Charmed - 4.

Turns out the building we went into was a vault that held safety deposit boxes and the one Uncle Don opened held pictures of my mom and dad when they were about my age, a set of keys to our old loft, and the title deed for the entire building.

My aunt and uncle had been named the guardians of my estate until I turned 18. They'd managed and renovated the building over the years except for the apartment we lived in which was cleaned periodically but otherwise remained the same. I had flown up to NYC the next day and took a cab to the Lower East Side which was once a bustling community of students, artists, and immigrants in the 80's.

Thanks to the gentrification of the area and the marketing of the East Village, the value of the tenement building had appreciated and was worth way more than what my parents paid for it back when they initially acquired it.

I've read the title deed over a dozen times and still can't believe it's in my name. I own a small piece of Manhattan!

I arrive at a brick-faced, four-story building that used to be a warehouse in the early 1800s. I pay the cabbie and walk up the stairs into the bright entryway with its white walls and large windows by the entrance letting in natural light from outside. The light fixtures are modern and the wood of the stairway looks like it's recently been polished.

Damn, this place looks nice, much more modern than I remember, especially with the addition of an elevator. There are 10 units in total, one being the apartment we once occupied. I make my way there choosing to take the stairs like I used to when I was a little girl. Thank goodness I packed light.

When I reach the top floor, I walk past the neighbour's door and open mine. I'm surprised by how clean the place is. I walk around the spacious loft that combines the kitchen, living room and dining room. I take my time looking at the family pictures and various paintings which were done by my dad. This floor was like his personal studio and usually covered with a tarp to not stain the hardwood floors.

I climb the metal staircase to the second floor where the bedrooms are located. I stop at my parents' bedroom first. The master suite is just as I remember it from the large bed that fit all three of us comfortably, to the expansive cupboards that take up an entire wall.

I run my hands through my parents' clothes. The colour contrast is startling. My mother's style is more muted consisting of monochromes while my dad looks like a rainbow threw up on every item he owned. I smile at the red jacket with one yellow sleeve and the other green – atrocious. Then again, that was the style of the 80s and 90s. He was able to be more flamboyant as an artist compared to my mother who worked in corporate.

Another memory springs to the surface and I open the door to the shoe rack and take out my mother's favourite block heels. They fit like a glove. When I was younger, I played dress-up in her clothes and my feet would slip and slide in the oversized shoes as I trudged around their room. I go to sit at her vanity and open the drawers. Her makeup and jewellery are still there. I put on the pearl necklace looping it over my neck a couple of times. She always wore it as a statement piece. It sits on my chest as opposed to touching my belly like it used to when I was a kid. Looking at myself in the mirror kind of reminds me of her. A swell of emotions rises within me. I quickly get up and head to my bedroom which is still spacious but not nearly as large.

The room is pastel pink from the walls to the little bed that looks too small for me to fit in now. I remember helping my dad paint this room after the brick had been plastered over. One of the walls is covered in my own art pieces that were done on paper. The three deformed stick figures with the lopsided faces are my rendition of our little family. I can't believe how my dad used to lie to me telling me my creations were beautiful. My mother on the other hand was more honest and would ask what exactly she was looking at. I believe the term she used was 'wonderful' and I finally get it because I'm currently wondering what the heck some of these drawings are meant to be.

I lay in the too-small bed with my calves hanging over the edge. A dreamcatcher hangs above me and stars are pressed onto the ceiling. I wonder if they still glow in the dark. I pick up the photo frame of us from the bedside table and the memory of their passing hits me. I set the frame down and move back into the lounge.

I'm restlessly pacing and come to a standstill when I remember this is the spot where they were shot. I look down at the exposed wooden floors which have been cleaned to leave no mark. Then I remember the blood-soaked, white carpet which must have been removed. My eyes are drawn to the vent from where I watched it happen.

The vibrating of my phone snaps me out of my reverie. It's Charlondra calling. She's supposed to be meeting me here. My aunt and uncle offered to come down with me, but I declined wanting to process this alone. I guess I won't be completely alone with my best friend in tow.

"Hello?"

"Hey, I'm downstairs. The brick-faced building, right? On Second Avenue?"

"Yeah, you're at the right place. I'm buzzing you in. Take the stairs to the top floor."

I wait outside the door because I'm not walking all the way down to walk back up again. I turn at the sound of the elevator I completely forgot about and see Char step off rolling her suitcase behind her.

"This place is pretty cool. How'd you find it?"

"I own it," I blurt out once she enters the loft and I close the door behind me.

"You what?"

Why does this girl look confused? Like she didn't understand the three words that just came out of my mouth?

"It belonged to my parents. My uncle gave me the keys and deed yesterday. It's legally mine now."

Her eyebrows disappear behind her curly bangs.

"Wow! That's awesome! Look at you inheriting prime real estate like a true trust fund kid," she says with a smug smile on her face.

"Argh please!" I roll my eyes. "I've been doing my research and it's all thanks to market speculation and the real estate bubble. I don't think my parents were playing the property game like that. On second thought, maybe my mom had a heads up..."

Char walks around probably taking in every detail with her analytical mind. "How does it feel to be here?" she asks, picking up a photo frame. "To be home?"

"It's kind of strange. I can't explain it. It's nostalgic which makes me feel warm and fuzzy and simultaneously sad."

I unconsciously find myself drawn back to that spot where my parents were executed. The murderer's face is clear in my mind this time. He wasn't a stranger. I'd seen him before. His name was Mar- something. He'd come around a few times. My father would sometimes send me to my room. Other times they spoke in hushed tones. My mother didn't like him and I distinctly remember them arguing about it. She said she didn't want 'that man' in her house.

"Earth to Soleil? Hey!" I see Charlondra standing in front of me. She takes my hands in hers looking a little worried. "Where'd you go just now?"

"I remember the man who killed my parents. I think his name was Martin, no, Martinez. I remember his hands, his face. They were standing right here when he shot them."

I look down at the ground between us before looking up at Char. Silence passes between us as we share a look. She wants to say something but she doesn't. Instead, she hugs me. For a moment, I'm taken aback. My friend is not the affectionate type. I squeeze her tight, taking comfort in the foreign gesture.

She pulls back after a few beats and leads me to the bright red couch – another of my dad's choices because there's a brown leather sofa set I'm sure my mother picked out.

"Have you decided what you want to do with the place?" Charlondra asks.

"I'm keeping it. I don't know about all the things in it, but I'm keeping this apartment and definitely the building. The land alone is worth a small fortune. Aunt Gaby, my father's brother's wife who did the renovations, told me she's been approached by developers quite a few times over the years. They would most likely demolish the place and build a high rise in its stead. I gotta hold on to this small piece of history – of my parents and the city. Some things are worth more than money. This brings me closure."

"That's beautiful, Soleil. You make me wanna call my parents..." She abruptly pauses and looks at me. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be." I'd never want her to feel bad about having her parents around. "Speaking of which, I was about to call them a couple of days ago and still might. Care to explain where you've been and what you've been up to, Madam Espionage?"

"Technically, espionage is the gathering of intelligence. I did not obtain anything confidential," she defends.

"Spare me the semantics. You've been lying about your whereabouts, you're secretive, and said something about being 'sworn in'. What the hell does that sound like?"

"You're making it sound worse than it actually is. Okay," she takes a deep breath. "There's good news and bad news. Which one do you want me to start with?"

"How about you start from the beginning? What did you wish for that night?"

"Who runs the world? Girls! Who runs the world? Girls!" Charlondra starts singing and gets up to hit a few awkward dance moves.

For a split second, I think she's lost her mind. She's not usually so... animated. She sits back down again soon after.

"That night, the song was playing and it got stuck in my head. I've always wondered when attending these high-profile events with my dad who runs this mutha- because it sure ain't us girls."

"So your wish was to know who runs the world?" I ask trying to get to the crux of the matter.

"My wish was to meet the one who runs it," she clarifies. "What about you? What did you wish for?"

I throw my head back feeling embarrassed and sigh. Her wish was more intelligent than mine considering how things went down.

"I wished for Brice to notice me."

For a minute she doesn't say anything and I'm scared to look at her and find her silently judging my life's choices.

"Well, that explains why he's been all over you like white on rice. Which brings me to my next question. Where is he now? He's usually not too far behind you anytime I look. Should I expect to see him during Comic-Con?"

"Definitely not. And if you do, know that he's stalking me because I'm done with him."

"How does that work when your wish– "

"I told you at the Halloween party that I was going to tell him about it and I did. He then broke the spell."

"What do you mean 'broke the spell'?" asks Charlondra.

"Whatever that magic man did, Brice undid it. Now, stop diverging and tell me why your wish has you lying and traipsing halfway across the globe."

"Fine, but we're going to circle back to you. The night of the fair, I got an email in my burner account styled as an invitation. I ignored it thinking it was spam, but a new one appeared each day. Even after I blocked the address, the invitation was somehow able to come through. I tried to track the sender, but it was coming from a ghost server. Then the day after the Halloween party, I got a physical invitation delivered to the school in a green envelope. And get this, the address was for a site, not a physical location. The site wasn't appearing on my normal browser but when I tried it with Tor a single page with a riddle came up."

"Tor? As is the browser for the dark web?"

"Hey, even the military, government agencies, and journalists use it so it's not as ominous as it sounds. It's a bastion for anonymity. Anyway, I solved the riddle only for another to appear and with each answer came a number. When I looked at the sequence, it appeared to be co-ordinates which pointed to a house in Long Island."

"So you decided to get on a plane and go check out a location you got from a weird quiz on the dark web?"

"I know it sounds crazy and I wouldn't have come, but the following day I got another green envelope delivered to my house. Inside was a first-class plane ticket to New York."

"You could have been kidnapped and held for ransom!" I exclaim feeling like I'm pointing out the obvious.

"Listen, I never told anyone about that night or what I wrote in that book. However, both the invitation and the letter that accompanied the ticket alluded to my wish. If it helps you feel better, I wasn't the only one at that house. There were others who had also been chosen and sworn in."

A sense of dread settles in the pit of my stomach. I have a bad feeling about this. I get up and start pacing again.

"It sounds like a cult."

"It's more of a club."

Where have I heard that before?

"And what's the name of this club?"

"I can't tell you that." I stare at Char unamused. "Look, there are some things I can't tell you. I'm trying to give you the peripheries without revealing anything that would jeopardize my integrity."

"Fine. So, what did you have to do at this house in Long Island? It better not be some sexually deviant shit."

"What? Eww! No. The chosen were each given a room and our next task - to solve an algorithm."

"Did you manage to solve it?"

"Of course, I did."

Charlondra smiles briefly before it falls. She brushes the coily hair on her forehead back – a nervous tick.

"Why do you look like that? What was this algorithm used for?"

"It was a key for the World Bank."

"You broke into the World Bank?!"

"Shhhh!" She rushes over to me and grabs a hold of my lips with both hands. "I wasn't supposed to tell you that but I have to tell someone. I couldn't do it. They wanted me to take some money out of the account. It was nominal and wouldn't have been noticed, but it's the principle of the matter. I'm no thief."

I grab her hands and pry them away from my mouth feeling relieved for a number of reasons. It looks like my friend does have some common sense left.

"How much did they want you to take?" I ask out of curiosity.

"$500 000"

"What the- that's not nominal Charlondra!"

"Compared to the hundreds of billions in their various accounts, it is."

"It sounds like you were being recruited into a club of criminals. I mean what do they even need the money for?"

"Maybe. I just- I can't leave it like this. I'm so close to the truth."

"What are you saying? You want to back-peddle on your decision and take the money?"

"No, of course not! And to answer your previous question, that money was supposed to be used in the next task so I need to get my hands on some cash and fast if I'm going to continue on to the next phase."

Do I even want to know? No, no I don't.

I go to the kitchen and open up the fridge. Just my luck that it's empty. I check the kitchen cabinets but other than plates, cups and utensils, there is nothing edible in sight. Looks like I need to go grocery shopping.

Charlondra tosses a green envelope on the counter which catches my attention. I pick it up, running my hand over the broken, gold wax seal and pull out its contents. There's a flight ticket and a note:

Buy-in is still $500 000. See you in 3 days.

"They're expecting me in Vegas. They've given me the ticket; I just need the money. If it were in Rands I would have covered it with no problem but I don't have that kind of cash on hand. Do you?" she looks at me all wide-eyed with hope.

"What? Are you talking to me?"

"Yes you, Miss Manhattan! Did you happen to come into any liquid assets? I'll pay you back. You know I'm good for it. My parents will only give me access to my trust after I get my degree!"

Charlondra's remaining senses have packed up and left the building.

"No! And even if I did, I wouldn't give it to you to go give it to your criminal syndicate holed up in the City of Sin."

"I don't want to scare you. Shit, I'm trying not to scare myself here but there's no backing out. I tried to when I left the house and was told I must see the process through."

"And if you don't?"

"I don't know." She shrugs. "How did Brice break the spell anyway? Maybe he can help me break out of this agreement."

"It's... complicated. Brice isn't even human. As unbelievable as it sounds, he reads minds, manipulates water and can even teleport. Apparently, when I made that wish there was an outstanding debt that I owed him because he'd saved my life. We were already somehow bound and that wish exploited a loophole." Damnit! How had I forgotten the vow I made to Brice when he gave me that ultimatum in the ocean? We had an agreement of our own - til death. "He mentioned something about a law – a life for a life – and I owed him mine. So I vowed to serve him for as long as I lived or else he would return me to the sea that nearly drowned me."

"If that's the case then how exactly are you done with him?"

"Brice cheated on me." It's the first time I've admitted out loud what happened even to myself. "I thought he liked me and we were in a relationship, but he hooked up with someone else so I just left him to it."

I feel the sting of tears at the back of my eyes and my nose begins to clog up. I sniff, attempting to suck my emotions back in.

"I'm sorry Soleil. I know how much you liked him. Maybe this is what needed to happen for you to get over your infatuation. I remember when he pulled you out of the water at SugarBay camp and how he peed on your leg after you were stung by blue bottles." She shivers in visceral disgust which makes me laugh. "You've had stars in your eyes over that boy ever since. I understand your story, but I can't figure out the loophole in mine."

"I don't know Char, but chances are you've already met this person. With your father being an ambassador who's constantly surrounded by world leaders, can you think of any interaction with one of them that stands out to you? Anyone you may fancy or someone that has caught your eye?"

"No, I mean... No."

"Wait, who came to mind between the two no's you just professed?"

"There's this person I've been chatting to for years, but only online. We game together, share class notes, and swap conspiracy theories. They're smart, dare I say smarter than me. But we're the same age, same grade, and we both board. Well, we used to. We've discussed meeting up, but nothing has ever come of it."

"Sounds like a strong possibility."

"So the person who runs the world is a teenage kid who just graduated high school?"

"Or they're pretending to be one to get close to you. When I made my wish, I at least knew the guy – correction – I thought I did but you get what I'm saying. You don't know this person you asked to meet and, more importantly, this person may not even be human. So you need to tread carefully."

"We can stand here and speculate and freak ourselves out or we can take a leap of faith and find out. If you were bound to Brice unknowingly all these years then who's to say that I'm not bound as well? I don't want whatever this is working against me. I need to go to Vegas and see this through."

I wrack my brain trying to figure out how or where we can get the money that Char needs. Clearly, she's set her mind on this despite the possible dangers that lie ahead. If Brice and I were still on good terms, I would have asked him for the money. He literally had a safe in his room stashed with cash.

Wait a minute...

I make a mad dash to my old bedroom with my friend hot on my heels.

"Why are you running?" she asks.

I ignore her and move the bed exposing the vent I used to climb through. Sometimes my dad would ask me to hide things for him. I unscrew the nails and slide in. It's a much tighter fit at my big age. Instead of crawling on my hands and knees, I have to wiggle along the tight shaft on my belly.

"What are you doing?" Charlondra calls after me.

"Looking for something. Wait for me downstairs."

I don't know whether one of those bags I used to push through these vents is still here. If the ventilation system has been cleaned over the years, then someone may have lucked out and cashed in on a major payday. I turn right and left and find myself sliding down at an angle until I'm staring down a passage that looks into the lounge. Scampering feet draw my attention and I find myself face to face with a rat the size of a cat.

I scream.

"Soleil! Are you alright?" calls Charlondra.

Her voice is coming from the direction of the lounge.

"Yeah, we need to call an exterminator. They weren't lying about New York's vermin infestation."

I briefly wonder whether the electricity in this place is working. The ratty resident might have chewed through the wiring for all I know. I crawl around a little more, trying to remember if I had left anything here or if my dad had asked me to take it out. The last time I was in here, was that fateful night and my memories of this place come in bits and pieces. I don't see anything and start to backtrack to my bedroom. At least I tried. I guess it's back to the drawing board.

I take a wrong turn and find myself in a dark passage. Instead of moving towards the light, I crawl further in. My eyes slowly adjust to the darkness and I find one of the bags. I grab hold of it and start crawling back. The bag is heavy and dragging it in this confined space is quite the task. My arms and legs are starting to cramp. There's no way I'm going to make it all the way back to my room lugging this.

"Char!" I call out.

"Yeah?"

I crawl towards her voice.

"Can you open the vent in the sitting area? There's a ladder and toolbox in the closet under the stairs."

I patiently wait for her to do the things that need to be done. Despite the cold weather, I've broken out into a bit of a sweat. It feels like I can breathe again when the grille is finally removed. I throw the bag out first and it hits the wooden floor with a metallic thud. The contents don't sound too encouraging. I ease down the ladder next.

"What's that?"

I squat down and open the small duffle bag. Inside are bars – gold bars that glimmer brightly between freshly minted $100 bills.

"Will this be enough?"

"Only one way to find out," says Char looking more excited than I've ever seen her.

She squats down beside me and starts taking out the money while mumbling a mental tally.

2024 / 08 / 17

WC: 4 184

How rich do y'all think Soleil is?

And more importantly, if you were in her shoes, would you borrow your friend half a mil?

Read ahead to Chapter 20 on REAM! Link in bio