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Sibling Rivalry
Feb. 8th, 2010 12:00 pmAgain, waking up.
From the darkness of slumber and the strange dreams of madness, to full awareness of the material world: dim light, a room without windows, satin sheets.
And the memories of the previous night.
***************************************
It all started with the return to the Asylum after the ruckus at the Gallery Noir; Jeannette was nowhere to be found, but Therese was there, waiting and fuming.
"You! What were you thinking?!?" It was the first time the Fledgling had heard the Dark Daughter of Janus raise her voice, and it was not a pleasant experience: irritated, Therese used a shrill tone, full of menace.
"The museum! That was MY event! Did you think I wouldn't find out?!? I thought I could control my sister as long as Tung was out of the picture, but nothing's changed! I should've expected that you'd succumb to Jeanette's influence like all the others. Jeanette already confessed she tricked you into doing it! It was probably all Tung's idea - I'll deal with them later. But that's still no excuse for you ruining my museum."
The Fledgling (she has a name -- Amara -- given to her by Bliss) tilted her head, the angry words skidding across the surface of her minds. "I don't know what your lips are saying: our word-bond held no clauses." She pulled out the pendant found at the hotel and offered it. "I've brought you the ghostly bauble as you demanded. Free the worm."
"At least that." Therese snatched away the pendant. "But my museum is still wrecked. Now, if you'd like to atone, or if you'd like to provide further assurance of your innocence, I have one more task that has to be dealt with."
The Fledgling watched with a creased brow: in theory, their deal was finished with the delivery of the pendant, but Jeanette had tricked her into the feud between the sisters. "I tire of the mendacities of Janus' daughters. My concern is only for the Jester's quest."
"Don't you think I'm aware of that?" Therese sneered. "This is my city - I know everything that goes on from borders to beach. But listen to me, fledgling. If you want to please your Prince, you'll do what I ask - I'll make it easy this time."
"How might this deed be done, Dark Daughter?" Done and over with, hoped the neonate.
"Jeanette and Tung are a noisome beauty and beast. Between them they've nearly crippled my plans. I can control Jeanette, but once she's found a partner in crime, she turns into a bloody nuisance." Therese drew a deep breath, a very human-like action, as she recomposed her business facade. "I made some threats against my sister - idle threats - involving fire and her impious satin sheets. She took them quite seriously and is avoiding me. I want to meet with her and explain that they were said in the heat of the moment."
The Fledgling did not even try to hide the smirk. "You underestimate the White Princess."
Therese almost snarled then, nearly losing her cool a second time. "Underestimate her? She's a clown! A painted, perverted joker on Tung's strings! Jeanette does things on a whim - for amusement. Underestimate her - don't insult me!" Another deep, unnecessary breath and she continued. "Still, Jeanette is my sister and my childe. I want her back."
"What further quest then, Dark One?"
"I asked her to meet me at The Surfside Diner, to reconcile, but I'm busy with the club and my other endeavors. I'd like you to go to the diner and promise her that I don't plan to take any action against her. Wait for her in the back booth, near the phones."
"Roses for her when they should be stones, dear Baron." The Fledgling did not like the idea of socializing with the one who had fooled her not long ago.
It was Therese's turn to smirk. "For all her unwholesome diversions and irritating disruptions, I should be less tolerant of her. She is my sister, however. You will bring her my reassurances and convince her to return. Then we can finish this whole affair."
"We will, then my shadow will darken other domains." There was no point arguing so the Fledgling turned to leave.
"Be quick about it, neonate." Therese spoke as a parting shot. "I want it over and done with as much as you do."
***************************************
The Surfside Diner was one of the classic style 'silver trailers', at least at first glance. A long bar ran from near the door all the way to near the restrooms and the payphones, with booths lining the opposite wall. It was empty at the time but for the silver-haired lady behind the register and a single waiter.
Following Therese's instructions, the Fledgling made her way to the back, towards the last booth; as she approached her destination, the bell at the door chimed, indicating a new arrival, perhaps Jeanette. The vampire turned to check, and was greeted by the sight three gang members drawing revolvers, and a fourth pulling a shotgun out from his coat.
Time does not slow down, perception and action do: a human would probably freeze with the discharge of adrenaline for a single, too long moment. A vampire, whose reactions are dependent on will and will alone, does not. The Fledgling did not, leaping back and to the side, behind the last booth, while hot lead whizzed past, a few projectiles grazing her skin.
The armed men laughed, stopping to reload after the first volley, taunting their target. Their happy disposition changed to surprise when Amara snapped out of cover, her revolver in hand, and placed a bullet into the gut of the one carrying the shotgun.
She tried to aim for the chest, but they did not need to know. Trusting the resilience of her undead flesh, The Fledgling fired twice upon the second thug, and twice more upon the last one, feeling their erratic return shots make holes on her clothing but barely injure the skin underneath. As quickly as it started, the confrontation was over.
On cue, the payphone closest to her started ringing, and moved by an impulse of the Madness, Amara picked up. "Speak."
The voice on the line was tainted with fright and rushed. "Oh, I'm so relieved you're safe! I wanted to warn you when I heard it was a setup, but Therese pulled a gun on me and I locked myself in the bathroom and she's threatening to kill me an-and you have to help me!"
"You are biblically known to many. Your words are poison, your minds betrayal. Call another." The gun was comfortingly warm in her hand, and The Fledgling started to reload it, more to feel the warmth than from any idea of needing it to kill again.
"It was a setup! Listen, I know we've had our differences, but Therese tried to have you killed! Now she's got a gun and - please, you have to help me!" Was it a bad sign that the fear in Jeanette's voice echoed sweet? "She's crazy! She paid those thieves for a hit. She'll kill anyone who gets in the way of her becoming the top dog of Santa Monica." A gunshot echoed down the line, then angry hammering of a fist upon a door.
"White mistress, why did you bind me to these railroad tracks?" The Fledgling closed the revolver's cylinder, slipping the tool of death back into her monopack.
"Therese is going to kill us! Without me you'll never get out of Santa Monica alive.
"I will deal with the dark daughter, Ivory Goddess. But not for you." She hung up, moving to the front of the diner and the cooling bodies of the thugs. The owner and the waiter were hiding behind the counter, wisely not trying to look anywhere.
Quickly, Amara relieved the dead of their money and weapons, the sawed-off shotgun fitting inside her monopack snugly. She had enough of being played for a fool, and it was time to set things straight with the Voerman sisters.
***************************************
Surprisingly, nobody stopped her exit from the diner nor her entrance into the Asylum. The elevator took Amara up to the Vorman Sisters' private quarters, and she took the care of reloading the shotgun before entering...
...to the sight of... who? Stockings, skirt and high heels like Jeanette, shirt and suit jacket like Therese, hair half in a ponytail and half in a professional comb-over.
"You!" The voice was Therese's, the expression one of hatred, and she whipped out a revolver. "You stay out of this! To think anyone would risk their life for this filthy, tainted waste of blood! This will just make it easier to kill both of you." Then it melted into the softer tone of Jeanette, and a mask of fear. "Help! She'll kill us both! Save me and I'll help you find Bertram, I swear!"
The Fledgling actually lowered her weapon, taken completely by surprise. "What strange fate-twists befall us?"
Again the rage... "Shut up, Jeanette! I warned you to stay away from Tung - he's turned you against me! I always looked out for you! But you couldn't stand my success. You had to meddle, didn't you? I didn't want it to end like this but you forced me!" And now, mocking laughter from Jeanette. "You never gave me any credit for anything, Therese! I was the one calling the shots! Bertram was dancing on my leash! How does it feel to know that I beat you?"
Two women. Two minds. One body. The Fledgling watched, between terrified and fascinated. "Sweet Darkness? Ivory Princess?"
"I'm about to rid the night of this deviant, back-stabbing whore! Do you realize that, despite her condition, she still... fornicates - with kine, no less! So despicable... so unclean. You're one to talk, dear sister, or should I say Daddy's Little Girl. Do you want to know just how depraved the Baron of Santa Monica can be? Shut up, Jeanette! You'd love the world to think you're a saint. When you thought I was asleep, I used to hear father come in at night. I heard him whisper how much he loved you in your ear before he - Don't finish that sentence or you're dead!"
Terrifying... griding against each other, the sisters took over voice and face and demeanor. No wonder things came to this end. "Both of you. Cease this quarrel."
"Don't you want to hear what happened? How she became the pillar of the community she is today? Shut UP Jeanette, just... SHUT UP! Therese'll never let you live. You've disappointed her. I used you, yes, but I didn't try to have you killed. Therese has no problem with killing, do you? Remember Father? Father loved me. I was a good girl. I always did what I was told. You always hated that he loved me. You disobeyed him. You brought men home when he wasn't there. You were an awful daughter to him. Father came home drunk one day and mistook me for Therese, because I'd fallen asleep in her bed. Therese walked in while he was there and she saw me lying with him. And so, she went to the closet and pulled out his hunting shotgun, loaded it with deershot, and blew his mind out all over the silly clown wallpaper. Don't listen to her! She's lying!"
"Broken before Madness." Amara's anger had fled, replaced with curiosity. "History's shadow need not fall on you both. The past is a worn garment - dispose of it." Or they would destroy each other? The Fledgling was unsure if she could survive the conflict with two vampires, older and very much more insane than herself.
"That's a lie! Father killed himself because of Jeanette. She made him miserable! Oh dear sister, as I recall, he died with a smile on his face." That makes Therese sober up out of her anger. "I'm afraid, sister, I must write your ending in this family's saga, and I want you to know I do so with great anguish and disappointment. I had such hopes that you'd change for the better, with my guidance. But... Oh, cut the act, sister. Would you like to tell the story? She makes herself out to be the virgin queen of the night. Pious as a nun, stable as the Earth's orbit. But it's all an act, isn't it? Father had his way with you. And he didn't have to force you, you went limp and became his plaything. Do you think I didn't hear it, night after night? Always the obedient daughter, until..." Therese's voice breaks down to a near-wail. "I'm the good girl. You're the wicked one. You've done nothing but plot against me - when I had our best interests at heart. And despite that, I've always covered up your mistakes. I've taken care of you. And this is how you repay me? Dear sister, you've done everything you could to smother me. You'd love to bury me in your closet, along with all your other skeletons."
"You two share the same skin. Do you really wish to be rid of each other?" The Fledgling set her gun aside. "Two faces can clench two brass rings. Bodies are symmetrical - plenty of room for two minds to share."
"Therese doesn't like to share. Jeanette's irresponsible. She's undependable. A venture like mine requires class and distinction, which is something a pig-tailed, face-painting harlot does not lend very well. You do have a way with words, sister. You're right, I'm not in the same class, am I? I mean, murderers are so respectful these days." But at least they seemed to be listening.
"Dark one, let the light carry more of the burden. White mistress, stand not in the way of the dark one's plans." She slowly offered a hand. "Was there never a time when you looked each other in the eye?"
"Yes... there was a time. When I was a child, I didn't have many friends. I suppose Jeanette was the only one. We never did get to go out of the house much. Father wouldn't allow us. He said we'd get hurt. So we stayed inside and we imagined our own worlds. And we spent so much time there, together, ruling over those places. Those were - - happier times. Before we grew apart."
"You don't really wish to become an only child?" The neonate reached out further. "Give me the gun, Therese."
The older vampire looked curiously at the weapon in her hand, then gave it away. "No... I guess I don't. Jeanette: if I were to give - offer you equal control in Santa Monica, would you quit consorting with Tung? Oh sister, I never wanted to hurt you. I'll stop working against you with him... but since I've got him in my pocket already, there's no reason for me not to pay him a little visit once in a while, when he can be of use. That's not a bad plan. There's just one more thing: I want to be in charge of Santa Monica - but only publicly. I want you to continue to convince others that our relations are strained. That way - - we know who our enemies are. I agree."
It was a strange sight, the Voerman Sisters hugging herself. "We share the same sweet madness, daughters of Janus. But now I must disturb the Worm."
"I suppose now that Jeanette and I have settled our differences, I'll call off the feud with Tung." Therese nodded. "Bertram's hiding in an empty oil tank at the old gas station. I'll tell him to expect a visitor, and I'll ask him to be extra nice. Please give Santa Monica's regards to the prince when you see him. And keep your tongue tied about what happened tonight or we'll have to - - kill you." And both smirked teasingly.
That made what could be a chill run down Amara's back. "I understand. I am gone."
"Do try to stay cautious. I'd hate to see one so promising meet an end because of wayward trust in another. I may have need of someone like you in a few years... if you're still around. Don't hesitate to come see me once in a while. I mean, I do get bored so easily. Maybe you could come by and cheer me up?"
***************************************
She rose from her bed, getting dressed for her encounter with Tung. Hopefully her stay in Santa Monica would be getting to an end soon.
From the darkness of slumber and the strange dreams of madness, to full awareness of the material world: dim light, a room without windows, satin sheets.
And the memories of the previous night.
***************************************
It all started with the return to the Asylum after the ruckus at the Gallery Noir; Jeannette was nowhere to be found, but Therese was there, waiting and fuming.
"You! What were you thinking?!?" It was the first time the Fledgling had heard the Dark Daughter of Janus raise her voice, and it was not a pleasant experience: irritated, Therese used a shrill tone, full of menace.
"The museum! That was MY event! Did you think I wouldn't find out?!? I thought I could control my sister as long as Tung was out of the picture, but nothing's changed! I should've expected that you'd succumb to Jeanette's influence like all the others. Jeanette already confessed she tricked you into doing it! It was probably all Tung's idea - I'll deal with them later. But that's still no excuse for you ruining my museum."
The Fledgling (she has a name -- Amara -- given to her by Bliss) tilted her head, the angry words skidding across the surface of her minds. "I don't know what your lips are saying: our word-bond held no clauses." She pulled out the pendant found at the hotel and offered it. "I've brought you the ghostly bauble as you demanded. Free the worm."
"At least that." Therese snatched away the pendant. "But my museum is still wrecked. Now, if you'd like to atone, or if you'd like to provide further assurance of your innocence, I have one more task that has to be dealt with."
The Fledgling watched with a creased brow: in theory, their deal was finished with the delivery of the pendant, but Jeanette had tricked her into the feud between the sisters. "I tire of the mendacities of Janus' daughters. My concern is only for the Jester's quest."
"Don't you think I'm aware of that?" Therese sneered. "This is my city - I know everything that goes on from borders to beach. But listen to me, fledgling. If you want to please your Prince, you'll do what I ask - I'll make it easy this time."
"How might this deed be done, Dark Daughter?" Done and over with, hoped the neonate.
"Jeanette and Tung are a noisome beauty and beast. Between them they've nearly crippled my plans. I can control Jeanette, but once she's found a partner in crime, she turns into a bloody nuisance." Therese drew a deep breath, a very human-like action, as she recomposed her business facade. "I made some threats against my sister - idle threats - involving fire and her impious satin sheets. She took them quite seriously and is avoiding me. I want to meet with her and explain that they were said in the heat of the moment."
The Fledgling did not even try to hide the smirk. "You underestimate the White Princess."
Therese almost snarled then, nearly losing her cool a second time. "Underestimate her? She's a clown! A painted, perverted joker on Tung's strings! Jeanette does things on a whim - for amusement. Underestimate her - don't insult me!" Another deep, unnecessary breath and she continued. "Still, Jeanette is my sister and my childe. I want her back."
"What further quest then, Dark One?"
"I asked her to meet me at The Surfside Diner, to reconcile, but I'm busy with the club and my other endeavors. I'd like you to go to the diner and promise her that I don't plan to take any action against her. Wait for her in the back booth, near the phones."
"Roses for her when they should be stones, dear Baron." The Fledgling did not like the idea of socializing with the one who had fooled her not long ago.
It was Therese's turn to smirk. "For all her unwholesome diversions and irritating disruptions, I should be less tolerant of her. She is my sister, however. You will bring her my reassurances and convince her to return. Then we can finish this whole affair."
"We will, then my shadow will darken other domains." There was no point arguing so the Fledgling turned to leave.
"Be quick about it, neonate." Therese spoke as a parting shot. "I want it over and done with as much as you do."
***************************************
The Surfside Diner was one of the classic style 'silver trailers', at least at first glance. A long bar ran from near the door all the way to near the restrooms and the payphones, with booths lining the opposite wall. It was empty at the time but for the silver-haired lady behind the register and a single waiter.
Following Therese's instructions, the Fledgling made her way to the back, towards the last booth; as she approached her destination, the bell at the door chimed, indicating a new arrival, perhaps Jeanette. The vampire turned to check, and was greeted by the sight three gang members drawing revolvers, and a fourth pulling a shotgun out from his coat.
Time does not slow down, perception and action do: a human would probably freeze with the discharge of adrenaline for a single, too long moment. A vampire, whose reactions are dependent on will and will alone, does not. The Fledgling did not, leaping back and to the side, behind the last booth, while hot lead whizzed past, a few projectiles grazing her skin.
The armed men laughed, stopping to reload after the first volley, taunting their target. Their happy disposition changed to surprise when Amara snapped out of cover, her revolver in hand, and placed a bullet into the gut of the one carrying the shotgun.
She tried to aim for the chest, but they did not need to know. Trusting the resilience of her undead flesh, The Fledgling fired twice upon the second thug, and twice more upon the last one, feeling their erratic return shots make holes on her clothing but barely injure the skin underneath. As quickly as it started, the confrontation was over.
On cue, the payphone closest to her started ringing, and moved by an impulse of the Madness, Amara picked up. "Speak."
The voice on the line was tainted with fright and rushed. "Oh, I'm so relieved you're safe! I wanted to warn you when I heard it was a setup, but Therese pulled a gun on me and I locked myself in the bathroom and she's threatening to kill me an-and you have to help me!"
"You are biblically known to many. Your words are poison, your minds betrayal. Call another." The gun was comfortingly warm in her hand, and The Fledgling started to reload it, more to feel the warmth than from any idea of needing it to kill again.
"It was a setup! Listen, I know we've had our differences, but Therese tried to have you killed! Now she's got a gun and - please, you have to help me!" Was it a bad sign that the fear in Jeanette's voice echoed sweet? "She's crazy! She paid those thieves for a hit. She'll kill anyone who gets in the way of her becoming the top dog of Santa Monica." A gunshot echoed down the line, then angry hammering of a fist upon a door.
"White mistress, why did you bind me to these railroad tracks?" The Fledgling closed the revolver's cylinder, slipping the tool of death back into her monopack.
"Therese is going to kill us! Without me you'll never get out of Santa Monica alive.
"I will deal with the dark daughter, Ivory Goddess. But not for you." She hung up, moving to the front of the diner and the cooling bodies of the thugs. The owner and the waiter were hiding behind the counter, wisely not trying to look anywhere.
Quickly, Amara relieved the dead of their money and weapons, the sawed-off shotgun fitting inside her monopack snugly. She had enough of being played for a fool, and it was time to set things straight with the Voerman sisters.
***************************************
Surprisingly, nobody stopped her exit from the diner nor her entrance into the Asylum. The elevator took Amara up to the Vorman Sisters' private quarters, and she took the care of reloading the shotgun before entering...
...to the sight of... who? Stockings, skirt and high heels like Jeanette, shirt and suit jacket like Therese, hair half in a ponytail and half in a professional comb-over.
"You!" The voice was Therese's, the expression one of hatred, and she whipped out a revolver. "You stay out of this! To think anyone would risk their life for this filthy, tainted waste of blood! This will just make it easier to kill both of you." Then it melted into the softer tone of Jeanette, and a mask of fear. "Help! She'll kill us both! Save me and I'll help you find Bertram, I swear!"
The Fledgling actually lowered her weapon, taken completely by surprise. "What strange fate-twists befall us?"
Again the rage... "Shut up, Jeanette! I warned you to stay away from Tung - he's turned you against me! I always looked out for you! But you couldn't stand my success. You had to meddle, didn't you? I didn't want it to end like this but you forced me!" And now, mocking laughter from Jeanette. "You never gave me any credit for anything, Therese! I was the one calling the shots! Bertram was dancing on my leash! How does it feel to know that I beat you?"
Two women. Two minds. One body. The Fledgling watched, between terrified and fascinated. "Sweet Darkness? Ivory Princess?"
"I'm about to rid the night of this deviant, back-stabbing whore! Do you realize that, despite her condition, she still... fornicates - with kine, no less! So despicable... so unclean. You're one to talk, dear sister, or should I say Daddy's Little Girl. Do you want to know just how depraved the Baron of Santa Monica can be? Shut up, Jeanette! You'd love the world to think you're a saint. When you thought I was asleep, I used to hear father come in at night. I heard him whisper how much he loved you in your ear before he - Don't finish that sentence or you're dead!"
Terrifying... griding against each other, the sisters took over voice and face and demeanor. No wonder things came to this end. "Both of you. Cease this quarrel."
"Don't you want to hear what happened? How she became the pillar of the community she is today? Shut UP Jeanette, just... SHUT UP! Therese'll never let you live. You've disappointed her. I used you, yes, but I didn't try to have you killed. Therese has no problem with killing, do you? Remember Father? Father loved me. I was a good girl. I always did what I was told. You always hated that he loved me. You disobeyed him. You brought men home when he wasn't there. You were an awful daughter to him. Father came home drunk one day and mistook me for Therese, because I'd fallen asleep in her bed. Therese walked in while he was there and she saw me lying with him. And so, she went to the closet and pulled out his hunting shotgun, loaded it with deershot, and blew his mind out all over the silly clown wallpaper. Don't listen to her! She's lying!"
"Broken before Madness." Amara's anger had fled, replaced with curiosity. "History's shadow need not fall on you both. The past is a worn garment - dispose of it." Or they would destroy each other? The Fledgling was unsure if she could survive the conflict with two vampires, older and very much more insane than herself.
"That's a lie! Father killed himself because of Jeanette. She made him miserable! Oh dear sister, as I recall, he died with a smile on his face." That makes Therese sober up out of her anger. "I'm afraid, sister, I must write your ending in this family's saga, and I want you to know I do so with great anguish and disappointment. I had such hopes that you'd change for the better, with my guidance. But... Oh, cut the act, sister. Would you like to tell the story? She makes herself out to be the virgin queen of the night. Pious as a nun, stable as the Earth's orbit. But it's all an act, isn't it? Father had his way with you. And he didn't have to force you, you went limp and became his plaything. Do you think I didn't hear it, night after night? Always the obedient daughter, until..." Therese's voice breaks down to a near-wail. "I'm the good girl. You're the wicked one. You've done nothing but plot against me - when I had our best interests at heart. And despite that, I've always covered up your mistakes. I've taken care of you. And this is how you repay me? Dear sister, you've done everything you could to smother me. You'd love to bury me in your closet, along with all your other skeletons."
"You two share the same skin. Do you really wish to be rid of each other?" The Fledgling set her gun aside. "Two faces can clench two brass rings. Bodies are symmetrical - plenty of room for two minds to share."
"Therese doesn't like to share. Jeanette's irresponsible. She's undependable. A venture like mine requires class and distinction, which is something a pig-tailed, face-painting harlot does not lend very well. You do have a way with words, sister. You're right, I'm not in the same class, am I? I mean, murderers are so respectful these days." But at least they seemed to be listening.
"Dark one, let the light carry more of the burden. White mistress, stand not in the way of the dark one's plans." She slowly offered a hand. "Was there never a time when you looked each other in the eye?"
"Yes... there was a time. When I was a child, I didn't have many friends. I suppose Jeanette was the only one. We never did get to go out of the house much. Father wouldn't allow us. He said we'd get hurt. So we stayed inside and we imagined our own worlds. And we spent so much time there, together, ruling over those places. Those were - - happier times. Before we grew apart."
"You don't really wish to become an only child?" The neonate reached out further. "Give me the gun, Therese."
The older vampire looked curiously at the weapon in her hand, then gave it away. "No... I guess I don't. Jeanette: if I were to give - offer you equal control in Santa Monica, would you quit consorting with Tung? Oh sister, I never wanted to hurt you. I'll stop working against you with him... but since I've got him in my pocket already, there's no reason for me not to pay him a little visit once in a while, when he can be of use. That's not a bad plan. There's just one more thing: I want to be in charge of Santa Monica - but only publicly. I want you to continue to convince others that our relations are strained. That way - - we know who our enemies are. I agree."
It was a strange sight, the Voerman Sisters hugging herself. "We share the same sweet madness, daughters of Janus. But now I must disturb the Worm."
"I suppose now that Jeanette and I have settled our differences, I'll call off the feud with Tung." Therese nodded. "Bertram's hiding in an empty oil tank at the old gas station. I'll tell him to expect a visitor, and I'll ask him to be extra nice. Please give Santa Monica's regards to the prince when you see him. And keep your tongue tied about what happened tonight or we'll have to - - kill you." And both smirked teasingly.
That made what could be a chill run down Amara's back. "I understand. I am gone."
"Do try to stay cautious. I'd hate to see one so promising meet an end because of wayward trust in another. I may have need of someone like you in a few years... if you're still around. Don't hesitate to come see me once in a while. I mean, I do get bored so easily. Maybe you could come by and cheer me up?"
***************************************
She rose from her bed, getting dressed for her encounter with Tung. Hopefully her stay in Santa Monica would be getting to an end soon.
