I see nothing more than his wide back in the black tux as he disappears from beneath the arbor.
4
Clark
“Hey, Lil, where’d you go? Look, I’m so fucking glad you scored an invite to this party. I met up with a bunch of my old frat bros.” Graves stumbles into the arbor, too high or too oblivious to notice me only a few feet away.
I need to get myself under control. This wasn’t my plan. I intend to take my time with Lily, to debase her in every possible way. It’s the reason I responded to her sugar daddy request in the first place. Money is easy, mundane. But an innocent fool who thinks making deals with a man like me is safe? That’s irresistible, fascinating.
Or perhaps she knew I wasn’t safe. I ponder that as I follow them deeper into the property, Graves leading her toward the guest cottage along the eastern edge of the main house. Though called a ‘cottage’ it’s easily ten times the size of the average family home. The party continues inside and out, plenty of people dancing, drinking, smoking, and fucking.
“Maybe we should go.” Lily pulls on Graves’s hand, but he won’t be deterred.
He keeps going, past the pool, past the girl on her knees giving a three-way blowjob, past every bit of debauchery and excess. And I follow. Because I’m drawn to her, to the foolish girl who sold herself to me again and again.
I blend in with the other partiers, my black attire common when surrounded by jesters in bright colors or plague doctors with long birdlike masks and bulbous eyes. The grotesque and surreal are everywhere, and mixed in are plenty of society elites who wear thin masks to cover their usual ones, and designer clothes to hide the yawning emptiness inside.
Lily longs to be one of them. Why? Her blonde curls disappear inside the guest house, and I follow. Our bargain binds us together, but there’s more to it. Isn’t there always?
The music inside the guest house is some sort of death metal. I can barely hear the groans of the couples fucking on the living room floor as I stride past. I’m following my sparkly little Lily as Graves drags her deeper into the house.
We pass the kitchen where staff work to keep food pouring into the cesspool outside their neat enclosure.
Graves leads her up the stairs. I follow, unable to give her any real breathing room. Plenty of other partiers are exploring the house, and at least one piece of art seems to be missing from the staircase wall. A bad play by whoever took it. The Constantines will find them, reclaim what’s theirs, then kill or maim the thief. That’s the way of this world, and anyone who doesn’t understand it is doomed to suffer. Like Lily. She has no idea what she’s gotten herself into. Not with me. Not even with Graves. He looks like a perfect prince on paper. But the wealthy have skeletons upon skeletons lurking just behind the next door.
I sigh as we pass a series of guest rooms, one having been turned into an opium den with countless fools chasing the dragon.
“Graves!” a man calls from behind me.
I stop as he hurries past, then ease into the doorway of the nearest bedroom.
Lily turns, but her gaze glances over me and focuses on the man in the jester costume hurrying toward Graves.
“I heard you were here,” the jester crows.
I edge closer so I can hear over the din.
“Hey, Fincher, is that you?”
“The one and only.” He does a little dance.
“Lily here scored us an invite.”
“You got an actual invitation?” The jester sounds impressed. “I’m crashing. But no one has noticed.”
Idiot. Of course someone has noticed. But I suppose the jester isn’t a Morelli or a threat, so no alarm was sounded on his behalf.
“Lily, great to meet you.” He leans toward her.
She leans away. Good girl.
The jester still forces an embrace on her, but she steps back once he lets her go, even though he keeps staring at her.
“Fincher?” Graves eventually asks.
The cad recovers. “Come on, the guys are doing beer pong. Want to join?”
“I can’t leave Lily by—”
“I’m fine.” She forces a smile. The mask doesn’t hide her from me, but apparently it works on Graves.
He kisses her cheek. “I’ll catch back up with you. Don’t get lost again. We have a big night ahead of us.”
“Have fun,” she calls as he follows his friend past me.
“So, are we … Tri Omega train