Once more, I am in the back seat, although I have found myself in a much better position than before. This time, I have the window seat. The new person in the middle was Karina, who decided to lean on my shoulder and snore like a dog. Jessica took up the mantle in the passenger side seat and Harmony kept her normal spot. 

I would have loved to finally get the window seat I so wished for ever since we left my home, but now that I have it, I got a drunk girl snoring and talking in her sleep. Turns out, drunks make interesting sleep talkers, so at least there’s some level of enjoyment to be had.

“Mom, don’t come her. I dot hve undy.” Karina chuckled to herself.

See? Right there is a prime example. How can someone not hear that and get at least a chuckle? Buzzkills, that’s who. By this point, I just kept my ear open for any weird shit she spouts out. I can use that against her someday, but knowing her, I doubt she’d even care. It’s worth a shot, though.

“Where are we going, anyway?” I ask.

“Before I take you home, we’re going to Karina’s. You’re going to help me put her to sleep.”

I point to myself. “Me specifically?” 

“Yep. Jessica was willing to pay, Harmony got us a free meal, and I had to carry her out in the first place. You haven’t done anything.”

I try to counter her argument by thinking of several times I’ve done something helpful. Let me see. I cheered on Harmony during the arm wrestling match. I definitely didn’t think that she couldn’t do it, then immediately switched up my tune once she won.

Sadly, all the times I cheered for her went unnoticed since they were in my head space, so I have no proof to show for it. I sigh and prepare myself to carry a drunk girl in her home. For any famous person, that sounds like a death wish. Thankfully, I got plenty of people to back me up. Then again, if the internet somehow gets hold of this, I’d doubt they’d care about proof.

“How far are we from her home?” Jessica asks. 

“We’re almost there.” Miranda said.

I look outside the window, and my eyes widen when I see an interesting sight. All around us, were large ass houses that looked like they were worth seven times the price of my soul. Most of them were two stories, and the ones that weren’t were as wide as a school. Almost all of them were surrounded by red brick walls to keep intruders out. The ones that weren’t merely replaced the bricks with metal spike fencing. 

We were in the part of town that I despised so fucking much that I couldn’t help but return to a bad mood. We entered the good ole Juxten one percent housing, where the rich people flock to suck each other’s dicks and mock the people barely getting by on thirty-thousand a year.  

Now that I think about it, with Miranda’s story and all, of course Karina lives here. Miranda said Karina’s parents were wealthy enough to send her to that private school. There should have been no doubt in my mind that she’d live here. 

We didn’t even travel too far away from the poor district of the city, either. One moment, we were surrounded by uncle Johnny’s cousin breeding shack, the next we entered aunt Sheela’s money orgy vacation home. The stark contrast only made me more infuriated by this place.

It looks like I’m not exactly alone either. I peeked at Harmony out of the corner of my eye and saw her hand ball up into a fist. She wasn’t taking this shift any better than I am. I actually think she’s taking it harder than me with just a single look in her eyes. I couldn’t see that pure wholesome hopefulness in her eyes anymore. It was all rage without a filter.

The car slowed down and pulled up to one of the red brick walled homes. I looked out the window and bore witness to the house we were driving toward. Calling it a house was a tad bit of an understatement. Hold on, did I say tad? What I really mean is that it was so much of a dramatic understatement that the only way to fix it is to turn back time and not say it at all. But time travel doesn’t exist, so I got to deal with it.

Karina’s home is a full-blown mansion. I could see water shooting into the air from a source that’s hidden behind the walls. It’s a two storied mansion with several rooms on each floor. The only thing blocking us from entering such a place is the iron gate with a symbol of an ‘I’ in between two rose petals inside of a circle. 

Miranda pulled up to the wall and rolled down her window. She reached outside and touched a button on a speaker embedded in the wall. As soon as she pressed it, it made a buzzing sound, and a voice came through the other side.

“May I ask who this is?”

The voice sounded somewhat British but with traces of an American accent in the tone. It was a weird and uncanny hybrid between two accents that both soothed and unnerved my brain. 

“Miranda Vinkle. I’m here to bring Karina Illia back home.”

The person on the other side didn’t speak for a bit. After a second of silence, he came back through the speaker.

“May I ask who the other patrons in your vehicle are, Miss Vinkle?”

I look out the window, wondering how he knew we were in here. I couldn’t see any cameras and the street was lit up like the night didn’t even matter, so it was strange that I couldn’t even spot a single surveillance camera. 

“They’re friends of Karina. Their names are Ty Peon, Harmony Wright, and Jessica...” Miranda turned to her. “What’s your last name?”

“My name’s Jessica Sox.” Jessica yelled loud enough to be heard by the speaker. 

Another brief pause occurred, this time lasting for nearly an entire minute before he went back to speaking again. 

“Miss Sox, you have a nice record of duty serving as a police detective. You have no criminal background, which is acceptable, but you stand out in no measurable way outside of your job. You are allowed to pass.

“Mister Peon, you are a well respected, if controversial author. You have a few offenses as a teenager, but nothing that we would consider major. You will be escorted by security on your entry, but you are allowed to pass.”

I sigh, glad that my past still has yet to catch up with me in any major way. Then realization hit, and I groaned. I’m going to have to carry Karina in after all. It’s even more annoying that I’m going to be followed by security my entire time here, but what else can I do?

“Miss Wright, you do not show up on our background searches at all.” 

My heart stopped, and my blood froze as cold as dry ice. I didn’t even think for a second about how they would react to Harmony. I look over to her, and I see her eyes have widened so much that they looked as big as the moon above us, taking unwanted glances at our predicament and laughing at the problems it will never have to face until it’s inevitably swallowed by the sun.

“There is no Harmony Wright matching your physical appearance. The closest we can come up with is a woman in Germany, which you are certainly not at as of this moment. For our Mistresses’ safety, you are not allowed on our property, but the others may enter if they so choose.”

Both Jessica and Miranda looked at Harmony as if they wanted an explanation for what the man had said. I didn’t worry much about Miranda, but Jessica is another matter entirely. Her eyes pierced into Harmony’s soul, looking for an answer that she may or may not want to know, but she has to learn. Meanwhile, Karina chuckles to herself, dreaming about something that has an, at least, eighty percent chance to be entirely inappropriate. 

“Are you going to be fine out here by yourself?” I ask.

Before she answers, Jessica speaks up first. “Actually, I’ll stay out here as well. A woman shouldn’t be out by herself at night.”

“But-“ Before Miranda could say anything, Jessica gives her a stare that shut her up instantly. “Alright then. Be careful, you two. I gotta bring the car in, so you need to step out.”

“Fine by me.” 

Jessica opens the door and steps out, waiting for Harmony to follow in her lead. Harmony looked at me, worry shining in her eyes, and I can only shrug my shoulders. Hopefully she can get out of this alright, but somewhere in my brain, I highly doubted that would be the case. 

Harmony takes a deep breath and steps out of the car. She slams the door behind her, and as soon as she does, the iron gate open, allowing us a safe passage inside. As Miranda pulls into the mansion, I look out the window and at the rear-view mirror. I could see Harmony hugging her arms and Jessica taking out a cigarette. You better stay safe, Miss Yulyss. 

***

I watch as the car heads into the mansion as Jessica puffs on a cigarette next to me. Once the car is fully inside, the iron doors screech shut and close with a bang. The sound echoes into the street and the symbol comes back together. 

Jessica’s just a normal police detective. There’s no way that she knows anything about cubbi and the such. She probably is just doing her job and wonders why there isn’t any background info on me. That doesn’t help anything, but I need something to keep me calm today. 

She blew out the rusty smelling smoke of her cigarette and turned to me. I could see the serious look in her eyes as the street lights brightened her green iris to one of an even brighter shade. I kept my gaze down, but that would only make me look guilty, so I look up without looking into her eyes. With one foot at a time, I need to tread this conversation carefully less I give away who I really am.

“How’s your day been?” Jessica begins the conversation. 

“It’s been fine.” I say. 

I can’t just stay silent. In a court of law, silence is more damning than any word that may be spoken. Pleading the fifth isn’t going to work in this situation, so I need to answer each one of her questions. That doesn’t mean I have to be truthful with them all, however.

“Just fine, huh?” She took another puff of her cigarette and blew smoke into the air. Some of the smoke made its way to my nose. I waved my hand to find the fresh air that’s been pushed away. “Work doing any good?”

“Yeah, it’s been fine. It’s kind of easy so far, and Ty isn’t asking for much money in return for my stay, so I’m just kind of chilling.”

“I’m surprised you can live with the guy. I mean, last time I saw him, he abandoned me during some trouble in my life. He’s also kind of a dick.”

I chuckled and scratched the back of my neck. “Well, he’s been nice so far. He may make some stupid jokes, but he never takes things too far.”

Jessica didn’t say anything. Instead, she looked me over, undressing me in the most metaphorical sense an undressing can get. I can deal with people imagining me naked, but I can’t handle it when people try to understand me on a personal level in order to get what they want. 

“I’m curious. What is your relationship with Ty? You know, beyond being roommates.”

There’s an itch at the back of my neck that is becoming so irresistible that I can’t help by scratch it. I’m becoming a lot more calm, but its still kind of nerve racking that someone is this curious about me. Also if she were just wanting to know about why my background isn’t popping up, then she would be asking about my past. However, she still has yet to ask a single question about that. Is there more to this?

“Do I have to say everything?” I don’t want to just go out and say it if I don’t need to. Humans aren’t the most calm when sex gets involved with stuff.

“I just want to know your relationship with him. Be it girlfriend, normal friend, sex friend, or fiance.”

I exhaled a long held breath. “I guess you could call us sex friends. We just rely on each other when we’re feeling horny.”

“Don’t be that descriptive. Just say he’s a sex friend.” Jessica scrunched up her face. 

See what I mean about humans? They have zero tolerance for basic reproduction and pleasure. It’s natural to have sex, yet they’re more concerned with a woman hiding her breasts than actual issues going on. In this case she literally asked for it and is getting apprehensive after I answer honestly. But now, it’s my turn to ask questions.

“Why do you want to know this stuff?” I ask.

“That’s classified information.”

Of course she won’t tell me. Otherwise, it would make it so much easier to figure out where I stand next to her. Am I a suspect in something, or is she just genuinely curious about me? Those are a lot harder to answer with her staying silent like this. Meanwhile, I can only look up at the mansion and hope that they put Karina to bed and hurry on out. It’s beginning to get chilly out here.