The Paintings

In the end, Alexander made me shower before he would show me around the lab. But when I came out of my first shower, he clicked his tongue on me and ordered me to take another shower. “Wash your hair too,” he said.

That morning, I showered twice for him before he was finally satisfied. My face was already sour as my fingers became wrinkly due to the excessive exposure to water.

He gave me a set of clothes that just fit my style. A black tank top and jeans with a pair of leather boots. Simple but chic.

But then he sprayed my whole body with a bottle of perfume. A whole lot of it.

“Xander… stop,” I called him with his nickname that I usually use. “You’re going to make me smell hideous.”

“Better than smelling like that ice of an angel,” he murmured.

“Huh?”

He sprayed a couple more puffs of the perfume bottle before turning the whole bottle into cinders with his own hand. I gawked at his ability. To think that he was always able to do that and I had not known. To think that he could easily turn me into cinders at every moment… I wondered how I was still able to be alive in his presence.

“Come,” he beckoned me to the door.

The man, instead of going straight to the lab, took me on a tour of the mansion. We started with the first floor. “You’ve seen everything. The front door, the living room, and the dining room,” he said briefly and coldly. Then he proceeded up the stairs again at a fast pace. I followed suit, trying to keep up with his long legs.

“The second floor is where we have all the rooms,” he continued to say while standing in the middle of the hallway between the west and east wings, “The building is divided into two wings. The west wing is where the boys and I have our rooms. The east wing is where you have your room.”

He led me to walk in the hallway of the west wing. “Since you have seen the east wing, I’ll take you on a tour on the west wing.”

The hallway was long and was filled with lots of paintings on either side. I did not realize it at first because I was walking quite fast –keeping up with Alexander who was walking faster –but when I looked up to one of the paintings, I saw… her.

The girl I saw in my dream. Or rather, the one that I became in my dream.

The painting was huge. She was a brown-haired beauty with caramel skin and dark eyes. Her red gown was exquisite and her eyes were so deep that you felt like drowning inside them. I stopped and gawked at the beautiful lady.

“Who is she?” I heard my voice but never truly expected Alexander to answer.

The man walked back to me and stood beside me, watching the same painting. “Amelia,” he said.

“Amelia?” Things did not add up. “I saw her… in my dream.”

Her clothes… looked centuries old, or she could very well be dressing up in a historical theme.

“Well,” Alexander said, “She was the Lady centuries ago.”

“She what?”

“Let’s just continue,” Alexander said, “I haven’t got all day.”

With that, he continued to lead me down the hall. I gawked at several other paintings. I could recognize Alexander’s, Michael’s, Renald’s, and Tony’s among the paintings. With Renald having the most paintings and Alexander having the least. They all were in different attire. And as we walked deeper into the hallway, their clothes seemed to get… older.

“You guys like to dress up with the medieval theme, huh?” I asked while walking.

Alexander stopped in front of a door on the right side. “This is Michael’s room,” he said pointing to the door, then he added, “What do you mean dress up?”

I pointed to the paintings. “You all commissioned paintings of yourselves in medieval clothes…” Right then, I just realized how slow my mind was. They were supernatural creatures and they had explained that they have experienced the ninth cycle of the Lady appearance. Needless to say… they were creatures who can live long.

Seriously, it was the only reason I agreed to stay. Because I wanted to learn about their molecular immortal genes. And yet somehow, I asked about them dressing up in the paintings…

“Right. Immortal creatures,” I mumbled while Alexander clicked his tongue at my interrupting his tour.

He then pointed to the door on the left side, across the first room. “That’s Tony’s room.”

We proceeded further down the hall. My eyes found several other ladies amongst the paintings. “Was she a Lady too?” I pointed to a blonde girl with what looked like a cinderella kind of dress and a parasol. Her hair was styled really high above her head like a bird's nest.

“Yes. That’s Crishella.”

“How about her?” I pointed to the dark-haired lady who was wearing a white shirt and black pants. Very contrasting than the other two ladies I found.

Alexander looked at the painting I pointed to. I swore something just changed in his demeanor when he looked at her.

“She’s Kinara.”

I was shocked by how Alexander said her name. In the months I have known Alexander, I have never seen him talked like that about anyone. I could tell that there was longingness in his tone. Perhaps, it was a girl that got away?

“Kinara?”

“She’s… the prettiest girl I have ever seen.”

I looked up at him. The man kept his eyes to Kinara in such tenderness that I had to blink, making sure he was truly Alexander.

However, when Alexander turned to look at me, his gaze turned extremely cold with a rage building inside him. I did not quite know why, but I could feel his anger towards me. As if he was disappointed in me or as if I had wronged him.

What did I do? I had no idea… Was he angry because I quit as his sugar baby?? But why?

His mean glare made me feel uncomfortable. I tried to gulp my anxiety away but it only made me sweat more.

“Every girl you see in the paintings is the previous Lady,” he said, “Now, don’t ask any more question.”

He turned to walk again. And I followed.

We reached the end of the hall where he pointed to the last door. “That’s Renald’s room. He likes this room because he could just sprint in the hallway right after he opens the door.” Alexander chuckled slightly, “He’s such a dog.”

The wordings were harsh. Who would ever call their “son” a dog? But Renald was technically… a dog. Well, a wolf. And Alexander said it in such a warm tone.

“You liked Renald, huh?”

“Well, he’s my youngest. He’s very easy to control than the other two.” As if he just realized what he had said, he looked at me and furrowed his brows.

“Wow. Never thought of you as the fatherly type,” I commented.

“What do you mean?” he asked, continuing to walk back to the main building. “I was your sugar daddy for like months.”

“Sugar daddies are not fatherly figure, Xander.”

When we reached the main building again, he beckoned me to climb the stairs to the third floor. Unlike the second floor where there were west and east wings, the third floor was one whole building entirely.

My jaw dropped as I took in what I saw in front of me. Rows of rows of rows of rows… of rows of bookshelves. The stairs opened up to a big opening of marbled floors with bookshelves circling the floor. Then there were smaller stairs to get to the second floor of the library.

“Oh. My. God.”