The Key

I don't know these roads. 

I don't know this neighborhood too. 

In my seventeen years long life, I have been to many places in this town, but never have I been to this region. They say the dark folks live here. It looks like any other posh neighborhood. I guess it's just the legends about the place that makes it feel eerie. 

The Rolls Royce halts in front of a mansion, much bigger and older than ours. Inside the car, there was deafening silence until now. When the car finally pulls over in the porch of the mansion, I feel both relieved and anxious. Relieved as the silence is going to be over, anxious because I don't know what new hell Aunt Josette has brought me into. 

Every now and then the girls of this family are sent with her. Once in a generation a lucky girl is born, who is given everything she can dream of; she is treated as a princess, and when the time is ripe she is sent with Aunt Josette. In most cases, they return after a day and stay inside their room for a week or so. When they come out of their rooms, they seem to have forgotten everything that happened. 

Most of the cases... 

Once or twice mishaps take place. Like Aunt Bernadette never came out of her room alive. When her corpse was taken out, they say she had turned a ghostly shade of pale. Had it been Victorian London, they would have decapitated her and driven a stake through her chest. 

Aunt Sphie's case is the most mysterious in the family. She never returned home after going out. People say she is dead and her ghost still haunts our house. I don't know if that is true. 

The ones who return to their regular life are transformed somehow. The elders of the family bring gifts for them, rituals are conducted, they are dressed up as brides, and after some days they are announced as the head of the family. Although the elders are always there to guide, support, and shadow them, they get the power to sign the documents and make important decisions. 

Sounds good, but nobody knows about what these girls lose. I do, because I started investigating them along with Aunt Josette.

This year it is my turn to change. If I die, nobody will care. If I vanish like Aunt Sophie, nobody will come to search for me. If I return after a week, with a blank memory and glassy eyes like my ancestors, I will probably be locked in a room like a patient with a terminal disease, and only see sunlight when a document will need my signature. 

I take the hand of the driver, who is standing in front of me with a grim face. The moment I step out, a cold chill leaves me shivering in my thin, satin dress. The driver stares at me blankly. 

"Don't worry, darling. Once we get inside the mansion, you will feel better," Aunt Josette says. She is wearing a similar dress, yet she seems untouched by the cold. I look around nervously. Countless trees are standing like silent sentries guarding the estate. No wonder the temperature is so down. 

A young man appears at the entrance. I look at him and lower my eyes. A small lesson I have learned from Aunt Josette— to not look at the eyes of strangers. Or anyone who seems dangerous. 

"Another one?" A deep voice says in an almost inaudible tone. "Your bloodline seems to produce really pretty ones." The man stands in front of me. He smells like forests. I look at the pair of brown Testoni dress shoes he is wearing. My heart beats faster in fear and apprehension. 

"I thought a compliment would make her feel better, but I still smell her fear."

I take a step backward. 

"She is a little unusual," Aunt Josette says politely. "Is he there?"

"He is engaged otherwise. He has ordered her to wait. Come on in," The man informs nonchalantly. "By the way, what's her name?" 

"We call her Franny, but he can name her as he wants," Aunt Josette says. 

"Can't she speak?" 

I shudder at the icy tone and force myself to speak up. "Fra— Francesca Walters Shergil." 

"So we can name you something else?" he asks in dry humor. 

"I love my name," I say. Such a pretty name, Why would anyone want to change it? Her mother named her Francesca after the lady who taught her English in her childhood. 

"You do?" he says strangely. A finger touches my skin and forces me to look up at his face. He is pale like a statue chiseled out of marble. Sharp features make him look cold and cruel. He is beautiful, but he has an aura of danger about him, not unlike the most beautiful creatures in the world. His pink lips curl upwards. "You are related to her by blood? What is she to you?" 

I stare at his eyes. Ignoring all warnings from my brain, my eyes glued themselves to him. He is beautiful, dreamy, and everything a young girl would think of. Did he call me pretty? My eyes now follow the outline of his lips and jaw, and then slowly they go up to his forehead. There is a scar on his forehead, it is almost invisible because of his complexion. His hair is white, no... Platinum blonde. I have never seen a platinum blond before. Is his hair color real? 

Then the question forms in my mind. Who is he? 

He turns his face to Aunt Josette and says, "She didn't fall for me. Is she having something on her?"

"No, I made sure of it." Aunt Josette clears her throat and says in a low voice, "She has never fallen for me. Makes me wonder, should I have left her and chosen someone else?"

The young man looks back into my eyes and says, "My name is Alp. I will be your guide tonight. Come in." 

I turn to look at Aunt Josette. I don't care whether she joins us or not. I know I am in trouble, and I can't think of any way to get rid of it. However, at that moment, my eyes look for her presence behind me. 

"I will join you, of course." The fake affection in her tone has disappeared now. She looks grim too, just like the driver who has now vanished. 

The mansion is massive and quite beautifully decorated inside. The stark contrast between the exterior and interior is baffling. I look around curiously and observe the vintage decor. I am taken through a maze of corridors and room after room, until we reach a small pair of doors. 

"You have to wait here until he is ready for you," Alp says. He takes Aunt Josette with him leaving me alone. I open the doors and gasp. Out of everything lurking at the back of my mind, this is the most bizarre sight. A small, warm, and cozy bedroom waits for me. Warm and fluffy bed, bright colored wallpaper, and room heater left on in the room... everything reminds me of the bedrooms from the fairy tales I have read about. I sit on the bed and wait for them to return.

I must had fallen asleep. When I open my eyes, I find Aunt Josette standing in front of me with a perplexed expression. She stares at me as though she wants to observe something in my face. I raise a brow questingly. 

"Did you hear anything?" She asks me. I don't think I have ever heard that tone in her voice ever before. It is a mix of confusion, and fear. I shake my head. There was no sound when I came here. The complete, comfortable silence was probably one of the reasons why my muscles felt so relaxed. 

"Did you smell something? Or see something? Did you feel anything out of normal?" 

I frown at the series of questions. "Were you waiting for long?" 

She does not answer. Instead she comes closer to me and examines my face. Her fingers clasp around my cheeks. "Maybe you will be able to, finally..." 

I frown again. My question is written on my face, I know it. She ignores that and takes my hand, surprisingly gently. "Come, we must not make him wait." 

"Whom?" 

She looks at me and smiles. This is the first time I see a genuine smile on her pretty face, and a hint of something else. Is it my imagination, or is she sad for some reason? She mumbles before pushing me towards another room in the same corridor, "I don't deserve your forgiveness, so I will never ask for it. Do not forgive me, Francesca, as long as we both remember each other, you shall never forgive me." 

Then she gives me a key. A huge, brass key.