Now You See Me, Now You Don't

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

     Ashlyn sighed and ran a hand through her tangled blond hair. She wiggled her feet and realized that stilettos were only best for strutting around in, not sleeping in. Her feet ached. No wonder she'd felt so uncomfortable in bed earlier -- it hadn't only been because of the lousy mattress.

     Frowning, she carefully threw off her stilettos and sat back on the bed to slowly massage her poor feet. This was usually the point where Maria was supposed to come along and fuss over her and maybe call the massage therapist to come immediately and attend to her feet, but that was obviously not going to happen, no matter how much she wished it. It had been a few months since she'd last seen her nanny. When she'd been forced to go to an actual school (thanks to Robby and Ms. Bloom), she'd also been forced to live with one of her father's 'people', which had been a nice, elderly couple. That had meant leaving her father's lonely mansion, which would have been great if it hadn't meant leaving Maria as well. And of course, once she left anyway, calls and emails to each other weren't enough. Maria was like the mother she never had, and all she'd wanted to do sometimes was go see her in person and hug her and never let her go. Yeah, she missed her, alright.

     Ashlyn groaned and layed down on the bed. She felt so tired, even though she'd just woken up from a pretty deep sleep. Staring at the white, boring ceiling, she stretched her body till she felt her muscles loosen. God, that felt better. After a moment, she closed her eyes and thought,

     I'll just have a little power nap. After that, I'll stake out the home or where ever we are right now.

~~~

     Ashlyn sighed as she carefully sat down on one of the fancy looking couches in the main hall. The whole place was still quiet -- everyone was still sleeping -- so she'd had the oppurtunity of searching out the place without fear of being caught -- even though she wasn't even sure if she should be frightened or not. Weren't they in a safe place recommended by Robby? Anyway, she'd still been wary of any one finding her as she staked the place out, but no one had; so she was pleased.

     She'd woken up just a little while ago, and after taking a shower and digging out a new outfit from one of her suitcases placed in the bedroom, she'd stepped outside the room to finally study her surroundings. It had taken her a long time to stake out the place. Not because it was huge, it was actually only one floor -- it was an apartment/flat --, but because the place was crowded with furniture, and some interesting looking pictures, and so she'd decided to examine all the furniture and pictures, as well. Just in case. People would be surprised to find out how much important, or suspicious stuff could be found in furniture and pictures. 

     Anyway, she hadn't found anything suspicious, but she had found that the apartment was filled with pictures of Robby, which didn't make sense. Why did whoever live here have so many pictures of him? Shouldn't they have pictures of themselves instead of pictures of Robby?

     James Knight -- she sort of remembered his face. He was young, and actually really good looking. Dark hair, brown eyes, a strong jaw...anyway, Ashlyn actually hadn't seen any pictures of him in the apartment. Didn't the apartment belong to him...? If it did, shouldn't he have pictures of himself? Or was he, like, gay and had a huge crush on Robby or something, and therefore had so many pictures of Robby as a way to celebrate his crush or whatever? Maybe all those pictures of Robby was some sort of shrine.

     Ashlyn shivered. Okay, no, that was just creepy. Not just the fact that there could be a Robby shrine in this home, but the fact that anyone could have a crush on Robby. Robby was just so uptight and boring, it was hard to imagine anyone liking him...in that way.

      Suddenly, Ashlyn felt hands envelope around her eyes, surrounding her in total darkness. "What -- " She started to yell, but she felt one hand leave her eyes and go down to clasp her mouth shut, so she wouldn't be able to yell either. Her head rolled back against something hard -- a chest? -- as she leaned against the couch. Who ever had come up behind her was standing behind the couch.