The Nemesis

CHAPTER EIGHT: APPEAR TO DISAPPEAR

Stormy rain cries onto the roof of the white Westchester marble, tetrastyle facade of Strasbourg Manor and despondently plummets down onto the hollow faces of many decapitated orange pumpkins lined along the long, curved, balustraded portico path. Crystal raindrops fly across the vast grass area in front of the portico, where Halloween decorations cackle every so often and flash their evil red lights into the melancholically gray distance. The purposefully sinister-looking, blindingly ebony-colored cloth, loosely draped against the bust of a tall witch figure, whooshes out of its lifeless grip and soars into the air like a poltergeist haunting the sky.

"Eh! Heh! Heh! Heh!", cackles the wicked witch, as its head snaps back at an extreme angle and shoots a scarlet laser glare up at the rectangular, bolection-molding-lined second-floor casement, where the glass is shrouded by translucent curtains of heated breaths of a busy gossip.

"Oh, you should have seen the way he looks at me!", Pip dreamily breathes as she leans her head against the cool window, her mind drenched in the heart-achingly desired reverie of the ivory wooden window grilles as being Carlisle's charismatic clavicle.

"I can imagine it all, Pip! How lovely it is!", exclaims Margot, her eyes dazed in the sweet imagination of the fresh flames between her fond friend Pip and Carlisle.

"What a true gentleman he is!".

"Mmm-hmm! I can see where that went!".

"No! We didn't do anything and I terribly regret that! He won't even look at me anymore!", laments Pip, her silk blush-pink pajamas and luscious beige lace lining the sleeves rustling against the pale-violet damask, plush window-seat cushion, as she jumps up, smacking her laps with her hands in acute exasperation.

"Don't fret! No man can resist your charm! And...I have a delicious idea!", announces Margot with a mysterious naughty smile and one finger up in the air, suddenly dazzling the room with optimistic light.

As Pip gazes at her with such eager eyes and a fervently pleading pout, as if all of her is dependent on Margot's "delicious idea", Margot happily instructs, "Men love saving a damsel in distress! You'll have to showcase your vulnerability to Carlisle in a bit of a dramatic way! Like pretend you are drowning in a really deep pool and scream his name like a madwoman, but meekly!".

"A lake! A lake will do just fine! I'll ask him out for a rowing date in Aurora Hills as a way to thank him for saving my life at the dart terror! Then, I'll trip over the boat and fall into the water yelling out his name like I'm dying! If that doesn't work, I'll invite him to the most glamorous party the world has ever seen in history! Mark my words, Margot, this party will change all of our lives forever!", ecstatically declares Pip, with the lust for a new thrill gleaming in her eyes.

"I already feel the chills, girl! Where's that party going to be?", Margot asks, complimenting Pip with a butterflies of impressed claps.

"Well...that's a secret not to be shared or opened until very soon. You and Kai's friends only know it!", says Pip with a charming wink and a playful twirl of her long locks.

"Got it!", promises Margot, her green, gold-flower embroidered matcha-green velvet nightgown gracefully rolling down her body.

The two friends giggle excitedly and stare at the gray windows with the overjoyed, adrenaline-flushed eyes of kids on a sleepless night before Christmas, when the sharp halo lights of a car's pair of headlights shoot through the steam particles on the windowpane.

Both Pip and Margot leaps to the window and swipe away the moist layer and a wide grin spreads across their faces at the very glad, dearly missed sight of Timothee and his crew returning to home, along with Harry.