Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 Afterparty (mc, nc, MF, FF, MD)

   By Aerosol Kid <aerosol_kid@hotmail.com> Visit me at
/~AK_Home The people and events in this story come from
my brain, not the real world.  Regardless of what that tells you about my
brain, it means that I'm not writing about you, your mom, your friends, or
your friend's friends.  So you can't sue me.  Neener neener.

   If you're under age in your territory (and you know what I mean), then
read something else.

   Note: Grace's tale continues here, from "Ob-e-diens".  She's joined by
her big sister Gina, who had her own adventure in "Play Day".

   (c) 2001 Aerosol Kid

   The street lamps made Grace wince as they whipped by.  She'd fallen
asleep with her head against the window, and the rhythmic flashing slowly
roused her.  The unwelcome pain in her stiff neck was cruelly amplified by
the ecstasy lingering in her system.  Her stomach growled, and her ears
rang from the loud music at the party.  She shifted gingerly in her seat
and realized that her arms were bunched up against her under the seat belt.
She must've passed out as soon as she sat down, and her friends had just
belted her ass in for the drive home.

   Only no one she knew drove a truck.

   Oh shit.  Erik.  She remembered the last two hours of her life in the
instant she turned toward the driver's seat.

   He was indeed at the wheel.  Grace was slightly disconnected from her
emotions, thanks to whatever he'd dosed her with, and she was grateful for
that.  As she looked blearily at Erik, the fear nearly made her gag.  But
the narcotic helped her feel more like an observer than a participant.  She
was watching her very own cautionary TV movie about hooking up with
strangers.

   Erik must've known she was staring at him, but he ignored her.  Grace
labored against the drug for a few seconds and came to the conclusion that
she was stuck in her seat, for the time being.  She made a soft, resigned,
frightened noise.

   "We're almost there," he said in response.

   "Where?" Grace asked, not really wanting to know.

   "We're meeting your sister."

   "Why..." Grace was almost crying.  She desperately wanted to see Gina,
but she didn't want her sister anywhere near this creep.

   They rolled up to a stoplight and Grace looked out the window, trying in
vain to fling her thoughts outside, away from the nightmare she was living.
She heard Erik fumbling around next to her, then felt something jab her
arm. Grace closed her eyes, bit her lip.  She didn't need to look; she
could already feel what was happening. 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

   The alarm went off again, and Gina groggily deduced that she'd hit the
Snooze button enough.  It was four-thirty in the A.M., and her entire
night's sleep was now a lost cause.  She kicked off the covers and sat up
slowly.  Yawned and scratched behind her ear.  God dammit, she thought.

   Her little sister Grace was undoubtedly having the time of her life at
that stupid rave.  "She'd better be," Gina growled to herself as she
scanned the floor for her slippers.  "And she'd better turn her fucking
phone back on."

   The deal was this: Grace wanted to celebrate her high school graduation
in style, at this really big party downtown.  Only Mom would never let her
stay out all night, so Grace had lied and told her she was spending the
night at Gina's (before asking her first, as usual).  Big Sister had
charitably agreed on the condition that she would pick up Grace at the end
of the festivities - she didn't want someone with a head full of
hallucinogens driving Grace home.  They were supposed to touch base at 4:00
A.M.  to coordinate.

   But Grace didn't pick up when Gina called, so she had crawled back in
bed for a bit without really thinking about it.  Now, feeling more awake
and responsible, she shuffled around her bedroom, cursing her flaky kin. 
She briefly considered getting dressed, then decided to slip a jacket
around her oversized Hello Kitty nightshirt.  I'm getting too old for this
shit, little sis.  Life will be so much easier when you go off to school
this fall...

   As she padded out to the car in her flip-flops, she wondered if she was
over reacting because it was well before the ass crack of dawn, but she
decided to be irritated either way.

   Gina pulled out of her driveway and headed downtown, figuring she'd
cruise over to the huge club and try to catch Grace outside.  She yawned,
reaching over to turn on the stereo.  Takako Minekawa sang about not being
able to sleep.

   A few miles down the road, her cell phone rang.

   Finally, she thought, digging through her purse for the phone.  She
pulled the antenna out with her teeth, jabbed the Talk button and said,
"Yeah?"

   Grace's voice crackled into her ear.  "Gina.  I need for you to meet
me." She sounded tired.  The poor kid was probably worn out from the roll
and all that peace, love, unity and respect.

   "I was wondering when you'd call, kiddo.  I'm on my way.  Should be
there in five."

   "We're not at the party," came the response.  Gina could hear cars going
by in the background.

   "Where the fuck are you then?" Gina asked, irritation levels on the
rise. "I'm not very thrilled about driving all over town looking for you.
This wasn't part of the deal.  And who's 'we'?"

   There was a pause.  "I met this guy and we've been hanging out.  We're
at Sullivan's.  Can you pick me up?"

   Great, Gina thought.  Leave it to Grace to hook up.  Her little sister
was even more of a boy magnet than Gina was - there was a long line of high
school boys waiting to get in her pants.  And I'm playing taxi driver in
the middle of the night while she locks lips with some 'N Sync-looking mall
rat.

   "Sullivan's, huh?  Gimme ten minutes." Gina frowned as she put the phone
down.  She was pissed about having to turn around and head back the way
she'd come, but Grace sounded weird.  Familiar weird.  Her thoughts took an
unpleasant turn, but she shook it off and decided she was being paranoid.

   When she rolled into the parking lot of Sullivan's - a grease pit of an
all-night diner - Grace was nowhere to be seen.  Gina was too tired to get
out and look for her, and she was just about to pick up her phone when she
saw Grace get out of a big gray Blazer across the lot.  A tall, dark haired
guy stepped down from the driver's side and moved in behind her.  Gina
slowly drove over to them and rolled down her window.  Grace looked really
fucked up, while her new boyfriend stared down at Gina with uncomfortable
intensity.  She disliked him immediately.  Glancing at Grace, she said,
"You ready?"

   But Grace was just standing there looking at her.  "Grace?" She looked
like she might topple over in a light breeze.  Something was very wrong
here.  The guy was moving toward her, reaching in the window.  "Hey!" she
barked, but something covered her face before she could say anything else.
It was a cloth, and it smelled really weird.  He was pressing it over her
mouth and nose and holding her against the driver's seat with his forearm.
She clawed at the air in front of the steering wheel, gasping and screaming
into the cloth.  She couldn't reach anything with her hands.  Couldn't
wiggle out of his grasp.  The sickly-sweet fumes were overpowering.  The
car interior spun lazily around her as a curious buzzing filled her ears.
Her eyelids grew heavy as anvils.  As her head lolled to one side, sleep
rose up to meet her. 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

   "Grace!  You awake?" her sister called to her.  Grace groaned, then
squinted at sunlight.  She was tightly bound to a chair, the ropes cutting
into her bare arms and legs.  Her head was pounding, her mouth dry.  She
felt warmth at her elbows, then realized Gina was behind her, bound by the
same ropes.

   "Uh-huh," Grace responded.  She was still tingling with the effects of
the latest substance Erik had given her.  She felt lightheaded, dirty. 
She'd obviously slept in this chair for several hours, and a gamy tang
wafted up from her raver regalia.  They were in an empty room, and the
large window in front of her was covered with a paper blind: it let
sunlight in, but afforded no view from outside.  The walls and floor were
covered in plastic.  She silently cursed the day Gina had made her watch
The Silence of the Lambs.

   "You okay?" Gina asked.

   "N-no."

   "I know," Gina soothed.  Grace wished she could see her sister's face.
"We're in some deep shit.  What happened?"

   Grace started to cry, but she managed to tell Gina everything that
happened to her at the rave - Erik, Sylvie, the truck in the parking lot.
"...And then he made me call you so he could get you, too," she sobbed. 
"I'm so sorry I got you into this, Gina."

   "That fucker." Gina strained at their bonds.  Then she stopped wiggling
around.  "Don't be sorry, there was nothing you could do.  I've been in a
jam like this before.  So chin up.  Let's try to figure out how we're
getting out of here."

   Grace frowned.  " When have you been in a 'jam like this'?"

   "Long story.  Let's just say I know how you feel and leave it at that.
Anyway, lots of people are probably already wondering where we are, and my
car is still back at Sullivan's.  It won't be long before folks start
looking for us."

   "But where are we?" Grace whined.  She sounded like such a baby,
compared to Gina.  She had to admire her big sister, but she couldn't
summon much courage herself.

   A door opened then, and footsteps creaked toward them - an odd sound of
shoes on plastic on wood.  Grace strained to see who it was.  Out of the
corner of her eye, she saw Erik take a seat near them, sipping coffee.  He
smelled like he had just stepped out of the shower.  She felt Gina stiffen.


   "How did you sleep?" Erik asked.

   "How do you think, asshole?" Gina spat.  Grace brightened at her
sister's brass.

   Erik slurped his coffee.  The smell made Grace's stomach churn.  "You're
even hotter than your little sister," he said.  "We're going to have lots
of fun."

   "You're going to have lots of fun in the clink, anus face," Gina told
him.  "You better let us go.  Now."

   Erik ignored her, getting up to pull black sheets over the paper shades.
Grace whimpered a little in the darkness.  "Let's play a game," he
suggested, as he moved out of her eyesight.  Then she felt Gina flinch.

   "What's this?" she heard her sister say.

   "A little something to make you less...  hung up." Erik replied.

   Gina laughed, like she knew something Grace didn't.  "You don't know
anything about me, asshole."

   Erik moved into view and knelt down in front of Grace.  Eyeing her
dispassionately, he stuck yet another syringe in her thigh.  Emboldened by
her sister's presence, she stared back at him.  "How much shit are you
going to pump into me?"

   "Enough shit to make you my little teenage toy."

   "Don't you have like, a girlfriend?" Grace asked.  "Is this the only way
you get any action?" she continued, with the raw impoliteness only a
teenager could muster.  An unfamiliar wave of hot confusion rippled through
her as the new substance traversed her bloodstream.

   Erik just laughed at her and moved to the wall.  He flicked a switch,
and the room filled with tiny, colored lights.  They flitted around them in
a dizzying orbit.  Grace heard Gina curse under her breath, and found
herself unable to look away from them.

   "That's it.  Just look at the lights," Erik prompted.  "I've got lots of
stuff to keep you girls entertained.  Enough drugs for every day in the
week.  I picked this one up in Haiti, and I think you'll love it.  Just
look at the pretty lights."

   Grace's head swam.  She'd been dosed with too many things in the last
twelve hours to put up much of a fight.  It hurt to think.  It didn't hurt
to look at the lights.

   Gina wasn't mad at her sister anymore.  Sure, she was angry when she
woke up from the chloroform to find herself tied to a chair, but once she
heard her story she realized that Grace was just unlucky enough to be
singled out by a dangerous freak.  It looked like encounters with mind
control enthusiasts ran in the family.  And this Erik guy was an entirely
different animal than her goofy, mostly lovable boyfriend.  Seth had just
wanted to make her wear sexy clothes and fuck his brains out.  Yes, Anodyne
had almost got its collective mitts on her, but Seth's intentions were
clear all along.  And he scored bonus points for saving her life.  Erik, on
the other hand, was an evil fucker who was nearly impossible to read.  He
would probably kill her and her little sister if he had to.  Grace had
unwittingly stumbled into the web of a very sick, very smart predator.

   The lights whizzed around her, so she tried to keep her eyes on her
knees, which peeked out from under her big nightshirt.  The drug moved like
hot molasses through her bloodstream, making Gina lose her tenuous grip on
her fear, but she knew she wouldn't slip completely out of control if she
didn't look at the lights.

   A hand cupped her chin and gently raised her head.  Held it up.  "That's
better," Erik told her.  "Look at all the colors."

   "What a pretty disco ball," Gina remarked.  "Can you play "Dancing
Queen" too?  Do you have roller skates for us?" She shook out of Erik's
grasp, bit down hard on his finger and returned to looking at her knees.

   "Bitch!" Erik exclaimed, snatching his hand away from her face.  For a
second, she felt certain he was going to hit her, but he didn't.

   She was starting to feel a lot like she'd eaten a hash brownie, which
wasn't all that unpleasant.  In fact, it was mellowing her out a little. 
If anything, it made her feel braver.  As Erik stood over her, nursing his
chewed up finger, she pointedly ignored him.

   Then he seemed to decide something.  "Okay, we'll come back to you." He
walked behind her, to Grace.

   Gina closed her eyes, trying to take in what was happening with her
sister via touch and sound.  She could feel Grace's upper back against
hers, and the tight rope around their shoulders made it possible for Gina
to feel her slow, even breathing.  She could also tell that Grace's head
was drooped forward.  Then she felt Erik's hands brushing her arms as he
fondled her sister lecherously.  He was talking to her - the kind of stuff
she really didn't need to pay attention to if she wanted to keep her wits
about her.

   Don't touch her, you fuckhead!  she thought, wanting to scream the words
at him.  But she instinctively knew any interaction with him would just
draw her deeper into his spell.  He was really going to town on Grace - his
hands were all over her - and she was starting to get into it.  Poor Grace,
you've always been a little slutty.  After all, you were the first one to
get in trouble for playing "Doctor" with a boy down the street...

   Erik continued his quietly insistent verbal assault on her sister's
will. In her head, Gina went through the vocals to some songs in her band's
current set list, eyes squeezed shut, trying to picture the crowd at her
last show.  Through the ropes, she continued to gauge Grace's condition. 
Not too good.  She was starting to squirm less and less against his steady
rubbing and pawing, starting to inch toward his hands before they landed on
her.  Periodically Grace would whisper insults at him, but Gina knew she'd
only lose control of her emotions if she paid too much attention.

   "There you go," Erik said, as if Grace were four years old.  "Isn't that
better?"

   "Uh-huh," Grace answered, her head knocking against Gina's.

   "Doesn't that feel nice?" Grace shuddered and Gina could tell that
Erik's hands were getting braver.  She cursed herself for losing
concentration.  Opened her eyes.  Brilliant points of light swirled by from
left to right.  They melted into familiar shapes and faces on their way by,
making Gina realize how strong that Haitian stuff must be.  As Grace
shifted behind her, Gina began to feel as if he were touching her body as
well.  Then she had another uncomfortable realization - her sister's
aroused scent hung pronounced in the air.  Or was it hers?

   Erik pressed the girls' arms together and massaged both pairs of biceps.
The distinction between Gina and her sister was further blurred, as fingers
slipped under the sleeves of her nightshirt.  Absently, she nuzzled the
back of her head against Grace's, warming to Erik's touch, feeling
intermittently that she was in her sister's body.  Which was fuller than
her own.  Rounder.  Younger.  Not quite containable in the white two-piece
she wore out to raves.  When Gina stood next to her sister she sometimes
felt a twinge of jealousy, wondering why Grace had inherited the outrageous
Scandinavian curves from their mother's side of the family, while she had
merely filled out the same body she'd had as a girl.  Though they were
about the same height, Gina was called "cute" and "petite" by Mom, while
Grace was "buxom" or "full-figured".  Gina never felt bad about herself in
front of a mirror, but looking at her sister made her dissatisfied with her
elfin stature.  Now, however, she was existing in Grace, feeling glorious,
feeling eighteen, writhing under an exploring touch, while Gina herself
explored from the inside.  Her own body must be...

   She took a determined, measured breath.  Found herself back inside Gina,
where she belonged.  And lowered her head under the torrent of light that
sucked at her, through her eyes.  Her sister was unable to help herself. 
She had to make it through this for both of them.

   Something was happening with the ropes.  One at a time, they were
slackening.  She didn't dare open her eyes again, but her curiosity burned.
What the hell's he doing now?  Gina heard the ropes fall to the floor, one
by one.  Felt Grace leave the chair behind her, then felt the chair move
away as well.  Erik stood behind her and drew her head back against his
stomach.  Her eyes opened instinctively as his hands gripped her head and
his fingers tugged at her eyebrows.  His roughness made her struggle, but
the drug made her clumsy.  She almost spilled out of her chair as Grace
moved in and straddled her, taking the place of the ropes.  Her little
sister pinned her pelvis into the cheap folding chair, causing Gina to
frown against the weight.  She struggled meekly against Erik's hands, while
Grace began to touch her in ways she felt were wholly inappropriate.

   And those damned lights.  They turned every instant of human contact
into a weapon - a blunt object that crashed down on her resistance again
and again.  The man behind her was creepy and repellant, and the idea of
getting groped by her sister was just gross, but the lights kept her from
being able to fully distinguish who they were.  She breathed in slowly
through her nostrils, and realized with some horror that her nipples were
stiffening under Grace's eager fingers.  She decided instead to focus on
her legs, rapidly going numb under the weight of her sister's hips.

   There has to be a way to fight this...

   She had her big sister between her legs.  Grace was sitting on Gina's
lap, pinning her to the seat.  It felt unbelievable to swallow those tiny
hips with her own, even though she was mortified to find herself touching
her sibling like this.  Erik was making her do more stuff, and if he kept
sticking needles in her she'd probably be doing it with his dog, before
long.  There was absolutely no way she could resist touching or being
touched at this point.  She knew she was helping Erik to break Gina down,
but she couldn't stop.  She hoped Big Sister would be stronger than her, so
they could get away somehow.

   Erik was looking down at her, smiling.  He said something.  Grace rose
up an inch or two, worked Gina's nightshirt up her hips, up to her tummy,
then sat down directly against her soaked panties.  Her hands snaked under
the huge shirt, up to the delicious heat of Gina's bare chest.  Gina
groaned, a sad little sound that made Grace want to cry again.  Erik still
held Gina's head up to the lights, so Grace couldn't really make out the
expression on her face.  Her hands moved unceasingly along the lines of
Gina's torso.

   Then Erik's hands dropped away from her sister's face.  He stepped
around to Grace and lifted her off of Gina's lap.  Moved her to one side.
She was so out of it that he didn't even have to tell her to stay where she
was - there wasn't a motivation left in her pretty head.

   Now it was Erik's turn to straddle Gina, but he didn't sit down on her
tiny lap; just stroked her blonde pixie hair and murmured to her.  Her eyes
had closed again.  He seemed to be trying to get her to stand up, but it
looked like she had passed out.  He took Gina's limp arms in each hand and
gave an experimental tug.  Nothing.  Although the lights paralyzed her,
Grace wanted desperately to check to see if her sister was breathing.  Erik
pulled her arms again, lifting her head up off the back of the chair, then
lowered her.  No response.  Frowning, he knelt down and whispered something
in her ear.

   His butt jerked into the air then, as the air wheezed out of his lungs.
His mouth formed a shocked 'o'.  He looked like a fish because Gina had
kneed him in the balls.  Exhilaration bubbled through Grace as Gina stood
up and shoved Erik rudely aside, staggered, then resolutely took hold of
the chair she'd been tied to.  Raised it up, brought it down clumsily over
his head.  Erik hit the floor like a rag doll, and Grace just stood there
watching the blood trickle hesitantly across the plastic on the floor. 
Then her sister was in her face, gripping her arms, shouting at her.  "Come
on!  Grace!  Now!" Tugging her roughly out of the room.  Grace couldn't
stop grinning.

   Gina lurched out of the room, nearly hyperventilating as she dragged her
addled sister toward a flight of stairs.  Her head spun, and she nearly
tripped on the carpeted steps, but she regained her footing by hanging onto
Grace.  They made it downstairs, and as Gina looked wildly around for the
door she noticed something about the house they were in.

   It was empty, nearly unfurnished, except for a desk near the bar that
joined the dining room to the spotless kitchen.  On the desk, near a
flickering computer monitor, were some familiar items.  Unthinking, Gina
sprinted across the bare living room and snatched up her purse.  Then she
saw her driver's license, next to Grace's, near a keyboard.  Her eyes
flicked to the screen and she saw their addresses and phone numbers, neatly
entered into a database.  Her unbearably quick breathing quickened.  She
reached a shaking finger out to the keyboard, trying to figure out the
fastest way to erase the data, when she heard muffled noises from upstairs.
She screamed, raked the rest of their stuff into her purse.  Grabbed
Grace's backpack and ran back to her confused sister.  Then she spied the
front door.

   Plastic rustled upstairs.

   "Come on Grace, come on!" she shrieked, grabbing her sister's elbow and
dragging her toward the big oak door.  In a few strides, she was
frantically working the doorknob.  It wouldn't turn.  As she struggled in
vain to open the door, she heard a beep.  The sound came from a
cream-colored alarm panel on a nearby wall.  The security system wasn't
there to keep burglars out; it was there to keep them in.

   Gina heard groaning from upstairs.  She jumped, completely hysterical
now, and looked around the room.  There was a chair in front of the desk.
And a window next to the door.  Brushing by Grace, she grabbed the chair
and ran with all her might toward the window.  Threw the chair at the
panes, through the paper blinds.  The sound of shattering glass was the
most beautiful thing she'd ever heard.

   "Grace!" She hurled her younger sister toward the opening.  Pushed her
through roughly without considering how far it was to the ground, stepped
through the jagged egress, and fell onto a hedge.

   Moaning, she removed herself from the sharp branches and found grass
under her feet.  A perfectly manicured lawn.  The front yard of Suburbia.
Grace was nearby, on her feet, hunched over and clutching her side.  Though
Gina hurt all over and she was bleeding a little, standing still was
unbearable, so she launched herself forward, catching Grace on her way out
of the yard.  The two of them sprinted off, into the middle of the street.

   They reached a street sign after running about twenty yards.  Holding
onto it while she caught her breath, Gina glanced up.  Sussex Lane.  She
knew exactly where they were - a neighborhood away from Seth's.  She
glanced back down the street to the house with the broken window and
trampled hedge.  No one had come out the front door yet.  None of the
neighbors had come out, either.  She wrapped a sweaty arm around Grace. 
"C'mon kiddo," she gasped.  "Let's get out of here."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

   Seth was starting to get more than a little worried.  It was almost
1:00, and no one knew where Gina was.  She was supposed to call him after
she picked up her little sister from the party, so he could go over and
laze around in bed with her, but she never called.  She wasn't home, and
she wasn't at her mom's.  There was no sign of Grace, either
(unfortunately, Seth had spilled the beans about the rave).  He'd spent the
morning drinking coffee in his kitchen and having hourly conversations with
Gina's mom.  You talk to her?  No, you?  No, not yet.

   They were probably both over reacting, but they were also uncommonly
intuitive people.  That's why Gina's mom liked him, Seth figured.

   He turned up the CD player on the counter, trying to distract himself
with some old Genesis.  Peter Gabriel was belting out one of his favorites:


   And out on the subway, Rael Imperial Aerosol Kid Exits into daylight,
spraygun hid, And the lamb lies down on Broadway.

   He was just about to light another cigarette, when he heard his front
door burst open, followed by the sound of labored breathing.

   "Hello?" Seth called.  A greeting and a threat.

   The breathing continued in the living room.  Cautiously, he peeped
around the corner from the kitchen.  The cigarette dropped out of his hand.


   "Gina!" He was at her side in two quick strides.  Gina and her little
sister were doubled over, gasping for air.  It looked like they had run
here from the neighboring county.  They were both sweaty and looked like
hell.  Gina was wearing her Hello Kitty nightshirt -stained with grass and
blood - and those ridiculous flip-flops.  Grace looked even worse; her
skimpy raver girl outfit was equally stained and her face was smudged with
makeup.  One of her pigtails was mostly unraveled.  "Baby, what happened?"
he asked his tiny beloved, putting a soothing palm onto each girl's back.

   Gina grabbed him tightly and pressed her face into his neck.  Breathed
for a moment.  Then looked up at him through her bangs.  "Call the fucking
cops."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

   The police were surprisingly fast.  Mom showed up soon after,
predictably hysterical.  After awhile, Gina sent Grace home with Mom, then
talked to the cops a bit longer.  Before long everyone was gone, and she
took a shower and changed into some things she kept in Seth's closet.  Seth
had pulled her into his lap and pressed a bourbon into her shaking fingers.
He held her silently for awhile, and she didn't cry.  Just clung to him and
sipped slowly.  Then she asked him to take her to Sullivan's to get her
car. He'd protested, saying he could take a friend and do it for her later,
but she had insisted on it.  The quicker she got her life as close as
possible to the way it was before last night, the better.

   They pulled into the lot, next to Gina's little white car.  There
weren't many people here this time of the afternoon.  The sun pounded the
blacktop in the dirty parking lot, and the restaurant's air conditioner
stuttered in the already oppressive June heat.  Gina could smell a dumpster
through the open window.  As they stepped out of Seth's ride, her cell
phone rang.  A piece of paper fluttered on the windshield of her car,
trapped under a wiper blade.  The humid breeze made it rattle softly. 
Absently, she handed the phone to Seth.

   "Yeah.  Yes, hello.  She's here, but she..." Gina felt Seth looking at
her as she moved slowly to her car.  "She can't come to the phone right
now. I'll relay the message.  So you went to the house.  What about it?"

   The paper on the windshield was plain and white.  Folded.  She slipped
it out from under the wiper.

   "Empty?  No furniture?  No nothing?  Really?  And the owner?  They don't
know?  Well, you know how they are with records downtown."

   Gina turned the paper over in her hands and unfolded it.  There was one
sentence on it, printed in Arial.  She covered her mouth and shuddered.

   "Uh.  I have to go.  Yep.  We'll be in touch." Seth materialized next to
her.  "Kitten?  Whatcha got there?"

   She didn't answer, just raised her hand, the note delicately held
between two fingers.  Seth took it from her.  "'Don't think you got away
for good'," he read.  "Oh.  Sweetheart."

   She looked up at him.  "Mind if I stay with you for awhile?" she asked,
trying to seem brave.

   He knew her well enough to give her face; he didn't reach out for her.
"No prob.  Should we tell Grace?"

   "Depends on what the cops say."

   "They want both of you downtown for an interview tomorrow."

   "Follow me, all right?" Gina asked as she opened her car door.

   "You bet."

   Gina slipped into the driver's seat and started the engine.  As she
pulled out of the lot, she couldn't help checking the mirror to make sure
Seth was there.  And as she drove off slowly, she began to wonder how she
was going to protect herself and her sister from the likes of Erik.

   FIN

   By Aerosol Kid <aerosol_kid@hotmail.com> Visit me at
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