. She beautiful.

“Thank you,” I tell her grabbing both cups handing one to Rose.

She leans in and whispers, “A little secret. These guys are no fun,” she says with a teasing glint in her voice. Like she is playing a character, but I know better. It’s a warning.

“I can tell,” I reply her taking a sip of the fruity concoction. I hold back a grimace. I’m not an expert in alcohol but I can tell this drink has plenty.

“Be careful drinking this,” Rose says softly, “It’s a creeper.”

Kevin smacks his hands together in a loud clap that can’t be heard over the music playing.

“Why don’t we have some fun. I suggest you let Rose go so she can hang out with her boyfriend or maybe you can both hang out together.” His voice drips with innuendo.

I really hate that guy.

I glance at the red head and her face falls. Her plans with Nick going up in ashes when Rose steps forward.

“I’ll be just a minute,” she says.

I nod and hope to hang out with the woman with white hair blue she vanished. It was like she disappeared into thin hair.

A blast of cold hair hits my shoulders wishing I didn’t leave my coat in the car. I turn and there is a back door from the kitchen open. I can see a flash of long blond hair whip around the door.

I could have sworn it was a little girl or someone who is really short.

When I make it outside, I toss my drink in the trash and spot her at the edge of the woods. She is facing me. Staring directly at me. Her silhouette distinguishable under the moonlight.

There are two guys smoking weed on my left.

A couple fucking in the corner. The girls leg hitched over the guy’s hip and he’s thrusting in her.

The guys smoking weed are oblivious or so fucking high they don’t notice.

I tear my gaze away and see the little girl still standing at the edge of the wood line.

It’s dangerous to be out there this time of night. I wonder who would let a little girl hang out in a house with a college party going on.

She beckons me with her small hands to come over. I walk over and then she runs. I run after her imagining someone kidnapping her or worse, she gets hurt. I run faster and faster, the cold air and branches whipping at my arms as I push through the brush of tree. The air crips mixed with a cloud of smoke with each heavy breath I take.

She stops, turns around, and then I hear her laugh.

“Wait,” I call out. “It’s dangerous to run out here at this time of night. You have to go back.” But she doesn’t listen. She runs, laughing like it’s fun to be out here in the middle of nowhere.

I stop to catch my breath. I’m bent over with the palms of hands on my knees. My legs feel like ice underneath my fishnet stalking. I work a transparent pair underneath but it does nothing for the cold temperature. A shiver runs through me despite that I’m sweating and it feels like each drop is turning into frozen rain drops on my skin.

I take a deep breath and swallow but my throat is dry from the thin cold air. The smell of burning wood and grass fills my nose.

I look over my shoulder but it’s dark and I don’t see the house anymore. Just tall trees and thick branches. I rub my arms and look around to see if she stopped running. I about to turn around when I jolt. She’s standing right in front of me.

“Come on, mommy,” she says in her small little voice, “It’s right over there.” She points at her left. There is a clearing between two tall trees. A sense of longing fills my chest and sobs escapes my lips.

“Samantha,” I whisper softly. Her name was Samantha.

I glance down at her beautiful white gown and her gorgeous blond hair. Her expression reminding me of him. Draco.

“I knew you would remember me. Come,” she says with excitement, waving me over. “It’s right over there.”

I follower her and then the trees disappear and I find myself in a cemetery. A family cemetery with rows of tombstones.

I cover my mouth with my hand. “Oh my God,” I mutter.

The rows of graves all have the same name. Draco Hades. Lazarus Hades but each grave has different women on the stones. I stop on the last set. Lazarus Hades and Alice Hades, Draco Hades and Ivy Hades. But my eyes catch the one on the left. A small grave in the beginning. Samantha Hades.

Tears falls down my cheeks because I know. She’s dead.

My gaze follows to wear she is standing behind it. “You promised to visit me. I missed you.” She smiles. “Daddy comes all the time but lately he’s been acting weird.” Her mouth forms a pout and she twirls her white dress.

My bottom lip trembles and it’s not from the cold. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, Mommy. I’ll always find you, we promised each other, remember?”

I nod wiping my cheeks. “Yeah, we promised.”

Something hits me like a freight train. My eyes roll back. The search for her missing body that was never found. The cops. The other girls gone missing in another time. Like a fracture in the past that is now slowly making sense.

“Mommy?”

I open my eyes and she stops twirling her skirt. “You need to save them.”

“Who?”

But I know. The girls.

“The girls. It’s why you come back. See.” She points at all the graves with Draco’s name on it and all the names of each woman.” She grins. “You always come back.”

I close my eyes and her little voice echoes in my head. “Go find daddy and save them.”

I open my eyes and she’s gone. I turn around in a full circle but she’s gone because she was a ghost or a figment of my imagination.

I look down at my outfit and something feels different . “Go find Rose. She needs you.”

It’s me. I’m… her.