Dark Dreams (COMPLETED)

Dismayed

His Rolls Royce darted through the night which was gently falling over the city. In a few minutes, we arrived in front of a modern, geometric white villa with tall, wide windows. The property, which was supposedly numerous acres in size, looked like a palace, although in comparison to Dark Oaks everything appeared tiny. After parking the car in the underground carpark, we took the transparent elevator that connected all the floors of the house. His room was on the third floor. It was the size of ten standard rooms, in shades of white and blue. The walls were covered with posters of singers and rock bands. In the corner of the room was what looked like a recording studio, with a microphone, drum kit and guitars. The room smelled like Jay; something inexplicable, which I defined as the smell of a mighty river flowing through a forest untouched by human hands.

"You can come in," said Jay, who had already sat down in the chair at his desk, which was equipped with the latest technology.

I had to stop losing myself in my thoughts while I was in the company of others.

"Here," I said, giving him the card.

"Here we go," he said, putting it inside a contraption whose purpose I didn't know.

The printer started churning out hot photos.

"I'm in Polaroid format!" I exclaimed.

"I can choose any format I want," he explained. "I thought this was easier to put in your bag. I'm going to take a quick shower while you look at the pictures, okay?"

I nodded as he disappeared through the door of his en-suite bathroom.

Within a few minutes, more than a hundred photos had printed. After studying them carefully, just seven attracted my attention.

The first photo showed Dick with a guy in his thirties whose appearance was a mix between a rapper and an ex-con. I was sure I hadn't seen him at the party, though his face wasn't new to me. Behind them Katrina was on the phone, while Amir was near the fireplace, sipping a red cocktail.

The second showed Chastity and Dick drinking together. The badge on her sleeveless jacket, made up of two cherries, caught my eye.

The third was of Meilin. She was standing in front of the painting with the snakes eating their tails, looking at the lens, frightened.

The fourth was blurred and seemed to have been taken at night, perhaps in the forest. There were two male hands belonging to different men. One of them had a gold bracelet with the symbol α.

The fifth was of a man's foot with a snake-shaped tattoo, resting on the bedsheet. It was intertwined with the foot of a girl with my complexion.

The sixth showed Haya from behind. I recognized her because she was wearing her pink hijab. She was kissing a blond girl who could very well be me.

The seventh, and last, was of Jay, who was giving me a kiss on the cheek.

I wished I had never printed those pictures.

Now I didn't know who to trust anymore.

"Did you find any interesting photos?" asked Jay, coming out of the bathroom with a bare torso, wet hair and white shorts.

"Nothing much." I lied, putting the photos in my bag.

"Jay, where are you?"

A blond woman wearing an emerald green dress who seemed to be around thirty years old entered without knocking. She had a large basket of dirty clothes in her hand. I got up from my chair, smelling trouble.

"Oh, that's where the new cleaner is," she shouted, thrusting the basket into my hands. She continued talking, spacing her words as if I didn't understand the language she was speaking: "Take this to the laundry, u-n-d-e-r-s-t-a-n-d?".

"Mom!" Jay shushed her, taking the basket from my hands and placing it on the floor. "She's not the new maid. Her name is Sarah and she goes to school with me." He turned to me: "Sarah, this is Wilhelmina, my mother."

Looking at her closely, I realized that her youthful appearance was the result of hours spent under the scalpel.

"Nice to meet you, Mrs. Bradford."

She examined me from head to toe, and then slowly ascended from my feet to my head and concluded her examination with a grimace.

"Yes, well," she said, waving her hand. "Jay, we must talk about this Saturday."

"I've already told you that I'll be there," he said, annoyed.

"That's not the problem, silly," said Wilhelmina, placing her hand on her forehead. "You know your grandparents will be there. They're coming from Paris specifically for this occasion."

She and Jay exchanged defiant looks.

"I permitted myself to call Penelope," she said, smugly. "It's been decided for some time that you'll marry the Delatours' daughter."

"Penelope?" I exclaimed, once again thinking aloud.

"Yes, Jay's girlfriend."

It figured that a guy like him would have a girlfriend. It wouldn't have surprised me if he had one for every country on the planet.

"Penelope is not my girlfriend," he snapped. "We broke up, Mom, as you know very well."

I tried to hide the smile that was forming on my face.

"Your grandfather is old. You can't introduce yourself at seventeen years old without a companion!" she shrieked, adopting a regal air. "You wouldn't be serious enough in his eyes and you could say goodbye to inheriting the Windsor companies. I'll call Penelope, end of discussion."

"No!" he yelled as if this Penelope could kill him at any moment. "I have a girlfriend."

"And who would that be?" challenged his mother.

He arched an eyebrow.

Then, he turned to me, shooting me a crafty look.

"Sarah," he said, smiling. "Sarah is my girlfriend."