Charles had told Colonel too. They both knew now. Darcy had been unbearably furious but had regained his composure when Colonel told him of his Bachelor party which was due this week.
Elizabeth was coming too, Colonel said. (The sweetest words he had ever heard from his mouth.)
He quite literally had turned certifiably insane. And each morning and night, he would tell himself that she was his because he heard some random 90 year old guy did this in his early adulthood to get the girl of his dreams. They were right, love does change a person and in Darcy's case, it was funny and strange, both.
He'd sometimes see an illusion of her, rummaging through his apartment, trying to chase it like a madman.
The night before the party, he lied down on the bed, a little late, exhausted after a full day's work, his eyes closed, but not dozing off to sleep for a very long time.
It was the day. The most awaited day. Darcy felt most like himself today. For some odd reason, he felt utterly chilled out, as if someone took the top of his head, like a lid and let all the steam out by lifting it off. He had punky music playing in the background.
He skipped breakfast because all he had was coffee, eggs and some leftover bread and he hated coffee. He wasn't in a mood to have anything to do with eggs or bread.
And soon enough, the book was placed at the side of his bed, and he was on the phone with someone.
"He didn't tell me any of it."
He took a puff of his cigar, looking out the window, not at anything particular. He didn't speak anything for a while, presumably listening to the person on the other end of the call.
"Alright." Darcy grunted and his voice thick.
"Yeah." Darcy spoke huffing out the smoke.
"I will talk to him." He cut the call.
He put the phone down for a bit, settling down onto his bed, thinking something and his phone buzzed again. He went to pick it up, it was Charles.
"I just had a talk with Colonel. There's change of plans."
"That's good. Okay then."
"So, what time would you be there?"
"Makes sense now. Get to work."
Darcy was still not yet aware of what the change of plans was. He just assumed that all the change was due to the expected client call that Colonel had received this afternoon but he made it seem like it was really for Darcy's benefit.
And he didn't trust Charles's overconfidence too. It was like being stuck with two stewards on a plane, pretending to be pilots.
He was asked to reach a place called PLUTO. It was so far away from his place that it took forever to reach during which Charles called him twice already, which he got to know after answering that he was trying to call Colonel but it was him who he called due to some speed dial thing.
He never drove too fast, not even when he was enraged, which wasn't that often. But he did reach there, around 9 and the party began half an hour before that.
For some reason, he expected PLUTO to be loud, bright and very much leaning into fine dine decor. But it wasn't. It was cozy, ambient and infused with a lot of plants.
The place was really vibrant with all the people laughing and cheering. He did see a couple of familiar faces but none which made him want to go up to them and strike up a conversation or maybe, he was just waiting around for Charles.
He went straight to the restroom and then headed out to the smoking room. When he came back, he saw that there was something being organised. Like a tented area within the cafe itself. He didn't know for what but his stride did slow down a bit when he saw it and wondered what it could be for. There was a man sitting within the tent and although, he was at a distance, he still could see that something about him attracted attention. He had a heavy black beard and was wearing wayfarer sunglasses and something that stood out the most was his hair because he had it neatly tucked into a low ponytail.
"Come outside." A text message popped up at Darcy's phone screen. It said Charles.
Making his way through all the people clamoring, he reached the exit and glanced around, slipping his phone back into his pocket. Colonel was advancing towards him, his punky necklaces prancing along as he took long strides towards him.
He took Colonel in for a quick hug. Darcy was about to pull away but Colonel blurted out in a hushed tone, "Got ya covered. You met her?"
"She's here?" Darcy spoke a bit too loud realising, and thereafter lowered his voice, "No, I didn't. And what's the plan?"
"Let me show you."
Colonel went in and Darcy followed him inside the club and the music got louder.
Darcy's thoughts still danced around "you met her?" because tonight, he'd have the most awaited moment, after all the praying and wishing and hoping... The gods were merciful!
And it might happen any minute.
Colonel motioned to a set of couches laid near a small fireplace so specifically, as if he had predecided to sit there. And it wasn't long before Colonel had a big mug of beer in his hand and Darcy swirled the good old whiskey round in his glass.
"You see that?" Colonel said not pointing towards anything but looking in a specific direction, seemingly amused.
Darcy glanced at what he was trying to show and then at him once. "What?"
There were lots of people and for once he thought that Colonel was pointing towards the waiter taking a drink somewhere or to a couple which appeared to be arguing in the distance.
"That." Colonel lifted his mug and pointed with his index finger.
When the people cleared the view, it was clear enough that Colonel was pointing towards the encamped area where that man was sitting and all sorts of quirky things were kept inside the area on the either sides of the huge wooden table in front of the man.
"That's a part of the plan?" Darcy asked, not seemingly interested.
"That's the plan." Colonel announced.
Darcy didn't say anything, examining the place precisely, as if he missed something before.
"That man. You see him?" Colonel looked at Darcy.
"Yeah."
"That's our Charles."
"Oh wait." Darcy kept his glass on the table, appearing as if he was about to get up but he didn't.
"Did you figure that out... already?"
"Nope. That's ridiculous. Did he do this?" Darcy seemed concerned but also amused at the same time.
"No. I had someone help him out. We got him here at first, before you guys. "
"He's unrecognisable. But anyone knows apart from us?"
"Not until now."
"So what's he doing up there?"
"That crystal ball and those strange objects, he dressed up as a fortune teller."
"Looks more like a thief to me. Or a conman." Darcy spoke flatly.
Colonel let out a laugh, "That's what he is."
"You know...this is loads of fun...to watch" Darcy grinned, removing his gaze from Charles and glancing at Colonel, "You should have dressed up too."
"I would mess up. Real bad. Charles is good. Charles is brilliant at it."
"Yeah..." Darcy laughed out loud, the way he did quite rarely, "So, how did he agree?"
"Oh, the plot twist is it was his plan."
"You know, I still kind of feel a bit awkward, I mean, Charles isn't so..." Darcy paused observing, "good. It's in his nature to be chaotic."
"Oh no.. don't worry. He is warmin' up. Got a lotta load on his shoulders tonight."
A gentleman, in a black tuxedo, stood on a circular pedestal, with an empty wine glass in his hand and a thin steel spoon in his other hand. He clunk the spoon to the glass, producing a tinkle which reverberated as he bought it closer to the mic.
"Everyone, give it up for Colonel!" There was a loud prolonged applause and cheers from the crowd. The man smiled.
"Who's that?" Darcy asked. All the eyes were onto him now from Charles, ever Darcy's.
"No idea." Colonel said.
"This is not just a bachelor party but an amalgamation of a multitude of all such activities tonight, all for the joy of our guests."
There was clapping again.
"One of those entail, our very special guest tonight, Mr. Poldrick. As everyone must have heard of the grandeur of Mr. Poldrick and all the unbelievable things he is capable of, they were generous enough to join us tonight. So, give it up for Mr. Poldrick."
"Oh, Mr. Poldrick, suits him though." Darcy muttered, looking at Charles who bowed down when all the people cheered and applauded on.
"He published a bestseller in the last year, THE LIGHT AND DARK IN OCCULT." The man said, standing on the stage. Charles lifted a random book off the table, displaying the front of it to the people vaguely, with a smile plastered on his face.
"He looks like a dummy, sitting there and I'm worried because he makes it look even more fake." Darcy said
"He can hear it. What you said. Everything from here. You know, there's a chip."
Colonel spoke
"I don't believe you." Darcy muttered, gulping down the last sip of his drink.
"Oh yeah. Absolutely he can."
"And now is the time to call upon one of Mr. Minnet's special friends, Mr. Darcy, the man of resilience, ambition and loyalty, as Mr. Colonel himself quoted it." There was a huge applause once again.
"What is this? A funeral, an auction, an amusement park?" Darcy had to get up and go up to the stage, unwillingly.
He motioned the water to bring him a drink up on the stage.
Everybody applauded as he advanced and got to the stage right behind the microphone. He adjusted it a tab bit because the stand was slightly short and he had to stand crookedly. So, he took the microphone off from the stand.
"I doubt if all the people present here, in the club, know Colonel at all. He is a simple man. He called me his good old pal even before I called him a friend." The waiter bought him his drink, up on the stage and he said "thank you" in the microphone.
"Oh don't be mislead by this drink in my hand. I'm not one to enjoy drinking every other day. Unlike Colonel. My initial thoughts of him were quite simple. That he is always gulping down beer. It's been more than two decades I've known him and the entire first decade, he called me a friend but I thought he was a boy born without brains. He'd say things which made no sense and sometimes, he'd even get beaten up for it." Colonel laughed in the distance when Darcy looked at him, "It was only after we started working together, I found out he wasn't really so stupid as I thought. We picked up a lot of each other's habits too, along the way. But I still don't enjoy beer. I'd still go with..." Darcy took a sip from the whiskey glass in his hand. Everyone was cheering again and applauding again.
"And one of the best parts of all is..."
As he gulped down his whiskey, he looked up at the crowd and his gaze froze in distance. Her, he thought.
It was a flicker of her, right in front of him, at a distance. He took a step backwards, regaining his balance. No…not anymore! He couldn't do this anymore.
He saw someone in red. He didn't wanna lose sight of her. In red, his brain kept reiterating. Where is she, he wanted to scream.
Colonel noticed the sudden awkward change in his demeanor and so did everybody else. Charles did too. Colonel stood up from his chair and started applauding and everybody else did too. It was even harder to spot her, with everyone standing up from their seats.
"Thank you, all...all of you." Darcy handed over the mic to someone, not registering who it was.
He slashed through the crowd, people still looking at him, none of them which he had any interest in. He looked straight ahead, looking for her.
"Here!" Colonel screamed, and waved at him when he looked backwards, to his left. He slowed down his pace, but didn't turn back and bolted forward.
A hand pulled him to the side, in a small cornered area.
"Darcy, it's me. It's me." It was Charles.
"Yeah...Colonel told me."
"I do look unrecognisable, right." Charles smiled widely, presumably impressed.
"Kind of."
"It's all done. He won't show up tonight."
Darcy took a second to realise he was talking about George.
"How?"
"I'll reveal later. I've to go. It's about to begin."
Charles tiptoed outside and dashed swiftly back to the club again. Darcy felt a rush of heat taking over, he took a deep breath and headed out. The rhythmic, clicking sound of his shoes, audible outside the bar. He glanced around quickly, turning his head to the sides, she wasn't there.
Her quick disappearing sight reappeared in his mind again. His legs clocked backwards, to his place again, next to Colonel.
"Charles got something to inform you."
"Yeah, I saw him outside." Darcy said.
The man with the empty wine glass in one hand and a spoon in other, was standing on the pedestal again.
"Mr. Poldrick wants all of your attention." The crowd got quiet as he started to speak and everyone glanced at him and then at Charles who smiled as awkwardly as he could.
"FINESSE YOUR FORTUNE round is about to begin and I want everyone to be careful here. Here, I have a huge box of the names of every single person sitting here." A clear glass cube kept on a circular stool with wheels was being dragged towards him on the pedestal.
"And as you all may have guessed it uptil now, I am going to pick out three lucky contenders who are going to win a golden opportunity to have a discourse with our very special guest tonight." The man started clapping, "Mr. Poldrick!"
"Now, before we start the game. I would like you all to know that Mr. Poldrick's predictions never go astray. Every word that comes out of his mouth has always come to pass. Any one of the three winners is allowed to ask one question from Mr. Poldrick and if there are things that Mr. Poldrick will sense, they'll inform that too."
An air of silent excitement, fear and a mix of nervousness spread over the entire club like a perfume. Several groups of people murmured within themselves, like bees.
Just when the crowd couldn't get any more silent, it got even more silenced by anticipation when the man picked out three random paper slips from the clear glass box, looking up.
"Okay so..." His voice echoes in the club, as if it was empty.
"I have the names right here. And wow... interesting!" The man flipped through the slips, "I know all of you are thrilled and some might even be anxious. Before I announce the names, there are three rules to this round of FREAKY FORTUNE."
Everyone was listening to the man intently. Even Darcy and Colonel, Charles as well.
"Rule number one is that nobody will ask Mr. Poldrick for any of his personal details. He deals with his clients through his assistant.
Rule number 2 is that all three contenders will get a round about of five to ten minutes with Mr. Poldrick. The time won't be extended." There was a series of whining and muttering within the crowd.
"Can we...move ahead?" The crowd got silent again "And that's all for the rules. Now, the names of the contenders are."
"At first, we have Lydia Slake."
Darcy flinched in his seat, not excited to be in her presence.
The man continued "Secondly, we have George Wickham.
And lastly, Elizabeth Bennett!"
"It's all made up, you know,
if you can't tell." Colonel explained.
"I could never..." Darcy said
"All of the three contenders are requested to move to this aisle." The man gestured towards a space next to the pedestal.
Nobody moved.
"Excuse me? Where are the three contenders."
"George is not showing up." Darcy said
"Oh?"
"Charles told me, he must have executed some mischief."
"That's hilarious." Colonel spoke with a straight somber face, not even letting out the tiniest of a chuckle, "but then who's that?" He gestured towards a man wearing a denim jacket, and white trousers which looked as if he'd been playing in the dirt for an hour before coming to this party. This was George and he had a look of exhaustion on his face and looked around and when he saw Colonel, he advanced towards them.
"Hey man! Doing good?" Colonel spoke, shaking his hand. Darcy felt revolted being in his presence.
"Colonel I...I was just." George's voice, sharp and . He was about to say something but then stopped, "Who's this?"
"My old buddy Darcy."
"Oh...I have heard. About you." He analysed something in Darcy, "I heard about you and Lydia. She told me about you."
Darcy sipped his whiskey and he well aware of the fact that he was appearing as a jerk. He didn't care. He didn't care about Lydia's opinions about him and not the least bit about George. He wanted to kick him in the gut so that he would go back, whimpering and sobbing, clutching his belly to where he came from.
"I've heard of you too. I did meet Lydia. Once." He spoke, seemingly disinterested.
"Oh I'll have to take this." George spoke, looking down at the screen of his phone.
"Elizabeth?" Darcy heard him when he strutted towards the exit and went all the way, speaking on the phone.
Darcy placed his glass on the table with a clink. And spoke as calmly as ever, his voice slightly deeper, "How did he get here?" He demanded the answer from Colonel as if he made the biggest mistake of his life.
"Charles must know." Colonel spoke after a pause.
Darcy shot his gaze straight at Charles who was already looking in their direction, somewhat aware of the rollercoaster of anger, disappointment and defeat within Darcy.
The commotion on the stage began, Darcy noticed George going up to the stage with Lydia.
"We have two of our contenders. Ms. Elizabeth is going to be here any minute." The man spoke and George stopped him, saying something to the man on the stage, "So, I just got informed by Mr. George that she will be here in a bit."
Lydia wore a satin gold gown, gazed around like a vulture in the crowd, trying to locate Darcy, presumably, and he turned towards Charles in a split second, never wanting to be found.
Charles was still talking about the plan. But Darcy's senses were elsewhere. As if he could see from the back of his head. A pair of clicking sandals. His ears hyperware.
He turned his head to his left, feeling so scared like he had never been in his entire life. What will happen to him if he saw her? If he really did? And his heart? Would it be able to take it?
His trail of thoughts could not be completed before she had made her entrance.
His eyes tender, in a split second, like a switch had been pressed, filled with otherwordly delight, his brain and heart, both unable to process anything, becoming a total mess in the process. He suddenly got hyper aware of his heart, breathing faster than ever and his expression, still and unmoving, fixated on her.
His gaze softened and his legs automatically moved in her direction. Charles saw him in a light which he'd never seen before.
Utter madness took over him and he came to a halt, without realising, taking all of her in, within him, all her little movements and the way she put a strand of her hair behind her ear and glanced down at her dress whilst walking to make sure if it was alright.
He sniffed the scent around him and was present in the moment but also not at all, whilst she walked past by, noticing how her hair bounced with every step she took and as she strolled away, his gaze still continued to be on her. He mindlessly walked past people, towards no one in particular, feeling heavy like he had a lot to tell, his heart full of emotions, about to burst, but also feeling like he was floating in air.
He must have left the planet earth.
I'm never going to forget that face, his eyes said if they had the ability to speak.
Sitting in an area, in the back of the club, all the rest of the people forward.
He didn't want to talk to anyone. Not even Charles, certainly not him. Feeling dizzy, lightheaded or wobbly was also part of falling in love? Because he was starting to feel all of those.
He felt like he would pass out, not being able to understand if this was because of all the whiskey in his system or something else something which also resembled pain in the middle of his chest. He struggled to see Elizabeth, faintly visible at a faraway distance, applauding, and George taking her in for a hug. And Colonel, blocking the vision and that was the last thing he saw.
Was he under a love spell was the last thing he thought.