Hide & Seek - Daniel Le Domas.

🥀 Chapter One 🥀

* Edited *

Monica scowls at her reflection; the dress she was required to wear as maid of honour was - to put it nicely - ugly as fuck. In all honesty, she would have hated having to wear any formal dress but this one in particular was a whole new kind of ugly. She wasn't even entirely convinced that Grace had picked it out for her.

Maybe it was that rude and god-awful aunt of Alex's or his coke addict sister. Either way, the dress sucked. Big time.

"Wow. You look--" Daniel begins, only to cough in an attempt to cover his amused chuckle as he enters the bedroom while dressed up in his burgundy suit and tie.

Monica rolls her eyes at him through her reflection, her expression void of amusement. She shakes her head and sighs with fingertips plucking up the skirt of the dress distastefully. "Tell me about it. Who do I have to kill for making me wear this?" she mutters before spinning on the spot to face him with brows dipping into a concerned frown.

He shouldn't be drinking this early, especially on a day this important. So, with posture straightening and eyes again rolling, she walks towards him and takes the glass of bourbon from his hand. Then, with a smirk offered she walks to the window behind him and lifts the glass to her lips.

Meanwhile, behind her, Daniel shakes his head and lifts his hands in mock surrender. "I had no part in making you wear that purple monstrosity... unfortunately." He tells her while mumbling the last part so that she doesn't hear it.

But of course, she does.

"I heard that, you dick. Anyway, I suppose I should be glad that it's short, especially if she does pick that card." Monica sighs out with gaze shifting to watch the guests wandering the grounds outside.

"Yeah..." Daniel breathes with a frown and head tilting down in evident shame. Truth be told, he wanted no part in his family's tradition; he genuinely believed the whole thing to be ridiculous in its entirety.

He liked Grace. She was good for his brother and she made him happier than Daniel had seen him in a really long time. Grace and Monica were the complete opposite of his family; they were good people, through and through.

"Hey," that familiar warm voice reaches his ears, causing his head to tilt up slowly, his hazel eyes now meeting with Monica's bright green ones as she offers him an encouraging smile. "She won't pick the card, Daniel." She reassures with hidden doubt lingering behind her eyes. "But, in case she does, I need to talk with Alex. I need to know what he plans to do if she does pick it and what my own options will be."

"Okay," Daniel agrees with a nod while checking his watch briefly, "Come on, it's about time for me to collect him anyway."

Monica smiles as she follows him out of the bedroom and into the hall, though not before sending one last scowl at her ridiculous reflection. God, she hated the dress.

She shakes her head as they come upon the door to Alex's bedroom, neither one eager to enter. Mainly because they could hear the soon to be wed couple talking inside. It seemed that Alex was trying to string a warning together for Grace while she teased him playfully.

It saddened Monica because Grace truly had no idea of the danger she potentially could find herself in tonight. She had no inkling of the game to be played or the very real warning Alex's was painfully trying to fumble out. She was simply oblivious to it all.

"No, it's not that. I just...Without you, I'm..." Alex stutters anxiously, finding himself unable to say what he felt he needed to say in this moment.

"One of us." Daniel finishes as he enters the room while pulling Monica with him.