Seasons- Golden Hours

🍷 The Masked Game🍷

Agastya

Aarav settles beside me, quite and mysterious. As bubbly and rebellious he sounds I am not a fool to underestimate his darkness. There are only rumors about what he actually does but its his contacts that make him respectable in such hidden societies.

The carriage moves on the pitch black path, I adjust my grey coat. Aarav taps his leather shoes on the base of the carriage. It must be some secret code but he makes it look really casual.

The 30 feet high golden gate open for us, I was blindfolded for the entire way so I have no idea what country and what state we are in.

The black building shine with red lights- A red dragon logo, same as the early tattoos I used to spot- shines at the front of the building. There was a Golden globe at the terrace and people were gathered all around.

"Wear the mask." Aarav hands me a black mask. "Black masks for visitors and Golden for the hosts." Him and i wear the black embraided mask and we nod, moving inside the building. The guard stops us and Aarav shows them his visitor card, it was a special card that had permission to bring someone along with them. Guard nodded and let us inside.

The floor had Golden marble, contrasting with the black walls and red curtains. There was no one that looked in our direction, everyone was busy doing their own thing.

There were ladies with pink masks and some of them had silver masks. The one with silver masks were serving drinks and the one with pinks masks were entertaining the guests.

"I don't understand..." I stopped when the drink was served by a woman with a silver mask. She was wearing a red dress and boots, her eyes were amber and other than that I could notice nothing but brown straight hair. She left after serving the drinks. "What is the significance of mask?"

Aarav leisurely took a sip from his wine glass, I left my champagne untouched.

"Ranks." He tap on the table casually, whatever he does raise goosebumps on my skin. The place is new and I should not let my guard down. "Don't worry, this is just a party." He shrugs and waits for someone.

"At which rank Gaurav is?" I tilt my head.

He breaks into a laugh. "A visitor of course. Someone as petty as him couldn't have a rank."

"What about you then?"

His eyes dart into mine and then he shift his focus away. "Ciper?" A voice interrupts our conversation. "I see! You finally brought a friend." I turned my head to see a man standing behind us, he offered me his hand. "I am Luca and you are?"

"I don't think we tell our real names here, Luca." I shook his hand, my voice dropping sarcasm.

"But it was worth a try." He laughed and settled with us. "So? What is your motive?" Luca got served with drink and he sipped and glared at me. "No one comes here without a motive."

"If I tell you, would you help me?"

"Oh! I am just a manager but I am sure the members would." He walked away from us.

Aarav's deep chuckle took all my attention towards him. "Cipher? Really?"

"Its Lucifer but yeah Cipher works." He rotated the grass, I could sense his smirk under the mask. "Today is just an introduction for you to the dark world, If you want to defeat Gaurav then you need to used backhanded means." I nod, looking at my filled champagne.

The women in pink masks were sitting on the lap of members, dancing out. They were of all ages and when I mean all- The silver masked were still in the more respectable position so I decided to talk to one of them.