The Death Game

Chapter 48

[For Marie who needed a little Kol Mikaelson in here life.]

Chatters, music and voices were heard throughout the mansion. Every hall and every room was filled with the loud laughter of guests, the clinking of glasses and the melody that brought everyone together on this fine evening. Blue, white, red and black; short or long; dresses everywhere, every time you turned around, you would find yourself face to face with an elegantly dressed woman. Men dressed in all black, a bow-tie, a tie, or none at all. They were still elegant, all of them, from head to toe, dressed up for the occasion. The occasion? Well in all honesty, there wasn't really one.

Juliet Waters felt lonely, all she had held dear to her heart all those years was now gone, she was left alone in an old mansion. All her life, she had always desired the things that would destroy her in the end and she had finally found them; well him. He had destroyed her until the very end and now even surrounded by a hundred people, all in her home, chatting, laughing and dancing until the night died out, even with a hundred people, she still felt alone. Just another face in the crowd, just another fake smile among the rest. All the excessively extravagant parties with an unlimited number of guests, lights, food and entertainment were only a way to fill the empty place that remained in her heart.

She felt like Gatsby in a way, alone, in need of someone even if she'd never admit it anyone. Juliet didn't throw this huge, flashy party in an attempt to catch someone's attention; this time it was to help a friend. Someone like her who was looking for a clean slate, Mary Elizabeth Morstan, someone who was looking for help. She didn't want a life like Juliet, or Lexis, or Sebastian or any of them. She didn't want the elegance, the dinner parties and the dresses. She didn't want the thrill of the fight, the sound of her blood rushing through her veins, the light in their eyes as she pushed on the trigger. She didn't want none of that.

She wanted someone that could show her a brand new world. Someone with whom she could start over and forget about her past. And this was the main reason for this dinner party. Hundreds of people had been invited, all people from everywhere around the city, the country, wherever she could find them, she'd invite them. Close friends or distant acquaintances, whoever they were, they had showed up. Business men, world-wide assassins, dominatrix, all of them filled the halls of the mansion with their laughter and enchanting words. Even the Government itself had decided to show up, after all these years and he had finally showed up. 

Mycroft Holmes.

With the sound of her heels clicking on the wooden floor, her short black dress and a devilish red smile on her lips, Juliet Waters made her way down the stairs. Nodding at a few guests she met along the way, she quickly took a small glass of wine from one of the waiters that was walking around. Turning swiftly on her heels, she made her way towards one of the large rooms where people were gathered into small groups, minding their own business and enjoying the small things in life. A proud smile on her face as she finally felt as if she belonged, among all these people, she felt at home. Suddenly, a familiar voice stopped her dead in her tracks. Turning around, her smile turned into a wide grin.

As she turned around, she came face to face with a man. Shorter than her, still shorter than her if she took off those heels. He was dressed sharply, his tie tucked in perfectly under his jacket. He resembled a perfect gentleman, proper... a high class gentleman dressed for the occasion. His blond hair though still looked like a battlefield, strands popping out of nowhere and standing on their own, he wore the same old smirk on his face. 

This little smirk that could have made anyone woman's heart melt just at the very sight of it. He looked so very different from what she remembered. He looked tired, too tired for his age. The dark circles under his eyes, it was as if his eyes had lost their twinkle, as if all life had been drained out of him. Sucked out slowly during this last year. Now that she thought about it, the more she looked at him, the more she saw the lifeless shell of the man she used to know.