Forty-two
I get up from the ground going to her.
— Get up! - I ask helping her to her feet.
“Is that what I'm thinking? - she asked coming to us.
- She is upset?
"No, not at all!" - she replied. -Can I? She held out his hand, asking to see the necklace.
"Here..." he delivered.
"Does it work for any of us, or was it made especially for her?"
"Damn. Do I really have to answer this?"
"You seem to know..." he commented.
"Benjamin, didn't he tell you what it is?"
"No, I didn't tell her!"
Julie takes her arm around her back and takes her out of the bathroom to explain the origin of the cord, in a more appropriate place.
"Come on, I'll tell you!"
I decide to stay in the bathroom to clean up the mess while the two leave talking.
PHONE RINGING
"Benjamin: This is not a good time, Doctor Scott!"- I say answering.
"Scott: Benjamin, I need you to come to the hospital!"
"Benjamin: Impossible. I just had a big problem with Mila and I also promised to take her back to the Palace."
"Scott: H-hi?"-His voice strains. "-I can't hear you. What's that noise?"
Iris and Kaila had promised me to end the party, but apparently they forgot to turn off the music.
"Benjamin: Can you hear me?"- I ask going to the corner of the bathroom.
"Scott: Benjamin. Hi. Hi!"
"Benjamin: Scott?"
Annoyed by the interference, I leave the bathroom in an attempt to improve the signal. I call him several times as I walk, but even in the bedroom the problem remains.
- Hell! I groan, looking at my cell phone. -Julie, do you happen to have your cell phone there? - I ask glazed on the screen of my phone. -Julie?
Suspicious of the silence, I lift my head realizing that the room was empty.
— Calm down... no, no, no!
An affliction begins to rise within me, making me realize that the whole good friend thing could have been a hoax.
—JULIE! - I scream, throwing the cell phone on the bed. -MILA!
I run out of the room, making sure that my three wives were having dinner with the Queen at that moment.
SIX UNANSWERED CALLS
TEXT MESSAGE RECEIVED
"Scott: Benjamin, Mila's results are out. You need to go back to the hospital urgently!"
"Are you sure it's a good idea for us to stay here?"
Finishing putting on one of Julie's outfits, I start looking around anxiously at the possibility of the girls showing up in the basement.
"Don't worry, they can't do anything to you while you're with me!"
— This place is very strange, I don't know how they manage to live down here...
We were in the basement, where the air didn't seem to work properly.
"Aren't you hot?"
— Mila! She comes over to me, taking my hands. -Calm down. The air is working perfectly, you who are too nervous.
- Certainty?
- Yes sure. And even if the ventilation system failed, the second one would kick in. It's a guarantee.
- Okay!
"Come on, let's get out of here!" she called, pulling me away from the pool of blood. -Here is much better! - she said in the red room.
"Are you going to tell me about the necklace now?"
“Oh, really! - he said giving me the necklace back. -I had forgotten...
"Wh... what is he?" - I ask taking it. -The way he spoke hinted that he knows something.
- Is a heart! she revealed matter-of-factly.
"HEART?''
"Wait...um...a heart?" -stutter.
That wasn't a small crystal, but it wasn't big enough to be a heart either.
"Benjamin has a very interesting book about him, it's called The Tale of Dragons, it's—"
— Oops! - I brake her. -I know what book it is! -I say.
- Serious?
"Yes, but what does the story of dragons have to do with a glittering necklace?"
"If you've read the book, then you know what it means...
“No, I don't. I stopped at chapter fifteen!
“Fifteen? -laughed. -I understand now!
The book is not mine and that's why I couldn't take it to finish reading. There are seventy-two chapters and whenever I tried to get to the end, someone interrupted me.
"Tell me, tell me please!"
"My God, why all this suspense?"
— It's impossible to tell you about the heart if you don't know the story before it. By the time I finish counting you'll have twice as many questions!
"I'm not in a hurry!"
"The heart belonged to Daya, the dragon of fertility and the mother of all others..." he explained. -Daya and Falkor as the story goes, were the greatest dragons in the world who had extraordinary magic and devastating strength. They lived here long before humans and they were very wild creatures, setting everything on fire out of sheer boredom.
At first they were enemies, but over the centuries they became lovers, joining their powers. The union of the two only became a problem when Daya had her first puppies.
Imagining that their children had inherited the power of Daya and Falkor, all supernatural beings in the world tried to capture them to steal their blood, or even make them defenders/slaves.
— That greed almost led us to extinction, that's when we discovered that not only that plant, but also the dragon's fire was capable of killing us!
"WHAT?"
- What? -question. -I thought only one thing could kill us, you never mentioned dragon fire!
— Quote for what? - retrain. -They don't exist anymore!
"Her mistake!"
“The few of us who managed to capture a dragon soon discovered that it wasn't so easy to obtain its magic—
"And what is this magic that everyone wanted?"
- Calm down, let me finish counting!
"I live with a dragon and I didn't even know that its flame was fatal to me!"
"Imagine just combining the power of fertility with that of bonding?"
- I didn't understand!
“Those who took Daya's blood became fertile, and those who took the blood of the mighty Falkor could connect directly with him.
"My God...this is starting to worry me!"
- To connect? - I ask shaking. -How do you connect?
- It is like -
— MILA!
The door opens with an absurd force and speed and the brute that comes out of it makes our eyes widen.
- CUM! she screamed. -Do you want to kill us, Benjamin?
- Everything is fine? I stand up, not understanding his desperation.
"How do you disappear like that out of nowhere?"
"We're not gone, you madman." I brought her here because she had nothing to wear!
- Why are you angry?
"YOU'RE GONE, DAMN IT!" - he replied to the screams. -AND STILL DISAPPEARED WITH... WITH...
He knows what to say but wonders if he should say it.
- With me? -complete.
- That!
"What did you think I would do with her?"
"Do you really want me to answer?"
"You're confusing me with girls!"
— Not so much, because in the end look where I found you!
- Here? - I ironize. - Sitting down talking?
"He meant in the basement!"
- Exactly! - agreed. -In the basement, a place that was built just to imprison naive and weak people.
"Is he trying to offend me?"
- AND?
"And he thinks I locked you in here just to kill you!"
- It is serious?
“What did you want me to think? she asked. -There are a thousand rooms in this house and you choose to bring it right to the only place that has acoustic lining!
"I would have to be really stupid to try something on her!"
"Okay, that's enough for both of you!" - I speak impatiently. -I'm fine, I'm alive and I don't see any reason to keep arguing.
"Okay..." he agreed.
— Now let's go upstairs, the girls are coming back and it's not a good idea to stay here!
— I need to take a shower, but then I'll go upstairs to finish telling you the rest of the story!
"Fine, I'll wait for you!" - I smile at her. -One more thing! -I remember. -I also want to thank you for everything you've done for me... -I turn to her, acknowledging her efforts. -Even though we didn't know each other well, you were kind to me and reached out to me. Thanks...
— You don't need to thank me Mila... -you can see that she was embarrassed.
- Let's go! -is authoritative as ever.
"Go, go before I stress about Benjamin again!" - she asked irritably.
I look at Benjamin disappointed and then I head for the exit.
“I need to take her to the Palah—”
- Go! -She doesn't let him talk.
“Why all this arrogance?
"We'll talk about that later!"
He nods and then leaves the basement meeting me in the hallway on my way to the glass door.
— Mila! -called me. -Wait!
I brake midway and turn to him watching him approach.
- We need to talk! - he warned with that same scary father tone.
"Okay, but it's not going to be here, is it?"
— About that... -he takes advantage. -You are forbidden to go down that basement again, I don't want to see you near that door and I don't want you walking around alone either. Do we have a deal?
What Thomas was aggressive, Benjamin was bossy. It's impressive how my life is a heavy scale where everything always has to be extreme, it can never be lukewarm, light and calm.
"If I laugh in his face, it will piss him off..."
- Yes sir! - I use debauchery.
"I don't like it when you're ironic with me!"
I shake my head at him, wearing a cynical smile. I'd rather leave the place instead of staying and causing a bigger problem.
"Are you going to keep playing with my face?"
I turn away and go through the door to the kitchen, there he quickens his pace, catching up with me just to have the opportunity to confront me.
"Why do you take everything as a joke?"
“Why do you have to be so rude? - I don't answer it, I just throw another question on top.
— I'm not thick, I'm realistic! she said.
— Have you ever stopped to think that your "reality" sometimes hurts people?
He knows it's not about the basement.
“Is this about what I told you earlier?
"Oh, so you remember the shit you said!"
— Okay, I may have been rude to you, but that doesn't change my opinion about how I take our relationship!
- Relationship? -mock. - What a relationship, Benjamin. We just fuck. We are not lovers, boyfriends, or even friends. It's just sex and period!
There are people who hold a grudge, the only benefit of a bad experience, but I keep the words, which is the best weapon to use against the one who hurt you before.
"Imagine how good it must be to hear all that now, only this time coming out of my mouth!"
"You don't have to deal with that weight, or have to dig through your schedule for free time to bond with me, I—"
- For! - it got in the way. -I didn't say anything about that!
- I do not want to know! - I let my anger speak for me. -The worst shit I ever did-
I shut up myself, shut up and suck in air, letting it out three times in a row, wondering if using those words wouldn't make me regret it later.
- He leaves! -short. -It's better to stop here!
- I also think!
A strange atmosphere is flying over us, where the two are too immature to try to fix things.
"Oh, the book!" -until I remember something more important and then head for the exit without saying anything.
- Where are you going?
"You don't expect me to stand here looking at you, do you?"
— Then I'm thick!
♡♡♡♡
