September 15th, Saturday - Casey Silpetti
Casey wakes up when she feels Cadence getting out of the bed and hears her go into the bathroom. She stretches, yawning as she checks her phone to see what time it is. Just after 9 o’clock. Casey climbs out of bed, digging around for clothes to wear today, noticing that Harmony has hung quite a few of her outfits in Casey’s closet. She looks over her shoulder as Cadence comes out of the bathroom, dressed in her uniform from yesterday and sneaking toward the bedroom door, grabbing her stuff on the way. “Hey, I thought you were gonna wake me up so I can give you a ride?”
Cadence looks over at Casey, “Thought I’d save you the trouble.”
“And what, set off the house alarm on your way out? Give me 5 minutes, I’ll take you home. I told you, I have to pick up some gear at school anyway.”
“Well, house alarms aren’t really much of a problem if you know what you’re doing,” Cadence says, but she reluctantly sits on the bed as Casey heads into the bathroom to get ready quickly. She grabs her photo lab keys and her wallet. “I’ve got some extra cash right now, you up for breakfast?”
Casey can see Cadence arguing with herself in her eyes, when she finally says, “OK. Not sure I really wanna see my mom yet anyway.” Casey smiles at her and opens the bedroom door, giving Cadence an ‘after you’ sweep of her arm.
“Hang on a sec,” Casey says, just outside Harmony’s room. She very quietly opens the door and slips in to grab Harm’s keys, shutting the door behind her again once she has them.
Casey drives them to the diner and they chat about frivolous things throughout breakfast; school, their small group of friends, what they want to do after high school, they even get into the different places they’ve lived (even though Casey’s are all in the same town, she’s lived enough places to have stories), minus specifics of course.
They pull up to Cadence’s apartment after a quiet ride from the diner. “Hey, you mind if I leave Harm’s car here while I run over to the photo lab?”
“Nah, not a prob. I’d better get inside before my mom blows a gasket.” Cadence walks up to the porch, and then stops. “Case, sorry about last night. I don’t usually fall apart like that, I mean, I never do. If my mom would’ve seen that, she’d have kicked my ass.” Casey starts to say something, to interrupt her, but Cadence cuts her off. ““Hey, and Casey, thanks.”
“For what?”
“Everything,” she says quietly as she slips inside, not giving Casey a chance to say anything else.
Casey heads over to the photo lab and lets herself in. She borrows a light kit for the portraits she’s supposed to take later and grabs her tripod from its corner of the darkroom. She locks the lab up and heads back to the car. On her way there she has an idea for her date tonight with Aiden. She smiles to herself and puts her gear in Harmony’s trunk, then heads out to get the things she’ll need for tonight. Once back at Harmony’s she writes her name on the grocery bag and puts it in the fridge. She says hi to Harm’s step-mom who’s doing yoga on the back patio. Casey heads upstairs to shower and get ready for her shoot. She picks out a pair of Harmony’s black pants, a red sweater with ¾ length sleeves and a boat neck, and a pair of black ballet flats. She texts a message to Aiden before finishing getting ready. “Hey. Don’t do anything for tonight. I have everything planned. I’ll call when I’m done with the shoot. –Casey”
Casey waits as late as she can before blow drying her hair, hoping it doesn’t wake up Harmony. She straightens it out and curls the ends before smoothing it back into a ponytail and wrapping a few strands around the band and pinning them to make it look more sophisticated. Casey puts on a little bit of makeup and looks at herself in the mirror, deciding she looks professional enough for today’s shoot.
She checks the time, realizing it’s already past 1 o’clock. Casey grabs her gear and takes it down to the front hallway before making herself a sandwich and grabbing some chips to tide her over until after the shoot. She tries to sit and watch TV while she eats, but is too nervous to stay in any one place for too long.
Owen picks her up after calling ahead to get her address, and drives her over to Mors Tower. He sets her up in the same conference room from earlier, and starts to walk her through the Tower directing her as to the shots needed.
“Mr. Mors is busy at the moment, but he will be available later. Until then, I am at your complete disposal. We’ll start towards the bottom…”
The tower is completely amazing. In its own way, it’s almost a complete city within itself. Entirely owned by David Mors and his company, if you lived here you wouldn’t need to leave it for any reason.
Casey is led through miles of corridors, rooms, hallways, and more. Entire floors are dedicated to living arrangements: condos and apartments for employees and their families. Below that is a public mall that sells almost anything you could want, most stores open twenty-four hours a day. There are schools, a medical center, and even a gym almost as large as her school is.
She’s led through some offices, most of them looking the same as any corporate America office. But she’s also led through labs: robotics labs, computer labs, biochemical research labs, and more.
Before the sun gets too low, they take her out in a private helicopter to take shots of the building. It’s currently the tallest building in the world, and she can easily believe it. The castle that David lives in truly does seem to float on the clouds. Casey’s a little nervous, having never been in a helicopter before, but after a few minutes, she relaxes and even enjoys the flight while snapping pictures.
Back inside, David meets up with Casey and Owen as they prepare to get to the private levels of the building that he lives and works in. They include a gym with two Olympic sized pools, an infinity pool, 4 hot tubs, and even a ¼ mile elevated track running the length of it. Another floor is almost completely dedicated to a large garden/park. Huge angled windows allow in sunlight, and also give a great view of the castle just above. The areas under the castle have light brought to them by fiber-optics and mirrors, making the illusion of a sunny sky almost seamless.
The inside of the castle is the most amazing. Here the walls are all stone, and various artworks are placed everywhere in sight. There are several that she recognizes, and David points out a few of his favorites. He also gets her to archive most of them, and the off-hand way he talks about multi-million dollar paintings and statues threaten to blow her mind.
A large part of the castle’s interior is taken up by the library. A full three stories tall, it’s almost the size of Harmony’s house. He mentions that almost every book on the nearly endless shelves is a first edition. More artwork adorns the corners and tables, and there are a few chairs and sofas scattered about. A large, antique desk is also in here, an open copy of Grimm’s Fairy Tales and some tablets lying on top of it.
David gives Casey an appraising look. “I guess since you’re here, I’ll have a few pictures taken of the rest of my collection, seeing as how these photos will stay private.” He walks toward one of the walls, and all of a sudden the entire shelf of books slides aside, showing a second room behind.
David walks her into a smaller, more private library. The lights are dim, and the one desk in here is more spartan. There are several books in glass cases, softly lit by spots in the ceiling.
He doesn’t allow her to really examine much of the area, but she can see that most of the books are written in either Latin or some other language. Some of the titles she notices are: Bardo Thodol, Le Gran Albert, Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae, De Mysteriis Aegyptiorum et Chaldaeorum et Assyriorum, De Nigromancia, Originalschriften des Illiminatenordensekte and Somniorum Synesiorum.
There are other items as well, all under glass cases. A simple iron spearhead, an old cowboy style pistol with several bullets all in a padded case, a round pendant of some sort, a few things that look like sharks teeth, and more.
After that, he walks her through a few more rooms of the castle, and then they both head down to the conference room, where she sets up to take portraits of David. They make small talk the entire time, mostly him inquiring about what she wants to do after graduating.
When they’re done, she hooks her camera up to the laptop, and they go through the pictures she took. (Expert Photographer [+4] + Compose! [+2] + 7 = 13, or Master level success!)
David is completely and totally satisfied with all of the photos. He allows her to keep rights to some of them, allows her to keep most of the rest for her portfolio although keeping the rights for his PR firm. A few (those of his private library, and a few others) he keeps in totality, erasing her copies.
He gives her the remainder of their agreed upon payment. “I look forward to the next time I can call you, Casey. And please, continue to shoot anything and everything, you never know what I might be interested in. Owen will see you home. You have a good weekend.”
She rides back to Harmony’s, looking out at the city lights, Mors Tower easily seen soaring high into the dark night. Casey calls Aiden on the way and tells him to pick her up in 20 minutes. As soon as she gets back to Harmony’s she gets everything carried up to her room, thanking Owen for the ride. She quickly changes into some of the clothes Aiden had gotten her from Bullseye; a ruffly denim miniskirt, retro baby doll t-shirt, and cropped denim jacket. She also borrows Harmony’s cowboy boots that have migrated to Casey’s closet. As she touches up her makeup, she hears soft voices and laughing coming from Harmony’s room. She smiles and softly says, “High-five Harm.”
Casey heads downstairs and sees Aiden’s car pull in. She waits to let him in, then starts toward the kitchen, “Just let me grab a couple things…” Aiden grabs her wrist and pulls her back to him for a kiss. The kiss ends, but Aiden keeps his arms around her. “Can I go get our dinner now?” Casey asks.
He smiles and takes her hand, “Lead the way sweetheart.” They go to the kitchen and she grabs her bag of groceries from the fridge, checking to see that everything is still there. She takes it and heads down the hallway, opening a couple closets before pulling out a blanket, Aiden following. “What do you have planned?”
“A picnic.” Casey turns around and smiles nervously at Aiden, handing him the blanket, “Is that ok?”
“Are we picnicking here?”
“Nope, that’s a secret. Ready?” He nods, trading the bag of groceries for the blanket and holding Casey’s hand out to his car, stowing everything before opening the door for her to get in. Casey directs him to a side street near the University campus and has him park. She climbs out and grabs the blanket and groceries from the back. She heads off toward the pond on campus, “Come on.” Aiden catches up quickly and takes the bag of groceries from her again, putting his arm around her waist as she leads the way.
Casey leads him to a slightly wooded area next to the pond and then up onto some rocks that are almost entirely hidden from view. She lays out the blanket and they sit down, leaning up against another large rock behind them. Aiden looks around, noticing the nice view of the pond, the old University buildings off in the background, and the canopy of trees above, letting the stars peek through, but blocking most of the light from the streetlights. Casey rambles a little, hoping he likes it, “It’s darker in the summer, when all the leaves are still on the trees, but I like it now when you can actually see the stars. Plus I’ve never, ever seen anyone else up here, so I like to think that nobody else knows its here. What do you think?”
Casey bites her lip waiting for Aiden to answer. He finally turns his attention from their surroundings to her. “I’m not sure I want to know how or especially why you found this place, but it’s pretty awesome.” He strokes his thumb across her lip. He continues, softer now, “I don’t know how you did it, Casey. Ran away, lived alone…lived on the streets.”
Casey turns away, busying herself with getting their picnic out of the bag. She names everything as she pulls it out, setting it on the blanket. She has 2 turkey sandwiches, 2 roast beef sandwiches, potato salad, fruit salad and 2 individual servings of strawberry shortcake. “I didn’t know if you liked turkey or roast beef or both, I hope this is ok…” She pulls out some plastic forks and some napkins and turns back to the spread on the blanket, realizing she’s missing something but not able to put her finger on it. After a second she figures it out. “Crap! I forgot plates. I’m sorry.” She continues muttering under her breath, “Damn it! I wanted this to be perfect. I can’t believe I forgot to get plates. How are we going to eat…”
Aiden turns her face toward him. “Casey, it’s ok. We can just eat out of the containers. I don’t have cooties, I promise,” he says, trying to lighten the mood.
Casey half smiles up at him. “It’s just…I wanted it to be perfect, and…” She trails off, looking back down at the blanket instead of at Aiden.
He turns her face toward him again, “Case, it IS perfect.” He sees her start to protest and kisses her. “Perfect. Relax sweetheart.” He pulls her back to lean against the rock again, putting his arm around her shoulders. “I like turkey and roast beef, and I like being with you, especially here in a place that nobody else knows about. Got it?” Casey nods and hands him a sandwich, taking one for herself too. They chat about various things while they eat, until Aiden brings how the night ended and asks what was wrong with Veronica.
Casey tenses. “I…I don’t really want to talk about that, Aiden.” She starts putting the cartons and leftovers back in the bag.
“Case, what happened to Veronica?” Aiden asks, taking Casey’s shoulders and turning her toward him. He leans down so she has to look at him. “Is she ok?”
Casey bites her lip again and nods yes. She takes a deep breath and blurts out, “Chance had her on a balcony and was trying to take advantage of her, Cadence thinks she broke his nose…I know he’s your friend, but…I don’t know…”
Aiden is quiet for a moment, then softly says, “That’s why Cadence didn’t want to say anything in the limo.” Casey just nods. “OK, done with that topic for tonight.” He kisses her softly, “But we’re coming back to this one tomorrow.” He quickly helps her finish putting everything back in the bag and then leans against the rock again, pulling Casey between his legs to lean back against him. They start talking about what they want to do next year, looking up at the stars. Aiden slips his hands under her t-shirt, one moving up to tease her breasts as he kisses along her neck, the other splayed across her stomach. Casey shivers in anticipation. “Case, can anyone see us here?”
“I…don’t know. I don’t think so.”“Good.” He turns her head to kiss her fully. “Turn around,” he says huskily. She turns sideways on his lap as they keep kissing. “More.” Casey turns all the way around, straddling his lap, feeling how excited he is, her hips pushing at him. Everything intensifies between them as more skin appears. Casey undoes Aiden’s pants, slipping her hand inside. “Wait…condom.” Casey slips out of her panties as Aiden sheaths himself before pulling her fully onto his lap. They make love, trying to be quiet, Aiden holding her when they’re done, trying to catch their breath. “Come home with me,” he says kissing her nose. Casey nods yes as they quickly right themselves and pack up, sneaking back to his car.
They are almost back to his car when Casey pulls them both to a stop. “What’s the ma—“ Aiden starts to say, but Casey gives a quick shake of her head and quietly shushes him.
They stand there in silence for a moment, Casey trying to figure out what spooked her. All of her instincts are screaming that something is wrong, and she trusts her instincts, they saved her a few times while on the street.
The air suddenly seems much colder, and Casey’s skin prickles with goose bumps, the hair on her neck standing up as though she were in the middle of a lightning storm. She realizes that the night air has gone completely silent, not a single bug or animal stirring. Only the very faint sounds of the city traffic break the night.
A thought runs unbidden through Casey’s mind, ‘something is watching us.’ It only takes a moment before it changes to ‘no… something is stalking us.’
She can feel it, the primal instincts of her primitive brain screaming like a startled monkey, feeling the predator sweeping in for the kill. She can tell Aiden feels something too; he’s pulled close to her, and is warily looking around.
“Aiden, I think we should hurry.” She grabs his hand and pulls him into a quick trot towards his car.
They break out of the woods and see his SUV parked just ahead. Casey’s not sure if it’s just over-active imagination or what, but she swears she can hear something crashing through the woods behind them in pursuit.
His car is parked in the shadows between street lights, the inky blackness under it hiding a million imaginary terrors. They run up to the driver’s side, Casey almost expecting to see a pale arm or furry claw reach out from underneath to try and pull them under.
Aiden fumbles with the keys for a moment before throwing open the door. Casey jumps in, and slides across to the passenger seat even as Aiden hurries in. He slams the door and locks it, putting the keys in the ignition but not starting the car yet.
They sit there, both breathing hard as they look out at the woods they just ran from. The breeze is blowing, causing the trees and bushes to undulate, the shadows they cast dancing back in forth in some surreal scene.
After a long few minutes of silence, they both chuckle uneasily; trying to ward away their unease with a humor they do not feel.
Aiden starts the car, and they pull off, heading into the blessed bright lights of the city.
They’re both quiet almost the entire ride to his house. Finally, he breaks the silence. “So what was that?”
“You felt it too?”
“Yeah, it’s like… I don’t know. Like something was watching us, but worse.”
“I don’t know. I’m just glad we got out of there when we did. Sorry, I should’ve never brought us out there.”
He turns to look at her, his hand reaching over to take hers. “No way jose! The picnic was perfect, the whole night was great. That didn’t ruin anything, so don’t you blame yourself for nothing.”
He holds her hand the rest of the way to his place.
Once there, they both sneak in and up to his room. He grabs a shirt for her to wear, and kisses her cheek. “Go ahead and grab a shower, I’m just going to go check in with the parents for a moment, I saw their light was still on”
He steps out, and she looks through her purse and grabs her cell phone. She dials Harmony’s cell number, and after a few rings it picks up.
“Hey, I’m busy, and obviously not with you. So leave me something, and I’ll call you back.”
Casey smiles, and waits for the beep. “Hey Harm. Just wanted to warn you I’m not coming back tonight, I didn’t want you to worry about me. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow though.”
She walks into the bathroom, and strips out of her clothes before stepping into a piping hot shower. She stands there for a long moment, letting the hot water just wash over her and relax her.
She reaches down to grab the shampoo only to be startled by the shower door opening. She spins and crosses her arm in surprise, a startled squeak flying from her lips. Aiden smiles as he steps in behind her.
She starts to say something, but he leans into her and kisses her soundly, stopping her before she can say anything. She can feel her body respond and he presses against her, hard and ready, kissing her hard as the hot water sprays over them both.
He breaks the kiss just long enough to grab the shampoo and fill his hands with it. HE runs his fingers through her hair, leaning in to kiss her again as his hands stroke the shampoo into her hair, massaging her scalp.
He turns them both, so that the water is to his back. He turns her in place, so he can lather her hair better. She closes her eyes, luxuriating in the feel of his hands.
He moves them back into their previous places, letting the water rinse the lather from her hair as he gets a handful of liquid soap. He presses against her again, kissing her as his hands slip around behind to rub the soap across her back, his hands gliding against her slick skin easily.
He kisses his way down her neck as his leg slips between hers, his hands cupping her rear, pulling her against his thigh. He suckles as the base of her neck as she rocks against him, her breathing starting to come in short gasps.
He pulls away from her, grabbing for the soap again. Filling his hand again, he lathers the soap across her chest, cupping and massaging her breasts. He turns her, and she splays her hands against the shower wall in front of her, leaning hard against the wall as his arms wrap around her and help hold her up.
His left hand cups her breast and tweaks her hard nipple, while his right hand slides down her stomach and between her thighs. He bites the base of her neck and her shoulder and his fingers work busily at her.
He slides his middle finger deep inside her, moaning in her ear as her body hungrily tightens around it. He spreads the slickness he finds there up to the hard nub of her clit and rubs in tight circles, whispering in her ear the dirty things he wants to do to her as she whimpers and whines in complete pleasure.
She finds her peak, her body shuddering and tightening around his penetrating digits, and he holds her up to keep her from falling as her legs lose almost all feeling. She leans forward, cushioning her head on the wall with her arms as he lets his fingers slip out from her and cup her sex protectively.
Her breathing slowly starts to slow down, and he reaches past her with his left hand to turn off the shower. She turns in his arms even as he brings his right hand up to his face, slipping his fingers between his lips to suck them clean while eyeing her appreciatively.
She feels a twinge watching him, and looks down to see that he’s still hard and ready to go, having done nothing but worry about her in the shower. She opens the shower door, and steps out. He follows, and she stops him, using one hand on his shoulder to push him to sit on edge of the tub. She pulls a condom from the drawer, and slides it over him.
Then she stands and turns, facing away from him as she lowers herself against him, sheathing him deep inside her. She rocks against him, her legs together to keep her as tight as possible, bringing him to his peak quickly.
They dry each other off, and he uses a comb to brush through her hair until the feel of it almost makes her fall asleep on him. He carries her to bed, and they spoon together and fall into a deep sleep quickly.
