Chapter 10 - THE JONES

some memories are better left in the dark, even with the grasp of regret weighing soullessly at your conscious.

(THE JONES'S RESIDENCE)

Nathaniel and grandma had been sitting in silence for a while as Nathaniel read the book grandma had gave him to read, he was not entirely sure what was going on in the book as he kept opening random pages for hours while staring at the old lady who sat opposite him. She somehow had a very singular expression on her face without changing it for a second, she kept her eyes fixated on Nathaniel while her eyes looked lifeless, and yet she could tell when Nathaniel started fidgeting on his seat, unable to sit properly. She spoke to him calmly as she asked him to behave himself yet her eyes still looked aimlessly at Nathaniel, he was not sure about how to react to the whole matter.

After a few minutes her eyes started moving about again. She suddenly tilted her head down and looked at the ground with her eyes filled with tears, she said, "Victoria Jones, that's why James is taking such care of this customer's needs so patiently." Nathaniel looked at the old woman in front her as tears flowed down her face and hit the ground repeated while she kept on saying the same words over, and over again, for a moment he could feel the pain she kept in her self with those words right until he stood up from his seat and walked towards the old woman with a worrisome eyes. She looked at the kid and smiled sweetly feeling the warmth the child meant to give her.

And right then, she said to the kid, "Not every torture has a source, and not every source is meant to torture. James has lot to learn from today's customer. Let's wait for him to finish up the customer little kid."

The house which William found himself in looked very luxurious to him, he felt himself to be out of place even by the kind of decor which the house was embraced by, with a beautiful vintage type of atmosphere, backing it up with an elegant display of expensive paintings. He stood in front of one of the paintings which had a different kind of scene, although most of the paintings in the house had an interesting kind of feel to them they all emitted sense of happy feelings yet this painting could not be any more opposite from the rest. right from the greyish colour of the sky, to the black hooded person who stood right in the middle of the painting. There was something oddly familiar about the painting for some reason. He stood there, as he admired the piece in front of him and there was a sudden voice disturbed him, it was the voice of woman. She said, "Soulmates, I see that your taste hasn't changed on bit even after five years Will." James quickly turned his head in order to be able to put a face on the voice that spoke to him.

She stood about six-feet away from William with a black long dress, beautiful brunette hair, with impeccably beautiful hazel eyes and a smile gorgeous enough to put the moon to shame. She stood in a perfectly still position maintaining a poise look, right before she started walking towards him, as beautiful as the sun at dawn, rising for the day to start. She stood right next to him, strenched her right hand toward his head and stroked the front part of his hair and said, "You have always had a knack for having perfectly groomed hair." She then turned and looked at the piece William had been staring at for minutes and smiled with grace, shifting her gaze from him and the painting.

"It took you five hours to pick this painting from my gallery years ago, I can see that even after such a long time you still know how to admire a beautiful piece." The lady then said, looking at William with fully sparkled eyes. William looked at the painting with a concerned look and said, "I would not call it beautiful, from my sight he looks to be in sorrow with himself and that on its own makes the piece peaceful." he then stood closer towards the woman and smiled charmed by her presence. She then looked at the painting once more and said, "I believe only the artist would have known about the man in the painting, but then again Mr Jones, you have always had an interest towards such paintings.

As the two walked down the hall with each other as the lady's left hand placed inside William's right arm entering the lounge. There were two women and three men seated with each other in the room. Right when they entered the room the woman left William's arm and one of the men shouted and said, "Miss Victoria Campbell, what a delight to have your presence with us this evening. I see that you have met my nephew William, I believe both of you were previously acquainted with one another." William could not understand what was happening, thus he stood there in total shock not knowing how to react to the whole situation.

One of the men who were present there looked like James for some reason, and for a moment William looked to be more comfortable seeing a familiar face in front of him. Things seemed to get escalated with every minute he spent with those people that he had to excuse himself for a moment in order to catch his breath. But when William returned to the lounge, the people he had been speaking to were all sprawled on the floor and his hands which had been squeaky clean a minute ago had blood all over them. William stood in front of the scene for a minute in order to try and process what the whole situation was about yet he could not recall anything,

Right from the moment he stepped out of the house for a walk in order to calm himself, to the moment he returned back into the house, nothing out of the ordinary caught his attention, and yet there were blood stains on his hands, and on top of that everyone he was with was aying on the ground in cold blood.