Dark Faïz ( Book 1 ) [ COMPLETED]

Chapters 4-1

That evening, only Lily, her daughter, and I were present at the table for dinner. Victoria told us about her day at the university. She and other members of her class were preparing the draw to determine the couples at the Halloween ball on Friday evening. Baylor preferred to employ high school students for this task in order to avoid any suspicious maneuvers. Lily warned me that Charles might be home late as he had been held up at a last-minute meeting at work.

We took advantage of this time between girls to talk about everything, about my last weeks in high school and about Lily's work. During our conversation, I learned that she had met her husband while she was still an intern at a law firm. Charles and his father had had major disputes over shares in the multinational pharmaceutical company his father had created. It was after the umpteenth dispute that the dialogue was definitely broken between the father and his only son.

It was the first time since I'd arrived at the Mattews' house that I finally learned something about this family, which made me appreciate even more this moment that we shared.

**

I finished the evening alone in my room. I had just hung up with my father, who had told me that he was leaving on Wednesday for a mission of several months in Central Africa. Then came the moment when I decided to send a message to Asarys. She excused herself: she was very sorry about our argument earlier. I also made my "mea culpa," telling her about the end of my evening with Faïz in the heights of Los Angeles, taking care not to mention my little excursion to the port.

She questioned me impatiently, but I promised to tell her everything in detail, face to face, during our break tomorrow. I started to get ready for bed when I heard a door slamming weakly, and this several times. I immediately felt an air current and decided to go and check it out in order to stop the annoying sound. I groped down the wide corridor, and deduced that this noise came from Mr. Mattew's office.

— "Charles?" I called gently behind the door.

Without an answer, I opened it wide and noticed that no windows were open in the room. The place was plunged in darkness, just lit by a few moonbeams. I walked inside and turned on the little light on the desk. My gaze swept over the place. I felt a heavy atmosphere in the middle of this religious silence. My eyes suddenly rested on the first drawer of the desk. I hesitated for a moment, struggling not to give in to the curiosity that invaded me, but a force within me took over.

I don't know why, but I feel like I'm going to regret this.

I opened it suddenly and quickly. Administrative papers, drawings of plans, contracts, nothing interesting came out of it.

Of course. What did you think you'd find there, you idiot? An ear in a box?

I decided to open the last drawer at the bottom in order to put an end once and for all to my paranoia about this family. That was when my eyes were drawn to the meticulously arranged photos. On top, I saw three boys, their eyes empty of all expression. They seemed ghostly. When I turned the picture over, on the back was written, 'Harry Mattew, Sayer's Children Orphanage 1946.' A frigid shiver ran through my body, the horror in the simplest device. Under the pile of these photographs, I found a file. This one had as a designation, "Faïz."

My hands shaking, I opened it. Inside were dozens of newspaper clippings, all talking about the same person: The Black Shadow. My brain began to make the connection between all the events of the last few months. My breath stopped, my head started to spin. It's not possible. It's not real. The truth burst out suddenly: Faïz was The Black Shadow.

Everything came back to me: the night outings, his parents always worried, his secrets that no one wanted to talk about, and Victoria's comment that now made sense. "We are a rather complicated family." A little? You don't say!