The Red-Light Area

When Kia meets Pia

I chuckled and stumbled at the patio as I spotted a car in the opposite driveway. I watched a man stepping out of it followed by a skinny woman. It was Peterson, my ugly fatty neighbour who was walking to his apartment with a brunette. He was a scorer, always bringing different woman every night. Raien believed him to be a s*x maniac who ‘pays’ for what he gets and then throw the woman out as if they mean nothing. He has spotted him dropping and picking girls from the red-light area many times and had shaken his head in disgust. As for I, I admired his nonchalant behaviour with women.

“At least he is sensible enough to not ruin his life on a single woman.” I muttered to no one. “Genius!” I threw a fist in the air and whistled.

“How many pounds for this one, Andrew?” I yelled at Peterson who stopped in his tracks, gruntled something under his breath, rolled his eyes and went away without bothering to look back, but I did not mind at the rude display of hatred, for the brunette smiled at me before hurrying away.

I winked at no one and went inside the apartment before I could freeze to death as I sang Jason Derulo.

“Dumb Da da Di Dumb…I am pustid in love.” I laughed getting inside the shady apartment that’s lights are dim, the air conditioner wasn’t functioning and that’s dishwasher was broken. “You don’t know what happened after that,” I started as soon as I spotted Raien, but was rudely cut off by his yelling.

“Of course, I don’t. I don’t know that you went to a passage at the back of the mansion that led to a misty lake where you had a meaningful conversation. It was cold and she was barely wearing anything. You offered her your cardigan. She offered to share it and that’s how you sat side by side. You leaned closer, she leaned closer and boom! You kissed her.” He huffed, rolling his eyes.

“You know us so well, Raien Mathew. You are going to be the best man. I promise that.” I slurred in a singsong voice and jumped on the half-torn bean bag. “She was my first kiss. I can’t forget that.”

“It’s your turn to cook, Paige,” Raien yelled annoyed from the kitchen before stomping to the living area as he threw a cushion at me.

I smiled cheekily at him before grumbling. “Do this one for me. I will do the dishes and cleaning in the morning. You can wear my underwear. I swear! Just this one, Raien.”

“Hey, I don’t want to wear your underwear. That’s gross!” Raien scrunched his nose as he threw another cushion at me.

“You should. You will have to, Rainey.” I slurred in a barely audible voice.

“Why would I? I have my own.” He shouted, throwing his hands in the air which I found very cute.

“Please baby! You will have to do it for me.” I replied, voice husky. “Talking of underwear. Raien, my love you never told me of your size. How big are you?” I sat straight as I asked, looking at him curiously.

“Why would you want to know that…man, you are hardly yourself. Go clean up. I am ordering pizza.” He shook his head defeated which I found cute again. Raien was cute indeed! I had realized that. He was short and round, like a potato with hazelnut curls and dark amber eyes.

“Umm…Paige, why are you staring at me like that? Go get changed!” He ordered and started to walk away, but I caught his hand stopping him.

“I was thinking, Raien that…”

“That?”

“That we both are single with no girl interested in us and I see no chance in near future. We have been together for years and understand each. How about if we…sodomize and live like a couple.” I suggested, seductively eyeing his butt and he instantly touched it, perhaps in shock or contemplation. I couldn’t figure his expression out.

“You disgusting asshole­! Have you lost your brain? You are drunk, Paige.” Whooped Raien.

“Come on, Rainey! Think about it. We can be a wonderful couple.” I insisted but was interrupted by my phone ringing. I chuckled at the timing and fumbled with the phone.

“You aren’t picking it up…stand up. You are hardly yourself, gonna mess s**t up! It can wait till morning.” Raien huffed putting his hands on the hips as I smiled sheepishly at him and pulled the phone near my ear and was about to pick the call without looking at the caller’s ID when he launched at me to snatch it away.

“You aren’t picking it up!” He huffed annoyed as he tried to take it away.

“Leave it! It might be urgent.” I laughed like a manic but did not let the phone go. My grip was tight and so was Raien’s. We fought rolling on the floor when the grip loosened and the phone flew at a distance.

The call was accepted and was put on speaker. We looked at each other and waited for the person to speak as we sat on the cold floor glaring at each other.

“Hello.” I heard a familiar feminine voice and instantly was jolted back to my senses. I hurriedly collected my cell phone from the floor and sat upright. Raien must have sensed something too for he fell silent and listen intently to the caller as we waited for the voice to speak again.

“Hello, Pia? Am I talking to Pietro Boselli?” It was Kiara. Her one sentence alone made me feel a lot better than a dozen bottle of liquor. She was panting and I was too.

“Hello?” She spoke again, awaiting a response but I wasn’t in the situation to give any.

“Pietro, this is Kiara. Kiara Aronson. Your…your ex-girlfriend. I hope you have remembered me. I saw your missed calls. I…thought…” She said in a measured tone. There was an urgency in her voice, but no warmth or affection that I was craving to listen.

“I have never forgotten you, Kia,” I spoke softly, surprising my self at how tender I sounded. There was a long pause on the side, so long that I had to double-check if we were still connected.

“I…I want to meet you, Pietro. Only if you don’t mind seeing me again. I…Ahem! Are you…will you? Atri is under custody. I need your help. Please!” Kiara stuttered making me smile at how unsure she sounded. It was so unlike her.

“Can we meet?” Kiara asked and I had an urge to pinch myself. I wanted to be sure that I wasn’t dreaming. I looked up at Raien, not knowing how to answer. Should I answer in affirmative? Should I decline?

Raien shrugged his shoulder, leaving me on my own─ helpless and vulnerable. I cleared my throat and barely managed to choke out a “Yeah!” for she spoke again. “Fine! Come in the red-light area in an hour. Apartment 109. I will be waiting for you there. Please come, Pietro. It would mean everything to me.” Kiara said in one go and disconnect the call without waiting for a reply, leaving me to wonder if I was making the right choice by trusting her with my heart again.

~~~

“Should we go?” I asked Raien tenth time as I combed my hairs and sprinkled some perfume before I buttoned my shirt. I had just come out of the shower and was getting ready to meet Kiara, yet I felt nothing. There was no excitement, no glitters in the stomach like it used to be when we were dating. Although, I felt nervous and overwhelmed, apart from it there was nothing, absolutely nothing, and the fact made me contemplate if I was doing right in chasing after her for all those years.

I loved her and there was no doubt in it. I’ve spent a large part of my life enslaved to that thought, so I should know the meaning of the word at the cost of my life. Love. Oh, yes! I loved Kiara. I was sure about it as sure as I was of my existence.

Kiara was my first in everything. She taught me how to love ever since we were nothing but some hormonal teenager. She had introduced me to the delightful concept of freedom, making me fight to make freedom my most precious commodity. She taught me how to talk tenderly when everything within you wants to scream at the person and break a couple of teeth. She taught me how to kiss and how to make love.

She was there when I had rebelled against my parents for the first time and when I fought with the other boys at school because I refused to be their target anymore, and who immediately homed in on me as the butt of their cruel jokes, and only after much blood had flowed from my wounds and theirs, only after a bone was fractured and I had to explain that it was nothing but an accident where, many afternoons, I had to hide my scars from my mother—because it was up to me, not her or anyone, to solve my problems—did I manage to show the world that I could take a thrashing without bursting into tears.

Kiara turned me into a fighter. She taught me that it was up to me to fight and no one. And so, I fought. I fought with my parents, who wanted me to be a lawyer, not a detective or a cop. I fought to get a job to support myself, and went to work as a waiter in a bar at the very dark street of the town where drug dealings were as normal as a selling ice-cream, to be free from the rein of family and blackmails:. That says: “We’ll pay for expenditure, but you’ll have to be our pet, follow the decade old rules that we believe is right and because we care for you.”

She was the one who helped me hide my scars and cleaned up the mess I had become after multiple fights in the ring. She saw me going fist to fist during day time and groaning in pain at night. She was there…and perhaps it’s the feeling of belonging and dependence that I cherished.

It is a human thing. Isn’t it? To dream of achieving something unattainable, feeling passionate about it till it is out of reach and once we see it coming. Once it becomes ours. It doesn’t feel that worthy and tempting anymore that it once felt and the passion to get it doesn’t remain so strong that it was when we had dreamt of it.

Kiara was that dream.

“Do as your heart say.” Raien answered. “ask your heart if she even worth it? You have been spoiling your life…for her and she didn’t bother reaching out to you until today when her brother is behind the bar and she needs your help to bring him out. That’s what she said. She needs your help.” He added, making me feel conflicted, seeing no way out of that. “She is a lawyer and a professional. Professionalism indicated selfishness─ take it in any way possible. They are taught to use people. It’s what they say. Be careful! You might have something that she wants and it definitely isn’t love.” He put the last part as softly as he can and it broke within me, perhaps a hope.

“But we were in…love.” I tired to defend in vain, thinking over and over about it. Was I to be used again? The thought filled my heart with bitterness. I hated to admit that but Raien was right.

“And I would again give you the very same answer, Paige that I don’t know. It’s your call and you should decide.” He shrugged giving me lemonade as he surfed the internet for tips and tricks to sober up. “Drink water, Paige. You will have beastly headache by the time you would reach there.”

“What do you mean by you would reach there? We are going together.” I urged Raien to deny and he did. He shook his head, popping on the bed as he rolled and stretched.

“Naah, I am not coming. Not in the mood to watch lovers reunite. Why would I be a third wheel? But if you are planning on having a threesome…I may-” He couldn’t complete his sentence I threw the bottle of perfume, shutting his mouth. He let out a loud guffaw as he rolled over and sat straight.

“Get up, get dressed. We have got a mission coming. It is time for people to pay back.” I huffed sauntering out of the room, bracing myself for whatever coming up.

It would be me who shall be used, Kiara. I thought to myself.

~~~

The sun was peeping from the clouds by the time we reached the red-light area, and the lights in the street were still on. Raien yawned as he scanned the encompassing, scrunching up his nose. There was the concentration of prostitution with lines of s*x shops, strip clubs and adult theaters. There were bars and specifically designed places for male prostitution. We saw men coming out of bars, clubs and apartment, stumbling over and fumbling with their attire with woman hanging by their sides. The strong odour of smoke, alcohol and s*x stretched to the length as we drove past buildings.

“You know, Rainey. All men, tall or short, arrogant or unassuming, friendly or cold, have one characteristic in common: when they go to a club and was to have s*x, they become afraid. There is this constant fear of performance, ejaculation and drawing a perception in the mind of a lady who is paid to pleasure them, that gets in nerves. They become afraid of their size, passion and timing when all it takes for a man to ejaculate is three minutes. Isn’t it absurd? We think twenty-four hours a day of a pleasure that lasts for three minutes.” I spoke looking at the pictures of a semi-naked woman on the walls. Raien gave me thumbs up for the explanation nonetheless, didn’t comment.

“Man, I really liked your philosophy, but I badly need some sleep to function it all. I think I am taking a day off. I am exhausted.” He whined as he looked over the chain of bars each with its name that lists out the service it has to offer.

We drove till the end of the street where I, at last, spotted apartment 109. I told Raien to pull over as I eyes the apartment in sheer dismay. It was a loft dwelling that gave me a sense of uneasiness just by looking at it. I felt vibes of mysteries streaming out of it and in the moment, I forgot everything but the two dead bodies mysteriously murdered.

The lover in me disappeared as the detective took over and the brain started to function as a professional. That was Juana’s apartment where she used to put up and where thousands of clues could be underlying, waiting to be noticed. It might reveal something about the murderer.

Was it that Arab guy or Atri had visited, Juana disguising himself as Arab?

It was a tiny apartment or so it appeared from the outside, refurbished, it had two large windowpanes at the front with a balcony in a ‘T’ at the end. At the altitude the windows were designed, it could hardly let any ounce of sunlight pass through it. I presumed. There were wooden panes and see through glass cover with a layer of pink over it. Above it placed two chimneys that had smoke coming out of it, perhaps to keep the cottage warm.

Raien might have sensed something for he sat alert and overlooked the tiny loft as well.

“So, this is it!” He said and got down. I mimicked his gestures and stepped out of the car as well. “This is where Juana used to put up. I expected a better place since she was Ahura’s mistress. The vanity in Hussein’s house was way better.” Raien commented and I couldn’t disagree.

“Come! We have made her wait enough. Let’s finish this once and for all!” I rubbed my palms together and with a heart-thumping in the rib cage advanced towards apartment 109 and were a mystery was to begin.

I looked up at the window and saw Kiara peeping out of it, staring at me. Her gaze had something to tell. I couldn’t decipher what it was and I didn't care.