The Untold Story of Harlem

(Paris, 1980′s)

It was a dark night, with stars flooding the sky. The streets of Paris were empty, no one cared to be walking up and down the streets. There was only one place in town that the crowd cared to be at. People in this certain part of Paris were rich. As rich as rich could be.The only thing they cared about was the grand opening of Alain Ducasse à l’Hôtel de Paris.

33 year old Harlem Strangford was fixing his tie and brushing off his suit as he patiently waited to be welcomed into the ballroom. With no wife, or significant other, Harlem only hoped to find someone special at the ball that shared his hopes for the future. Harlem wasn’t like most, most people were focused on present time. However, present time didn’t matter to Harlem , it was all about what present time could have been to him.

Harlem was never focused on the present, he was always focused on the past and the events that led up to where he was now. One small change in the past could result in millions of people not even being born. It was the butterfly effect that intrigued Harlem. How one change could lead to a series of changes. It fascinated him. He wanted to start a butterfly effect, but a good one. He knew what the world could be, and he knew that he could do something to make it as it should be.

Harlem believed he could make a good difference in the world. He didn’t just believe, he knew he could. While he watched other countries evolve into modern times, and watched thousands of people slowly start to change with it, he couldn’t help but tell himself “I was going to be apart of this, I needed to make my mark on the world.”

Technology was going to take over the world one day. In the close future, we would have flying cars, teleportation, time travel, and the ability to bring people back from the dead. That was Harlem’s main focus, bringing people back from the dead.

Harlem’s mother, Junie Strangford, was brutally murdered by Harlem’s father, Dale Strangford. Harlem’s mother was the sweetest girl anyone had ever met. She had beautiful blonde hair and everyone found themselves lost in her ocean blue eyes. She was envied by the world, she was envied by Harlem. Harlem loved her, she was his best friend. He could never quite wrap his head around her death.

Harlem was the one who found her body, his father had already ran off. He screamed as he watched his mother take her last breath. He couldn’t stop shaking as he dialed 911. But he was too late, she was gone. The world would never be the same. Unless he could bring her back.

As mentioned before, Harlem believed technology was going to take over the world. If he could take over the world with it, he could be the first to bring someone back from the dead. He could write his own happy ending. While Harlem only dreamed about bringing his mom back, he knew it could never happen. But taking over the world and being envied by everyone would be easy. Especially when you are a billionaire who started from the bottom and slowly built your way up.

The world was at Harlem’s fingertips, slowly he would begin to take it over. He didn’t want to do bad in the world though, he wanted to show the world that one man can make a difference. He wanted to be known as the man that brought color to the world.

In Paris, everything was so black and white. It was all so old fashion. Things needed to change. Color needed to be brought to Paris, color needed to be brought to the world. Harlem felt like it was his job to do it. He wanted to one day walk out onto his patio and see flying cars, robots doing the work nobody wanted to do. He wanted to see people smile, he wanted to see the world of technology in someone’s pocket. He wanted to see colors vibrantly fill the air that he breathed. But no one could have as much power as himself. That was his major thing, he would be the head of the world, no co-owner. Only himself.

THE UNTOLD STORY OF HARLEM

“Harlem Strangford, we are ready for you now.” the security guard says throwing the door open for me. I smile and nod while walking in.

I walked into the building, amused by the size of the place and the diamond chandelier hanging from the ceiling. It was the biggest place I had ever seen, but with a great place also comes a even bigger bar. That was what I was most interested in. I slowly make my way to the back of the ballroom, shaking hands with a bunch of my friends. Well, “friends”. They were all so boring, So plain, nothing out of the ordinary ever happened with them.

As I take a seat at one of the barstools, my acquaintance Kenneth Waterford, takes a seat right next to me. He wanted to take over the world together, Kenneth considered me his best friend. He didn’t know that I was just using him to get further into my plans. I had no desire to half control the world, I wanted it all. Ken was just a pawn in my game as far as I was concerned.

“I see you had time out of your busy day to come visit the new place.” Ken says, raising a glass.

“I didn’t have much else to do, nothing new ever happens in this town.” I say clinking his glass.

“Well, that’s what I came over here to tell you. We need something new in the world. Why don’t we bring it? I mean think about it. Your father used to rule France, he was the king. He technically still rules us but he can’t do much in a jail cell. You need to tell him that you are ready to rule, and that it is time for him to step down.”

“If only it were that easy Ken. I have all the responsibilities of king, as far as the world is concerned, I am the king. They would all rather see me as king than a murderer who killed their queen.” I say, raising my hand, to show the bartender I am ready for another drink.

“Which is exactly what we need to rule. I had this thought, what if we bought the eiffel tower? I mean think about it. If you own a world known place, that would bring a lot of attention to you and if you have the attention of the king, experience of ruling, you could take over all the countries one by one. One day we can just sit back as our countries take over others and the world is all as one, separated by a little bit of water.”

“Oh yeah, you make it sound so simple.” I say sarcastically while downing a glass of beer in one drink. Ken had some interesting views on the world. None of which even seemed possible.

Technically, I was king, which technically means I own everything in France. I already owned the Eiffel Tower. I owned it until the day I die. People already envied me as their prince. They never saw me as their king. Everyone loved my father, people protested for his innocence but it never worked. It wasn’t ever going to free him, he was guilty as charged. He could rot to death serving his life sentence for all I care.

All of a sudden Feeling Good by Nina Simone starts playing, as I see a girl walking in. Brown hair that curled at the bottom, green eyes, really skinny, average height. She was stunning. She even looked like the type of person that had a loving personality.

Ken nudges my shoulder.

It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life, for me blast through the speakers.

“Are you insane? Why would I consider doing that? She is way out of my league.” I ask.

“No one is out of league for the king of France. Hey! Girl in the red dress! Want to get a drink with this guy!” Ken shouts from the other side of the bar. I punch him in the arm.

“I hate you. You know that, right?” I say, half joking to Ken.

I turn around back to the counter to get another drink and I feel a tap on my shoulder. It was the girl in the red dress. I think her name was Shelly or something.

“Hey, is that offer for a drink still on?” She asks me softly. Ken stares at me smiling.

“Of course it is, I was just leaving. You can take my seat. Have a good night you two, but not too good of a night.” Ken shouts obnoxiously. I death stare him.

The girl in the red dress takes a seat right me. We sit in silence just smiling at each other.

“Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. I don’t really need an introduction from you. I’m Shirley, Shirley Gray if we are being precise.” Shirley says with a smile, holding out her hand for me to shake.

“Nice to meet you Shirley, i’m Harlem.” I say anyways, shaking her hand. “Shall I escort you to the dance floor?” I ask, holding out my hand for her to take.

She nods and we walk onto the dance floor. I spin her around as Feeling Good by Nina Simone continues to blast through the speakers. What felt like a plain boring black and white world slowly started to shift everytime I spun Shirley around.

It’s a new dawn. BAM It’s a new day. BAM

Color starts to take over everywhere I looked.

It’s a new life,BAM for me. And I feel good.

My eyes were suddenly opened to the possibilities of the world. Everything I had thought of before and more came flooding in as I saw colors explode in my eyes. She had already changed my world with her smile and we had only known each other five minutes.

We talked for about an hour, she was amazing. She had the opposite of a boring life. She had many of the same thoughts I did. Every part of me wanted to tell her of my plans to take the world by surprise but something was telling me not to. I couldn’t risk my plans being leaked even though I trusted her. I never thought I could trust someone I just met but here we are.

“You are the total package Shirley Gray. You can dance, your different from all the other girls, and you know how to make a man smile.” I say raising my water glass for her to clink. She smiles.

“You’re not too bad yourself Mr. Strangford. Maybe I could get your number for a second date?” Shirley asks me kind of nervous.

“Hell yeah.” I say with a smile. She sighs of relief.

I watch Shirley walk out of the room as I finally jump into action. I run out of the room and drive off to The Palace of Versailles, my home. I run through the main door, rush to the back, and go to the elevator to the bottom floor.

Our bottom floor had a huge vault door that could only be opened by a fingerprint, face scan, and passcode. If you got it wrong more than three times the gate would notify our special watches of an attempted break in.

I step out of the elevator, scanning my fingerprint and face, and typing in the passcode. 308946. The door slowly opens as I see Ken standing there.

“You know, the whole act of sounding insane to the public eye and fantasizing of buying the Eiffel Tower won’t work for much longer, we use that plan everytime we go out.” Ken says, hacking into the systems.

Since a year after my mother was killed, Ken and I turned the secret room of the Versailles into our lair. We had top notch computers, that Ken had used to hack into FBI databases and hack money into my account. There was no step I wouldn’t take to one day take over. I would do what had to be done.

The lair had a main circular floor, with spiral stairs leading to the upper section filled with computers. Green LED lights covered every wall and stair. Ken and I both had our own section, and we had a shared section. He would later on be kicked out, I would change the passcodes and everything. When it came time to officially take over. I would make sure there was no trace of Ken. But he didn’t have to know that quite yet.

“Well look at you go Prince Strangford, you signed a ten billion dollar deal with a totally not made up company in Costa Rica.” Ken says laughing.

“You hacked ten billion dollars into the account? That’s a bit more than your normal five billion. We have to be careful, our plan is impeccable. One small change can ruin it all.” I say concerned.

“Don’t worry. I have fake witnesses and fake business owners lined up to confirm this deal, our plan is still fool proof.” Ken says while removing any trace of break-in onto the database.

“You know, eventually you will have enough money to just buy a country. By have enough money, I mean I can just hack my way through a bunch of the databases. It’s scary what I am capable of. But we have to get focused here. We have to take over France completely before we can move on. We can’t waste a minute.” Ken

“Then what are we waiting or?” I ask and we get right to work.

(SHIRLEY)

I pull into our secret underground lair hidden deep into the forest, get out of the car that blends in with the trees and walk down the hidden staircase.

“Finally, how was it? You weren’t being to suspicious were you?” Janice, my partner in crime asks. I shake my head no.

“Nope. Everything went as smooth as possible. It couldn’t have gone any better.” I whisper as we wait for the doors to seal shut.

“So tell me, how is it like dating the prince’s best friend?” Janice asks me. She didn’t know that I went out with the prince himself.

“That part of the plan kind of failed.” I start to say, Janice stares at me confused. “I actually ended up going out with the Prince himself. Which completely eliminates steps 1-14 of our plan. If I can get engaged to the prince of Frances, everything would be so much easier when I become the princess.” I say smiling.

“You’re kidding! You are dating the prince!?” Janice shouts in disbelief. She starts squealing.

“Alright, we have to put the first part of our plan into position though. Scoot over.” I say nudging Janice’s arm so she will get up from the computer. Janice was the brains behind our plan, but I was the hacker behind it all. I could hack into any database, power plant, you name it. I could do it.

“What exactly is this plan? Step 15?” Janice asks me.

“This is the one where you just happen to be right outside of the Versailles when the power comes out in the pouring rain beginning in an hour. And done. I hacked into the electrical company’s system. The Versailles will have no power for three whole days. You know the rest of the plan.” I explain.

Our plan was to get me engaged to the prince so I could become the princess, technically the queen due to his mother’s tragic death. Once I was queen/ princess I could go into my next plan of taking over the world. This world would suffer through what I had to suffer. They would feel pain like never before. They would know the name Queen Gray. I’d be the queen without a king. I would rule the world myself. Hatred would always be more powerful than love.

“Sweet. I get to go pick up the sexy prince three months early. I am onboard with that. Ping me when the power is about to go down.” Janice says running out of the hidden lair.

Janice and I were the only ones, that I know of, that have pocket phones. It’s like a mini world at our fingertips that I invented myself. A ping was a message, we could virtually message each other and they delivered instantly.

About an hour later, everything was all set for this step of the plan. The prince wouldn’t see what was coming to him.

(Janice)

PING

Shirley pinged me. “Power going out any minute, be ready. Take him to the hotel.”

I run out of my car and pretend to admire the beauty of the Versailles. I had seen this place about a thousand times, so its beauty begins to fade after so long. I watch all the lights quickly go black. I count to five, the back up lights quickly turn on. Then they cut out. Shirley knew how to do anything, it was scary.

I watch as the security guards rush to the side of the building to check the power box, they would be gone for at least ten minutes. Hopefully Harlem would be out before then.

Ten minutes pass by, the guards start to walk back as the power is still out. I stand at the entrance of the Versailles.

“Hey! You are not permitted to be on property ma’am!” one of the guards shouts.

He had no idea what was about to happen, I was trained in Karate, Martial Arts, Tiquando, and I was a specialist when it came to weaponry.

“Oh yes! I have a note from the prince. He says it is very urgent!” I shout, which is a total lie.

“Let me see tha-” the guard starts to say. But I kill him by twisting his neck, he tries to scream but hits the ground.

The other two guards start shooting, but my aim was better. I grabbed the dead guards gun and shot both of them straight in between the eyes. Like I said, they didn’t know who they were messing with.

“Wow girl, nice shot.” my friend Barnett says.

“Thanks, now all you gotta do is get into uniform and pretend to be a guard.” I say.

“On it.”

Now I just had to hide the bodies.

(Harlem)

10 Minutes Ago

“What the hell?! What happened?” I shout as the power goes down.

“SECURITY ALERT, ENTERING BACK UP ENERGY MO-” The speakers start to say but then it is pitch black. The speakers were down and everything.

“Shit.” Ken says panicking. “Without power, the vault won’t be locked. The door can be opened by anyone and everyone.”

“I think we should be fine for ten minutes. The power should be back on any second now. This never happens. I will go upstairs to see what is going on. Stay down here.

I run up the thirteen flights of stairs for what felt like forever. No one takes the stairs. I eventually make it to the main floor and run outside to check the powerbox. There is a girl standing in the yard of the entrance.

“Hi, can I help you?” I ask confused on why she is here, and how she is past the gate.

“Hi! I am Janice Maizla. I am not from around here, I live in California. I just had to come see where the prince of France lived.” Janice says with a smile.

“Ah, well nice to meet you Janice. We are actually going through something right now, apparently. So if you will excuse me.”

“Prince Harlem, we expect the power to not be on for a minimum of two days.” one of my guards tells me and I just stand there.

“That doesn’t sound too good. I know you are like the head of France and probably don’t go anywhere without police escorts but I will ask anyways. Do you want to stay with me at my hotel for the night? I promise I won’t brutally murder you in your sleep!” Janice says partially laughing.

She seemed trustable, but I also knew that looks can be deceiving. This could just be an innocent girl, or a girl looking to rip me into shreds and sell my organs on the black market for millions of dollars. Honestly, at this point and time I was fine with either.

“Sure! One night couldn’t hurt as long as you don’t mind!” I say not 100% sure.

“Of course, we got upgraded to the biggest room so we have room!” Janice says.

I follow her into the car, which I now realize probably wasn’t the smartest idea saying that she was in my yard, without guards stopping her, and isn’t even from here.

We drove for about twenty minutes until we got to the grand hotel. It was the best hotel in Paris.

“Here we are!” Janice says throwing open the door. I walk out.

Her room was at the top floor, we took the elevator and entered the room. They really did have the biggest room.

“Shirley?” I asked confused, why was she here.