Harshal #2
“You’ve actually put some effort into this, which means you’ve thought about me wearing clown makeup, what did you imagine the rest of the costume to look like?”
I scoff, rolling my eyes.
“Whatever.” I say, walking away from him. “My mind doesn’t always travel down south.”
We then begin to pick out my costume, or rather he picks out my costume.
He wants me to be an angel so I can be the light to his darkness, balancing his world out.
At first, I was not for the idea of being an angel, but I saw some cool looking wings that looked realistic enough and helped me accept the idea of being an angel.
I thought we were done with our pervious conversation though, but apparently, I was wrong.
“Key words are ‘doesn’t always’ which means you do think about dirty things.” He says, following me out the aisle with the angel wings.
I see Frani walking down an aisle with Halloween decorations and I light up on the inside.
“I’m done with this conversation.” I tell Wraith. “Frani, wait up!”
I run over to her and walk with her down the aisle.
“Hey.” She smiles. “I saw some lights that would be perfect for the party decorations and I need help finding them again.”
“Okay what did they look like?” I ask.
“They were kind of like fairy lights but the bulbs were in the shape of different bones. Like one bulb would be a skull, another bulb would be a hand, the next would be the rib cage, so on and so forth.”
I nod as I listen to her describe the lights.
“Okay.”
Scanning the aisle I don’t see them but what I do see is a guy staring at me like some type of psycho. I give him a small smile nonetheless and walk out of the aisle, going to the next. A box of fake spiders fall, nearly hitting me in the head.
“What happened?” Frani asks, coming up behind me.
I look up at the now empty space on the shelf and shrug.
“I don’t know, I just turned the corner and they fell.” I reply.
Bending down I begin to pick up the box of spiders along with the stray ones that fell out the box. When I stand back up I place them back on the shelf. I realize that I missed one and go to pick it up. Looking to my left I make eye contact with the lights she was talking about.
“Hey, I found the lights.” I state, grabbing them off the shelf.
Handing the box of lights to Frani I put the spider with the others. When I look back at Frani a figure catches me attention. The same man from the other aisle is staring at us. Unease settles in my stomach but I swallow it down and try my best to ignore the man.
“Cool! Don’t these look cool?” she asks. “I think they’ll be a perfect touch to the party.”
“You have a theme for the party?” I ask. “I mean outside of the lake theme.”
“I have a couple of themes but haven’t settled on any yet.”
Frani’s phone rings so she reaches into her back pocket to pull it out. I catch a glimpse of the screen and see the Caller ID. Her father is calling her.
“Hi dad.” She answers.
A beat passes.
Something dark crosses her features as she listens to what her father is telling her. She glances at me before humming,
“Uh-huh.”
I look down the aisle to see if the man is still watching me but he’s not there, thank goodness.
“Okay, we—yes, we’ll be there.”
She ends the call and puts her phone back in her pocket.
“We have to go now.” She says.
“What why?” I ask.
“You’ll see when we get back home.” she responds. “I just know Wraith isn’t going to like this.”
***
“Hold the fuck on!” Wraith shouts, furiously.
His voice echoes throughout the house as he paces the living room.
“I’m sorry Wraith.” Julian says.
“Go back, go back, go back, I’m having trouble inhaling this... information.” Wraith says.
Frustration clearly clouds his face.
“Wraith, it’s fine, I’m fine.” I say.
“No! No, hell fucking no, this is not fine!” He shouts. “This asshole needs to die.”
Apparently, Jamie is back in the states, in hiding, not surprising in the slightest, and he advertised a bounty on me on the dark web.
The reward is twelve million dollars for anyone who either kills me, kidnaps me and brings me to him, or kills me then brings me to him.
My mind goes back to the guy in the store.
Is he in on this bounty? If I’m being honest it terrifies me but I’m not—I refuse to live my life looking over my shoulders, afraid that every person I deem as suspicious is going to kill me!
“You’re staying here until further notice.” Wraith says.
“Wraith you can’t keep the boy locked up in some ivory tower.” Guildford says.
“He is mine! Mine! And he is currently not safe and I’ll be damned if I’m not going to protect what’s mine!” Wraith points at me. “I can’t—I won’t be able to live with myself if he dies.”
“I can’t either because you will be unbearable.” Frani says.
“Frani!” Guildford scolds.
“What, in all honesty this is the first time my brother has found love and for him to lose it because of some long and old... rivalry isn’t right.” Frani says. “I’m with Wraith, Harshal should stay here with us until further notice.”
“Same here.” Fritzi says. “I mean regardless if Wraith loves the boy or not it’s not fair to Harshal. He’s innocent and if he dies because of us, because Jamie wants to get to us that’s—I won’t be able to live with myself.”
“He won’t die!” Aziz says. “You want to know why?”
Aziz stands from the chair he was sitting in. He looks at everyone in the living room.
“Because we are the fucking Dark Archez damn it!” He continues. “We have never failed a mission ever and we’re sure as shit not going to start now.”
“Yeah... we may have had some challenging missions or bumps in the road but in the end who came out on top?” Halah asks.
“We did.” Guilford says, leaning back on the couch, crossing his arms over his chest.
I look at him.
“Why is this family after you guys?” I ask him.
He smiles. “It’s a long story.”
“I’ve got time.” I say. “I’m sorry—”
“No, no it’s fine, I think it’s the least you deserve since your life is on the line.” He cuts me off.
He takes a deep breath before speaking.
“My father... used to work for the Herreras. He got the job to take care of me since my mother walked out on him and me when I was just two years old. It paid the bills and one day he made a certain deal with Jamies father, Valentino Herrera.” Guildford explains.
“My father discovered that part of the deal included something he didn’t agree with, so he didn’t go through with the deal and threatened Valentino and his family which caused a war between us and the family.
He tried killing us but was unsuccessful until I turned eighteen.
.. that’s when he was able to kill my father through extreme torture before electrocuting him to death, sending his fried head to me in a box wrapped like a present. ”
I grimace as I listen to the story. Reaching a hand out I place it on his shoulder in a comforting gesture.
“I’m sorry.” I whisper, tears in my eyes.
“Nah, it’s alright, it’s water under the bridge now.” Guildford says.
He gives me a sad smile before standing.
“I need to figure some shit out.” He adds before exiting the living room.