Blobs of dark ink surrounded the pair on all sides. The furniture morphed and disappeared under puffs of smoke, while others appeared out of thin air. Regal couches made way for stocky brown chairs, occupied by soulless husks cupping drinks aplenty. The zebrawood table melted into the receptionist desk that Henry so-much ignored every time he entered the Geber headquarters. Even the ceilings pushed back to reveal floor after floor of offices as far as his eyes could see.

His house was gone, replaced by Geber Laboratory's lobby.

The whole room was decorated with Christmas ornaments. Candy canes, pictures of Santa and his reindeer, all things that made Henry cringe in his seat, you name it.

From the ground, people sprung like cut-outs in a pop-up book. Their shape was rough and fuzzy with barely discernible features to indicate gender. Their faces, however, were completely blank. Their moves were looped, tittering in the place they sprung--some talking, some drinking, and some even dancing to a syncopated tune. The only exception to this pattern were two figures sitting near a portable bar in the far corner of the room.

"Why don't we go say hi, hon?" said Zizi, tapping Henry twice on the shoulder. Her voice sounded distant and muffled, but very much there.

The whole room moved beneath his chair, making them zip through the haunting figures as if they were ghosts. Oddly as it was, Henry wasn't scared, but rather, puzzled. He had been there before--not in the room itself, but on this particular iteration of the room. The party, the people, the decoration, and most importantly, the walls. They were not the pristine, headache-inducing white as before, but filled with vivid colors. Colorful vines swirled and twirled on the walls, sprouting all kinds of exotic flowers that seemed lifelike. All over the walls, meadows of trees, flowers, and birds frolicked on a shining sun.

The sight of that masterpiece tied knots in Henry's stomach. This wasn't his Geber Laboratory. It was that man's.

"Something wrong, honey?Having a trip down memory lane?" said Zizi, chuckling hauntingly. "Just ignore it for now. We don't wanna miss a thing."

Grabbing the top of Henry's head, she twisted it to face the two figures on the bar. Two figures he knew too well.

Murray looked exceptionally handsome in his black-tie suit. With one hand swirling a glass of scotch, he looked poised and aloof. His eyes had a mischievous glint that combined perfectly with his cocky lopsided grin. His black mane was pulled back with jelly, making it shine under the dim lights.

"He was quite fetching when he was young, wasn't he, hon? Shame he grew up to be a fat bastard. Can't say the same for you, though."

Right next to Murray was Henry. A younger version of him, anyway. He was leaning on the bar, tapping the straw of his coke with his index finger. His brown suit hung loosely from his body, with a horrendous purple t-shirt that didn't match his outfit at all. He was not even wearing a tie.

"This sucks! This whole party sucks. I look like frikin' Barney the dinosaur. I wanna go home, Mur," said young Henry, slamming his palm against the bar.

Murray shook his head while chuckling, raising his glass to meet his lips.

Zizi followed his laugh with one of her own, much to Henry's annoyance. "I almost forgot how temperamental and kid-like you were back then, hon. Your sense of style was dreadful."

Henry wanted to say that the suit was borrowed, to somehow save his pride, but Zizi placed two fingers on his throat, hushing him. "No time to talk. Shut up and listen."

"Where's this kitten you said you were hunting?" asked young Henry.

"Should be here any minute. And don't call her a kitten. She's a lady," corrected Murray. "Speaking of the devil..."

The music had stopped. A couple entered the lobby through the front door with an almost regal stride. At least the man did. A man whose mere presence sent shivers down Henrys' spine.

Jabin, Geber Laboratory's CEO.

The blank shapes stopped their loops, turning in unison to look at the man walk in like he owned the place. Which he did.

His black suit was tailor-made to suit his burly figure. A blood-red shirt popped against a glossy black tie, tied together with a gold band, encrusted with a ruby as big as his eyes.

The most peculiar thing was the girl gripping his arm.

Her skin was extremely white, almost glowing. Her eyes were as big as headlights that seemed to smile as brightly as her red lips, making her look like a porcelain doll. She had round cheeks with some baby fat in them still, accentuated by her cascading hair. She was stunning.

"No way," young Henry said. "You're after Geber's kid? You kidding me?"

"Believe me, I know it's crazy. But she's too damn cute."

"I was," said Zizi, with a wicked smile.

"Isn't she a little young for you?" young Henry asked. "She's still in college. What could you two have in common?"

Murray downed the rest of the drink in one go, slamming the glass onto the bar. "You make me sound like some pervert. I'm still in my twenties."

"Whatever, Mur. Rule number one: you never shit where you eat. Especially if you're shitting on the boss' daughter."

"Jesus, Henry. You're never gonna get anywhere in life if you don't take a risk. Besides, I really like that kid. She's going places with her art, I just know it. She's smart, brilliant, funny... what else could a man ask?

"He had the right mindset, you know?" said Zizi. "Sweet Murray. If only..."

"C'mon," said Murray, straightening his suit while standing up, "let's say hello to the big boss. Gotta make a rapport with the future in-law."

"If he hears you saying that, he's gonna slam you."

"Zip it. Let's go."

The pair walked through Henry, sending a shiver down his spine. Zizi tapped his shoulder once again, and just as before, the floor moved beneath his feet, placing him right in front of Jabin's stone-cold stare. Henry froze in his seat, not expecting to be met with those eyes again. Cold. Analytic. Judging. He wasn't expecting his hand to reach out to his face either. Henry closed his eyes, bracing for his touch, but instead, a hand burst from his own neck, meeting Jabin's halfway.

With another tap on the shoulder, the room shifted to the left, giving Henry a sideways look of the action. The hand that met Jabin's was Murray's.

"Couldn't help myself!" cried Zizi, giggling like a little girl. "You really are scared of a ghost. How cowardly."

Henry remained silent, fuming on his seat, not daring to confess he had peed himself a little.

"Mr. Prendergast," Jabin said in his deep, velvet voice, with barely the hint of an accent that softened the R's and accentuated the L's, "it is so nice to see you today. I hope you are having a wonderful evening."

"Sure am!" said Murray, shaking Jabin's hand. "Tis' the season to be jolly and all that."

Jabin looked at him for a moment with amusement, as if he wasn't really sure what he meant. Nonetheless, he gave Murray a stifled laugh.

"Hey, Mur!" said the younger Zizi, peering from behind Jabin's back. Her smile was cocky and mischievous, yet oddly childish.

"M'lady," said Murray, giving her a small bow, which she replied with a curtsy and a giggle.

"Who would that young man behind you be?" asked Jabin, peering at Henry from behind Murray.

"Henry White, nice to meet 'cha," he said, reaching out to Jabin with a shaking hand. Jabin shook it with a strength he wasn't expecting, practically crushing his hand. Jabin wiped his hand on his pants afterward, with a smile that didn't translate at all to his eyes.

"Likewise. So, Mr. Prendergast," said Jabin, turning his attention back to Murray, "I want to discuss some figures with you today if you do not mind taking some time out of the party. I know it might be too much to ask..."

"Not at all!" said Murray with enthusiasm, "I'll love to. Shall we?"

"As you wish. Where is Clara, anyway?"

As if being summoned out of thin air, a woman rushed to them, with curly hair and a bubbling personality.

"Here, sir," said a young Clara, handing him a brown envelope. "The figures you requested."

"Thank you, Clara. You are most efficient."

"Hey, Clara. Looking cute as a button, as always," teased Murray.

Clara's face tinted red, giving Murray a plucky smile. "Stop it, you."

"If you please," interrupted Jabin, walking towards the office space. Clara followed behind him like a shadow. Murray was about to follow too, but young Henry grabbed by his arm before doing so.

"Mur, what the hell? You said you were gonna introduce me to some girls," whispered young Henry.

"Relax. As soon as I finish with the boss, I'll tell you who's easy here. Meanwhile, try hitting on Katie from HR. She's there by the couch," said Murray, pointing at one of the blurry figures.

Young Henry let go of Murray like a kid throwing a temper tantrum. He wasn't gonna risk hitting on an HR worker. That would be suicide, he thought. He instead walked to the bar, ready to get buzzed.

"Curious," said Zizi. "Even before everything happened, Baba knew you were full of crap. Moving on..."

Two more taps on Henry's shoulder brought him to the bar, where a girl in a blue dress was already sitting and arguing with the blurry figure of what must have been the barman.

"Just a little bit! I swear I won't tell."

"No," said a distorted voice. "I won't be the one getting Jabin's daughter drunk. I wanna get paid."

"I won't get drunk. Baba doesn't have to know."

"No means no. You're still underaged. I can give you a coke if you wanna."

Just as the barman poured the drink, young Henry sat next to her. The barman placed the drink in front of her, even adding a swirly straw to make a point, making Zizi pout.

Young Henry took a look at the hallway Murray had disappeared into as if expecting him to pop out at any second. With no sign of movement, he directed his attention towards Zizi.

"Sucks to be underaged at these parties. Can't even get a buzz going."

"What?" she said, leaning in closer to Henry.

"I said, it sucks to be a kid at these parties. Can't even drink!"

"Tell me about it. It sucks even more being the daughter of the boss. Baba is very protective."

"Baba?" young Henry asked.

"Dad. It means dad. I swear he is pushing everyone away from me. My only friends here are Murray and Clara."

"Well, you have a new one. Henry. Nice to meet 'cha!" he said, shaking her hand.

"Zinet. But people call me Zizi."

"Well Zizi, let me do something for you," he almost whispered. "Barman! Can you give me a Cuba Libre?"

The Barman nodded, pouring rum and Coke into a tall glass, the same glass as Zizi's plain Coke. Placing the glass in front of young Henry, he took a gulp, matching the content on Zizi's glass.

"Can I also have a glass of Scotch? The one in the back."

"Which one?" said the Barman, turning around to face the bottles.

"The one in the middle. No, not that one, the other one."

While young Henry gave instructions, he switched his glass with Zizi's, making sure to put the swirly straw on the Cuba Libre. "You know? Never mind. I'll finish this first. Thank you, anyways."

The Barman nodded, moving on to another person who commanded his attention. Zizi looked at Henry with amazement, mouthing a thank you before taking a sip, which she almost spit out.

"This tastes awful!" she said while giggling.

Young Henry gave her an awkward smile. "This ain't your first time drinking, right?"

She nodded with an awkward smile.

"Well, of course it's gonna taste like crap," said young Henry. "You don't start with rum. You start with wine or something like that and then you move up to rum."

"I'm sorry. I just wanted to see how it tasted. I don't go out a lot."

"Why?"

"Baba is very protective. I wake up every day and there is a chauffeur waiting to drive me to college. And not even a public one, but some hoity-toity catholic university where I spend my day learning every useless thing that you can imagine. Who even uses Latin anymore? Can it really be called a dead tongue if they teach it everywhere?"

Young Henry chuckled, not because of her tale, but because of her. She got worked up by something as inane as Latin, waving her arms and making wacky faces. He could see her eyes full of wonder and innocence. He could see the appeal.

"I was so cute back then. Bubbly. Naive. Dumb. You just had to come and corrupt me."

"Your life sounds hard," said young Henry, with only a hint of sarcasm.

"Tell me about it. I don't even have a cellphone. Baba says it makes you dumb. The only thing he approves me doing is painting. I painted this lobby, did you know?"

"No," young Henry lied. "Tell me about it."

"Let's just skip this part, shall we?"

With two more taps on the shoulder, the room zipped under them. Couples were dancing to a slow tune, with some couples lovingly embracing under the mood lighting. On the side of the dance floor, young Henry walked right beside Zizi.

"So, you tell me you never had dunkies?"

"No," said Zizi, with a toothy smile and her hands behind her back.

"Never gone to the Common?"

"Nope!"

"You gotta be kidding me."

Zizi giggled, closing her eyes while pouting. "No. I'm a bad Bostonian."

"You're a bad human! We gotta put some life in you!"

"Where do you suggest we begin?" she asked, flashing a mischievous smile.

Henry's blood froze. He remembered this moment very well. That was the very moment he decided to steal Zizi for himself. A moment punctuated by the opening notes of a song, slowly played by the live band. A Kiss to Build a Dream On, by Louis Armstrong. Their song.

"Why don't we start here?" said young Henry, pulling Zizi by the wrist onto the dance floor.

She was blushing madly, pinning her gaze to the floor. "I-I-I don't...I can't..."

"Trust me," said young Henry, placing one hand on her waist while taking her hand with the other. "Just shut up and dance."

The whole room froze. Music stopped. The whole air around the room seemed to have become stagnant. All because of one finger placed on Henry's head. A bony finger.

"Shut up and dance. I thought that was just the wisdom of an older boy who wanted to show me the world. Such a stupid kid. That was an order, not a request. You just wanted me to follow along. To be my hero or some sick pervy stuff like that. And it worked."

With three taps to his shoulders, the room disintegrated into puffs of smoke. People. Furniture. Walls. Nothing left but darkness and smoke.

Two more taps made the darkness create new shapes. Dead trees. Wooden benches. A statue. Snow. It all sprung from the ground up. It took Henry a second to realize that the smoke had disappeared. The night was dark and cloudy, making the Common have a menacing feel to it, as if a beast was on the prowl, waiting for its next victim.

Under a lamp, two figures could be seen, one with a blue dress and the other with a purple t-shirt. Young Henry had a paper bag clutched in his hand. Zizi was munching on a donut, using young Henry's coat for warmth.

"This is beautiful!" she yelled, throwing her arms in the air. "This donut, however, is dreadful."

"Careful, you might never know who's listening," said young Henry. "That kind of talk can get you lynched around here."

"Just for the record, I still think they are dreadful."

"Whatever," she said, brushing the snow off a bench before sitting down. "Gimme another!"

"What happened with the proper lady speech?"

"Kinda getting tired of it. That's just for Baba. Where's that donut?"

Young Henry took a strawberry donut out of the bag. Zizi took it with both hands, practically shoving it in her mouth.

"You're welcome," he said sarcastically. She responded with a bow, almost dropping the donut in the process.

"So, we had baked beans at the Faneuil Hall; a Lobster roll-"

"Which you ate, because I'm allergic to shellfish," Zizi remarked.

"You shut up and keep eating your donut."

"Rude."

"Rude."

"As I was saying: top of the Prudential Center-"

"Where you almost vomited the lobster roll."

"Then a bag of dunkies," continued young Henry, ignoring her quip, "and now, the Common. Anything else you need to see, your highness?"

"Nope. It has been a wonderful night! Thank you for being my guide. First time enjoying my city as I should."

Young Henry swallowed. Henry swallowed too. He knew what was about to come.

"You know," he said, taking a seat next to her, "we can go all the way with your first times today."

"What do you me-"

She didn't get to finish that sentence. Henry pushed her lips against his. She tasted of strawberry and rum, a taste that surprisingly worked. The softness of her lips was beyond anything he had ever felt.

Just as it started, it ended.

Zizi was dumbstruck. It took her a few seconds to process what had just happened. Her cheeks were the first thing to catch up, flaring up beet-red.

"Wh-w-what..."

"That was my first kiss. You could have been gentler with me, hon."

Young Henry didn't wait for her to catch her breath back before kissing her again. His tongue prodded her lips, begging them to part open. Unfortunately for him, she refused, pushing him away.

"Stop! What the hell are you doing?"

Henry wiped his mouth, rubbing his eyes in the process. "I thought you wanted it."

"No! I mean, yes, but not like this. Jesus. It's all screwed!"

She buried her head between her legs while gripping them tightly. Young Henry sat next to her, prepared to pat her back, but she scooted away from him.

"Just... don't touch me, okay? Let me think for a moment."

He tried to stand up but was stopped by Zizi grabbing his hand.

"I didn't say you have to go. Just...stay with me, but keep quiet."

He nodded, slightly confused, content on the small comfort of their palms touching.

She placed her head between her legs yet again, breathing deeply, trying to bring clarity to her scrambled mind. While she did that, her thumb gently caressed the back of young Henry's hand, an action to send titillating shivers down his body.

Her small frame looked frail and brittle surrounded by the big coat, making her look even more adorable than before.

Suddenly, her head jetted up, making a single determinant inhale. "If we are going to do this, we are doing it properly. Stand up."

He complied, and this time, he was led by the hand towards a willow tree overlooking the frozen pond. Two taps on Henry's shoulder made the park move beneath him, placing him right on top of the waters.

She pushed her back towards the tree, grabbing young Henry by the sides. "This time, be gentle. Ease me into it. I'm not very experienced."

"Okay," was all he answered.

He placed his right hand on her cheek. It was cold and rough, having been pelted by the icy winds, but they flushed a deep red that spread through her whole face nonetheless. Her lips, glossy and pink, quivered in anticipation, puffing warm wisps of air faster and faster as her heart raced.

For all he tried, their eyes couldn't meet-she averted her eyes at every opportunity out of embarrassment, only flicking her eyes to his face every so often as to confirm that he was watching.

He decided to go slow this time, savoring the moment. He caressed her lips with his thumb, a move she reciprocated by nibbling at it awkwardly. Leaning into her neck, he placed a kiss at the base of her collarbone, working his way up her cheek.

She moaned in-between breaths, nuzzling tenderly on his nape. She pecked his neck bashfully, no more than half a second, but for him, it felt like a hot poker was placed on his neck, imprinting her lips onto his skin.

He placed his arm around her waist, pulling her closer. Her head fitted snugly in the middle of his chest. He moved his hand from her cheek to her chin, pulling it to meet him. This time, their eyes met. Her lips parted. Her breath held tight. Her whole body was shouting at him. Take me. Take me now.

And he did, before being swallowed by the darkness yet again.