Now You See Me, Now You Don't

Now You See Me, Now You Don't: Chapter 5

Chapter 5

     Ashlyn sighed peacefully and buried herself deeper under her blanket. She twisted around till she found a comfortable position, then she pulled the blanket to her face and snuggled closer to the pillows. Sure, the bed wasn't as soft as usual, and its hardness poked her...which was odd, since her bed was always soft and cusiony...but right now she was so sleepy she could sleep on the hard floor. Probably.

     Okay, that was a lie. Sleeping on the hard floor would be impossible -- she was glad she was sleeping in a bed, though the bed wasn't as comfortable as usual, for some reason. Had Maria gotten one of the maids to change the mattress? But why would she do that? There was no logic in removing a perfectly soft, fine mattress and putting a hard, uncomfortable mattress in its place...

     ...Maria.

     Ashlyn's eyes jolted open as she suddenly thought of something. "Maria?" She cried out, and quickly stumbled out of bed and looked around her.

     Damn. She wasn't in her bedroom, let alone in her famaliar bed. No wonder the bed she'd just been sleeping in had felt so different...her mattress was custom-made, while this mattress was probably just bought at some random store.

     Anyway, the room was huge, and the thing that stood out most to her were the white walls. They were white-out white, which was a bit of an ugly and plain color for bedroom walls. There were two doors, one to her right, and one on the other side of her bed, and it was obvious what they led out to: the hall, and the bathroom. There was a pile of suitcases by the door that probably led out to the hall. There was what appeared to be a dressing table in the corner of the room, and on the other side were a few couches facing a Sony Plasma placed on the wall. There was a desk near the front of the room, and a really tall lamp stood beside it. Behind the desk and table, a huge window was covered with curtains. Through the thin curtains, though, Ashlyn could just barely make out the night sky. Right away, she understood. She had jet lag, so she'd fell asleep in the daytime here. However, now she was awake at night because according to the time back in California, it was daytime. The bed she'd just leaped out of was in the left corner of the room, while another bed was placed in the right corner of the room. As she looked closely, she realized that there was a lump in the other bed -- some one else sleeping there.

     Scarlett?

     Slowly, Ashlyn walked forward till she came to the other bed. For a second, she hesitated, but then rolled her eyes and peeled the covers away from the lump. Sure enough, Scar was sleeping soundly, her auburn hair tangled and looking wild, and her face flushed red. Quickly, Ashlyn threw the covers back on her and walked back to her own bed. She was trying to remember how the hell the two of them had ended up in this random room when suddenly everything came back to her: calling Robby, Robby finally answering and sending them another friend to pick them up, while telling them the first friend who had been supposed to come pick them up had probably got caught up in something important...then the short wait with Jack and Ryan and Scar outside the airport, and then getting into the other friend's car, who'd finally arrived and introduced himself as James Knight and showed them his ID to prove he was indeed authorized to take them with him...and then...the rest was hazy. Judging from where she was standing at the moment, it was clear that they'd safely arrived to wherever they were staying, and upon further inspection, it was obvious she had gone straight to bed, since as Ashlyn glanced down at herself, she noticed that she was still in yesterday's outfit: a pair of black skinny jeans, a navy blue halter top, and black stilettos (which was not the best thing to wear as a spy on a mission while in Paris for the first time, but she hadn't been able to help herself: it was important to dress nice, and she had wanted to look good as she arrived in the City of Love for the first time. Besides, she hadn't exactly started the mission yet, anyway.)