Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 Series Title: Highbury Tales By: Alexander Sunshine Episode 1: Rupbert and
Alice

   ---------------- Author's note: Here is the beginning of a series I
intend to be rather long.  I warn the reader, there's more to this than
just sex scenes.  ----------------

   Welcome to Highbury, capital of the country of Kingsland.  The reader
should already have heard of this illustrious city.  It is the world's
center of power, wealth, and culture.  Besides those minor features, the
land is best known for its foggy weather, a skyline shaped by historical
fortresses, castles, and mansions, and its lower-class neighborhoods
redolent of their famous baked goods.

   In one of those aromatic neighborhoods, Alice Baker made her way down
the cramped, cobblestone street, where newspaper boys and vendors shouted
to advertise their wares.  Crowds of drab people walked up and down the
street going about their business.  But as Alice walked she did not look
ahead, but up and around at the different shops around.  "Bakery... 
seamstress, fruit-market, lock-smith, leather-smith, shoe-store,
black-smithe, no!  There must be one around here somewhere-"

   All of a sudden she felt a shock as the handle of a parasol of lady
riding in a carriage struck her on the shoulder.  "Ahh!  You hit me!" She
said as she fell to the ground.  The fancy carriage continued on, but in
the moment she could barely hear the blue-blooded man sitting next to the
lady as he said, "Mangy rabble!  Watch where you are going!"

   Alice stood up and massaged her shoulder.  The soreness in her shoulder
faded away easily, but not the soreness in her heart.  She had arrived in
Highbury just not long ago, all alone.  She thought moving here would be
her opportunity to move up in society, but so far all she found was
prejudice and coldness.  She dusted off her drab beige dress, one of three
that was all the clothing she possessed in the world.  It was the best
thing she had to wear for her job cleaning stables on Richmond Hill, where
the elite families, even the royal family, lived.

   She continued to walk, studying the storefronts.  "Oh, a bookstore!" she
said.  She crossed the street and looked through the window.  "No, this is
not the right kind of store." All she could see were magazines, newspapers,
and trashy bestsellers, not the kind of thing she was looking for.  She
sighed and continued to walk.  She crossed the street and the road was
suddenly wider and better-tended.  She was entering the center of Highbury,
the wealthier part.  She sighed again, figuring that any store that would
sell books she could actually afford would not be there.  But just then, a
sign caught her eye: "Greenleaf Books, New, Used, Rare Books."

   "This might have what I'm looking for!" said Alice to herself.

   Alice did not know it, in fact few paid attention to the humble-looking
store on edge of Downtown Highbury, but Greenleaf Books was owned by
Rupbert Greenleaf himself, the sole heir to the fortune that came to him
when his parents, were suddenly killed in a tragic sailing accident.

   That day Rupbert was working in his store as usual.  He was alone most
of the time, except when one of his few friends came by to chat with him.
Just a few hours before Alice arrived, Linda Barton had come by.  She
invited him over for a dinner party.  Soon, his friend Jacob came by too,
and she left.

   "Hello, Rupee", said Jacob, calling Rupbert by his nickname.

   "Hello," he said eagerly.  "I've been meaning to go talk to you, I went
over to the cafe but you were not there."

   "Well, here I am now."

   "So?  Tell me, do you have word about my membership?"

   Jacob smiled.  "First, tell me about your meeting with Linda just now?
What was she doing here?"

   "Oh, she just invited to me a dinner party she is throwing next Friday."

   "Did you accept?"

   "Yes, I accepted." he said, frowning.

   "What, you don't want to go?  You should.  All you do is sit in this
little shop and read your books all day.  Hardly anyone ever sees your
face. People talk about how you-"

   "I accepted." Rupbert interrupted.  "I look forward to having a good
time.  Perhaps I'll get a chance to entertain them with my piano skills,
but I do not want to give Linda the wrong idea."

   "That Linda, she does have designs on you!"

   "Obviously.  She is a fine lady, but she is fourty-five years old, a
little old for my preferences."

   "I would say the same, and oh, by the way, she is not fourty-five years
old, she is lying about her age, she is even older than that!  Oh yes, and
her last husband probably died from being nagged to death."

   Rupbert laughed.  "What a cruel thing to say!  We should not gossip like
women like this anyway.  Tell me about the membership!  You dodged my
question once, but I won't let you do it again!"

   Just then the bell over the front door jingled as it opened.  A young
peasant woman gingerly walked in and smiled meekly as the two men turned to
look at her.  Rupbert flashed her a broad smile in return that quickly
dropped off of his face.  He felt deeply uncomfortable seeing that young
lady in his store.  He could not help but stare for a moment.  Her clothes
were ragged, undyed fabric.  Worse still, her complexion was swarthy, and
she had the blackest hair and eyes; She looked like a foreigner from one of
those heathenish, impoverished countries.  He hoped that if he ignored her
Jacob would not notice her, and continued his conversation with him in a
softer voice.

   "So, tell me about my membership" he said, almost whispering.

   "Congratulations, friend, you're in!"

   "Yes!" Rupbert shook his hand.  "So, what next?"

   "There is a meeting tonight at a secret location.  First, let me warn
you, if you attend tonight, there is no backing out.  You will see who the
other members are, and some of our secret activities, and so you cannot be
let out after this.  If you do, you'll be ruined, and so will I for that
matter for nominating you for membership.  Do you understand?  I can't be
more specific than that, but trust me, they mean business!  Can I trust
you? The society will more than you expected, believe me."

   "Yes, yes!  Of course you can trust me.  Jacob, you have known me my
whole life.  You know me."

   "Yes, my friend, and that is why I nominated you.  Well, I have to go.
Once again, congratulations!" He shook Rupberts hand again, patted him on
the shoulder and left.  Rupbert was so happy, he kept smiling until he
noticed that the shoddily-dressed young lady was still there.  He barely
suppressed his discomfort as she approached him to ask him something.

   When Alice had come in, she was first struck by the sheer size of the
place.  It looked so small from the outside, but once inside, she saw rows
upon rows of countless books.  She was in awe of how much knowledge must
have been between those walls, she realized she could not read so many
books if she spent her entire life doing nothing but reading and reading.
Next she noticed the handsome shopkeeper.  He seemed to be in his late
thirties, perhaps early fourties, age just beginning to show on him.  He
was tall and somewhat thin.  He wore spectacles that did not manage to hide
his deep green eyes, which were accentuated by his tweed jacket over a
brown vest and suit.  He seemed very bookish, but still, she found him so
striking when he smiled at her.  He talked to his friend in a kind of
hushed tone, but she could hear that his accent had something unusual about
it, but it was still vaguely familiar.  Soon she recognized that his accent
was that of the very high social stratifications.  That made her uneasy,
and she in hindsight detected something counterfeit in his greeting.  Her
heart sank as the thought crossed her mind that she was not wanted there.

   Nevertheless, she was determined to find what she was looking for.  She
looked around at the books in the shelf closest to her.  She looked at the
titles in puzzlement, she could not even tell from the titles what the
books were even about in many cases.  She glanced over at the men again and
decided she would just browse until they were done with their conversation.
The way they spoke, so hushed and excited, she doubted they would welcome
interruption.

   Soon, one of the men left and Alice was left alone with the bespectacled
shop owner.  He approached her with an affectedly convivial smile.

   "Hello, ma'am.  Might I help you find something?" Rupbert asked.

   "Yes, I am looking for books about electricity and radio."

   "Radio and electricity?  That is some cutting edge material you are
asking for!"

   "Yes, I know.  I hear that they will revolutionize civilization.  I'm
going to learn all I can so that when the technology starts taking off, I
can be a specialist that will certainly be in high demand."

   Rupbert gave her look as if she had just claimed to be a visitor from
the moon.  He suppressed a laugh, smiled and said, "Well, you are in luck.
Just yesterday I got a shipment of textbooks for selling to the London
University students.  Come right this way..."

   Alice followed him to a far shelf, where he recommended six books to
her. Since she had such limited means, she picked out only one of them to
purchase.  She paid for the book with old crumpled up pound-notes, unlike
most customers who paid by check.  Sensing her incongruity to her present
environs, she summarily thanked the handsome shopkeeper and was out the
door.

   ---

   For the rest of the day, the man at the bookstore kept entering her
thoughts.  She thought of his handsomeness and smiled, but then she thought
of the way he treated her and frowned.  She wondered what his life was
like. Was he married?  Did he have children?  What was he talking so
excitedly with his friend about?  Was he as rich as he obliquely seemed? 
On one hand, he was running a humble albeit large book store, but on the
other hand, his accent and demeanor were unmistakably aristocratic.  Yet at
the same time, something about him exuded an apparent lack of
self-confidence; he was a wannabe.  In that last observation Alice felt a
connection between he and herself, she felt exalted realizing that even
someone like him was insecure in his station in the social stratification.

   After work, late at night, as she walked to her apartment, she still
thought about him.  When she decided to alter her route to pass by the
bookstore again, she finally realized she was completely infatuated.  "How
ridiculous!  To be infatuated with a man who might be twice my age, after
meeting him only once, briefly.  Worst of all, a man who looks down his
nose at me as a vermin, probably.

   As she rounded the corner she saw the door of the bookstore swing open
and Rupbert stepped out and put out a lamp.  Alice stopped and watched him
from afar.  "There he is!" she thought.  She felt her face get hot.  "What
do I do now?  If I follow him, I can see where he lives." He briskly
started to walk in the opposite direction and Alice followed, trying to
stay a fixed distance behind him.  "Look at me, I'm stalking him now.  What
is wrong with me?  There is no harm though, I just want to see where he
lives."

   They walked for half an hour.  "This man lives so far from his
business!" Alice thought.  "Unless he is not actually going home." Alice
stopped as she saw that her quarry had arrived at his destination.  She was
surprised to see he had stopped not at a house, but at one of the large
remote cathedrals.  "Why would anyone go to church this late at night?"
Alice thought.  She looked at the building in the distance and could see
that it was well lit.  It was dark, but she could barely see that there was
a group of people in the front courtyard.  Alice went into the shadows
among some trees and watched them.  "What are all of these people doing out
here late at night?" Soon she saw that they all went inside of the church.
"Something strange is going on," thought Alice.  "I have never heard of any
religious service at this time of night." She made her way toward the
cathedral, cautiously remaining in the shadows amongst the trees.  The moon
was high and full, and she did not want to be seen or approached.  She took
a curved path to the back of the Cathedral and was disappointed to find
nothing of interest there.  High up, however she could see a stained glass
window that was lit up from within.  "It's stupid, but I'll do it anyway!"
she said, as she decided to try to climb up and enter the cathedral some
way, somehow.  She moved close to the wall.  "If only there were a
ladder..." she thought.  She put her hand against a spot of rough stone. 
Much of the wall was covered in thick ivy.  She put her fingers into it and
pulled.  "This ivy is strong.  I hope it does not give me a rash."

   She put her hands up, buried her fingers into the ivy and pulled herself
up, it seemed to support her weight.  "This is so ridiculous, the ivy can
break and I'll fall down." She lifted herself up again and tested her
weight.  She bounced up and down, testing the ivy more.  She was pleased to
find that it would not break it no matter how hard she tried.  "This could
work", she realized.  And so she easily made her way up the vertical wall
like an insect.  She was able to get next to a stained-glass window and
peeked through.  The stained glass was so foggy but she could make out
movement inside.  "There are so many people in there!  What could they up
to?" She notice that some tiny parts of the stained glass were plain, and
through it she could see clearly with one eye.  She watched some more. 
Some men were standing around and chatting and drinking.  She noticed there
was an expansive balcony looking over the hall.  "I can watch them better
from there," she thought.  She climbed sideways until she came to a window
she could climb through.

   --

   "Hello, Ruby," Jacob said as he saw Rupbert approach in the front
courtyard of the cathedral.  "Glad to see you made it here on time."

   "Of course not, I would loathe to disappoint."

   "It's so exciting that you are finally joining.  This day is one that
you will never forget, your life will never be the same."

   "Will I go through some kind of initiation?  Or perhaps you cannot tell
me..."

   "There will be an initiation ceremony for you, I am not allowed to tell
you much about it naturally, but I assure you it will not be anything
dangerous.  Tonight, just follow directions and try to relax.  After the
ceremony, shake hands, introduce yourself, mingle.  Tonight, people just
want to see you."

   "Oh, that doesn't sound so bad, but this initiation stuff...  perhaps
you can give me a little hint about it, so that I am not too much taken by
surprise?"

   "Don't worry Rupee." As he said that the church bell began to ring,
singing its midnight song.  "The ceremony is about to begin!  Follow me
inside.

   Rupbert followed Jacob to the front doors of the cathedral.  There,
outside, fifteen to twenty men stood about socializing but some of them
began to enter the cathedral.

   "See that man over there, the tall one with the blonde hair?" asked
Jacob.

   "Yes." said Rupbert.  He eyed the tall slender man.  He appeared to be
in his fifties.  He shook hands with various other men around him and
smiled a confident, understated smile.

   "That is Gerard Redchild, he is the head of this chapter of the
society."

   "This chapter?  You mean there are others?"

   "Oh yes, I'm surprised you did not know at least that.  There are
chapters all over the world, in every civilized country."

   "Amazing."

   The two of them followed the rest of crowd as they filed toward the
elegant main reception-hall.  However, suddenly Jacob stopped and stood in
front of Rupbert, blocking him from the hall.

   "All right Rupee, come this way with me." Jacob led Rupbert through a
narrow hallway and into a small storage room.

   "Now, to begin your initiation, first I must ask you to take off all of
your clothes, I will put a blindfold securely about your face, and I will
lead you to another room to continue." said Jacob.

   "Take off my clothes?" Rupbert laughed.  "You're serious!"

   Jacob stared into his eyes in earnest as a reply.

   "All right, all right, I get it, you are serious, you do not have to
look at me like that."

   And so Rupbert obediently stripped down to his knickers.

   "You must take off everything." he said matter-of-factly.

   Rupbert sighed and obeyed this too.  "I feel so silly, like I'm joining
a grade-school fraternity or something."

   Jacob stepped behind him and tied the black cloth behind his head.  The
fabric hugged his head tightly and fit snugly behind his ears.  Jacob took
him by the shoulders and turned him around and led him into the hall.

   It was very quiet, but Rupbert could sense the vastness of the room he
was in.  He could vaguely hear the steps of his bare feet echoing
throughout the room.  Soon, the gentle push of his hands was gone, and
Rupbert found himself lost, cold, and in the dark.  As he stood quietly the
vague feeling that there were many people around him dawned on him.

   Rupbert considered calling out, to ask for help, to ask what he was to
do, but before he could decide what to say, he felt a slap of something
hard and broad across his side.  He called out in pain instead, and soon he
felt more blows, across back, his stomach, over his head.  He cried out
more in fear than in pain as he cowered.  He put his hands up to protect
his face, but he could not protect his entire body.  Then, as suddenly as
the shower of blows had begun, they stopped.  He pulled off his blindfold
and saw he was surrounded by masked, robed figures.  He yelped and moved as
if about to run, but there was nowhere to run.

   "Please," he cried, "don't hit me anymore!"

   One of the masked men spoke: "We will not strike you again, -if you do
what we tell you to do."

   The masked men wore long, formless black robes that dragged along the
floor.  Their masks were round, smooth, and white, with minimal features.
The expressionless face on the masks did not just lack humanity, but any
kind of art or spirit at all, making them more frightening than any mask
portraying a gruesome monster would be.  Looking into those blank masks,
Rupbert felt as if he were all alone in the company of cold, compassionless
machines.

   "What do you want me to do?" he asked gently.

   "Sit down on the floor."

   "All right," he said, lowering himself and letting his bare backside
rest against the cold stone floor."

   "Touch yourself."

   "What?"

   "Masturbate.  Now!"

   Rupbert glanced at the long wooden paddle he and the others each held in
their hand and then looked down at himself.  He was surprised to see his
erection, the current situation seemed to be quite the opposite of
arousing. For the moment he was glad however, so that he could follow their
directions and avoid further contact with their cruel paddles.

   "You are going to join us, but first, we must know everything about you.
Tell us all about your sexual history, tell us all of your secrets."

   "Well, of course I have had sex, I...  uh...  I don't know where to
begin."

   "How old were you when you first masturbated?" a voice said.

   "Uh...  fifteen."

   "Liar!" The man's voice boomed.  He struck the ground with his paddle
and sound was painful.  Rupbert decided then and there he would just speak
the truth and get this over with:

   "I don't know!  I was very young, 5 years old perhaps, it is difficult
to remember.  I swear, please do not strike me again!"

   "How old were you when you lost your virginity?"

   "I was twenty-three."

   The crowd of men around him laughed derisively, as Rupbert continued to
stroke himself obediently.  "Twenty-three!" someone repeated.  "What a
prig!"

   "Have you ever had relations with another male?"

   He squinted his eyes shut, bracing himself to tell the truth, it was too
late to say 'no': "One time...  in boarding school, another boy started
molesting me in my sleep.  I woke up and didn't know what to do, so I just
pretended to stay asleep and I let him finish."

   "He claims he didn't know what to do!  What a fib!  He's just a
pervert." More laughter.

   The crowd continued to jeer at him as he absent-mindedly continued to
stroke himself.  He endured the situation by being apart from it.  He felt
like he was not living the situation, he felt like a mere observer.  Yet,
still, as their ridicule continued he found that their energy, as it cut
into him, aroused him terribly.

   They continued to ask him humiliating questions, until soon the
questions just seemed more humorously absurd than humiliating.  Rupbert was
proper gentleman, who had lived a conventional life with little adventure.
He easily said no to all of their strange questions, if he paused usually
it was because he could not even imagine some of the acts they asked him
about.

   It was not long until the questioner was convinced that Rupbert's sexual
past was relatively bland and uncheckered, and the questions stopped.  Now
it was only the jeering of the other men echoing through the hall:
"Pervert!" "Idiot!" "Homo!" "Freak!" "Queer!" "Molester!" "Wanker!"
"Buggerer!"

   Rupbert could not bear to look at his tormentors as he sat cold and
naked on cold stone floor.  He kept his eyes shut and his head down, trying
to block it all out.  Soon he felt the wave of pleasant release as he
finally spent his seed straight up into the air.  Just as he felt that this
humiliation was over, the masked men around him began to applaud mockingly.
Now Rupbert had nothing to do but sit still and motionless, praying that
God himself would blink him out of existence so that he would not have to
endure any more.  He knew how he appeared: flabby, pale, and hairy. 
Pathetic and alone there on the cold stone floor.

   ------------

   Rupbert was led out of the center of the hall and shown to his clothes,
and a basin for washing his hands.  All of the other men took off their
masks.  Some of them shook hands with him.  Rupbert thought perhaps it was
over, but he soon realized they were all waiting for the ritual to
continue.

   The lights went out and the inhabitants of the hall were surrounded by
impenetrable darkness, save the weak moonlight that came in through the
tinted glass windows high up above.  They heard a door open and a line of
nuns came marching out.  All of a sudden candles around the hallway lit up.
"How did they do that?" Rupbert wondered.  The women began to chant.  At
first he thought it was latin, but as they continued chanting he listened
closely and recognized that it did not resemble any language he in all his
years of studying was familiar with.

   The nuns all walked around the hall until they formed a circle, and then
stopped.  They continued to chant more for a few moments, then, to Rupberts
shock and amazement, they threw off their robes and hats, revealing them to
be perfectly naked underneath.  All of these women were similar looking:
young, slender, pale, well-proportioned and with long hair that flowed just
past the waist.  These were not ordinary nuns.  One more woman appeared
from the same doorway as them, naked like them, but with bright ginger
features.  She carried a large, rolled-up carpet.  She went within the
circle of women and laid down the carpet, which turned out to be black and
perfectly round.

   Rupbert noticed that the woman held a thick piece of white chalk.  She
bent down and drew on the carpet.  She walked and drew at the same time,
dragging her arm along, forming a large white circle along the edge of the
carpet.  Then she drew straight lines across the circle that began and
ended on the perimeter of the circle.  There were five lines when she was
done which formed a pentagram.  That woman sat down in the center of the
pentagram cross legged and seemed to wait.

   Just then the doors opened again, and this time, a group of five men
dressed as priests began to file out.  As they walked they incanted bizarre
words in booming voices.  They pronounced each syllables for several
seconds each.  The ground and the entire church seemed to vibrate with
their voices.

   They continued to chant as they each sat down close to the woman.  Each
one put their hands on the woman and began caressing all of her body and
her long red hair.  The sight of the flesh of their numerous bare hands
eclipsed the woman and they were like a single entity of writhing
voluptuousness.  The woman moaned, louder and louder such that soon it
sounded exaggerated and almost comical.

   Rupbert looked around.  As the so-called priests took turns impregnating
the woman in the center, the activity became monotonous and almost boring
to watch.  Rupbert looked around at the other men around him.  They all
studied the activity in the middle as if they could miss something
important if they pulled their eyes away for even a moment.  Rupbert
wondered if he would be expected to take part tonight, or some other night.
The thought that he might frightened him too much to consider whether that
appealed to his prurient interests or not.  As they appeared to be
finishing the fear in him welled up.  Time slowed down as he anxiously
wondered what would happen next.

   Out of the vaulted doors, another priest emerged, leading a very short
person in a hood by the hand.  When he came to the center he uncovered the
short person, who turned out to be a small boy, who could be no older than
six years old.  He had golden hair, and large, sad pale eyes.  The boy
looked terrified but he did not struggle, as if his spirit was broken, his
soul already fled, and his body was resigned to whichever fate his captors
had decided for him.

   When Rupbert saw the little boy, he became very puzzled.  Why would
someone bring a small boy to an event like this?  Were they going to make
him have sex with the nun also?  In Rupberts sheltered mind, even that
bizarre possibility was barely thinkable.  Then the priest unsheated a
shining dagger, making a slitting sound which reverberated back and forth
around the hall, startling him.  The dagger gleamed and Rupbert's eyes
darted to the men around him, to the boy, and then back to those
surrounding him.  What was the meaning of this?  They wouldn't really... 
Are they really going to stand by and watch while he...  Why would they
want to?  What would they get out of it?

   There was another sound that not only startled him, but also all of the
men around him, finally something broke their rapt attention.  "Look!  Up
there!" someone said.  "There's an intruder up there!"

   --

   Alice had been entranced by the ceremony.  She felt surreal watching
these strange activities that were unlike anything she had ever seen, read,
or heard about.  She was utterly shocked when she saw the "priests" fling
off their robes and then take turns tupping the red-headed lady.

   Alice slowly drew closer and could not help but stare at the members of
the relatively unoccupied four of the five men who knelt with penises erect
and glistening in the candle-light with the mingled juices of all six of
them.

   In the audience of men, after they had taken off their masks, she saw a
man who looked like her employer.  Was it really him?  She moved around the
balcony, trying to get a better look.  She was so absorbed she did not
notice the tall candle holder at her side and it fell over and landed with
a painfully loud clang against the stone tiles.  When she heard a man yell
and point at her, she was confused for a moment, having practically
forgotten how she had gotten there.  In an instant, however, she realized
she had better escape.  She looked at the window but decided it would not
be safe to hurry back down that way.  Besides, they could go outside faster
than she could climb down anyway.  There was not much more hope of escape
any other way, but she figured she ought to go downstairs.  She ran around
the long balcony and found a door.  She turned the knob but it was locked.
Another door opened and some of the men came out and closed in on her.

   She screamed and tried to run the other way.  She did not take two steps
until one man was able to grab her.  Another man grabbed her legs.

   "Stop!  What are you going to do to me?" Alice cried.

   "What are we going to do to her?" said a voice.

   "Let's bring her downstairs!" someone else said.  They carried her down
into the main hall.  The people taking part in the ceremony had left.  The
men tossed her down to the floor, onto the center of the pentagram and
everyone else surrounded her.

   "Who are you?  What are you doing here?" thundered Gerard.

   Alice was at a loss for words.  "I...  I just...  I didn't know I'd see
this, I just..." She saw Rupbert and looked at him.  She became silent but
her high pleading continued to reverberate for a few seconds.  He looked
back at her wide-eyed, he might have been as scared as she was.

   Gerard noticed that she was staring at someone, and he turned and saw
that it was Rupbert she was looking at.  "You're staring at Rupbert...  do
you know each other?" Alice said nothing.  "Rupbert, do you know this girl?
Did you tell her about this?"

   "No, no!  No!" he insisted.

   "Talk!  What is going on?" he roared.

   "I don't know this girl, I swear!"

   "Then why are you two looking at each other like you know each other?"

   "It's nothing, I just think I saw her in my shop earlier today, that's
all."

   He ignored that last statement.  "Something fishy is going on here.  You
are not telling the truth!  Your invitation into the society is REVOKED! 
Better now than later.  You are GONE!"

   "Are you going to..." Rupbert gulped, "kill us?"

   "Kill you?  Don't flatter yourself.  Just get out of here, now.  Get out
of here and pretend like you never came here." Gerards voice was low and
simmering.

   "Aren't you afraid that we'll tell others of what we saw here?" asked
Rupbert.

   Alice shot him an angry look as if he what he said could change Gerard's
mind about what to do about them.

   "Afraid of you?  You flatter yourself again.  You know better than to
tell, and even if you don't, no one will believe you anyway, you would just
make yourself a laughingstock and if you insisted you might find yourself
in the bughouse.  Afraid you'll tell...  only you should be afraid that you
will tell.  You do not want to give us any trouble, you are just like an
insect compared to us: to be squashed at our leisure!"

   Someone opened the heavy front doors.  Rupbert and Alice looked to the
door and felt the cool breeze.  Outside the door beckoned the unknown:
cold, silent, but free.

   "You're just like an insect, you're only hope for survival to fly, fly
away!"

   There was silence for a moment.  Alice and Rupbert stood still,
skeptical that it was that easy, that they were to simply to leave and
suffer no consequences.

   "Don't you hear me!" His voice now became so vicious and thundering, it
startled them to blind terror.  They both rushed out the door, never
looking back.  But they heard him continue: "Go!  Fly!  Fly away! 
Worthless insects!  How dare you?  How dare you come here?  Mangy rabble!
Watch what you say and do, where you go!"

   ------------

   The two of them ran with all of their might.  Just as one of them
started to lose their their breath, they both stopped.  They both panted
for air and slowly their breathing grew normal.  The city was calm and
peaceful.  The only sound was of the wind and a gentle hiss as drizzle hit
the cobble-stones.  Rupbert and Alice looked at each other for a moment.

   "Do you really think they're just letting us go?  Just like that?" asked
Rupbert.

   Alice felt strange having such an older man asking for reassurance from
someone like her, as if he were a child and she were his mother.  "No, I
never believed that, not for a second.  Didn't you ever read that popular
novel about the detective investigating the secret society?  It was much
like this one come to think of it...  It was called 'The Mystery of the
Missing Boys.'"

   "I'm not a big fan of the trashy bestsellers, but I have heard the title
before" admitted Rupbert.

   "Well, in that story, an infiltrator into secret society is discovered
and they said they would just let him go because no one would believe him
anyway.  Just like the man in the church said.  But then, within the week,
they try to kill him, trying to make it look like a robbery.  You see, they
can't kill us in the church, with no planning something might look
suspicious.  Instead, they will wait until we are going about our regular
business and when we least expect it..."

   Rupbert nodded and put a hand up, he could not bear to hear her finish
that sentence.  "That makes sense.  But what should we do?"

   "I don't know, why are you asking me?  You're older, you should know
more."

   "I don't know more, that's the first time I went to one of their
meetings.  I'm in so much trouble now, even if they do not kill me." he
said ruefully.  But then anger and irritation welled up in him all of a
sudden.  "What were you doing there anyway?"

   "I just, I saw you going there, and wondered what someone would be doing
there, going to church so late at night."

   "How did you even get in?"

   "I went around the back, and climbed up through a window."

   "Climbed up through a window!  You climbed up sheer rock just to see
what was going on in there?  Why would a girl do something like that?"

   "Well, it wasn't just sheer rock, there were thick vines that made it
easy to climb." She shook her head.  "I was just curious, it's not
important.  We are in this trouble now regardless of the reason."

   "I need to hide.  I know," he said, snapping his fingers, talking as if
to himself.  "I'll stay over at Bill Jager's place, he's new in town and no
one really knows him, or knows that I know him.  It's not even very far. 
He owes me a favor, so he'll let me stay."

   "I don't know where I can stay.  I'm just a maid with no family, I don't
really have any friends, or know anyone I can stay with."

   "You shouldn't have anything to worry about.  No one there would know
your name, or how to figure out where you live."

   "That's not true, I work in the houses of rich folk.  I saw the lord of
the house I am working for currently and he saw me too.  He knows where I
live."

   "Oh well.  You seem like a smart girl, you'll figure something out.  I
need to go now."

   "What?  I don't know where to go."

   Rupbert was clearly anxious to be rid of her.  He stalked off away from
there, leaving her standing alone in the darkness.  As his footsteps faded
away she was left in the quiet.  The only sounds were the wind and the
crickets.

   She shivered, noticing for the first time it was chilly out.  She walked
down the street and looked around.  They could be coming after her to kill
her now, she decided to turn into a narrow, dark alley, she wondered if she
would find some empty crates to take shelter in.  She was disappointed to
find the alley was clean and empty.  The adjacent buildings had doors that
led into the alley.  She tested each and found them locked.  She then
tested a window and was found that it slid open easily.  She looked inside
and saw it was a storage room.  It was so deliciously warm inside that she
climbed in barely giving it a thought.  She sat down on the floor and
sighed, feeling relieved.  She realized how exhausted she was.  No wonder,
it was so late.  She leaned back onto a giant sack of potatoes.  She
considered all of the mortal danger she might be in, but she was so tired
she did not care.  Within seconds, blanketed by the stuffy warmth of the
stale air, she fell asleep.