“The mayor of the city devised an outrageous plan to help everyone cope with their grief: for one week, everyone in the village was to forget about their existing life and role play being someone else.
“All emotional ties to loved ones ceased to exist during this ‘Festival of Fools,’ as they called it. Everyone was to forget about the deaths of their children, too distracted in maintaining the lie of their new lives. However, there needed to be a mechanism for the villagers to know when someone was telling the truth—just in case. Thus, every villager would carry one item made of silver and when it was presented to another, it was known that the person holding it was telling the truth, temporarily abandoning their role play”
I raised the silver pocket watch to our eye levels and let it dangle from the chain, the weight of gravity rotating it slowly and effortlessly.
“The pocket watch, in your hands, was one of the totems of truths used in the play,” he said.
“So what happened to everyone?” I asked.
“Well, as you can imagine, the entire village went into chaos. Emotions were running high and the thrills of taking on a whole new identity led to crazed episodes of debauchery, adultery, and in one instance, murder. When it was all said and done, lines were crossed and families were destroyed. It was too painful for anyone to return to the previous lives they once had.”
“And then?”
“All the silver in the village was destroyed. The end.”
“I thought you said these plays were comedies.”
“Not all the time. As twisted as this sounds, sometimes it’s nice watching the train wreck of other people’s lives, just to make your own look a little better by comparison.”
“That sounds awful.”
“We all do it,” Lincoln said, “Though we choose not to admit it.”
There was a moment of silence as we both stared at the pocket watch in my hands.
“So what was her name?” I asked, smiling.
“Who’s name?” Lincoln asked.
“The girl you lost your virginity to in this theatre.”
There was a brief pause. “Karina,” he finally said.
“Is that the truth or just another one of your lies?” I asked.
Lincoln shook his head. “I’m finished lying,” he said. “It’s brought me nothing but trouble.”
Suddenly, the wooden front doors burst open and through it entered a dark ominous figure shrouded in a hood and drenched from the rain. Behind him, he dragged a screaming woman along the ground by the collar, her wrists and feet bound by tie wraps.
“Shadow, what the hell are you doing?” Lincoln asked as he leapt off the stage and confronted him. “Who is that woman?”
Seeing Shadow—the epitome of tall, dark and handsome with his perfect chiseled looks, broad shoulders, and dominating presence—caused the butterflies in my stomach to unravel and flutter into my heart. The beating of their anxious wings sped my pulse up to unnatural levels.
“She knows where Calisto is,” Shadow replied as he threw her into an empty seat. Despite her wet, orange hair covering most of her face, I knew who she was.
“Kara,” I whispered, recognizing Calisto’s personal make-up artist—the same one that transformed an ordinary vanilla girl like me into a stunning beauty with simple strokes of a makeup brush.
“Help me,” she screamed. “He’s going to kill me, Aria, please!”
I looked at Shadow. His eyes were concealed beneath the darkness of the hood he wore, but his lips—the same ones once used to kiss me—formed an unpleasant frown.
I believed her.
Chapter Two
Aria
“Kara’s innocent in all of this,” I pleaded.
Shadow lifted the hood off his head and cast his tired eyes in my direction. For a moment, it seemed as if he looked at me with a sympathy exclusively shared between lovers. But that quickly disappeared.
“How are you so sure?” he asked. Those were the first words he’d said to me in over three days—his last sentence to me being, “Ask Lincoln where the toilet paper is.”
Both sentences were a far departure from “I love you,” which I longed to hear.
I’d have to wait another time to hear it.
“Why are you doing this?” Kara cried, her tears blending with mascara around her eyes forming black rivers down her rosy cheeks. She rose to her feet. “I told you, I don’t know where Calisto is.”
Shadow picked her up by the shoulders and threw her down into one of the empty auditorium seats.
I felt sick, imagining what Shadow was going to do to her. He looked like a man possessed; his eyes dark pools of burning fire.
“Shadow, listen to her for God’s sake,” I said, stepping in front of Kara and acting like a human shield. “This woman is a mother.”
“No she’s not,” Shadow stated coldly. “She has no children.”
“What?” I spun around and looked at Kara, stunned. “Is this true Kara?”
She ignored my question and grabbed me by the wrists. “Help me, Aria, please,” she begged. “He’ll kill me.”
“Where’s your son?” I asked. “You told me you had a son.”
She ignored my questions. “I don’t want to die. Please don’t let him do anything to me.”
Lincoln, who had been silent the entire time, finally spoke. “Look, emotions are running high, let’s all settle down, shall we?”
Shadow shot his friend a dark look and said. “She knows where Calisto is, Lincoln.”
“Evidence?” Lincoln asked.
Shadow shrugged.
“Sorry, Shadow, you know I’m with you on most things, but torturing this woman isn’t one of them. If she’s innocent in all this, I think you’d owe her way more than just an apology.”
“I’m not wrong,” Shadow said as he directed his attention back to Kara.
I knelt down and wiped her tears away affectionately. This woman didn’t deserve to be treated this way. I remembered her kindness towards me that night when Calisto, Bria, and I had our makeup done at my condo, just before one of our wild nights out.
Before my life turned to shit.
“Kara, tell me the truth. Do you know where Calisto is?” I asked.
Kara shook her head. “I just do her make-up, that’s all,” she whimpered.
“She’s lying,” Shadow said. “I’ve been playing this game long enough to know a lie when I see one.”
Kara stared at him with hate-filled eyes. “Fuck you. I did nothing to you. Don’t take your family disputes out on me.”
“My sister framed Lincoln for murder, killed Aria’s best friend, murdered my parents, and took everything I owned away from me,” Shadow said. “That’s the current dispute I’m having with Calisto. You had a hand in helping her.”
“I didn’t do anything,” she screamed. “I’m just her fucking makeup artist.”
Shadow reached into his pocket and drew out a syringe filled with blue liquid.
“What are you doing?” Kara asked, her lower lip quivering. Shadow ignored her and removed the cap off the syringe, revealing a needle tip at the end of it, glistening with a single drop of deadly-looking liquid.
Kara’s eyes grew wide with fear as she struggled to get to her feet, but as quick as she was to rise, Shadow knocked her back down again.
“Do you even know what you’re doing?” Lincoln frowned.
Shadow pulled out a cellphone and handed it to him. “It’s her phone. Take a look at the last text.”
Shadow’s eyes never left Kara as Lincoln scanned the cell phone.
“Do you see it?” Shadow asked, still fixated on his captive, like a lion stalking his prey.
Lincoln nodded. “Yeah, I see it.” He handed the phone to me and I read off the screen.
The message originated from an unknown caller. “Kara, he’s coming. OOXOXOO” I read aloud.
I looked at Kara, who was a sniveling mess, and then turned to Shadow, who gripped the needle in his h
and tightly. This was ridiculous.
“You’re kidding me, right?” I asked. “How can you deduce from three words and a string of Xs and Os that the message came from Calisto? It could have been her husband for God’s sake.”
“She’s not married,” Shadow said.
“She has a family,” I replied, giving Kara the benefit of the doubt.
Shadow sighed. “Look through the photos.”
I did as he asked, and was surprised by what I saw. There were photos showing Kara partying with her friends, a few of them including Calisto. The further I dug through her personal albums, the more I realized that Kara had lied to me. There were photos of her having sex but with a different man in each photo. In some, there were multiple partners, some taking her from behind while she gave head to another. Either she was the world’s worst wife, or she lied about being married.
I handed the phone back to Shadow and shook my head in disbelief.
“Tell me what kind of mother doesn’t keep a single picture of her family on her phone,” Shadow stated. He was right.
But that still didn’t mean that she was in cahoots with Calisto.
“Alright, so she’s a mega-slut and a liar. That still doesn’t explain how the text message implicates her association with Calisto,” I said.
It was Lincoln who chimed in. “You may not have known her as well as us,” Lincoln said, “But there’s only one person who signs off her personal texts and emails with OOXOXOO.”
“Calisto always said it looked prettier that way, instead of the generic XOXO,” Shadow added. “It’s practically her signature.”
I had no response for him, knowing full well that I had lost this battle of reasoning. Kara, a woman who had showed me so much kindness and made me feel beautiful, looked like she had just gone to hell, a hell which Shadow created.
“Get me some rope,” Shadow instructed.
“What do you say?” Lincoln asked, like a parent would say to their child. He was doing his best to lighten the foul mood that everyone was in.
Shadow shot him a vexed look which elicited a sigh from Lincoln.
“Right,” he said. “I guess now’s not a good time for jokes, seeing as how you kidnapped a woman and want to inject her with blue stuff.”
“Can you just get the fucking rope?” Shadow practically exploded.
“Alright, alright, no need to lose your shit.” Lincoln vaulted onto the stage in a single leap, showing off his uncanny athleticism. He disappeared behind the back of the stage, leaving me alone with Shadow and Kara.
“You probably don’t want to see this,” Shadow said.
“See what? You transforming into the world’s biggest asshole? Too late, I’ve already witnessed it.”
Shadow shook his head, his eyes still focused on his prisoner.
“Do we have to do this now?” he asked.
“Well, why not?” I asked. “I mean this is the only time I can get a sentence out of you that doesn’t involve toilet paper.”
“Don’t trust him.” Kara’s voice cracked as she spoke. “You don’t know the type of man he is.”
“You’re one to talk,” Shadow said. “You helped Calisto murder Bria, someone you both called a friend.”
“I did no such thing.”
“I know your handiwork,” Shadow said. “When I saw Bria transformed into Calisto, it had your style all over it.”
“You’re a fucking man,” Kara said. “What would you know about makeup?”
“You’d be surprised by what details I pay attention to,” Shadow said, “Especially when it comes to my family.”
Lincoln returned from the stage with three pink skipping ropes in his hands. “Sorry, this is all I could find,” he said as he held them out to Shadow, who gave his friend a perplexed look. “I know, I know, it’s not as intimidating as rusty chains, but it’ll still do the job.”
“Can you tie up Kara already?” Shadow asked with a hint of resignation in his voice.
Lincoln nodded and used the skipping ropes to bind Kara’s wrists to the armrests and her feet together. It proved to be a difficult task, considering she was flailing and screaming like a wild animal. He managed somehow.
“I’m begging you, just let me go,” Kara pleaded. “I’ll forget this happened. I’ll disappear forever. You’ll never see me again.”
Shadow pressed down on the plunger and flicked the tip of the needle, a droplet of liquid dispersing into the air.
“It’s poison,” he stated. “After I inject you with this, your muscles will relax. You’ll lose control of your bowels and will most likely shit yourself. Finally, your heart will stop beating.”
My stomach twisted into knots as I watched Kara howl. There was something inhuman about a person begging for their life. I struggled not to burst into tears.
“Are you ready to die, Kara?” Shadow asked.
She continued to cry, the acoustics of the theatre capturing her sobs and bouncing them off of every wall, penetrating my ear drums like daggers.
“Don’t do this,” I found myself whispering. “Don’t do this Shadow. You’re better than this.”
He ignored me, which wasn’t anything new.
I shuddered as I watched the tip of the needle push through the flesh of Kara’s neck. Shadow emptied the contents of the syringe right into her, while she looked at me with wide-eyed horror.
Help me, Aria, her eyes practically screamed.
When Shadow was done, he dropped the needle to the floor and folded his arms. “You have five minutes before the poison takes effect,” he said as he dug into his coat pocket. He pulled out another syringe filled with a white milky liquid. “This is the antidote. I will give you your life in exchange for some answers.”
“Please,” Kara continued begging. “I just want to live.”
“Then tell me where Calisto is.”
“I don’t know!” she practically screamed. “I don’t fucking know. She said that she was going to disappear and the text you read promised to be the last she was going to send to me for a while. I swear to God, I have no clue where she is.”
Shadow studied Kara for a good five seconds before finally nodding. “I believe you,” he said.
I saw a glimmer of hope come across her face. “You’re going to let me live then?” she asked.
“Not yet,” Shadow replied. “You have three minutes to give me some useful information that can help me find her.”
“I don’t know anything else,” Kara choked. Shadow shrugged and began to walk away. Desperation spread across her face as she struggled to rise to her feet. However, Lincoln’s skipping rope bindings proved too strong for her. She finally collapsed back into her seat and started sobbing again.
“This shouldn’t be a difficult choice,” Shadow said. “Say nothing and your heart will wither and die. Or you can tell me something useful and you can continue breathing.”
“Hong Kong,” Kara blurted out.
Shadow nodded. “That’s a start.”
“While I was working on Bria’s aesthetics, making her look like Calisto, I overheard Calisto speaking to someone on the phone. I remember overhearing the last name Zhao.”
“Uh-oh,” Lincoln furrowed his brow.
“There was mention of an alliance and some council meeting in Hong Kong somewhere. That’s all I know, I swear to God.”
Shadow shrugged, flicked upon the syringe with the white antidote and injected into the other side of her neck.
“Good enough,” he said. “Lincoln, lock her up somewhere. We’ll figure out what to do with her later.”
Lincoln sighed. “I’m starting to feel more and more like your bitch these days.”
Shadow raised an eyebrow. “Please,” he said sarcastically.
“That’s better.”
Kara continued sobbing, even after Lincoln untied her and dragged her away from the auditorium.
Shadow and I were alone.
He continued ignoring me, stripping off his wet hooded ja
cket and tossing it onto an empty seat. He was wearing a black tank top underneath, clinging tightly against his massive frame. I ached to touch his bare muscles with my fingers, to have those same muscles wrap around my body so I could feel safe again.
“Can we talk now?” I asked. He strolled past me towards the kitchen. I guess that was a ‘no.’
It only served to anger me even more.
I jumped in front of him, blocking his path.
“Can you stop being such a dick and talk to me for five minutes?” I shouted.
“What is there to talk about?”
“For starters, how about the fact you almost killed Kara, who despite aiding Calisto in her scheme, didn’t deserve a death sentence.”
“She didn’t die.”
“She could have. You injected poison into her.”
“Kool Aid,” Shadow said calmly, “And milk afterwards. Unless she’s diabetic or has an extreme case of lactose intolerance, she should be fine.”
He pushed past me and entered into the kitchen, where a spread of cold sandwiches and bottles of water rested on the round kitchen table. Shadow reached for a bottle of water, opened the top and drained it in a single gulp.
“So now what?” I asked.
“I go to Hong Kong.”
“What about me?”
“I need you to go to New Orleans with Lincoln,” Shadow said. “There’s someone there that has access to a hidden source of funds. Without cash on hand, we won’t be able to resurrect the Midnight Society. As well, we’ll all need new passports and identities, seeing as how we’re now linked to four counts of murder. The source we have in New Orleans should be able to take care of all documents.”
I had promised myself I wouldn’t cry when I confronted Shadow.
Promise broken. When it came to matters of the heart, it was beyond my control.
As the waterworks started flowing freely, I looked Shadow in the eye, hoping to see some type of remorse for all the pain he caused me.
There was something there, hidden deep within that armored shell of his, but what that was I had no damned clue.
Penumbra (The Midnight Society #2) Page 2
