DARK FAÏZ Book 3: Dawn never keeps its promises

by Sandra L. Kiss

  The tires screeched in front of the school entrance. The young man didn't bother to park his car. He got out in a hurry and noticed that his legs were barely supporting him.

  "You can't stay here," a man with his daughter pointed out to him as he left the small establishment. "It's reserved for the firefighters!"

  Faïz's threatening eyes set fire to the family father who preferred not to add anything. As he walked through the doors of the building, the young man didn't know what was waiting for him. He, who had never known fear or lack of confidence, was at that moment paralyzed by doubt. As he entered the small empty playground, his pulse quickened. Was he too late? Had Pavel taken her away? Then he noticed a woman a little further away, standing in a doorway, beckoning him to go see her.

  "Ms. Matthew has warned us of your delay," said an elderly lady when Faïz entered the premises. "Georgia is waiting for you at daycare."

  "Is she the last one to leave today?" he asked, taking care to take a confident tone.

  The woman walked down a dark and cold corridor, Faïz following her.

  "Yes. To tell you the truth, Georgia was starting to get worried. Her wings are on the dresser, next to the coat rack."

  "Her wings?"

  "Yes," sighed the woman visibly puzzled by this detail.

  She stopped in front of a half-open door and invited the young man to enter.

  "Angels don't exist in this world," she added.

  Faïz's world stopped spinning at this point. He had to lean against a wardrobe, at the entrance of the room, as not to collapse in front of the face he had just discovered. Georgia was on a large carpet, concentrating on trying to read a book she was holding in her little hands.

  "Usually we're in the playground, but given the weather this early in the evening, we had..."

  The woman's voice was a distant echo. Knees trembling, Faïz approached gently the little girl who then raised her eyes full of surprises towards him. The smile she addressed him was as sweet as it was violent. He wavered before putting one knee on the ground to be at her height and contemplated this child more closely without being able to detach his eyes from her pretty face.

  "You really exist," Georgia whispered, eyes wide open.

  The young man found the sound of that voice pleasant. He bowed his head.

  "Looks like it. Do you know who I am?" he answered with a touch of anxiety in his voice.

  The little girl nodded, agitating her little pigtails. Faïz couldn't help smiling and this time even his eyes didn't betray him, "You're Aunt Victoria's brother and Meemaw's son."

  "Meemaw?"

  "My grandmother! You know, she doesn't like to be called grandma," Georgia whispered as if to tell him a secret.

  Faïz widens his smile even more without being able to detach his gaze from the child. He was captivated, as he had never been before. Time around him was suspended. He, who had always chosen humanity over his own, completely changed the vision he had of it. At that very moment, humanity and the world could wait. The word priority took on its full meaning. Yes, at that moment, deep inside him, he silently promised himself that Georgia would be the only one he would spare from sadness, suffering, and loneliness. The unconditional had a face.

  "Mr. Mattew? I'm Kalie, Georgia's teacher."

  A young woman, in her thirties, presented herself to him, wrenching him from his contemplation. Faïz stood up and his face, with cold and flawless features, instantly took back its place. The latter seemed destabilized by the man she had in front of her. The striking resemblance between the little girl and he was without appeal.

  "I'll... I'll give you Georgia's jacket," stuttered the teacher, rosy cheeks.

  Faïz didn't pay attention to her behavior towards him. He was used to this kind of reaction and the effect he had on the women he met. He thanked her without looking at her, too eager to look at his daughter again. Even so, Kalie didn't chicken out and added:

  "Georgia came in very tired again today. It's not easy for her to follow the group activities during the day. Is everything OK at home?"

  Worried, Faïz stared at the little girl who preferred to lower her gaze on her book. Her pretty smile had just disappeared, which greatly upset the young man. Seeing her turn in on herself was like a slap in his face.

  "This weekend I plan to spend all my time with her, I don't know if it'll be rest."

  Georgia suddenly raised her face which had just lit up again, visibly happy at the idea of spending time with this man she didn't know but was eager to meet. For Faïz, that smile was priceless. He who had always had a dark side and loved to flirt with the darkness suddenly realized, for the first time, that he had no choice but to let the light into his life so that he could let her into his world without fear.

  Inside the restaurant, on Selma Avenue, Faïz pulled Georgia's chair to sit down. The little girl wasn't used to so much attention. The man accompanying her was a complete stranger to her, yet she seemed to have known him forever. Lily had told her so much about him, unlike her mother who couldn't bear to hear his name. The wings on her back were taking up a lot of space, but Georgia was coping with it.

  "You never take them off?" asked Faïz, sitting in front of her.

  She shook her head timidly, "Why?"

  The young man's insistent gaze didn't destabilize her. She just shrugged her shoulders before adding in a small, assured voice:

  "It's a gift from my daddy. It makes me happy."

  The dark brown-haired man pinched his lips, irritated by the word "daddy" that had just come out of her mouth, "What else makes you happy?" Faïz was interested.

  Georgia gazed into the void. Her big black eyes suddenly became empty, "Seeing Mommy laugh would make me really happy, I think. She's always sad since daddy went to heaven. Luckily, my uncle is here."

  A violent pain seized the young man's guts. The self-control he was trying to maintain over his face was about to crack. Unhappy Zoe... the word daddy in the little girl's mouth... nothing had happened the way he wanted it to since he had moved to New York. What had he done? he wondered.

  Faïz shook his head to pull himself together and then asked another question, "What uncle are you talking about? Ray?"

  He put his elbows on the table and joined his two hands as he looked at the little girl.

  "Uncle Elijah. Right now he's living at home, and it's great. He cooks a lot of things. My uncle worries about me a lot. You'll have to call and tell him I'm with you."

  "I'm sure Lily warned him. You know how she likes to take precautions."

  He tried to take the least bitter tone possible in saying these words. At that moment, the waiter arrived to take the order. Faïz realized he didn't even know Georgia's tastes, and it bothered him a lot. He looked at his daughter, who understood his embarrassment.

  "A vanilla shake and a chocolate pancake, please."

  The waiter then turned to Faïz.

  "I'll have today's menu and a pitcher of water, thank you."

  The employee walked away after giving Georgia a knowing wink and she answered with a mischievous smile.

  "What you ordered isn't exactly dinner."

  "The context is such that..."

  Faïz emitted a small laugh. He was amused by the answer of the latter. Before arriving at the restaurant, he had heard from Zoe. Lily stayed with her at the hospital. Her condition was still critical and he couldn't tell Georgia about it for fear of scaring her. He continued his investigation into Georgia's daily life:

  "So? When he's not with you, where does your Uncle Elijah live?"

  "In the street!"

  "Yeah, but what street?"

  The little girl thought for a few seconds before she answered:

  "Depends on the day, but he has a preference for Street Hill. When it rains, he sleeps at home. That's why I like the rain!"

  Shocked by this confession, Faïz looked for words without letting anything appear.

  "Your uncle lives on the street... OK. Do you, uh... do you see
him often?"

  "Yeah, Uncle Eli takes care of me a lot. He's very grumpy, but he's not mean. Mommy says he's a big, mannerless bear. Aunt Lexy and Aunt Asarys are always fighting with him. Sometimes it's tiring."

  Bewildered, Faïz thought he'd misunderstood Georgia's words. He pinched the bridge of his nose before whispering to himself, "What the hell? I must be dreaming. What's are they doing?"

  Fortunately, their order arrived at that time. The little girl was then busy enjoying her hearty meal, in silence.

  For a moment, the young man forgot about the time, his obligations, and his terrible unhappiness. He took advantage of this tiny parenthesis to free himself from the invisible chains that hindered him in this existence of boredom and gloom. He drank the words of the little girl, sitting in front of him, who was talking about bits and pieces of her life, her mouth smeared with chocolate.

  Faïz never got tired of it and tried to capture everything he could. From the sound of her voice to the beating of her eyelashes. He watched her black ink eyes, her fragile dimples when she laughed, or the line that appeared on her forehead when she frowned. He wanted to know everything from her favorite color to her darkest dreams. Unfortunately, the ringing of his phone disturbed this moment of peace. When the young man saw the number, he couldn't return the call.

  He looked at Georgia with a sorry look on his face and quickly picked up the phone, "Hi, Ray."

  He didn't know if his tone betrayed his astonishment. Indeed, since Eros, he had not had the slightest contact with this friend whose ties of the heart had been as important as the ties of blood, a long time ago.

  "Good evening, Faïz," answered his interlocutor in a distant voice. "I'm in Elora. Will Georgia be back soon?"

  This actually wasn't a question. His old friend just wanted to make sure that the young man didn't vanish into thin air with her. Faïz rubbed his face with one hand and his leg began to get restless. The feeling of fullness that inhabited him at that moment, disappeared suddenly, letting his deep nature come back.

  "Don't wait for her. I'll take care of everything now! I think I've got a lot of catching up to do with her, don't you?"

  His threatening tone didn't destabilize Ray, who seemed to expect this answer.

  "As selfish as ever, I see. It's about Georgia. Where are you gonna get her favorite book to read to her tonight when she asks you? What kind of breakfast are you going to make her in the morning? It depends on her mood of the day."

  Faïz, annoyed, got up from the table and motioned to Georgia to stay in her place. He walked away to the restaurant terrace, keeping an eye on the little girl who started talking to herself, obviously to pass the time.

  "Your shitty insinuations, you can keep them to yourself!" roared the dark brown-haired man, mad with rage. "I would have the answers to your fucking questions if you hadn't stolen those five years of my life from my daughter."

  "Stolen? You're the one who left without looking back! These years, you took them off yourself," Ray replied in the same tone. "If you had faced reality instead of running away like a coward, it wouldn't be like this today. It's too easy to blame everything on other people. Take responsibility!"

  "I ran away to save them! So you could live your life with Asarys. So Zoe could have a happy life, but I would never, ever turn my back on my own daughter. No, man! I wouldn't have gone anywhere without her."

  After a moment of silence, Faïz heard his friend let out a deep sigh before adding in a calmer voice, "Zoe's condition is still worrisome, but she's gonna be OK. Drop Georgia off at the villa and go see her. When she'll wake up, she'll want you by her side."

  Faïz raised his eyes to the sky. Despite the increasingly dark Dome, the twinkling of the stars still managed to twist through it. His gaze then returned to his daughter who was watching him from her table.

  Her melancholic pout forced him to give a quick answer to Ray to leave to get back to her, "All right! We'll be there within the hour."

  It was the first time that the young man had some difficulty making an effort. Nothing had yet put him to the test like tonight when, in his arms, was his daughter, asleep. He walked towards the villa scared of hugging her too much or not enough. With the fear of stumbling and waking her up. He was relieved when Asarys opened the door without having to ring the bell. Anxious, the latter had been watching for his arrival for quite some time. She greeted him quickly with a nod before a broad smile lit up her face as she laid her eyes on Georgia.

  "Give her to me," she whispered, "I'm going to put her to bed."

  Asarys felt Faïz's apprehension as she reached out her arms. She then chose to be diplomatic to avoid any conflict with him.

  "Ray is in the living room waiting for you. I'm gonna take Georgia's wings off and put her in bed. Don't worry, I'm used to it. You can join her afterward."

  The young man's gaze looked like a warning. He looked intensely at Zoe's friend and then the pressure in his chest eased. He finally reluctantly handed the little girl over to her. Faïz watched them move away and when they disappeared, upstairs, he went to the living room to confront his old friend whom he hadn't seen for years.

  Ray's face was tense. He followed with his eyes the individual who left to sit in one of the chairs in the room. The dark and threatening eyes of the latter then came to plant themselves in his. A shiver ran down the young man's spine, even though he had never feared Faïz before. Ray took a deep aspiration and held it for a few seconds.

  "You look good," he said to start the conversation. "How's your wife?"

  He knew he shouldn't have put his finger on it, but the temptation to provoke his interlocutor was too strong. Ray tried as hard as he could to hide the little sneering smile that appeared on the corner of his lips. Faïz hadn't raised an eyebrow, only his jaw had contracted.

  "I didn't come here to talk about my marriage!" replied the latter in a voice far too calm. "Do you know what poison Pavel gave Zoe?"

  Ray stuck his hands in his pockets and started walking around the room, looking serious.

  "It's a mutant virus with a very powerful anesthetic. This one was created by mankind and is extremely contagious."

  "Is there an effective vaccine or treatment to fight this plague?"

  "No, that's the problem. To this day, the lack of an antidote is a real problem that threatens to plunge the whole world into chaos."

  "So this is how the Maestro wants to go about eradicating the human race," Faïz whispered.

  He realized, horrified, that he might not be a match for his enemy. A thousand questions suddenly came to his mind, including this one: what other obscure plans could the traveler still have in mind?

  "If there is no treatment, how can Zoe get out of it?" ended up asking Faïz, still lost in his thoughts.

  "She's not a human like the others. She is protected by the faith of men and her body is immune to all kinds of diseases and the most dangerous viruses. Pavel, I mean the Maestro, used her as a kind of guinea pig to get an idea of her resistance."

  "And at the same time, sent us a message."

  Ray opened and closed his mouth when he saw Lily enter the large living room. A polar cold descended on the whole room. Faïz's irises darkened on his marble face, revealing only anger, forged from a stubborn grudge he felt towards his mother.

  "Ray, will you leave us alone, please?" Lily asked softly, her voice already scared at the thought of facing her son.

  He, uncomfortable, cleared his throat before answering:

  "Yeah, I'm going to go and see how Asarys is dealing with... Georgia. I won't be far away if you need me."

  Faïz couldn't help emitting a forced sneer to provoke his friend who, under Lily's begging gaze, didn't react.

  Once alone with her son, Lily looked up and stared at the ceiling for long seconds as if looking for words, then she came back to look at the young man, still seated and holding his chin in his hand. Faïz, immersed in an icy silence, waited patiently for his mother to start the conversation.
>
  "I'm sorry," Lily said, her eyes filled with tears. "I have no excuse."

  She put her fingers to her lips and shrugged her shoulders as she tried to support her son's accusing gaze, "Before Georgia came into this world, I was just a shadow of my former self. Your... daughter, she gave me back the part of me that I lost."

  "To the point of denying your own child?"

  The fury pierced the calm intonations of the tone of his voice that he had since the beginning. The question unsettled Lily, who begged him at that moment to spare her, "Georgia had no place in your world," Lily whispered on the verge of tears. "Faïz, I beg you, forgive me. I couldn't lose her. I was scared! Scared that Zoe would decide to go back to Paris with her. Scared that you'd take her away from this calm, gentle life she was entitled to."

  Her words were merging into her tears.

  "You STOLE those five years with her from me!" Faïz burst out in rage, banging his fist against his chest. "Do you hate me so much to betray me, your own son?"

  "No!" Lily moaned as she walked towards him.

  The young man stopped her by raising his hand in front of him so that she wouldn't take another step in his direction.

  "You are the most precious thing I have," she added gently, "A thousand times I wanted to tell you the truth, but... I had locked myself in this lie. I saw Georgia happy with William, and yes, selfishly, that happiness for her was enough for me. It was a mistake. I know that now."

  Faïz watched his mother, devoid of compassion for her. He got up and went to stand in front of the bay window that opened onto the terrace, "Maybe one day I'll find the strength to forgive you all. Today you broke my heart, you, the only woman I would never have left. And to think it was your name I gave to immortality."

  The painful words of her child finished Lily off, and she felt a whiff of guilt overwhelming her. The lump in her throat was huge, but before she could respond to this, the doorbell rang.

  It was with astonishment that Elijah discovered Faïz. Indeed, it took a few seconds for this man to recover from the surprise that was facing him. The young dark-brown haired man examined from head to toe this visitor whom he had never met before, here in Elora. Behind him appeared Lexy, who seemed embarrassed by this unexpected visit.