Rais POV
"Damien, what news?" asked the man sitting on the chair decorated with gems and gold. He surely wanted to give the impression of a king on his throne, but those present knew that this king was nothing but a tyrant.
Damien, a tall, slender man with no gleam in his dark brown, almost black eyes, turned to one of the bodyguards stationed at the corner of the door. The man understood and stepped forward with a tablet in his hand, which he handed to Damien.
Damien waited for his boss to finish his wine, then began after unlocking the tablet, "Yves has managed to elude us, he's no longer on anyone's radar, we think he must have received help from another organization.
The man began to tap his glass with his index finger, a sign that he did not appreciate what he was hearing at all.
"And for..." Damien paused, then struggled to continue, "The so-called leads were decoys. Some of our men were captured. The others were able to escape..." Damien stopped at the sound of breaking glass.
The man had clenched his hand so tightly in anger that the glass shattered, mixing his blood with the wine.
"Kill them," he said suddenly, and Damien realized he was talking about those who had escaped. What the man hated most were cowards, especially those who ran from a fight.
"Very well, sir," Damien said, then continued to talk about the situation of the organization, when he was suddenly interrupted by a scream, he raised his head and saw that the man was holding in his injured hand the hair of the maid, who had surely come to repair the damage.
Despite her pained expression, the maid tried to remain silent, knowing that she would suffer more if she opened her mouth. Damien finished his report quickly. The man then asked everyone to leave, which they did without question. Then the man's eyes finally landed on the young woman.
A frightened expression appeared on her face when she saw the man's perverted, disgusting expression. If it's said that the eyes are the mirror of a person's soul, then the maid was sure that his eyes were devilish and disgusting.
Tears welled up in her eyes, she was terrified, and her body showed it by trembling violently. Seeing this, the man put an unhealthy smile on his face.
"Be glad that I'm paying attention to you," he said in a voice that the servant found so horrible that it made her shiver.
Behind the door, Damien and the other guards heard screams coming from the room they'd been in earlier, awful screams that unconsciously sent shivers down their spines and lasted for several minutes before the silence fell.
Damien was the first to break it, "Call the servants to come and clean and prepare the furnace. And have the room soundproofed at last."
...
18:00
Harmonie had finally finished her drama class, so absorbed was she in it that she completely forgot to warn the teacher of her intention to leave early, but that wasn't necessary as the drama teacher had decided to let them out 15 minutes early as they had finished what the teacher had planned for the class.
Just as Harmonie reached the small gate, she heard someone calling behind her. She stopped and turned to see who it could be.
"What is it, Stacy?" she asked the girl who had finally reached her.
"I wanted to ask you if it would be possible with you for me to do the first two sentences of the character," she said as she and Harmonie stepped out of the portal.
"You should have asked the teacher, shouldn't you?" asked Harmonie as she walked towards one of the school's car parking lots.
"I already asked her, and she agreed, but she said it's up to you."
Harmonie stopped suddenly, took out her notebook, and asked, "Where exactly do you want to start?"
Stacy explained that since she was playing the same role, and she was acting in the first chapter, they could make a transition for the second chapter, as what the character said in one of the tirades made that possible.
"...so here, when she's about to say this sentence. You can make the transition from the role of the grandmother to the young girl," she explained, looking at Harmonie to see if she'd understood her idea.
Harmonie nodded and said, "That's not a bad idea. I agree, but we'll have to work out how to make the transition smooth with the teacher."
Stacy smiled and said, "OK, thanks Harmonie, bye".
Harmonie watched Stacy leave and walk towards her father's car before putting her things back in her bag. She looked up in the direction of her car and was a little surprised to see her gang there, watching her with smiles on their faces as they leaned over the car.
"What's going on?" she asked as she approached them, adding "And I thought you'd all gone home.
Chloe shook her head and smiled, "Nothing, and yes, we went home, but then we went shopping downtown and even bought you chocolate chip cookies and smoothie, your favorites," she said as she handed her the box of cookies.
Harmonie took it and thanked her, then took her car key and unlocked it. Corine and Cassidy took the different shopping bags and put them in the trunk.
Harmonie took off her backpack, bent down, and got into the car. She handed her bag to Chloé in the passenger seat, then put on her seat belt.
"You could have put your bag in the back," Chloé complained, Harmonie smiled and looked through the rearview mirror at the girls behind her, "Corine, you can put the car seat in the trunk if you see it's in the way."
Corine looked up then shook her head and smiled, "No, it's fine, we'll put it in the middle."
Harmonie nodded with a smile and then started after making sure everyone had their seat belts on.
"By the way, H, Stacy, is she in your drama class?" asked Cassidy suddenly.
Harmonie hummed without looking away, Chloe turned to Cassidy who was behind Harmonie, and asked, "Why?"
Then in a joking tone, "Do you like her?" said Elle, raising her eyebrows in a smirk.
Cassidy looked away, and her ears began to tint, Chloe's expression froze, and then she said in shock, "No? Seriously?!"
Cassidy blushed even more, "What does this have to do with you?" she said abruptly.
"You're our friend," Corine replied instead of Chloe.
Cassidy grunted slightly and then said quietly, "Sorry, Chloe."
Chloe smiled and then said, "Wait, I think you said something, but I didn't hear it, can you repeat it?"
Cassidy rolled her eyes, "You heard me fine."
"No, seriously, I was distracted by the way you answered me at the time, too shocked that my friend..."
"I said I was sorry," Cassidy interrupted, knowing that Chloe was about to launch into an endless speech.
Chloe's grin deepened, and she quickly glanced at Harmonie, who had a smile on her face as well.
"Oh, I almost forgot, Hazel's having a movie night tomorrow," Harmonie said as she turned the wheel of the car.
"Where?" asked Corine, Cassidy looked at her and then said, "At the cinema, of course, that makes sense."
"It would have made sense to me, too, if I hadn't seen a movie theater in their house," she said, pointing with her eyes to the two in front of them.
Cassidy's eyes widened slightly, and he said in a voice, "You have a movie theater in your house?"
"Yes, but she planned the evening at the movie theater downtown..." Harmonie added, stopping at the red light.
"Precious, that fancy movie theater over there?" said Cassidy, recalling the name of the theater in question, which was supposed to be a luxury theater, for those who could afford it, of course, but it was a lambda theater for the common people.
Harmonie glanced in her rearview mirror, met Cassidy's gaze, and nodded, "Yes, but..."
The light turned green, interrupting Harmonie for a moment, then she resumed, "But she said it was her night, so she reserved the whole VIP part of the cinema for the evening from 4 pm when we finish classes."
"Wow, sometimes I forget you're loaded," Cassidy said, a little taken aback.
"We're in a luxury car, Cassidy..." says Corine softly, smiling.
"Comfortable and spacious. You have to clarify," says Harmonie, smiling slightly.
"A comfortable, spaced-out luxury car." corrected Corine, Cassidy then asked, "What's up with that?"
"What?" asked Harmonie, guessing who was addressing her.
"Comfortable and spacious."
"Ahh..." Harmonie understood her question, "I like to feel comfortable and not confined, hence my need for space."
"It's mostly the fact that you like to feel comfortable in your clothes that make people forget how rich you are..." said Cassidy with a smile.
Corine laughed suddenly, "The fact that you're talking about space made me think about this morning."
Chloé laughed too, "Damn, she stressed me out..."
The others nodded, "Seriously, how can you forget that you're afraid of heights?" Cassidy added with a laugh.
Harmonie smiled slightly embarrassed, "I was in a frenzy. "
"Hey, that's right," Cassidy began, placing a hand on Harmonie's seat and moving a little closer, "I just realized something, this morning you were all excited, yesterday and the day before you were smiling a lot, and now I feel like you've regained your shell from before."
"Very good metaphor," Harmonie said, then stopped again in front of the red light.
"And actually the answer is simple, the more tired she is, the more excited she is. The more competitive she is, the more excited she is to win," Corine said, then added, "Most of the time she has a slight smile, borderline, you get the impression she's trying hard not to smile, that's just the way she is."
"How do you know that?" asked Cassidy with a smile, one eyebrow raised.
"You were talking about it with Chloé this morning, after class with the French teacher. Chloé complained that she was too excited and Harmonie said it was fatigue, then they went into deeper analysis, and you were on your phone."
"Well, it was just a theory..." Harmonie added, but she had the impression that most of the time the theory was correct.
Finally, the light turned green.
"Ah okay, by the way, can you tell the difference between our French teacher and real-life Cassandra? I mean, they're the same person, but can you tell the difference?"
"I can tell the difference between the teacher and your sister from my side," Chloé said, Cassidy then looked at Corine.
"I think of her more as a teacher now, so it's a little weird when we see each other outside the classroom," Corine replied.
"What about you Cassidy, can you tell the difference since she's your sister?" asked Chloé.
"I'm fine. It's kind of fun knowing she's my sister and I feel a little bit of pride, although I have to admit sometimes I think of her more as my sister than my teacher. What about you, H?"
Harmonie tapped her index finger on the wheel to find an appropriate answer, "I would say it depends on the situation. Because sometimes I'd rather 'forget' that she's my teacher and other times that I know her."
Cassidy, feeling her thirst for gossip fueled, had a sudden twinkle in her eye and asked, "Can you elaborate?"