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Amorously, she watched over her. Her eyes tracing along the curves of her body. Following the illuminated sillhoutte from the moon. I lie beside her. My breath catching heavy in my chest. Trying to pretend I was sleeping but I knew she knew differently.

A small smile graced itself perfectly on her lips when she went to touch her lightly. My eyes darted straight down to her thin fingers, prepared to run a small trail down the side of her face. She hesitated seeing my eyes open looking dead at her. Her eyebrows furrowed slightly and she stepped back.

"Go ahead. Just don't hurt her." Barely a whisper left the parting of my lips. Slowly she ran the back of her fingers along her cheek. Smiling in admiration. Longing to feel that way. Peacefully sleeping and alive again.

Felicia squirmed in her sleep slightly. She jumped back quickly hiding in the darkness of a corner.

"Christ! I'm freezing!" She mumbled and then rolled over closer to me. Seeing her pale midsection still trying to hide, I decided to get some answers. Swinging the sheets slowly off of my legs, I tip toed and followed the trail of light leading to her sillhouette. Finally we were face to face. "Gee?" Felicia murmed sleepily. "Where are you?" She heavily patted the sheets in which I still warmed.

"I'm just going to the bathroom, baby. I'll be back." I saw her smile illuminate in the dark. Going over to Felicia on her side of the bed, lightly I kissed her cheek and she settled back to sleep.

Slightly motioning my head to the bathroom door, she led the way. The cold tiles sent a sharp chill up my calves and made my toes curl inward. Shutting the door behind us slowly, making sure I heard the reassuring click the lock made. She stood before me just staring at me. Quite frankly, I was still very uncomfortable because she was still very naked. I sighed.

"What's your name?" I whispered. Mindful of it being almost 4 AM, everyone was sleeping and I was talking to a naked ghost in my bathroom.

"Andrea." She spoke as her breath rose in the air. Now, it was chilly in the bathroom but it hadn't been that cold. Goosebumps made their way down my bare arms and back.

"Well, Andrea, I'm Gerard." She nodded slowly as her eyes shifted all around the brightly lit room.

"Twins." Her cracked lips of the palest blue tint, let out in a soft hiss.

"What twins? I don't know any twins." Well I did know a couple sets, but I doubted they had anything to do with this.

"She's having twins." Her boney hand traveled to touch the flesh that remained on her stomach. My expressionless face gave her the instant impression that twins was something I wasn't expecting.

"Wow. Th-thanks." I nodded looking to the floor. "We're totally prepared to have twins." I mumbled sarcastically. Andrea snorted a minute laugh. I looked back up to her lifeless stare. It was much less scarier than the first time I'd seen her.

"Look, I can help you, but you have to let me, first. No more of this disappearing bullshit, got it?" Slowly she nodded as I took a seat on the toilet bowl lid. "How old are you?" Her boney fingers figured themselves into a two-on one hand and an oh-on the other. "Okay, did you grow up around here?" She nodded quickly. "Did you know Danny?" Her eyes shot up to mine as if she still had pupils and two iruses. Solemnly, she nodeed. "Did you die in this house?" I was almost certain she would just give me a simple nod, but she decided differently. Slowly she motioned her blank orbs to a random spot on the bathroom floor. Slowly her eyes met mine again. "Oh wow."

I cringed knowing Felicia and I had tread those tiles, in which she once lie dead on, everyday. "Andrea, my mother in-law told me that you visited her and that you touched her and she could see what happened to you. Could you do that for me?" She nodded again but this time she was uncertain of something. Though, she always lacked expression and eye contact, you could still infer her emotions.

Her scrawny hands were out-stretched around my cheeks, not fully making contact. She closed her eyes slowly as I started to feel an unfamiliar chill creep up my spine. It was stabilizing my entire body. My breath caught heavy in my throat again. There was no way I could breathe from my lungs and live, all at once. I began to breathe through my diaphragm as a thick mist rose from my lips. Breathing through my diaphragm started to become a challenge when my vision became faintly blurred. My eyes began to sag heavily and my hearing popped out, as if I was under water.




"Come on, man! Don't do this!" A voice begs. I blink feeling the taut cloth set over my eyes. It is hard to distinguish vocal patterns only because It still sounds as if I am being held under water. Though, I'm not.

"Bitch deserves everything I'm gonna do to her." His voice is much deeper. A lot more gruff than soothing tones. I hear his belt buckle clink to the ground as my knuckles felt the cracks in the cold stones of the porcelain tiles. I feel the heat of his body lume over me. His breathing heavy and breath thick with toxic.

In a low hum, I hear the soft sounds of a rock song playing in the background. I can't entirely hear the lyrics, but the melody is easy to follow. The lyrics in which, I cannot decipher boom over the steady drums, piano and bass. Getting to the bridge, the piano and drums drop out quite a bit as the bass and guitar strum the structured melody.

Twisting my head away, I feel his thick, sloppy fingers on my jaw pulling me toward him. His mouth clamps down onto mine in a forced kiss. With his tongue being shoved down my throat, he slowly slides his heavy hands down the sides of my body to the bottom of the skirt I'm wearing. Hands firm on my thighs, he slides them up. I began to kick wildly, but it wasn't exactly me doing the kicking. It felt more like me inhabiting her body than me really being there at the time.

My feet, which are bare, make hard contact with his chest and midsection. He tries to hold my feet up to his shoulder with one hand, but I am too fast. He growls and grunts for me to stop, until my foot makes heavy contact with his cheek. Then I stop. Taking in the horrific silence that draped over the room. The tiles feel colder on my bare lower back, now. My entire body tingles with fear. Almost waiting for him to react in a murderous rage. I pant softly, but my soft pants make small whimpers within them.

"Take it off her eyes. I want her to see this." He demands the other to do. He takes full form and is standing up, still over me. I whimper even louder, knowing that it wasn't going to make anything better. Trying to stop from making so much noise, I can't.

"We can't! She'll see our faces and then we'll be in even deeper shit! I can't be Court Marshalled!" The other one panics in believable fear. Carefully, studying the structure of his vocal tones. Recognizing the lack of bravado in his voice.

"Then what the fuck do you wanna do with her? It was your idea to have her over, get her drunk and-" I hear the sound of cloth rubbing against something, metal or steel.

"Okay, but it wasn't my idea to blindfold her and-"

"And what? Huh? She likes the blindfold. A little surprise never killed anyone, huh?" He kicks my tired calf and laughs.

"We should just let her go."

"If we let her go, she'll go to the fucking cops and have us both in jail!" He steps closer to the worried one.

"Then what were you planning to do after you took it off of her and letting her see us?" A brutal realization set over the three of us. "You can't. You won't!" The other laughs.

"You're right. I can't. I won't. But I know who will. I know who can."

"No." He sternly protests.

"C'mon. You're a natural born killer. That's what they trained you for, isn't it? To kill." He laughs again. His laugh makes my stomach turn into taut knots. "I never thought a sharp shooter like you would have a conscience. You've kept such a high number of casualties, I'm surprised." He plays with his mind. Making him feel bad for killing people overseas.

"That's bullshit! We've all killed something in our lives but that doesn't mean I'm killing an innocent girl!" He stands up for himself. And right then, I realized who it'd been.

"You're right, Danny, I mean, what would your father think? Your mother?" He acts as if he's truly concerned. "Oh that's right..." He quips. "How 'bout that hot sister of yours, huh? Tits the size of melons! What would she think of you? Does she think of you?" Another brief moment of silence. "Think of it this way, we get rid of her and the evidence and it'll be like it never happened." I hear his boots pound against the hard tile floor as he moves toward me. Kneeling down again, this time beside my upper body. I feel his cold knuckles come in contact with my jawbone. The cold steel of the edge of a knife burns down the side of my face. "Nothing ever happened."



I wake up on a cold flat surface, to the birds outside chirping their morning routine. Startled to be back in my own form, I raise myself off of the hard tile and make my way over to the mirror. Carefully examining my body for any unusual marks, cuts, bruises, etcetera. I found nothing unusual. Then, I took a slight moment to think. I had been in that bathroom for probably more than three hours. It had to be at least 7 AM, being that it was light outside.

What if Felicia is awake?
What if she notices that I slept in the bathroom the whole night?
What will I tell her?

All of this raced through my head as I approached the door. Attempting to slowly turn the knob. Holding my breath and pushing my weight on the door so it wouldn't swing open quickly, I tiptoed into the room. She was still sleeping, thankfully. I exhaled slowly as I heard the door creek behind me, cursing myself and it. Creeping over to my side of the bed, I threw back the covers gently and slid myself in. I was safe.

"You'd been in the bathroom for three hours and thirty six minutes." She murmured sleepily. Shit.

"I-uh-I fell asleep, that's all."

"You fell asleep standing up?" She asked, turning toward me. I couldn't lie to her and she knew I couldn't. "Was she here last night?"

"Yes."

"What did she say? Did she tell you her name?" Her level of concern was far more stronger than I thought it would be.

"Yeah, actually she did. Her name's Andrea." I confessed.

"And..."

"And she...was twenty."

"What else, Gee? There has to be some reason why she kept you in that bathroom for three hours." I dare not tell her what I saw or tell her where exactly she died.

"She knew Danny." Still unsatisfied, she looked me deep in the eyes and said,

"She touched you, didn't she?" I opened my mouth to object, but decided not to.

"Yeah."

"You saw things, too." She nodded.

"What did you see?" She lies on her back ready to explain. Only to be interrupted by the bedroom door swinging open to the only energetic six year-old on a Monday morning. "Lady Bug!" Exclaimed Felicia as she opened her arms wide. Erica pounced on the bed, from midair, and rolled in between the two of us comfortably.

"Why are you so excited to be up?"

"Today's the first day of Gym and we're playing Dodge Ball! Isn't that great?"

"That sounds wonderful, Lady Bug. But isn't this the first time you're playing? Aren't you just a little nervous?" I ask.

"Daddy, if you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball. Can't be that hard." Felicia and I sat there silently, just giving each other the most peculiar glances.



"So we're meeting up for lunch later, right?" I sat in the driver's seat as she sat comfortably on the passenger's side brushing her long hair. Dressed fully in her teal scrubs.

"Yep. Cozi's this time?"

"Sure!" We sat in the car parked right outside of her building in which she worked. As I said before, it was a woman's rehab clinic. It was also conveniently two streets down from the insurance company where I worked. We would meet up and eat lunch together everyday.

"Look at you, with your vest and tie! You're my little businessman!" She pinched my cheeks softly. I blushed still feeling embarrassed about the business casual getup. I must say that I'd softened up quite a bit from my adolescent years. "Oh, don't be embarrassed! You look adorable!"

"Adorable?"

"Yes. Adorable. Now stop whining and give me a kiss before we're both late!" Quickly glancing at the clock on the wide dashboard. It was almost three minutes until nine. Softly placing my lips onto hers. Pulling back a few seconds after to see the satisfied grin on her face.

"Have a good day. I love you." Swiftly, I pulled up the bottom half of her top and wrapped my hands around her flat stomach. Giving it a firm kiss. She giggled. "And you too!" I didn't think of telling her that I knew we were going to have twins. It was way too early.

"Love you too, babe. Have a good day." She hopped out of the passenger's side after giving me a quick one on the lips. She waved back, zipping up her leather jacket and hurrying inside the building.

Unlike the last two weeks, it'd been getting colder than "normal". But normal wasn't at all normal. All of the leaves had been ungracefully shaken off of the trees and every step you made crunched. The trees stood on end, shivering with nothing covering them but a few buds. The warm weather was fun while it lasted.


Walking threw the automatic sliding doors of the insurance company, which had been eerily quiet that morning. I stepped slowly passed all of the cubicles as a low velocity of calls came through. It was still very early, yes, but on a normal day it was almost like the New York Stock Exchange! There were people in the cubicles but it seemed like everyone had been frozen, though they really weren't.

Walking through the aisle, all the way to the back where the elevators had been. Pressing the upward arrow and patiently waiting as it made a dinging sound. Bouncing my foot rhythmically to the song in my head. That fucking tune. That fucking song. What was it?

"Way!" I turned to hear a rough voice calling my last name. I don't know why, but they tended to do that a lot here.

"Oh...Hey." I smiled politely. Even though, I was secretly annoyed by his presence. Brian Piettro. Fuck face for short. You're average class-A asswhipe who owned three yachts and had the numbers to the high-class hookers you only see on television. You know, the ones with teeth. We were the same age, though we lacked similarities. He was single--I was married. I had children--he had crabs. Small differences between us made it difficult to bridge the gap of friendship.

"Heard you moved out of New Jersey. Must be nice to live in such a big city now." He stood there coyly with his hands stuffed in his small pockets and smiled widely.

"Well, actually, no. We've moved to Rochester so...that's still considered the suburbs...Yeah." He nods turning his attention the the small flakes of dandruff on the lappelle of his sport's jacket.

"Well-uh-me and Claudia from HR are going to Miami for Thanksgiving. What do you say, you and the missus join, huh?" Fuck no. Are you kidding me? So I could get involve in a drug raid and have to depend on you to bail me out? You're shitting me, right?

I hadn't noticed how long I'd been silent for when the bell ringed and the doors to the elevator opened abruptly.

"Actually, we have plans." He frowned. Stepping in first.

"Aw, that's too bad. I hear the water's just right for boating this time of year." So... "Tell ya what; if you change your mind, the offer's always open." I smiled.

"Great." The elevator counted up. G...1...

"So...your wife." My attention snapped to his sleazy smirk.

"What about her?" I retorted defensively.

"She coming to the Christmas Party next month?" He spoke in that condescending tone that made me want to rip out his vocal chords and strangle them with him. ...2...3

"Only if your mom's coming too." With that, I stepped out of the elevator with satisfaction in my stride. Leaving him behind with his mouth agape.

"Asshole..." I mumbled.

My cubicle wasn't very far from the elevator. Just a few down from the watercooler, which was around the corner from it. On the way, I passed the fleeting glances and whistles from the older women I shared this aisle with. Apparently, for some odd ass reason, they all had a "crush" on me. But I thought it was adorable in a weird way. These were all married soccer moms with kids my age and they adored me!

"Hey Gee." Giselle's airy voice carried. A couple giggles were heard from the surrounding cubicles.

"Hey Giselle." I smiled sheepishly and turned to her as she undressed me with her eyes. Turning away, I heard something drop.

"Whoops..." She giggled lightly. "Dropped my pencil." Oh God, this again?

"I guess I should get that for you, huh?" It rolled to the middle of the flat grey carpet. I "fell" for this too often. This was starting to happen at least twice a month now. The first time it happened, was three years ago, when I was moved from the old branch and to this one. It was believable at first, though their plan backfired when they couldn't keep their laughter down.

But I had a plan this time. I would bend down with my knees instead of giving them the full back view. Proceeding to, I saw Giselle's smile fade into an expressionless demeanor.

"Here ya go." I giggled, handing it to her going another cubicle up until I reached mine.

I loved my cubicle. It was filled with everything I loved. Pictures of Felicia and the kids, Maiden stickers on the desk, Morissey lyrics written on the wall in glow-in-the-dark pen (Clever, I know!).

"Now here's one of our top consultants, Gerard!" Mr. Baines approached my cubicle. He was an older man. Very nice and very wealthy. His father founded the company almost sixty years ago. I smiled looking up to see him smiling next to a young girl. She had short blond hair that shaped perfectly against her strong facial structure. Blue eyes that were cold but very warm at the same time. Very slim but proportionate as well. Her meek smile showed that there was a soft side. Something was familiar about her.

"Gerard, I'd like to introduce you to the newest member of our team, Sarah." I got up from my seat and pleasantly shook her hand.

"Hi, I'm Gerard." Mr. Baines stood back, pleased.

"Now Gerard, you wouldn't mind showing Ms. Parry around, would you?" Parry?

"Parry?" Shit! "Oh, no, not at all!" I laughed nervously.

Maybe I should reconsider whether I was losing my shit, or not.