Lair of Luxury

XIV | In Cold Blood

XIV. In Cold Blood

Salome

Discoveries were meant to happen sometimes.

My gaze soared through the air, and splashed upon the telltale glimmers of the incandescent town below the balcony. I leaned against the pillar cloaked by spiraling vines.

I barely could begin to register what I had perceived.

From the bedchamber, the receiver urged a response from me. I sighed, and pivoted, making my way back in. The wind in my lungs were caught when I neared the receiver to my ear. "Hello..."

There was a familiar arpeggio that harbored significant information about the farmhouse incident. I was well updated by the constables. "Miss Salome, your sister has been found, and is on the way home. It is imperative..."

I nodded to his words.

* * *

Clack of footsteps traversed from one hall, to another. They were faint before but they grew louder as they approached. A figure moved past in a hurry.

"Where are you off to in such a rush?" My voice crested over, halting her in her tracks.

She spun around with an adamant bombshell expression commanding her facial features. Broadened eyes. Lips split open. "Sister, I did not expect you there, embosomed by the shadows..." She moved forward, but I stopped her there with an unmistakable expression on my face. An expression of curiosity, a cold kind of curiosity.

"I suppose I must gasp that you're alive, and find it good news." The statement was traitor to the calm look I donned, hearing that I let an ounce of anger slip through the crack.

She smiled but I could never look at it the same way again. Was it ever real, or were the years I spent with her a living evidence of monsters disguised with their charismatic mirages?

"I am glad that I'd finally reunite with you. I was kidnapped, held against my own will, and I was afraid," she said as she walked toward me with hands to her sides, as if ready to capture me in a trap. A deceitful cradle that supposedly indicated her affection. I knew it was no longer real. Perhaps it was never even real.

She was not my sister.

"What happened? You were on the floor, motionless..."

She batted her eyes at me, but did not bother. "Minutes after my sips of wine, I felt dizzy. I needed to excuse myself from dinner so as not to concern anyone. Before I knew it, everything went black."

"What happened when you woke up?" I asked.

"Must you brush me with these questions?" She folded her arms. "I have just fled the dark tendrils of fright, and this is how I am greeted back home." There was a frown on her, genuine for once.

"I need to know because I am concerned. I want to bring your experience to justice," I lied to her, but there were drops of honesty about bringing the experience to justice. It would all be the same, except she was not the victim.

She narrowed her eyes for a second, then sucked in a deep breath. For a moment, I thought she would hand out an answer, but what I received was far better. Confirmation. Her now-twisted hostile glare betrayed her utmost endeavors to subdue the intense wrath simmering from within her. She could no longer contain it, and what happened next was an eruption. A meltdown.