Societa Oscura

RUBY

Secrets aren’t secrets, they are weapons. You can save them in your pocket until you need them. —A

Exiting the bathroom, I search for a new route so that I don’t have to approach Kai’s table again. There’s only one way to go, and that’s the direction I want to avoid the most.

Taking another sip of my drink, I pull my phone from my bag and pretend to text on it, walking past Kai and the men. He grabs my dress, and I fly to the left, landing on his knee.

He sits there and stares at me intently. An awkward situation where I want to get out as fast as I can, but he’s still holding my dress.

“I would like it. Love it, in fact. If you could let my dress go!” I demand, and he picks up his cards with his right hand, holding my dress in his left. Checking them over, he places them down on the table, not saying a word.

I roll my eyes and attempt to stand up, unable to do so because he’s holding my dress extremely tight. Why is he being such a jackass?

I only asked him out on a date where two people have food and get to know each other, not one person grabs the other and makes them feel intimidated.

“Hello, Mr. Ignorant. I want my dress back now.” I look down and see a gun sticking out of the inside of his pocket. I forgot that he carries a gun around.

A nerve-racking gut feeling makes my eyes widen, and I feel instantaneously sick. A dark atmosphere replaces the exciting, happy, and relaxed environment. Now I know where the name darkness came from.

I search the faces of the men. They all look serious, and I struggle for breath, my body is stuck to the spot, I’m wordless, and I don’t know what to do.

I sit and stare at the cards, taking a quick glance at Kai who still has my dress in his hands. His shoulders show that he works out, his body language screams boss of some kind, and I look at his shoes.

They are squeaky clean and have been polished up. I can see my own reflection in them!

Smiling nervously, I try hard to think of a plan. How am I going to get out of this? Kai is too strong, and I grab his hand, trying to prize it open, failing miserably, and shuffling on his knee uncomfortably huffing out.

Can you let my dress go, for goodness’ sake? I take a sip of my drink to try to settle my nerves, not that it’s helping me in the slightest.

He moves slightly, and I watch horrified as he removes his gun from his pocket, lets go of my dress, wrapping his arm around my waist to block me from leaving, and pulls back the trigger.

It all happens too fast for me to react, and instead of running, I cover my face to stop the blood from splashing all over me. I look up, three bodies lay back on the chairs with a bullet between their eyes.

Several other men stand up, and I slide my hands through my hair. Staring down at my hands with open eyes, my body struggles to take in everything that I’m seeing.

The palms of my hands are covered in another human’s blood, and I gasp for air, horrified. Kai wraps his arms around my body, cradling me like a six-year-old child, and walks out of the restaurant.

My glass slips from my hands, smashing the second that it hits the ground, my vision blurring. I look behind us, feet follow, stepping in synchronization, and I’m placed inside a Jeep.

Sliding in next to me, Kai blocks me in, and another man sits to my right. I stare at the floor. What am I supposed to do? These men are disturbing!

The other men climb inside another Jeep that is stationed behind us, and I stare back down at the floor, confused. What the hell has just happened?

What did I witness, and why did Kai make me sit on his knee and watch as he killed those men? There’s no need for it!

I was innocent yesterday, and now I am holding this secret about a killing that happened less than two meters from me.

If it couldn’t get any worse, then top it off with the fact that he’s supposed to be my date, he’s eighteen years old, and it’s obvious that I know nothing about him or his family. Do his parents know that he’s a killer?

The car drives through a set of double gates, and I see a mansion in the distance. Stopping the car, the man opens the door and pulls me out using my wrist. I struggle in my heels, clutching my bag tightly in my right arm.

Kai grabs my hand and drags me over to the door as I lean against him. The door at the front of the building opens, and he pulls me through it, letting my wrist go.

Walking inside, he shouts out, “Dad, where are you?”

I see two women in the open-plan living area, and they look over at me. I stare down at the floor, confused. Why did he do that, and why has he brought me here?

Another man shows up, and he intimidates me. He looks exactly like Kai in his black suit, white shirt, and what I suspect to be a metal tie.

I have a small suspicion that it may be his dad. I keep my eyes cast down at the dark wooden flooring.

“Rebecca. Help Ruby while we sort something out.” Kai walks away with the other man and leaves me standing in the big open-plan room all by myself.

Rebecca, who has brown hair, nods her head and rushes over to me in her black dress with matching black heels. The other woman stays exactly where she is, and I can only see that she has brown hair too.

“So, you are here with my son?” she asks me, and I stare at her in complete and utter shock. Does she know that her son is a killer?

I shake my head to tell her no, not sure what to do with myself.

“Who are you with?” She raises her right eyebrow, and I shrug my shoulders.

“You don’t know?”

I shake my head, and she gives me a sincere smile.

“Are you here against your will, and Kai didn’t scare you, did he?”

I nod my head, and she rolls her eyes.

“I’m not having any of this. He scared you, didn’t he? If I release you through that door, do you promise not to speak of this?”

“Yes,” I tell her. The first word that I’ve managed to vocalize.

“Okay.”

Walking me toward the door, she allows me to exit until I am blocked in.

“Mom, what are you doing?” we hear behind us, and a man blocks me at the front door. He must be a security guard, I think to myself.