Sunlight streamed into the room, followed by a soft knock on the door, I squinted my eyes open and walked to the door sluggishly.
I pulled the door open and frowned at Michelle.
"Father Jacob wants to see you"
My eyes snapped open immediately and I quickly rushed towards the drawing room.
"He's in his room actually," Michelle said.
I exhaled and made a turn towards his bedroom… I stopped just inches from the big double doors then raised my hand to knock.
My hand froze in uncertainty.
Did he agree to meet already?
If he did… then all that was left was for me to get him to accept my proposal right.
Sweat trickled down my brows in steady drops.
I had to try at least.
I knocked softly then waited as a voice beckoned me in.
I pushed the door open and walked in. Jacob sat on his sofa while he talked to his guide, Amos.
He quickly dismissed Amos, and waited till I sat opposite him.
"I already had Michelle prepare a flight to Japan, you need to be there at 7pm sharp, so… you have all the time to rest and prepare yourself. I figured you'd need the rest seeing as you didn't get any" he said.
My heart soared and I rushed up to hug him. "Thank you so much Jacob"
He patted me softly. "It's alright, just make sure to show up early, his guide mentioned that he hates tardiness,"
I pulled away, and nodded.
"You should get some rest, I have some things to finish up with… I will be taking a trip to Iran in two hours so… don't bother to drop by before you leave."
"You're so eager to get rid of me aren't you?"
He shook his head with a smile on his lips. "Go back to sleep Erica, you look like shit,"
"Ay, ay, sir" I said with a mock salute and walked out of the room.
I exhaled once the door closed behind me. Maybe….
Just maybe… everything would go fine.
....
At 5:30 pm, we were enroute to Japan. I wore the same dress, seeing as the only thing I had at Jacob's place were nightwears and casual clothing.
I stared out the window of the plane in thought. My mind immediately wandered to the shadow.
What kind of man was Akai Illumi?
"You should relax your mind for a while," Michelle said.
I nodded absentmindedly.
He's worse than Don. Jacob's words floated into my mind and I felt ten folds more uneasy.
The hostess voice came through the speakers, informing us about landing soon. Michelle immediately began packing our things.
We both stepped out.
"It's 6:15, we should be there in less than thirty minutes," Michelle said.
I nodded in understanding.
We stepped into the car waiting to take us to our destination and soon enough we were on the road.
The hum of the car felt soothing to my nerves, people, houses and cars outside zoomed past us in a blurry mess.
My mind must have been so seriously occupied that I didn't even notice when we reached our destination.
We both came down and Michelle and my gaze fixed on the massive house in front of me.
The large gate stood almost like an intimidating presence, unwilling to let strangers in. And I meant it literally.
Behind me Michelle talked to the cab man, after a few minutes I heard the cab drive off.
The gate still hadn't opened.
I was guessing it was an automatic gate but maybe it wasn't, if so a postman should've been here right.
"Hello" I shouted, waving my arms around.
"What the hell is going on?" Michelle asked.
"Like I know… what's the time,"
"It's 6:46,"
"Hello," I tried again, this time I banged on the gate.
Still nothing.
"I guess I should call the person we were supposed to meet," Michelle said, tapping in her phone.
I stared at her incredulously. "Didn't you think you should've done that earlier"
"Sorry boss,"
I groaned, as she put the phone to her ear. After a few rings… the line stopped.
"Fucking bastards, didn't they know we were coming or what?"
I screamed again, banging on the gate. After a few minutes of doing that, I saw a figure walk towards us.
Relief flooded through me.
"Who are you people?" The boy asked.
"Huh… we have a meeting with the lord of the fucking house, there's no bloody post man and it's not an automated door, how can you guys treat us this way?"
The boy looked confused. "Uhh… you're supposed to look into the camera there…"
Our gaze followed it and I stared at a signboard with a weird writing on it.
"Huh…"
"It says… look into the camera," the boy said. "It's in Japanese, sorry"
I exhaled exasperated. "How the fuck were we even supposed to know that, not everyone's freaking Japanese you know"
"Come on boss" Michelle said, dragging me to the camera.
Immediately we did, it scanned our faces and the large gate opened with a screech.
We walked in immediately.
"What's the time?" I asked, panic swelling inside of me.
"It's 6:58 miss,"
Shit.
"We're going to be late, Jacob said he hates tardiness," I said, rushing towards the door.
The door on the other hand didn't have much difficulty seeing as someone opened it and stood waiting for us.
"I have a meeting with Mr Illumi" I said, quickly.
The man nodded smiling, "this way please,"
We followed as the door closed behind us softly. The mansion was quiet and the only sounds that could be heard were our shoes on the marble floor.
The man stopped at a door. "Which one of you is Mrs Nowell?" He asked.
"Me"
He opened the door. "Wait in here please, I'll notify the master of your arrival."
He turned to Michelle. "Come with me miss,"
Michelle frowned in confusion.
"Where?" I asked.
"The master asked that you alone wait for him, I'm deeply sorry miss.. my master might seem quite difficult but really he doesn't like strangers and too many at that. I promise your escort will be safe and well taken care of." He smiled softly.
"If you'll please excuse us, my master doesn't like tardiness, I can only assume he's already upset as it is. I wouldn't want us to waste more time,"
"Fine" I said, and stepped into the room.
The door clicked softly behind me and almost instantly, silence enveloped the room.
I stared around curiously.
The place was fairly large and only a single table and two chairs were placed in the middle.
Asides that only curtains dropped around the room, giving it an eerily dark feeling.
"Aren't there too many curtains," I murmured. There was barely any light in the room.
"Miss Nowells?" A voice called, making me shriek in surprise.