Lies, Lies, Lies

by David A Max

  As they walked past the house they marvelled at its size. Carlito asked Andreiá, “Since they don’t live in the house, is there no way we can go in and steal some food to eat, or something we can sell.”

  “That’s a hard one because they have security guards watching over the house, but I remember someone came through a back door one day,” Andreiá nodded, trying to remember, “I never noticed the door until that day.”

  “We should check it out,” Emilio said, walking towards the house, looking around to see if anybody was watching them. Andreiá and Carlito followed him, “Walk towards the back of the house,” Andreiá directed them.

  At the back of the house they saw a small wooden gate; they opened it and snuck into the compound. The security guards were nowhere in sight, so they climbed through a slightly open window into the house. “This house is bonita [beautiful],” Carlito could not wipe the smile off his face. The staircase railings were made of glass, the floor was marble, the fittings were modern and exquisite, “We don’t have time to admire the place, let’s just check the kitchen and see if we can pick one or two things so we can sell them,” Emilio reminded them.

  They hurried to the kitchen but there was no food there. “I remember there used to be a safe in that room,” Andreiá pointed to the room, they walked quickly to the room with the safe which was in a wall behind a painting. Andreiá removed the painting, “I think I remember the code, I saw a man open it and put things in the safe while I was still working here.” She pressed the code but it was wrong; she tried it again and the second time and it opened, “Voila,” Carlito said, opening his hands.

  The safe had a number of documents, which they pulled out, and also a bundle of money. Emilio hurried to the kitchen and came back with a nylon bag, and they took all the money, “and we might as well take the documents,” Emilio said smiling. They took everything from the safe and locked it up like nothing had happened. They climbed back out through the window and snuck out of the property without the guards seeing them. They walked quickly to the other side of the street, then casually strolled out of the neighbourhood in order not to raise suspicion. They got to one of the uncompleted properties were they normally hung out and sat on the floor.

  They brought out the money in the bag; Emilio started counting and he counted R$320,000, ($99,000) that was the most money they had ever seen in their lives. Andreiá screamed, “Yes! Yes!” and Carlito had a big grin on his face. Emilio couldn’t contain his excitement, and he quickly shared the money equally amongst them, “We can go shopping for ourselves and even for our families, we are rich! We can rent a better place and start a business,” Emilio said, throwing some money in the air.

  “Do you like this dress on me?” Andreiá asked Emilio.

  “Yes it looks really nice.”

  “This mall is really big and nice, I have never been here before,” Carlito gazed around. He was carrying several shopping bags, “You guys, I’m tired and hungry, we’ve been shopping for a week now, we need a little break.”

  “What about this one, do you like it on me?” Andreiá asked Emilio.

  “It looks nice but I prefer the first one,” Emilio replied. Emilio was paying more attention to Andreiá, ‘I never knew she was this beautiful, her hair, her face and her body is lovely,’ Emilio was deep in thought. Carlito tapped his shoulder, “I said we should go and look for something to eat.”

  “Okay no problem,” Emilio replied, “sorry I was deep in thought.”

  “I noticed,” Carlito shook his head.”

  The three of them then had a good meal, and drove away from the mall in their rented BMW, this had been the best week of their lives.

  By 10 a.m. the next morning, there was a knock on Emilio’s door. His mother opened the door, and there were two men in black suits standing there. “How can I help you?” she said.

  One of the men brought out a picture, “Do you know this man?” he asked, “does he live here?”

  Emilio’s mother looked at the picture and said, “No, I don’t know him.”

  “Are you sure?” the man asked again.

  “Yes I’m sure I don’t know him,” she replied, her voice getting louder.

  The men turned around and left. She locked the door behind her and went into the house, and called to Emilio, “What have you done?” she asked, “those men came with your picture, they’re looking for you.”

  Emilio was in shock, “I don’t know them,” he muttered. He went to his room and peeped through the window to make sure the men were gone. When he was sure there was nobody outside, he ran next door to Carlito’s house.

  Carlito saw him through the window and hurried outside panting, “Two men left my house twenty minutes ago, they showed my dad my picture and said they were looking for me, but my dad said I didn’t live here,” Carlito was looking around nervously as he spoke.

  “Two men just left my own house too, looking for me,” Emilio said, “we need to go and warn Andreiá.”

  They walked out of Carlito’s small three-foot gate and saw Andreiá running towards them. “Did two men just leave your house?” Carlito asked Andreiá.

  “Yes, they left not too long ago, how did you know that?” Andreiá said, looking surprised.

  “Because they just left our houses,” Carlito replied.

  They got into their rented car and drove out of their neighbourhood, “I think we need to return this car now before it draws too much attention to us,” Emilio said, looking in the rear mirror to see if they were being followed.

  “I think that’s a good idea,” Andreiá nodded.

  “I think the owner of the house must have found us, he wants his money back, and you know we can’t return it, because we don’t have it anymore,” Emilio sighed, as they drove fast to the dealer’s place to return the car.

  Emilio noticed a car that seemed to have been following them for about five minutes, “I think a car is following us,” Emilio alerted the rest of them. Andreiá and Carlito turned back, they all got nervous. Emilio increased speed, the car behind them increased speed too, he made a sharp right and the car followed them, he drove fast and made some sharp bends, and finally turned into the highway and sped off. Emilio looked back in the rear mirror, “I think we lost them.”

  Carlito and Andreiá breathed a sigh of relief, “You drove well,” Carlito told Emilio.

  They got to the dealer, dropped the car and the keys and left. “This is looking dangerous,” Andreiá was still looking round to know if they were being followed. They waved a taxi down and it drove them close to their area. Carlito paid the taxi driver as they left the taxi, “We need to get a bite to eat before it gets too late.”

  They went into a restaurant where they ate regularly, ordered a meal and sat down to eat. While they were eating, Emilio looked up and at the last table opposite where they were having lunch were two men. Emilio tapped Carlito, “Look up, those two men look like the two men that came to my house this morning, I peeped through my window when they came and knocked on our door.” As Emilio whispered to Carlito, his eyes made contact with one of the two men, the man stared at him, squinting his eyes to see clearly. “We need to leave now,” Emilio told Carlito and Andreiá, “the men are staring at us.” They got up and walked towards the door, Emilio turned back and the men had got up to follow them; one of them was on his phone. “Walk fast guys, they’re following us,” Emilio said, looking at the men behind them.

  They opened the door and ran out towards the restaurant’s main gate and saw two other men running towards them, so they ran towards the back gate, shoved it open and the three of them ran towards the main road. Carlito looked back and saw four men chasing them, “Run through the side of that brown building,” Emilio pointed, and they ran through the side of the building. Carlito and Emilio quickly jumped over the fence and pulled Andreiá over. They ran through thick uncultivated bushes, the four men got to the fence, peeked over, saw the thick bushes turned back and left.

  Emilio b
rought them out through the other side of town; they walked on the side of the road, looking around to see if anybody was following them. In the distance they saw two of the men in front of them, they tried to run back and saw two other men coming towards them. “What do we do?” Andreiá’s voice was shaking. Then they heard someone call their names, they turned to their left and it was Déborah, who was holding a door wide open and she told them to come quickly.

  They ran into the building and Déborah shut the door behind them. Andreiá, Emilio and Carlito held the locked door, expecting the men chasing after them to try and break down the door, but there was no sound, it was all quiet. “Why didn’t they try to break down the door?” Andreiá wondered, “did they not see us enter the building?” she asked.

  “Well maybe they didn’t see you enter into the building,” Déborah answered.

  “How did you get here or know we needed help?” Andreiá asked Déborah.

  “Just call it a coincidence I was in the area,” Déborah replied.

  Emilio shook his head, “We need to leave the city tonight, luckily I just paid for a three-bedroom apartment in Paraty, the location is about 160 miles from Rio de Janeiro, the apartment is overlooking the ocean.”

  “I’ll come with the three of you,” Déborah insisted, “the people chasing you might have seen me too, I need this, I hope that is okay?”

  “Yes it’s okay,” Carlito said with a smile on his face, without asking Andreiá or Emilio, they both looked at each other and shook their heads.

  “We need to leave here and get to a bus terminal that will take us to Paraty tonight,” Emilio suggested. They all nodded in agreement.

  They all jumped out through a back window from the house, and ran towards the main road, hailed down a taxi and left for the bus terminal.

  “It’s quite late now, I don’t think they will still be looking for us,” Andreiá said, looking back to see if their taxi was being followed. The taxi got to the bus terminal at 12:30 a.m., all four of them alighted from the taxi and ran straight to book their tickets; they managed to get on the last bus going to Paraty. Déborah breathed a sigh of relief as they all got on the bus.

  “The bus is empty, just the four of us and the driver,” Carlito said, looking around at the empty seats, “we might as well sleep because it’s about a four-hour bus journey.”

  Two hours into the journey and Carlito was lying down on a stretch of seats at the back of the bus; Emilio slept next to Andreiá, and Déborah slept lying down in the front seat; only the driver was awake as he drove through the countryside listening to music. At about 2:30 a.m., there was a loud roar from outside, something hit the bonnet of the bus, the driver swayed left and right and slammed on the brakes. Andreiá hit her head against Emilio’s head, Carlito rolled off the seats and Déborah fell forward.

  The driver screamed, “I can see flashes of light, the lights looked like they were human figures!” He brought out his crucifix, which he had on a chain around his neck, and started reciting some words, and the flashes of light breezed past him. Andreiá, Carlito and Emilio were petrified as the lights came towards them. Carlito saw Déborah bring out something that looked like an ornament from her pocket, and immediately she brought it out the flashes of light dispersed with loud hissing noises. The lights went outside the bus and started hitting the bus on it sides, everybody in the bus screamed except Déborah who ran to the door and opened it, still holding the ornament. Immediately she opened the door a flash of light hit her on the chest, flung her to the back seat and she fell to the ground.

  Carlito looked up and the flash of light that hit her was different, it had a mixture of colours that looked like red mixed with gold and blue, but he couldn’t figure out the colours. The light rushed towards Déborah, Carlito got up and tried to block the light from hitting her again; the light flung Carlito and he landed close to door, the light pressed on Déborah hard on the floor. Andreiá and Emilio ran towards the strange light to try and save Déborah; it felt like the light turned and looked at them and they couldn’t move any part of their body, they froze standing. The light kept pressing hard on Déborah who was now gasping for air, she opened her hands and a key dropped, the light took the key and vanished. The other lights outside also vanished. Déborah gasped for air, she looked around and saw that the lights had vanished, sat up and looked at everybody on the bus, they were all in shock. Andreiá and Emilio were no more frozen, Carlito got up with a small bruise on the head, the bus driver ran out of the bus and kept running without looking back.

  “What just happened? What is going on? Who are you?” Andreiá probed Déborah.

  “I don’t know what they are, or where they come from, but any time they appear I use this ornament to fight them off, but the last one that pinned me to the ground I have never seen before,” Déborah answered, “we still have a lot to talk about, but first we need to get to your apartment in Paraty.”

  Emilio looked at Déborah as she spoke, he whispered to Andreiá, “I don’t believe her, she is lying to us.” Emilio climbed into the driver’s seat and drove the bus towards their destination; Andreiá sat next to him, looking back and checking on Déborah from time to time. Carlito sat next to Déborah in the back seat stroking her hair and telling her not to worry that he would protect her, Déborah just smiled. The rest of the journey to their new apartment in Paraty was quiet.

  Emilio drove to the bus terminal at Paraty, “I have to drop the keys off at their office desk and explain to them that we had some kind of attack and the driver ran off.”

  “Let’s all go with you,” Andreiá suggested, “it’s more believable if we all explain what happened.”

  Everybody got down from the bus and went to the office desk, explained what happened and dropped the bus keys. The officer at the desk was so shocked he didn’t know what questions to ask and told them, “thank you, you can leave now.”

  “Emilio, I can see you are still carrying the backpack containing the money,” Carlito whispered.

  “Yes I am,” Emilio answered, “I also have the documents we took from the house with me; we’ll look at the documents when we get to the apartment.”

  At 8:15 a.m., they finally arrived at the new apartment. “Do you have the keys to open the door?” Andreiá asked, looking at Emilio.

  “I called the agent yesterday,” Emilio replied, and he pulled up the floor mat in front of the apartment and pulled out the keys. He opened the door, and they all rushed in. “This is nice,” Carlito said looking around, “it’s modern and simple.”

  “I want this room,” Andreiá had opened the door to three rooms and chose the biggest. Carlito and Emilio chose the two other rooms. Déborah just sat down in the living room while the three of them were choosing rooms. Andreiá ran to Carlito and whispered, “I am not going to share my room with her, I don’t trust her.”

  Carlito shook his head and went over to Déborah, “You can stay in my room and I will sleep on the couch in the living room.” She looked at him and hugged him, “Thank you.”

  “We’ve been in Paraty for three weeks now, I think we can say we know the town a little better. We should all go to the cinema tonight and watch a movie,” Carlito said looking at Déborah. She nodded, “That would be nice,” and Emilio and Andreiá both agreed it would be a nice change.

  That evening they left for the cinema, they all had new clothes on, they had gone shopping during the week. “We should see the new movie, being advertised everywhere,” Andreiá suggested.

  “What is it called again, Pre-eminence? That will be really nice, I’ve seen the previews and am impressed,” Carlito nodded, holding Déborah by the waist.

  The movie theatre was at full capacity, Carlito had booked four seats next to each other, and they had to squeeze their way to their seats. The audience were enjoying the movie and screaming, the suspense was overwhelming. Emilio sat next to Andreiá and started rubbing her arms and thighs, Andreiá shoved him away, “What are you doing? Can you please
watch the movie.”

  Emilio sat still for the rest of the movie without saying a word. “Please stop making so much noise in the cinema,” Déborah said to Carlito, shaking her head.

  “I’m only enjoying the movie,” Carlito replied as he shrieked at a scene. The movie ended and the four of them enjoyed watching it.

  “The storyline was lovely, I might watch it again,” Andreiá said while they walked out of the cinema. Andreiá, Déborah and Carlito talked about the movie, but Emilio kept quiet.

  On their way home from the cinema Carlito entered a store and bought three bottles of champagne, “This is to celebrate our freedom from being poor,” he shouted raising the bottles of champagne up. When they got home, Andreiá, Carlito and Déborah drank a lot and passed out on the couch in the living room. Emilio had only a glass to drink, so he had to take Déborah to her room, Andreiá had thrown up and was lying in her vomit; Emilio wiped her clean and took her to her room, he shook his head, ‘what a night,’ he thought to himself.

  “What happened yesterday night, how did I end up in my bed?” Andreiá asked Emilio in the morning.

  “I took you to your room and even managed to clean your vomit from all over your body.”

  “Thank you so much,” Andreiá replied, she leaned and hugged him and Emilio held on tight, and Andreiá had to push him off, “Emilio, what has come over you?” she asked, “you have been acting odd with me.”

  Emilio stammered, “I like you Andreiá, I think am falling in love with you.”

  Andreiá shook her head vigorously, “You can’t be, you are like a brother to me,” and she hurried to her room and shut the door.