The Killing of Julien Jean - Team Secrets Decameron 2.0 Project

NEVERMORE by IoannaKoliofoti

Claudio Nicola De Portu
San Juan, June 23, 1920
19:30, Julien Jean Bouvier Mansion

Claudio Nicola De Portu is looking the fragments of his face on the silverware. They are shiny bright like diamonds under the candles' flame but they do not come from the same cutlery. Each one of them had engraved on it the initials JJB but a few had engraved Bouvier's coat of arms on it. He could bet in a heartbeat that this wasn't by accident. Bouvier family had more silverware than anyone else in San Juan. Their formal dinners had always been the centre of San Juan's social life. Financial deals, arranged marriages, secret affairs and deals with the politicians always started and were sealed with the finest red wine on that very table. There must have exactly 30 pieces of silverware with Bouvier's coat of arms on it. Whoever the host might be, he/she wasn't going to appear any time soon. 

Jean Julien died a week ago. The host must have had full access and knowledge of the mansion to prepare that dinner. It was obvious to a man like Claudio who had spent all his life at dinners like this one, that everything placed on the table had at least one hidden meaning. This wasn't going to be another boring dinner while chatting about the suffering of being despicably rich, regardless the fact that this wasn't true for most of them. They were invited on a stage and abandoned there to improvise with no script but minor details that didn't seem right. 30 pieces of silverware were the sign of treason. A traitor was dining that evening among them. Devil hides in details but all that he could see was horny devils mumbling to one another looking forward to drink their absinthe and vanish in oblivion for one more night.

He started cutting his almost raw meat with his knife. "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them" John 6:56. He looked at the red wine on the table. The expensive crystal was sparkling as it was getting darker. "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day." John 6:54. They weren't invited to honor Jean Julien's memory. They were invited to join Jean Julien in death. He took his glass and drunk a sip of wine. He wasn't afraid of death. He had been crossing hell's fires all his life so there was no doubt in him that whenever he died, he would be sent to heaven. He thought of himself flying around with a pair of huge, white wings, a halo on his head and a little harp, chanting the hymns he knew by heart and grinned. 

No angel wings for him. La Noche de San Juan was more suitable. They were at the purgatory and nobody deserved salvation. He looked at the empty seat ahead of him. It was Jean Julien's seat. He used to sit next to his right hand, the most important guest's place so that they could talk with each other while he made it clear to the guests that Claudio was still his favorite without speaking a word. At the seat next to his left arm was the lover he had at that time and since there hasn't been a Misses Bouvier so far, on the opposite head of the table was sitting the lover he wished for her vices.

Since only Jean Julien knew his past at the convent, he figured out that he wasn't invited as someone to pardon him postmortem but as his widow. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" Matthew 5:3. The host seemed to have a twisted sense of humor. All that it was left to discover was whether he/she had anything to lose. If that wasn't the case, he/she was dangerous to all of them far beyond death. The fires were burning outside the house. The biggest of all was inside the house and despite the unlocked doors no one could avoid walking on it and through it at the same time once dinner was served.

He noticed Belen pushing her food aside. Deprivation has always been her favorite punishment. "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you" Matthew 7:7 She longed for nothing but punishment and suffering. People show to others what they recognize as love by the way they love themselves. Nary a man -or a woman- had ever taught her how to love herself, so she was condemned to walk on Sisyphus' shoes. She was thirsty but whenever she approached water, the water was draw away. She was hungry but whenever she reached food, the food was draw away as well. In the end she developed the habit to do that on her own, showing off her suffering. After all there is no point in suffering, if there's no one there to feel sorry for you, is there?