NATASHA

I couldn't see him the same way again. From solving crimes, to being the criminal, in the span of weeks. Today was the day I got to choose white dresses with Aalia, but it didn't feel the same anymore. Getting married to a man that killed an innocent man, sent shivers down my spine. Aalia and I were sitting in her room, and she sat quietly while she watched me rethink the last few months of my life.
"I don't want to marry him anymore." I said, while I took the pathetic ring off my finger. It wasn't like he personally proposed to me with it; I put it on myself, and I can take it off myself just as easily.
"You don't want to marry Mr. Pretty blue eyes?" She said.
"No. I don't." I crossed my arms, scoffing at her statement.
"Come on! I was just going to mention how cute your babies would be. Green or blue eyed baby?" She squealed.
"Cant I just- call off the wedding?" Aalia's words lingered in my head. I tried getting the sight out of my head, but it was hard to.
"It's Niklaus, babe. You're gonna have to accept that Mr. Pretty blue eyes is your fiancé, and your soon-to-be husband. Can't get past Niklaus."
"I know. God I feel like an idiot."
"Well, you're gonna have to buy this goddamn dress soon."
"We'll get it over and done with today, so I can get the thought out of my head." An innocent man's body laying dead in front of my door, blood that was pooling around him and all over Dane's clothes. It was horrifying to witness. "Where are we gonna go?"
"I think the bodyguards will take us there."
"Bodyguards??"
"Yeah!" Aalia said, "cool hey?"
"I don't know."

﹋﹋﹋﹋﹋﹋

The place seemed like a very large upscaled walk in wardrobe. Many white dresses.
"Too many choices." I said, "and plus, they all look the same, don't you think."
"Seriously. No they don't." Aalia pointed at the overly feminised mannequin, "different necks, see?"
"Hm." Aalia threw a dress against my chest and tapped it. "Try it. It'll be gorgeous."
I rolled my eyes, "fine."

﹋﹋﹋﹋﹋﹋

I came out of the changing room, wearing what Aalia choose for me. The dress was lightly jewelled, the sleeves fell, and rested on my arm. It was a long dress; it dragged around on the ground, and it was a little poofy, but it flowed elegantly, and I think I was in love with it. Aalia had good choice.
"You're definitely getting that. We aren't looking at other choices madame." She chuckled.
"Thanks but-"
"No buts." She grinned, "get changed, we're buying it."

"But how am I going to pay you back!?" I sighed, "it's 48,000 dollars!"
"Hush Natasha. No such thing as paying us back here." She laughed, "it's not much."
"Not much?" I gasped, "that's almost as much as my salary."
"Done!" Aalia smiles, "great wedding dress, it should compliment with the insanely sexy fiancé you have."
I pouted my lips, and glanced at her, "no. This is part of Niklaus's plan and I can't give in"
"Why don't you see things in a positive light? I mean you're getting a beautiful dress and a beautiful wedding, there's nothing horrible about that?"
"The groom."
"Natasha listen, he messed up. He didn't do something that bad."
"He did! He killed an innocent man! I saw him holding the gun." I exclaimed.
"Have you talked to him?"
"I don't want to-I can't." I rubbed my jawline, "I don't know, Aalia."
"I get it, really," she sighed, "but if you don't talk to him you'll never get answers."

﹋﹋﹋﹋﹋﹋

The dress was sitting in my walk-in wardrobe, glimmering, bright, and white. The most beautiful dress I have ever laid eyes on, the most expensive one too. It stood out from the rest of my wardrobe, dull and dead. I can only imagine what Niklaus's one looks like. Necrotic and decomposing, I suppose. It was only a mere few days until the wedding; I was about to ball my eyes out.

I got out of my room, and downstairs was a man with pale skin, and a pair of glasses. He was very formal, and his hair was short and neatly trimmed.
"That's Dr. Valencio; if you're wondering," Aalia said, from behind me, "he's quite old, mentioning the fact that he used to work with Dane's dad."
"I haven't seen him around at all." I said, squinting my eyes to take a better look at him.
"That because he's too worried healing all our lower class men, doing the dirty work for us obviously."
"Why's he here now all of a sudden?"
"Hm. Don't know actually!" Aalia grinned, "should we follow him?"
When curiosity gets the best of you in this mansion, you would always know it's something bad. But it's intriguing; you just want to know more, and more.
"Yes"

We ran down the flight of stairs, and followed the Doctor sneakily into Niklaus's private gym. When Dr. Valencio swung the glass door open, Niklaus's muffled rage was very clearly heard by everyone standing in a 30 metre radius. Aalia held the door just before it closed, and we both went inside.
"I'm being serious I will kill you, right here, right now." Niklaus said, his teeth were stained red, and his mouth dripped with blood.
"You deserve it cupcake. Do you remember the huge bruise you gave me?" Dane mocked, and glanced towards my direction, but looked away as if he'd seen nothing. "Lower your ego and wear a mouth guard next time."
"There will be no next time, because you will be buried 6 ft deep underground." Niklaus said, while the Doctor kneeled down and examined his swollen, and red mouth.
"Sure."
Not only that, Niklaus's abdomen was also bruised. I wonder what got into Dane to do that.
"What did you do to him Mr Marchetti?" The doctor asked.
"Walton. Anyway, all I did was punch him."
"Twice. One on my abdomen, and one on my face." Niklaus said, pointing two fingers at the blood constantly dripping from his mouth. "I'm not letting you get away with this Dane."
"What are you going to do? My father would kill you if you tried killing me." He scoffed.
"Your father doesn't care about you." Niklaus said, his voice low and merciless.
"Your father couldn't care less when you went missing. He would've been content with the fact you got kidnapped."

Aalia gave me a look, amongst the tension between the two.
"Please calm down. Boss; it's nothing serious just go wash your mouth." Doctor Valencio said.
Niklaus got up, off the ground, groaning in pain while he walked towards the nearest water source to clean the bloody mess he's made. Dane was still standing inside the arena shamelessly with his arms crossed, while the doctor followed Niklaus. Both Aalia and I left, as the tension surpassed and we went back into her room.

"Thanks, Aalia." I said.
"For what?"
"For being my friend, and all. Because Niklaus headshotted my best friend; and I witnessed it all."
"I should thank you too." She sighed, "there's no other girl in this place which I could bear being friend with, you know?"
"There's that lady. . . Alma?"
"Nope." Aalia chuckled, "I wonder what got into Dane to have Niklaus look like that; it's rare for him to lose a fight. And trust me, I know he wasn't going easy." Aalia said, while she twisted her arm around, showing a scar, near her wrist. "I fought with Niklaus when he forced us to train with him. Hazards everywhere at the time. Niklaus left his pocket knife open on the ground, and you can guess what happens next."
"You fell right onto it."
"Yup." She chuckled, "alooooot of blood. Doctor Valencio was there, he tied a tourniquet around it and I needed stitches."
"I wonder what the scar across Niklaus's face means. Would you know a thing or two about it?"
"Not at all. He's never bothered speaking about it; and no one has the guts to ask. I'm guessing it must've been from a mission he did years back."
"Or maybe a training sesh with the last Don."
"Or maybe that?" She laughed.
"Random question; but what numbers did you try for Niklaus's passcode?"
"Almost everything, his birthday, his boss's birthday, his first love's birthday, every birthday of someone who meant something to him."
"What if it's something around the house?"
"It can't be."
"He wouldn't be stupid enough to put a birthday as a passcode."
"Well, it wouldn't be an expiry date either."
I thought for a moment, "the wine cellar! The years are all 4 digit. Maybe our answer's there."
"I doubt that, plus are you sure we should go into that horrifying basement again? Who knows what we'll find." Aalia sighed, "and it's just for fun anyway. We'll definitely be murdered if we attempted walking into his room."
"You're right. But-we should try anyway. We just won't walk in or anything. It could be crucial in the future. Maybe the key to my escape."
Aalia frowned, "are you sure? I mean, don't you think it's a little too late now? Everyone thinks you're dead, and it's just-"
"Just in case."
"Fine, we'll do it."

﹋﹋﹋﹋﹋﹋

I used the flashlight on my phone, and so did Aalia. The lights that once turned on with sensors, seemed to stop working today. The basement was also unusually warm.
"We've got to make this quick; take out the notes app." I said. "1985, '91, '96, 2005, 2010."
Those were the wines that were on display, but to go in deeper we needed another key, which had to be inside Niklaus's room. It was almost as if this place was its own mega escape room.
"Such a weird pattern." She chuckled, "anyway, we better go before Niklaus drags another body into this basement."

﹋﹋﹋﹋﹋﹋

When we were walking out, we saw Niklaus adjusting the two top buttons of his button up while a cigarette was situated in his mouth, his strong nauseating cologne seeping into our noses as he walked past, Dmitri and Dane trailing behind, all of them wearing designer glasses, you couldn't see their eyes at all. Why does Dane make it look like they're getting along? Out of all people?
"Threesome." Aalia said. "Sorry, impulsive thoughts."
I scoffed, "does Dane seriously like them?"
"They got into a heated fight earlier today. Niklaus insisted he would be killed."
"But friends do that too! Am I overthinking??" I said. "I just cannot understand Dane. His whole family is just, so-"
"You haven't talked to him about anything that's happened! Assumptions, assumptions, assumptions."
"He's wearing designer glasses that Niklaus probably gave to him, and now they're probably out to murder another innocent."
Aalia chuckled, "oh my god. Now's the perfect opportunity to try out the new numbers on his passcode!

We went upstairs, and found his room.
"Let's start off with 1985." Aalia said, as it beeped negatively.
". . .1991?" It beeped negatively again.
"Okay surely 1996 would work." ***** nope.
"2005!" Aalia sighed, and typed it out again in disbelief. A negative beep.
"Ugh. 2010?" *****
None of the wine years worked. Aalia squealed, and a light bulb appeared on top of her head, as her eyes widened with ideas anticipating to pour out of her mouth.
"I think I got it. There's 5 numbers altogether right?"
"Yeah." I said, I tried trusting her words but I didn't know where she would go with this.
Aalia jumped around, "aaaand this is why you should be friends with a professional hacker! I think we just cracked this code!"
"Elaborate?"
"If you find the difference between each of the years, we end up with 4 numbers, give me a second." Aalia looked up, while she counted her fingers, "6, 5, 9, 5; the difference in between each year. Give it a go!"
"Sure. . ." After many failed attempts, I had no faith in this theory. I clicked each number, and I clicked on the 'OK'. Aalia had both her two hands on her face out of excitement.

A negative beep. Of course it had to be.

"What!?" Aalia frowned, "that was all we had!"
"It was worth a shot. Who knew breaking a 4 digit code was this hard."
"It must be certain wines inside the locked section. It's impossible to get it."
"I think we're right about the wines, we just haven't figured out the other half! I so totally have to tell Lance. He'd be ecstatic!"
"He could help!"
"Of course he can!"