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Broadville Port, Maryland
“Welcome all,” Jonathan Wild bellowed from the platform of the stage in his crowded mansion ballroom. “Ladies and gentleman I promised you a night you’d never forget!”
Men and women waved wands and rods, howling with their faces covered in decorative, masquerade masks.
Baltimore Detective Dee Quarter giggled, her bosom confined by the velvet bodice of her sequined, lavender baroness dress.
“Now we play a game only fit for this evening!” Jonathan stomped along in his gothic vampire costume, suede cape sweeping the stage. “A treasure hunt.”
The audience celebrated.
“Here are the rules of the game.” Jonathan pulled at his purple vest that matched the inside of his cape. “You all will be trapped in my home forever as my servants if you cannot find the magical key.” He whipped a picture of a gold key from his pocket. “Feast your eyes upon it for this is what you must look for.”
Guests chuckled and mocked while slurping fruity drinks.
“He or she who finds the key is free.” Jonathan raised his black and purple mask that covered his deep-set, silver-gray eyes. “But those who do not will stay here forever and do what I want.”
“Promise?” a woman flirted, her breasts flowing from her bodice.
Everyone laughed and whistled.
“Seems like some of you might like the punishment,” Jonathan joked.
Dee laughed, straightening her brown mask outlined in gold.
“I’ll give you a clue,” Jonathan announced. “The key is on the first floor in five marked rooms. You must search the rooms to find the key.” He threw his hand up, moving his fingers. “Ready?”
“Ready,” the guests yelled.
“Ladies, you do the honors.” Jonathan beckoned for the women of The Circle and they rushed to the stage in shimmering white dresses and white, silvery masks covering their eyes.
“Ready?” the women asked the guests in unison. “Go!”
The guests stormed out the room, screaming.
“Jesus.” Dee stumbled as a man pushed her aside.
“You too, girls.” Jonathan hopped off the stage, shooing his women.
“But we want to stay,” Rena kidded, holding her dress at the sides.
“Go on.” He slapped her backside; his gaze back on Dee.
The women scrambled from the room with Mistress Shauna taking her sweet time to leave Jonathan and Dee alone.
Jonathan waited until Shauna left and approached Dee, stepping on party debris and masks.
“Umm.” Dee flattened her hand to her bosom, her brown skin sparkling under the chandeliers. “Guess I’d better get going to find the key.”
“No.” He took her hand, his mask wiggling on his aquiline nose. “That game’s not for us.”
“Please.” She pulled her hand back, trembling. “I didn’t come here to see you.”
“Then why did you come, Deidra?” He smelled of the vanilla cake served earlier. “Why are you once again on my compound if you didn’t wanna see me?”
“It’s hard to explain.” She wiggled her feet, the gold pumps compressing her pinky toes.
“It doesn’t have to be hard.” He swung her around. “You like to dance?”
She grinned, a chill crawling through her spine. “There’s no music.”
“Who needs music?” His full lips flattened as he clutched her waist tighter. “You look so beautiful in this dress. Do you like my outfit?”
She exhaled, avoiding his stare through the mask. “Yes.”
His mouth lifted in one corner. “Does it excite you?”
“Everything excites me.” She whirled around in his arms, growing more comfortable by the moment. “I don’t know what it is about this place but it makes me forget my worries.”
“I knew you’d come back and you’ll keep coming back.”
She turned when he tried to kiss her. “Me being here doesn’t change that I’m with another man who I love very much.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Did you and Winston argue?”
“What?”
“I heard you tell Rena you and Winston had a fight.”
“It wasn’t a fight.” She scratched her through her thick, wavy extensions wrapped in a graceful updo. “Just a disagreement. All couples have them. Don’t you and Shauna?”
He smirked, rubbing his black buzz cut.
“What is it with you two, anyway? She claims your heart is with her but I don’t see evidence of that.”
“I could say the same about you and Winston.”
“I love Winston more than you’ll ever know.” She released his shoulders. “I shouldn’t have come here.”
“Yet you keep doing it.”
“Not anymore.”
“You nor I have control over this, Deidra.” He laid his fingertip on her mouth. “You’ll keep coming here because it’s what your heart wants.”
She moved his hand. “Winston is the most important thing in my life.”
He pulled her close and whispered in her ear, “You’re the most important thing in mine.”
She pushed him away and left the ballroom.
****
“Hey.”
Dee turned her attention from the breathtaking waterfall in Jonathan’s garden as Rena made her way over. “Hey there.”
Rena smiled, her mask perched on her head. “Having fun?”
“Yeah.” Dee took her mask off and sat on the railing that separated the waterfall from the lawn.
“Hm.” Rena’s white heels sunk in the ivy-green grass. “You don’t look like you’re having fun. Is it Jonathan?” She rested her buxom bottom on the railing, her blonde ringlets blowing in her face. “Not just anyone can become a member of The Circle. You belong here, Dee.”
She closed her eyes. “Stop saying that.”
Rena patted Dee’s hand. “It’s normal to be scared, but why do you think you keep coming back if it’s not fate?”
“This place has a hold on me.”
“That’s how it starts.” Rena batted her large brown eyes. “You can’t stop yourself from coming back and soon the outside world isn’t familiar to you.” She smiled. “We understand you here, and Jonathan can make you so happy.”
“I love Winston.”
“That’s not the spiritual love you find here.”
“No.” Dee shook her head, her chandelier earrings hitting her neck. “I love Winston.”
“You’re angry with him and you’re jealous of his relationship with Lisa.”
“God, I’ve told you too much.”
“But, it’s the truth isn’t it?” Rena stared at the water flowing over the stone rocks that mounted the waterfall. “Seems like Winston brings out negative feelings while Jonathan gives you peace. Do you trust Winston?”
Dee winced. “Yes, but his relationship with Lisa threatens me.” She shrugged. “I can’t deny that.”
“In The Circle we don’t get jealous toward one another. We cherish the love Jonathan gives and we want to share it. You won’t understand that unless you reject the outside world.”
“I don’t want to reject it.” She fought the urge. “I want to be with Winston.”
“Yet, when it comes to Lisa, you’ll always feel like the substitute. Am I right?”
“It’s just the way he looks at her sometimes.” She squeezed her fingers into a fist. “Like if he could be with her maybe he would.”
“Jonathan thinks of only you,” Rena whispered. “He’d treat you like the only woman in the world. He loves you.” She touched Dee’s cheek. “We all do.”
“I have to go.” Dee jumped up and started down the pathway. “Goodnight, Rena.”
“Dee?”
She stopped. “Yes?”
“There’s a world of passion, excitement, and more love than you can imagine just waiting for you here.” Rena stood with glassy eyes. “Nothing comes from fear. Remember that.”
Dee nodded, leaving the garden.