"I can't believe you dragged me out to this wasteland of trees just so you could get laid," Emma said as she shouldered her bag and slammed the door to the crimson coupe shut.
"Look at that house!" Her friend said, locking the car with a beep and pointing past the trees and up the driveway, "you won't see something like that back in Fart Town."
"I hate that name," Emma said, lifting her eyes upwards to find a mansion drilling a dark shape against the sky like a three story coffin. She drew her jacket tighter around her, "geez, it's huge. What kind of place is this, Maddy?"
"See, you won't even know Greg and I are here," Maddy said, "you'll have the whole weekend to yourself to do whatever it is you do when you're alone."
Emma trekked up the driveway and stamped her feet as she stood at the foot of the front steps. A singular red lamp rattled in the wind and dripped with a flickering glow across the entrance. She placed a foot on the first step of seven which seemed to spill out from the door like ripples in a pond. At the top of the stairs, a set of iron double doors with tasteful rusted engravings of roses and vines stood. The light from the lamp highlighted the edges and made the designs stand out in the dark like red scratches on black velvet.
Emma halted, "where are all the windows?"
"The guy on the phone said the lady who built this place was some real famous architect and this house was her masterpiece," Maddy said, joining Emma on the first step, "though he used another word for it, I forget what it was." She shrugged, "so I guess she didn't like windows," her lip shivered, "let's get inside already."
"How much did renting this place cost?" Emma asked, advancing another step after her friend.
"Not much actually," Maddy said, "probably because it really sucks to get here; you saw how long and twisting the drive was. I'm surprised we made it. I just hope Greg doesn't get lost when he drives up."
Emma dragged her fingers along the railing as she climbed; the frozen iron stung her skin.
"What were you saying in the car about this place?" Emma asked, shoving her hand into her jacket.
"What, you weren't listening?" Maddy said. She squatted and lifted a potted plant, revealing a silver key.
"I guess I didn't really care at the time," Emma said, watching her breath curl under the red light above the door. Two moths thrashed about.
"The guy on the phone," Maddy huffed as she stood with key in hand, "who was very particular about who stays here by the way, said it was the heaviest dwelling ever constructed for its time, he said the walls of the house are a skeleton of hand-forged iron draped in shells of obsidian." She fought with a branch of the plant that caught on the sleeve of her sweatshirt, "what is this nasty bush?"
Emma's attention left the ornate door and rounded on her friend's struggle, "looks like Myrrh to me, though it's hard to tell."
"Whatever it is, it nearly tore my Clemon top, this was a Christmas gift from Greg, you know!" Maddy groaned as she pawed at the synthetic fabric of her over-sized pale pink crop- top.
Emma rolled her eyes, "does your mom know he bought that for you?"
"Of course not," Maddy smiled, "are you nuts? That would be too obvious." She lined up the key with the keyhole in the right door and turned the knob, "I told her you bought it for me."
"Thanks for roping my name into the labyrinth of your perverse love affair," Emma said.
The door clicked and Maddy grunted as she struggled to pull it open, "fuck, it's heavy as hell."
Emma helped by slipping her fingers in the gap and prying on the edge of the door until it gained enough momentum to swing open on its own.
"Wow, look at this place!" Maddy said, rubbing her dirty hands off on Emma's jacket, "looks like he got it all ready for us. I can see the fireplace is on in the other room." She dropped her bags and ran off towards a drawing room that was open on the left of the main hall where they entered.
Emma stepped inside and the space took her breath away. Walls of black lacquer trimmed in rippling rosewood streaked out in front of her. She sniffled as the warm air made her cold nose run. Slipping out of her sneakers, she padded over to the nearest wall. A dark reflection of her own pale cheeks and red lips regarded her as if she were peering into a pond. Emma pressed her right hand flush against the glassy wall, leaving hazy lines of condensation where her fingers had touched. A red glow haloed the top of her hair and she looked up to see a warm lamp flickering in glass.
She stepped away and saw the back of her black head reflecting infinitely in the opposite wall.
"What a strange house..." Emma whispered to herself.
"Emma!" Maddy poked her head into the hall from the drawing room, "come check this out!"
Emma wandered into the drawing room after her and found Maddy reading a card. A wine bottle with two silver chalices were standing on a narrow table in the center of the room.
"Who's it from?" Emma asked, pulling the strap of her bag over her head and discharging it on a chair near the door.
Maddy shrugged and wiped her face with her sleeve, "looks like a spell or something, pretty handwriting though, probably the owner being fancy. If he owns this kind of house, I could see him writing something like this."
"What do you mean?" Emma said, reaching out, "let me see it."
Maddy passed the card to Emma and busied herself with the wine bottle.
"Loci..." Emma said, running a finger over the curving lines of ultramarine ink. The fire crackled and hissed.
There was a muted popping sound and Emma glanced up to see Maddy with her nose over the lip of the wine bottle.
"It smells expensive," Maddy said, "at least I think it does." She lifted the bottle and rotated it in her hands.
"What does 'Loci,' mean, looks like Latin doesn't it?" Emma asked, joining Maddy at the small table and placing the card down next to the stained cork.
Maddy looked at her with squinting eyes, "you're joking, right? You think I know anything about Latin? It probably means something like, 'enjoy,' or 'welcome to the party,' or something like that." She shrugged and poured out two glasses of wine in heaping spurts.
Emma took up her glass and Maddy dinged it with hers, "to a passion-filled weekend!"
Maddy laughed and took a large gulp. Emma stared at the elegant handwriting on the card and sipped on hers. Tangy bitterness burned along her tongue and made her cheeks tingle. She sniffled.
"Wow, it's really good," Maddy said.
Emma revolved the silver flute in front of her and saw her reflection in the polished cylinder, "it is, isn't it?"
"Why do you sound so surprised?" Maddy asked, she plopped down on a couch near the fire with such a bounce, her chestnut ponytail jumped onto her shoulder, "look at this place, have you ever seen such a fancy room before?"
