redglitterheart

We are sat here in this dark empty cafe, its throwing it down
outside.It looks like a storm at sea,smashing into the windows.Its only
midday and i have to get home.Why these so called friends are telling
me horror stories i can`t guess.I don't think today measures up as a
horror story even if she does keep finding blood dripping off one of
the bathroom handle doors .Put cameras in!You haven`t found a body to
go with it yet have you. thing aren't too bad.
---------------------------------------------- Don`t tell me about
horror stories i have a horror life, mind you there is always someone
who has it worse isn't there ?I know him too.A friend of mine Francesco
he`s a delightful sort charming without being smarmy -well he is a bit
smarmy but he makes it funny because he knows it .He used to go to
masked parties ,he loved them.I think part of it was an escape for
him,he was not happily married at the time-didnt tell his wife
though.
----------------------------------------------- There was always a
carnival atmosphere at these things the one big room was walled with
mirrors.It had chandeliers and an anything goes atmosphere which was a
bit too breathtaking for me .They were invitation only, i went with him
several times you only had to show your face at the door once to get in
It was a bit weird never seeing anyone.He was always at these things.
This thing he told me about that stopped him going .happened one night
It was a gothic theme night- ominously- he went as a kind of dandy
/prince/vampire.Whatever he went as he went as some version of dashing
prince.It was a look that suited him and he knew it but he was not too
cocky about it ,he`s a show off but a charming one he was a litle bit
dark skinned,which really made his green eyes stand out. To optimise
the effect he always wore a black mask,always very well groomed.
---------------------------------------------- The thing was very
dressed up which is totally him he`s never knowingly dressed down,even
the invites were posh looking .Most people knew each other through
profession {arts}The building was an old factory that had been
converted , the inside style was indulgent palatial ,very grand without
looking too fake or plastic which added to the fun as events always
descended as they were meant to into the sot of chaos where any body
can do what they want so long as the person or persons they want to do
it with is agreeing .Fairly wobbly on his feet at some point later on
-he was probably sliding down the wall but he maintains this courtly
gent image of himself at all times -he describes becoming really
fascinated by this one mask- he was really fixated believing this was
the most beautiful mask he had ever seen He got quiet carried away the
beautiful jewels the feathers round the eyes the beautiful
intriguing,inquiring eyes. It wasn't clear who approached who but there
was clearly flirtatious dancing, even though he was pleading
drunkenness- he was probably just stood there drunkenly smiling just
lapping it up passively ,he had this sort of glazed look when he was
going on about it.
----------------------------------------------- This reverie was broken
up by some one dressed like a victorian undertaker making some sort of
announcement which Francesco missed as his new friend grabbed him and
dragged him off towards the windows which are really gorgeously tall ,
looking out onto the city night.They open out onto a really plush
balcony, it was a really beautiful art gallery a few years back they
have got huge floor to ceiling dark red velvet curtains now .Anyhow -
he was dragged behind these curtains and this masked person introduced
herself as lucy i think what he said he noticed first about her was the
fab ring she was wearing- a big red enamel ball ring with gold heart
shaped clasp and goldbase.He said when he realised how far things
seemed to be going he tried to protest but i`ve seen him at these
things and he makes such a show of himself people do sometimes throw
themselves at him He loves it.He claims to have made out that to
distract her he had started? admiring and making a fuss of this
ring.Which he managed to open and found was filled with a sticky
substance he assumed was drugs. So he lifted up his mask to sniff his
fingers and Lucy immediately lifts up her mask and they see each other
for the first time .He was really suprised at how shy seeming she was
once her mask was off He asked her what the stuff was and lucy just
said;' nasty`took Francesco`s hand and licked d it off of his
fingers.More buzz than a bear in a beehive .This girl he was thrilled
with her.
----------------------------------------------- Around that time,In the
high heat of the evenings descent some one was struggling to make some
announcement again .This vigourous effort to rally everybody was
assumed to be some new entertainment so ever?ybody suddenly amassed
tightly , jostling in anticipation which immediately fell flat on the
perplexing appearance of several policemen. Unmasked people! They asked
for attention and announced a body had been discovered in a car in the
car park He gave the name of the woman and asked if anybody new her,
she appeared to have been shot Francesco said it was a shock enough to
everyone to suddenly be confronted with unmasked faces he couldn't
really take it in .he just tried to stand back which he couldn't
really, he was too squashed He just wanted to stand back and stare and
the floor but when he tied to look down he saw Lucy in front of him who
he thought he had lost in the crowd and he saw she was clasping the
hand of the man next to her .A very tall man in a feathery harlequin
costume .The really weird thing, which he has been driving me mental
trying to talk himself out of ever since is that when the policeman
announced the dead woman's name these hands locked together in front of
him clasped tighter at that moment and shook as if in celebration.He
was so shocked he just stood there while the whole crowd shambled off
.Totally freaked out over the handshake.
-----------------------------------------------
Luckily he knew one of the organisers who was talking to the police at
the time he went over to her and ask what was going to happen although
he wished he hadn't asked because what he learnt made so little sense
at all especially to him in his perilous state.Apparently the woman
found dead in the car park had the same name as one of the guests but
all the guests -several hundred- had arrived been accounted for and no
one had left they were on the fifth floor of this converted factory.He
was first in line to talk to the police so he was first to get out and
get home.
-----------------------------------------------
He read about the woman in the paper and this is when he first told me
about it and i first made the mistake of suggesting to him the
handshake might have meant something else hes been trying to convince
himself ever since that it could have been about anything and
everything else could just have been bad timing could have been the
crowd jostling the number of times we've been over and over that clasp!
'Spasms'is my favourite.I think i just like loudly injecting the word
unexpectedly in conversation.I try to make it sound profound at the
same time,I keep reminding him of what it looked like when he saw it
and he`immediately starts to question his own sanity ;'it could just
have been me'typically!backing off ,running away and slamming the door
behind him.
-----------------------------------------------

The woman had still not been identified so Francesco asked this friend
of his one of the party throwers if the woman with the red ring- Lucy
had been arrested by the police as he thought that this ring might have
contained drugs.His friend passed this onto the police and this was
when they discovered about half a dozen people including Lucy who had
got in using other peoples names .Two weeks after this a man was found
dead in a car in a carpark and one of the items shown on the news that
had been found with the body was a small red enamel ball ring with gold
heart clasp and gold base. I got a picture of it and took it round to
him he was just so totally silent he didn't have to say anything but
what could he do?His wife would not have understood but he still loved
her.she would have been too jealous of him going to these masked balls
without her.He felt that he didn't really know anything and at that
point i wasn't certain that we really knew anything about anything
either but my god i wish it had stayed like that.
----------------------------------------------- Francesco phoned me in
the early hours one morning completely freaking out he had been lying
in bed with his wife watching the news and the story came on about the
man who had been found in the car park Apparently he had been poisoned
and the ring contained the remnants of poison Francesco admitted that
when he was at the ball behind the curtains with lucy he had asked her
what drug it was in the ring and Lucy had kissed him.the worst thing
was the aftertaste was oniony and one of the thing s that had just been
reported n the news was that the poison used would have left an oniony
taste in the murdered mans mouth.
----------------------------------------------- We met up the next
morning.he phoned in sick The photographer he was working for was being
suspiciously lenient with him .He described her as laid back but i felt
there was something not being said and it would not be the first time
he had an affair with his employer but it was a bit strange of him to
hide it from me.The hospital made us laugh- everything light green. so
much space so little colour scheme.Shallow fun is sometimes the best
.Don't ask me why i didn't ask sometimes you would get a glimpse of
other things he might be getting up to but i would consider myself
better off in the dark and less likely to bring his life shattering
down around him when i bumped into his wife.
-----------------------------------------------
I went into the doctors with him, the doctor was a totally laid back
cynical character he asked him to do all the tests but not to tell him
if he had anything in his system only to tell him? if he thought he
needed to know about it- if he had any lasting damage.He sat and stared
at us a while, i couldn't blame him.He took it all in and looked like
he had seen it all before,indifferent ,utterly sarcastic not in the
slightest bit sympathetic, i liked him really.He seemed like he
wouldn't budge unless he knew what it was all aboutso francesco told
him then he looked like he wouldn't budged until he agreed to go to the
police.He turned to me 'what are you here for?' 'to wear you down 'He
sighed and looked at the floor.i wore him down. he took it well.
----------------------------------------------- All his tests turned
out to be clear but the doctor had pointed out that the big question
was whether any of the same poison was in his system or not but he
wasn't prepared to hear the answer to that. I went to the hospital to
see if he would tell me but i changed my mind unfortunately the doctor
saw me.He had followed me to the exit when he grabbed my arm and turned
me round He stared over my shoulder for a moment and then said that it
might lead to life threatening situations if no one else knew what he
knew.He stared at me for confirmation i nodded.
----------------------------------------------- Of course i told him,of
course he freaked out I tried to get him to go to the police .I kept
calling him and trying eventually we argued and didn't speak for about
a month.He seemed angrier with me for telling him than he was with lucy
for putting him in danger.I couldn't stop thinking about it worrying i
was sure someone as going to phone and tell me he had been found
dead.
----------------------------------------------- At that time i was
living at the other side of the city it was horrible actually a really
built up industrial area somehow managed to always appear deserted.I
was living in a huge converted mill there were hundreds of flats. I`ve
never lived in such a popaulated area and seen so few people .
----------------------------------------------- The one place i liked
was this little yellow cafe it was painted yellow not just greasy or
stained.This place was like a buttercup in an ash can.I t was a lot
like this place were in now feels like were in a boat out at sea or a
tiny island of white shiny tile in a blood soaked bathroom i`m just
winding you up `sorry.`My friend Alexandra worked there her short
blonde plaits matched the walls.we used to sit there till the early
hours , unable to leave the warm sunny room and all its clean empty
tables for the exhaustingly faceless grey world .It was a long narrow
room with a high ceiling brass lights hung down.Alex kept telling me i
could probably get a job there but i might not be so fond of the place
if i had to witness the miserable hoards who trudged in and out again
daily This was too believable so i said i stick with my day job i was a
choreographer at the time even though the people i was choreographing
moved like boss eyed fat jelly donkeys with rubber legs.I wanted to
talk about Francesco but for some reason didn't want to do it
deliberately i knew whatever it sounded like when it came out she would
not fail to be utterably practical she was like that with whatever came
up.i was just waiting for it to slip out So when she asked me how he
was and i found myself saying 'i hope hes not dead yet' that was the
right moment to explain.
----------------------------------------------- The next evening i drag
myself into the cafe,slump down and started digging away at my
crisps.Alex comes over- she's got something in her plaits making them
stick out heidi style.I stare at her but her tone is deadly serious'I
don't know what to think of this.I know someone who knows lucy.'she sat
down.Her tone too serious .I get a sense there is something i would
rather not know coming my way .How could she forget those
plaits?'Robert' i used to work in an office with him'Ginger, pretty boy
'she knows she has got my attention but i look up 'Chronic
shagger.'shame.' He came in here this dinner time he was telling me how
he thought he might have had a lucky escape from this woman he was
chasing. Apparently he had been out one night and was trying to get
home utterly pissed-legless and she had recognised him and stopped to
give him a lift.He thought he`d blown it because he`d been having a go
at the man sat in the front with lucy calling him an ignorant knob and
worse for ignoring him but afterward and he said i would accuse him of
being mad .So i did. Whenever he thought back to being in the car and
the backs of the people in front all he could think of was this silent
shithead who wouldn't talk to him;'cos it was more like he was dead
than a bastard. could be wishful thinking.' 'that's what he said' 'he
didn't really look like he was being cool and ignoring me .He just
didn't look like he was breathing'.
----------------------------------------------- Apparently as he got
out of the car in front of his house there was a group of people he
knew hanging around and as he was taunting this man in the car shouting
he was dead in front of them for moment they were all stood there on
the street thinking he would just turn to look at him and make him look
a tit but he didn't and the way he just stared ahead creeped everybody
out .It was lucy giving him all the dirty looks and then she sped
off.'is he a total pisshead though?'`no.`
----------------------------------------------- Alex offered to phone
francesco for me to offer a peace deal and tell him we had some news he
needed to hear.so when Francesco walked in it was the first time in
ages id seen him , he'd changed his hair, from a conservative cut with
long fringe over his face which was a bit glamourous to a straight cut
which was just conservative. it wasn't a great look for him events must
have really had an effect.I wanted to pry into his state of mind .The
past was left behind with regards to the rows but his manner had become
more conservative too.He looked every inch a business woman's husband
which he was but it was never a part he had taken to with such aplomb
before.Although aplomb is the most unsuitable word probably the
absolute opposite of his new outlook.When she heard about Robert he
looked like he had heard something he wasn't sure he could deal with
which suprised me of course he then proceed to deal with it,
immediately getting Robert on the phone.He starts to tell him the whole
story; Lucy having the red ring on when he first met her ,the dead
bodies the poison...Alex looks over at me as i start at the sudden
appearance of Robert in the doorway still talking to Francesco on the
phone.Francesco takes an age to realise he is talking to the man in
front of him as he doesn't know him at all and oddly doesn't seem to
want to believe it when he gets that its Robert.The whole story has
fallen out now and there is an uncomfortably frantic element in the
atmosphere.We ask him 'where is lucy' he says he doesn't know but has
her phone number on his office computer which is of no use as it was
saturday.
----------------------------------------------- Francesco keeps asking
Robert why didn't he think the man in the car was dead when he was in
the car with him.francesco`s emotions were all over the place we were
going through most of them with him too.At one point francesco
apparently thinking Robert a liar, a wind up, an alcoholic, a basket
case, a spurned lover and the murderer.We rein him in saying he was
probably just far more drunk than he remembers Robert agrees ,he wants
to get on with francesco who is towering over him imposingly. francesco
doesn't care, he starts questioning him all over;'i didn't think he was
dead in the car.I was just too pissed for it to sink in.I remember
looking at his shoulder.i`d thought he too was to calm to take any
notice of me but he wasn't calm he was rigid.You don't breath and look
like your not breathing do you?Not that much.'Robert is tired but
Francesco cant give up its as if he just wants him to change his story
to fit what he wants to hear .Or he just wants Robert to snap.'How
could you not know if it was a dead man?' francesco is exasperated but
so is Robert; 'because he was SAT IN A FUCKING CAR IN THE MIDDLE OF THE
FUCKING STREET'.
-----------------------------------------------
We then start asking him for a description does he know him ? who is
he like that we do know ?do we recognise the description.We don`t.He
goes home to see if he can find photos and because we didn't side with
him.francesco goes home to wait for him to call.Alex and myself sat in
silence and found ourselves nervously convinced in there absence that
we aught to go to the police.Simultaneously convinced it was the
obvious step simultaneously certain it was probably none of our
business .We just knew it made less sense not to.
----------------------------------------------- However the next
morning as i am leaving for work i find two policemen on my doorstep
asking very politely if i would answer some question s which i will and
am certain and determined that i must ask questions too though i cant
figure out what they are .the police informed me that apparently i had
been invited to several masked parties and had attended them all which
as i told them i had not i had only been to three.i told them
everything i knew about Lucy and francesco the doctor and robert, it
was like having a weight lifted.They kept asking me if i was sure i
didn't know where lucy was ,each time obviously waiting for a different
answer.I wasn't sure if i wasn't about to be arrested. The fear
suddenly hit me.All the uncertainties all the things you don't know
about going on around you that don't matter it all suddenly mattered
there was too much going on around me and i knew what mtoo little of it
was about, I found i was asking myself stupid questions like if i asked
francesco what my name was would he give me the right answers and i
felt that this was only happening because the police wanted it to .I
resented these people for hand delivering me this mess i wanted to be
sure that francesco wasn't dragging me into a something but i couldn't
figure out how .The police had me swear everything i now knew to
secrecy.
----------------------------------------------- By dinnertime the next
day i am hiding out at Alex`s and i have already had to let slip that
we don't have to go to the police as they have been to see me when two
men who had just walked in introduce themselves as policemen showing
identification and ask if i will come with them for questioning the
fear hits me again and i start to feel pretty sure this is an arrest
even though its not. Alex is totally calm she takes it all light
heartedly she tells them she knows everything' apart from whatever
happened yesterday to scare the life out of her ' looking at me and
smirking they direct her to there car.
----------------------------------------------- Alex and i find
ourselves unexpectedly sat in entirely unnecessarily rough looking
empty room . It is quite hard to put you finger on just why this room
seems so old and battered it is obviously as clean and scrubbed down as
it can get ,its plasticky floor and painted walls are obviously modern
in style but it is somehow medieval antique in finish as if it has
fitted centuries of wear and tear into a couple of months.A policeman
came in and very formally and matter of factly stated what was
happening.Robert had been questioned .Lucy was missing francesco had
been found to be stealing my invites but this was hardly murder and
unless the club or myself decided to pursue it... i shook my head .I
didn't want to have to believe he hd been doing it deliberately he knew
i didn't want to go anyway he had been using the invites to get lucy
into the parties for several months they had email and phone records to
back this up but lucy had disappered.they thought it was possible that
lucy and francesco had spilt when francesco had refused to leave his
wife.That lucy had killed one of francesco`s former lovers who had been
attempting to blackmail him they suspected lucy had lost control and
killed her own husband but they were unable to prove this even though
they had the doctors confirmation that francesco had at some point
swallowed the same poison that had been used to kill Lucy's
husband.
----------------------------------------------- We walked out of the
room just in time to see francesco leaving he didn't see us his wife
was collecting him her scowl was so intense that she was barely
recognisable as i said to alex the odds were even as to whether her
mood was caused by the discovery of infidelities or the discovery of
bills for the dashing highwayman outfits and matching prince charming
boots.francesco could indulge himself in anything but honesty where i
would usually find this charming i realised it was a major fault I
wouldn't ever be able to believe another thing he said.I was now
annoyed with myself as much as him that i couldn't suddenly hate and
discard him, but i decided i had better start working on it.He still
had the same charm and i still liked that charm.
----------------------------------------------- Robert had never been
able to find Lucy's number and the police seemed to have taken very
little notice of his drunken night out story.I was sat with Alex trying
to figure things out how come lucy had tried to poison francesco? had
lucy become so out of control she had tried to kill francesco.How come
she had failed? I couldn`t believe him suddenly a murderer.Alex kept
saying everyone makes mistakes .She was at such a loss it seemed her
practical side was taking over and telling her to just dismiss it.The
whole thing seemed to circle above our heads out of reach,with little
bits that you couldn't join together falling on our heads now and
then.
----------------------------------------------- Alex kept phoning
Robert she phoned francesco to asked him to come over to take his share
of the confusion and? fear.I wanted to get some revenge.We need a fresh
point of view, we need someone fresh to send nuts with this.Robert
obligingly rolled in.'whats going on Robert?' we were relieved to see
him and conspired to light heartedly wind him up.'what's going on
Robert?what's going on though?.'How come you seemed to know lucy, then
you didn't even have her phone number?'.'I did.''what!?' we round in on
him startled it isn't really a joking subject we thought he must be
trying to wind us up now.'I did have her phone number. I had to lie.
lucy was determined to see francesco so i gave francesco her new phone
number assuming that after the story i told about the dead man in the
car he would want to talk lucy into confessing to the police all over
again,but he didn't use it.''Stop it.' Alex and i rocked back and forth
still hoping this was his idea of humour fearing it wasn't .Robert was
tightly wrapped up in telling his story he didn't want interruptions he
expected us to listen and nothing else.
----------------------------------------------- 'You know where lucy
is?'we looked up at Robert he was suddenly giving us all his attention
like a guest on the Jerry springer show waiting for his next
question'Yes.'I wanted to scream Alex and i looked at each other in
fear.'Tell the police!'Robert`s eyes rolled back in disgust'That whole
story abut the man in the car was bullshit. I wanted to scare francesco
outit didn't work, it scared him away. francesco had been saying he
would go to the police after he realised he had been poisoned.He didn`t
know who to suspect. he cant cope with his conscince.'Robert
chuckled.We gasped. francesco was stood behind him staring at the back
of his head'where is she? Robert swung round and was unsurprised and
smugly pleased ;'Youv`e just walked past her.' We all look through the
doors to the car parked in the street.A young blonde woman with eyes so
dark you couldn't make them out was sat perfectly still staring back at
us god knows how long she had been there. 'Who was that dead man in the
car lucy ?'francesco is shouting from the curb Robert appears behind
him nudging him toward the car playfully with his shoulder francesco
shoves him back; 'who was he?'Robert prods him hard toward the car
nearly pushing him over Francesco rounds on him hitting him and
decisively stalks around the front of the car not taking his eyes off
lucy sits down still asking too loudly too nervously who was that
man?Robert slides into the backseat.We back off the curbside as far as
we can and we were pretty fear back to start with .We are trying to
hide our terror also our fixated staring, the body language between
francesco and the silent lucy is now intense. francesco afraid and
uncertain stares at lucy.Robert slides forward staring at Francesco
till his chin is resting on his neck as Lucy starts the car up just
under the noise and the second before she floors it we see Robert mouth
at Francesco;'its you.'