The origin of Silveridge trace back to as back as 1800s to the royal family of Taleons. The last of the Taleons was Princess Cherlene. The kingdom had always been prosperous and Cherlene had always had a smooth life until she turned 23. That's when, she got allowed to go to a magic show by her particularly strict father. She'd only ever heard stories about the world outside but had never had any friends to talk about what she dreamt of. The magic show was hosted by a fine gentleman, Jerome Kingsley, around the age of 30. He wasn't very popular and have had mishaps several times on stage and people burst out laughing, more than they got amused by his act, not that there were a boatload of people present in his act.
But the day, the princess Cherlene stepped foot on his show, the news spread like wildfire and everyone knew that the princess herself had come to visit the magician's act. The room had been overspilling with people that night. Cherlene had never seen so many people, her eyes had been wide with wonder. The sight, the smell, the people...it was all so different from the palace. Nothing like it and she liked it. All the girls and guys swarmed around her like bees, hesitant to say anything. She felt the feeling of awkwardness but she embraced it. The show began and Mr. Jerome set foot on the stage, glancing down, placing the hat at the crown of the head. The show began and everyone around was quite familiar with the tricks of Mr. Kingsley. However, Cherlene gasped and found herself taken aback at several times. Her eyes glistened with amazement and by the end of the show, she had been lost in it. Her heart was overwhelmed with joy and she stepped out of the auditorium, seemingly lost in her deep thought, walking mindlessly towards her carriage.
"Princess!" A voice called out.
She didn't seem to notice because she'd been hearing that word a lot today.
"Princess! Princess Cherlene!" This time, the voice was louder.
Cherlene turned around to find Mr. Jerome Kingsley coming after her with the grin on his face that he had on the stage.
"My royal highness, I'm ..." He bend down, his hat off his head, "deeply honoured to have you on my show. It's..." He stood straight, facing her, "surreal, my lady." He took her hand ever so gently, and kissed on it, softly, as if her hand was made of cotton. So softly that even Cherlene didn't feel his lips on the back of her hand.
She smiled back, nervous to speak anything. She went inside her carriage, glancing at him lastly and the carriage went off. She went back home that day, on the way staring at her hand and sometimes outside at the dark forest running past by as she rode away. The night ended but it was not the end. She met Jerome again, this time it was in a dream but it felt as real as that night, under the moon, after his show. After some months, she got to attend his show again. The show didn't last for that long this time. Cherlene wondered. And they met again after the show. The meetings got more frequent. Some people had also seen them talking. As fun as it was, it would be lethal for Jerome if they'd ever be caught because it would mean he would end up losing his head.
Everything was going as smooth as ever until the day Jerome revealed that he won't be having any shows anymore. The shows weren't doing that well and it was taxing for him. That was when princess Cherlene decided to organise an event, THE MASQUERADE for everyone in Silveridge to join. She was to marry a prince out of all the people who showed up at the event. A decade later, Masquerade was bought into tradition and it took place annually.
Don't shy away to steal the show was the tag line of the masquerade. Charles was trying his level best to do just that with his freshly cut beard which used to be a goatee and putting on a pastel green blazer. He strolled out of the changing room, looking at the floor and then at Darcy, seemingly skeptical.
"Uhh.." Darcy raised an eyebrow.
"I look better in green, I think." He spoke, glancing once at the mirrors all around.
"The color...it's..." Darcy spoke
"It's not good?"
"Looks terrible. You look like shrek or about to turn into one, especially when you do that...YES..." Darcy pointed at him, "THAT!"
Charles scowled at him, "What?"
"That face."
"What face?"
"Maybe it's your entire face."
The Friday was spent this way. Getting prepared, or putting it together for Darcy. Charles's looks always made Darcy laugh. Charles even questioned in his mind if Darcy was who he was anymore. Under the roof of the Apex Enclave, Darcy's face possessed a rare vibrancy. It was the next day, the day of the masquerade.
A grand limousine with its black stained glasses, rolled up at the Grand Halycon which was massively adorned like a christmas tree. It said on a massive poster right outside the entrance, "THE MASQUERADE; Don't shy away to steal the show!"
When the Limousine took a halt at the side of the entrance, one of its windows rolled down and the door opened with a click. Colonel slid out of the limo, dressed in prussian blue, his shoes with gold pins on the ridge, seemingly out of place with his attire. Next was Charles in white all over with a red shirt underneath his white coat which was surprisingly Darcy's color all this time but when he rolled out of the car, he seemed different, like reinvented. His hair looked particularly gelled backwards, almost wet looking. He glanced around, dressed in matte black. Not a smear of any other color in his attire. His attire wasn't as eye catchy as Charles and Colonel's, they did get some looks here and there as the three strolled towards the entrance. The inside of the Grand Halycon tonight was quite bright and the food was laid out on the massive never ending ivory dinner table. It was bustling with chatter, laughter and hundreds of unknown faces. Charles stepped foot on the bifurcated staircase, glancing down once at the pristine Persian rug layered neatly on top of it. Colonel followed and Darcy did too, glancing back at the dinner table once, slightly longer and then went ahead.
All of them exited through the gargantuan olden wooden door at the top of the staircase, which was opened widely already. The grand Halycon's hall was styled brightly but the terrace was even more vibrant. Countless chandeliers hung in the air as they walked in, looking up, and cream flowers adorned the area. As they went in, they met with a creamy, almost sweet smell which was reminiscent of something bakery like and also people dancing in pairs all around with mellow music in the background which could be faintly heard. They somehow made their way to the seating area, trying not to bump into any of the people and soon after, six glasses of shots were served on the glass table in front of them. Darcy had been looking around, sometimes to his left, sometimes towards the front and sometimes even behind him where the people were dancing.
"Is that Elizabeth?" Charles said, picking up a shot and gulping it down in a heartbeat.
Darcy glanced at the woman he pointed at vaguely. It was a tall woman, in a blue dress, seeming standoffish and elegant, much like Elizabeth but probably a bit too tall for her. Darcy knew her, from every angle that existed. He didn't even need for the tall woman to face them to know that she wasn't Elizabeth.
"I don't think so." Darcy picked up a shot, gulped it down. Picked up another and gulped it down.
The music was starting to get slightly louder, only a teensy bit.
"I need a glass of beer." Colonel stood up, and lunged towards the bar area.
The terrace was gigantic in size but the people, they were too. Was she here already or not? Even if she was, how would he know? How can he? It was quite hard for anyone to find someone. People were wearing Venetian masks all around.
"To dance with a woman, you gotta wear that." Charles said.
"Really?" Darcy gulped down the third shot on the table, "What about you?" He looked vaguely at the crowd.
"Never wearing this shit." Charles said.
"Oh, you shouldn't. You'd look like a koala or something." Darcy said, offering a shot to Charles but he refused, so, Darcy gulped it down instead.
Colonel strolled towards them with two huge glasses of beer in both of this hands. But there was someone behind him, as if following him.
It was a woman, slightly shorter than Colonel, wearing the Venetian mask. She greeted Colonel midway. A woman dressed in a white satin gown and strolled leisurely towards their table alongside Colonel. Her hand reached behind her ear and gently, she took off her mask as if peeling off her skin. It was Lydia. She turned to face Darcy towards her right, a tight lipped straight smile plastered on her face staring at him silently as if calculating something in her mind. He didn't meet her gaze for, seeming lost in his thoughts for a few seconds and then finally grabbed the last shot on the table and gulped it down.
"WHAT A SURPRISE!" She spoke, looking down at him ignoring Charles who'd been talking to Colonel about what she said to him earlier.
"So...what are you guys up to?" She glanced around, her gaze, still pretty much at Darcy and then turned to Charles, "And you must be..."
"His friend, Charles" Charles spoke, pointing at Darcy, "and his too obviously!" He added quickly after, pointing at Colonel.
"Where's your date?" She asked, taking a step towards Charles.
Charles was about to say something but she cut him off, "It's all about that. Nevermind, I can save you a dance..." She looked at him and winked, "if you'd like."
Charles paused for three seconds, processing what just came out of her mouth, "Oh..." He glanced towards Darcy and Colonel and then back at Lydia, "You know, I'm a pretty good dancer myself. But I'm...gay."
No one knew what was coming when Charles was in the picture. But this had them both shook. Both Colonel and Darcy stared at him, wide eyed.
"WOW..." She raised an eyebrow, scrutinizing him up and down.
"Yeah..." Charles spoke casually as if it was the hundredth time he was telling this fact, "Over there!" He leaned over the table to point at a massive group of people, "There's my boyfriend."
She turned around to see where he pointed, "Which one?"
"That one!" Charles still pointed in the same direction. Did he even know who his boyfriend was? Maybe he was deciding which one should he choose as his boyfriend for the time this conversation lasted.
"That one...in leather pants." He spoke
"I can't find any leather pants." She looked back at Charles, and then at Darcy, "Nevermind..."
"Mr. Coleman. How's the night going?" She spoke, her voice sounding a tad more crisp.
Darcy still didn't look at her, keeping his gaze on random people than on her and his face devoid of any emotion or expression.
"Ohh...I see. The poor guy is alone. Or am I missing something." She swirled around dramatically, glancing around.
She shifted uneasily when he didn't seem to respond to her, "What's with that face? Is it about her?" Her voice lowered...as if telling a secret, "Did she finally confess that you disgust her." She hissed.
His gaze still fixated where it was, at a distance somewhere, determined to not look at her.
It couldn't be said if the alcohol made his eyelids slightly heavy or was it her tone, her voice and her presence.
"And besides..." She scowled, gathering strength, "WHO INVITED YOU? YOU DESERVE TO ROT IN HELL, YOU MONSTER. YOU DUMB PIECE OF SHIT. YOU COWARD PATHETIC.."
"Back off!" It was Charles.
She glanced at him, her eyes wide in horror as if he'd just slapped her across the face, "It's over now. Just go back to where you came from."
"Who are you? YOU...NASTY..." She turned towards Charles, her eyes burning red, her voice deep, slightly leaning on the table like a predator leaning on their prey.
Colonel burst out, his voice louder than Darcy has probably ever heard...so much that it made him glance at Colonel, "ENOUGH! I HAD ENOUGH Lydia. Where ya manners? Get outta here. Don' embarass me no more." Colonel looked away from Lydia as if the sight of her was a pain.
She blinked, looking at him in disbelief, glancing at Darcy once again and then back at Colonel.
"You really are.." She spoke
Colonel spoke as soon as he heard her voice come out of her mouth, "OUT! NOW."
In a matter of minutes, she'd gone from the predator, "the one who will make everyone glum Lydia" to the one who was about to be crestfallen herself. Her eyes...again red. But this time, not just with fury or rage but also with tears. Within the blink of an eye, she turned around, ever so quickly and strode away silently.
"Is that George? I think it is..." Charles spoke.
Darcy shifted his gaze towards where Charles pointed, at who he thought was George. He saw that Lydia stood next to him who was dressed in black, her back facing them. They seemed to be talking, or specifically, she seemed to be telling him something and he stood silently, hearing everything, staring in Darcy's direction.
"Is she talking about us?" Colonel said
"Yeah...or maybe Darcy." Charles added, looking at them.
This went on for around five minutes and then they both disappeared in the crowd. That's when a new segment of the dance began, the one where the music was a tad bit more loud and all the people, who sat on the couch, for the first time in the night, were on the floor, about to dance. And the dance began. People swayed to the rhythm of the music. The three of them sat lousily, watching people dancing, some of them awkward with their moves and others as if they'd been practising it for centuries. Charles got up and went up to a curly haired brunette woman standing a couple feet away from them, in her 30s, sipping on a margherita. He shook hands with her and what appeared to be a brief description, he held the hand of the brunette, guided her to the floor and begun the dance with the woman he met five seconds ago.
"For that, he's gotta be the smartest of us." Colonel continued, "I thought he'd return with margherita on top."
"Or maybe to refill her margherita." Darcy said and picked up the last shot that had been sitting on the table and gulped it down .
Charles faded in the background with the woman and the background was starting to fade too. Or was it something else? The amount of shots that were in Darcy's system had started to kick in. The effect was abrupt and stronger than he fathomed. It all started to get blurry, even when Colonel said that he's going to get himself some drink, he couldn't focus properly. He was losing his senses, gradually, as if with every second, it got intense.
He stood up, not able to recall when did he last felt this dizzy or his head to be so heavy. People were everywhere like flocks of sheep dancing around in a field. It was a nightmare for him to get to the next table, let alone the bar which was on the other side. But why did he want to go towards the bar? Not that the water was present elsewhere. Taking slow steps and keeping his eyes on the ground, a lot of feet tapping and moving back and forth in his hazy view, he dragged himself forward. He bumped into some people and some people bumped into him, some of them even said something which he didn't and couldn't bother listening to. So, he went ahead like someone who was about to pass out and reached the bar. He grabbed a tiny bottle of water out of the bunch that were kept at the left side of the bar's counter, closed his eyes and gulped it all down and headed straight to the restroom because he couldn't hold his pee any longer. When he exited, he saw someone who appeared to be Elizabeth.
He advanced towards the woman and that's when he felt a pull. A pull that was a bit too strong, from behind like someone tried to grab his hand and jerked him backwards. He turned around immediately, almost falling onto the person. Despite his dizzy demeanor, he used his right hand against the wall to stop himself from falling any further. She didn't have to take her mask off for Darcy to know that it was her. He knew it by the warmth of her hand against his chest and her soft smell.
"Oh... I'm so sorry, I thought it was George. He's wearing black too and I thought...that ...you. I had been trying to find him but he just seems to have been lost somewhere in this crowd." She spoke in a apologetic tone, "Anyways, it's nice to see you hear."
"Hi..." Darcy uttered softly, shifting backwards "Elizabeth."
They was a gap between them, tiny enough to make Darcy more dizzy than he already was. Losing all his senses never felt this incredible like it did to him tonight, in that moment. To his surprise, she seemed even more drunk than him. The kind where she barely had any stability in her legs.
He stepped backwards, if he was adding to the uneasiness in her body.
"You've seen George?" Her voice slurry from the alcohol as if she was utterly sleepy, "I'd been looking for him." Her foot slipped and her stance got disbalanced and he stepped forward, in a heartbeat, closing the tiny gap that was there and his right hand went round her back brushing against her back like a whisper and her lips parted and she uttered, "Gosh, seems like I've had to drink a bit too much."
He cloaked her in, ever so slightly and gently that she was the most delicate thing he'd ever touched and set his eyes on, his hold slightly firm and took her to a seating area nearby. Her eyes, only half open, seemed like she was about to black out. He rushed towards the bar which was a couple feet away. When he reached, it was out of water bottles. He felt awake suddenly, as if all his dizziness went away. Upon asking the bartender, he had to wait for sometime before he got the hold of a mini sized bottle and rushed back to her.
To the same seating area where he left her wishing for her to still be there. Where else would she go in that condition...he told himself.
When he reached, the contrary was true, his fear. He saw no one there. It was all empty. He looked around frantically and he felt heavy again, the dizzy feeling returning as if he had just woken up from a dream.
But it wasn't a dream, he told himself, a dream can't be so strong... so real.
The night slipped by and he never saw her again. Why was it always so hard for him to find her and even when he did, somehow, someway... he'd always lose her too.
Colonel had been facetiming Maya for sometime, talked to Darcy and yawned like six times. He'd been getting bored too, just like Darcy. Charles had got himself a new woman tonight. But he was nowhere to be seen.
"He didn't go home, right? Or leave with that woman?" Darcy asked about Charles.
"There he is..." Usually Colonel wouldn't know anything. But when Darcy turned slightly, he saw Charles advancing towards him. But there was someone else too, next to him. Elizabeth.
"She was looking for you." Charles said.
Darcy stood up hastily when he saw her.
"I thought you were nice. I was mistaken..." She said, breathing heavily.
He was confused by her expressions and the only thing he could utter was, "Elizabeth..."
"Lydia told me everything. I cannot imagine..." She stopped, not being able to continue as if it pained her to talk about it.
"What did she say?" Darcy inched a step towards her, wanting to cup her face in his hands and ask her what troubled her? Not Lydia...but her. And she took a step backwards.
"That poor girl, she's in pain. You know that? She'd been crying for weeks. And you cheated on her." Her voice, raising despite the pained expressions on Darcy's face.
Before Darcy could say anything, Lydia stepped out of nowhere as if she'd been waiting for this moment tonight, "It's no use Elizabeth. Leave him. He never understood and neither will be try. He is a...monster. That's what he is."
"But I didn't cheat on her. We weren't even..." He spoke to Elizabeth, looking only at her, not acknowledging Lydia's presence.
"The audacity you have! I am disgusted by you. Keep your dirty mouth shut. You...filthy creature. I'd despise you...forever." Lydia screamed.
"Elizabeth...it's my fault. I should have known better. The trouble I got myself into. It was my fault." Lydia continued, looking down at the ground, pretending to cry, "I knew his deeds, still I fell for his acts."
Elizabeth stared at Darcy who seemed to be looking somewhere in distance, not at Lydia who was still speaking and not at her, seemingly absent in this moment. His eyes so blank and disconnected as if his soul had just gotten knocked out of his body. When Lydia was finished speaking, she took a step towards Darcy, glaring at him just like she did before, with all the fury and anger and mumbled something. He didn't register what she said and she flocked away, her hair swirled around by the intensity as which she turned.
Elizabeth was still there, probably not knowing what to say or do anymore. She opened her mouth to say something after the silence had been growing for too long and that's when she heard Lydia, who had walked quite ahead, calling out to her.
She looked at the floor and then turned around, slowly, walking away from him.
"Elizabeth..." A voice called out to her and her stride didn't slow down. It was Charles.
"Elizabeth!" This time, it was a bit louder, it was Colonel.
"Call out to him man!" Colonel nudged Darcy.
"Hey, for once, hear my side of the story..." Darcy spoke, taking a couple steps towards her.
She stopped instantly as she heard his voice and turned around. She stepped towards Darcy, looking in his direction but not quite at him. It was someone else who she looked at. She stepped even forward, grabbing George's hand, who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, and finally met Darcy's gaze, "I think Lydia needs that bit, Not me." And with that, she turned around, hand in hand with George who turned his head around to glance at everyone's faces...Charles, Darcy and Colonel.
"Dumbass." Charles muttered.
They met with Lydia at a distance and the chatter amongst them broke out again. They seemed to be talking. Darcy watched where they advanced. He was not numb anymore. He couldn't stop his feet. The treacherous night when he went to her house came before his eyes. Her screaming which was a pain to anyone's ears. George saw him advancing first and then Lydia and lastly, Elizabeth did.
He didn't look at Lydia. He never would. That was a promise he made to himself and he never broke promises. Darcy came to a halt, snatching the wine glass from Lydia's hand and splashed the wine on her face, still not meeting her gaze.
"Heyy...what...ohhh...my eyes. My eyes!" Lydia yelled
"Catch him!" She yelled to people around, "Don't let him go!" She grabbed a paper towel to wipe her face and not even a single soul flinched towards Darcy.
He turned around, with the empty glass still in his hands, his jaw tightened and his grip on the glass intensified with every step he took. He wasn't done yet. He wanted to smash the glass on the floor. He wanted to grab the chairs and smash them on top of the tables until the tables were all crushed to pieces. Just like how he rarely laughed out loud, he rarely got mad. So mad that he couldn't control the burning fury. And he was furious tonight. All because of Lydia.
Regardless of it all, he had two explosions in his brain tonight. One of them was that Lydia was truly vicious. The night proved it because of all the ways she had incited the worst emotions in him. And second was that at the end, his judgement had been crowned as the truth.
The Valentine's day was and will always stay the way it was for him. Cursed.