Episode 4: The Dazzle of the town

I put on a knee-length black dress which stuck perfectly to my waist and flowed a little around the knee. The dress came in two layers- a thick, inner black layer of flannel with a soft, outer black layer of net. It was a little chilly in the evening, though it was already late spring.

I let my hair fall on the shoulders, sulking. I had thought I could visit the woods again- just go as far as the tree house. Maybe it's for the best that I didn't. It would have been disappointing to find out he wasn't there although that would make more sense. Why would he be there? His house was all the way - did he live in the woods? Was there a secret colony there? As far as I had seen there was no sign of human civilization anywhere near the woods. This, once again, brought me to the more pressing question - what was up with their ears and noses? Neither the old man nor Will looked like other people.

"Ella?" mom called from downstairs. I resurfaced from my chain of thoughts as I rushed downstairs swinging my slimbag over my shoulder.

Once we were in the car, mom and dad started rambling on about the Hursts who were throwing the party. But I was least interested. The only thing I looked forward to was the probability of meeting Joanne and Larry there. So, I faked an expression like I was listening when my mind dove in the thoughts of Will and my dream.

Maybe I had met him when we were kids and I just didn't remember. I barely remembered Joanne and Larry.

Getting off the car, we were engulfed by the flooding lights. It took me several minutes to adjust to the extremely dazzling show of lights everywhere.

We walked through the gate into a yard atleast as big as the mansion that stood infront of us. I felt an uncomfortable knot in my stomach. Ofcourse, it was beautiful and everything but it felt too much. Like everything was set for show and nothing was real.

Mr. Hurst, a tall, slightly tanned man with a set square jawline, crooked nose and calculating eyes, greeted us at the door with a smile flashing his teeth just like the lights outside, followed by Mrs. Hurst, a comparatively short, pale faced lady with beautiful blue eyes and a really hard make-up. I found it hard to believe that my parents went to school with them.

My parents were soon lost in being social while I took my chance of escaping into somewhere less crowded and a little less flashy. Everywhere I went all people could talk about was how wealthy the Hursts were and how bratty their son, the heir to this mansion was.

After tossing people for a little while I found myself sitting near something between a pool and a pond. There was no direct light here and the darkness felt so good. The absence of people, light, sound and the smell of alcohol was a relief. I was a little disappointed that I hadn't found my hopefully-still-friends and I just wanted to go home.

I took out my cellphone to see the time. It was just half past eight. Do I remember the way back home? GPS reliability was not an option. The network coverage here was crappy.

"Planning on ditching the party already?" I jumped up at a deep, male voice. Someone had successfully managed to creep up on me when I was deep in thoughts, once again. "I can help you," he said not sounding at all regretful, rather, amused by my reaction.

"No, thanks," I said trying to sound calm but firm and as I started to leave, he said, "You are Ella Bluebud, aren't you?" For the first time I looked back at him and really looked. "Larry?" I asked. His eyes shined at the name. He had a very familiar square jawline and blue eyes. The Hurst son, heir to this mansion.