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.)
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.
Okay, calm down! Ashlyn instructed herself. She could get through this, she could get away...after several moments of struggling against the strong hands, she finally bit down on the hand covering her mouth -- "Shit!" her unknown attacker cursed -- and whipped around to face the assaulter.
Standing behind the couch, rubbing his bitten hand using his other hand, stood Ryan Pierce.
~~~
Scar burst out laughing. "I can't believe you bit him!" She giggled beside Ashlyn.
Ashlyn glared at Ryan, who sat across from her. "Well, what else was I supposed to do? He was practically assaulting me!"
"Was not." Ryan snapped back, his eyes on his plate of food. "I was just trying to scare you. You know, for fun."
"For fun? You assault people for fun?" Ashlyn retorted, digging into her plate of salad and chicken.
"I didn't assault you!" Ryan muttered.
"Whatever."
"I swear -- "
"Okay, that's enough now, guys." James Knight interuppted, a small smile on his face. He sat beside Ryan, his empty plate in front of him. He'd managed to finish his dinner before any of them had managed to even finish half of it, which was sort of piggish, but still cool.
After Ryan had assaulted Ashlyn, Ashlyn had burst out in a flurry of curses and shrill screams, apparently arousing everyone to her sounds, except for Jack. Oh, that Jack. He could sleep through an earthquake. Scar and James had stumbled across one side of the apartment to the other, quick on their feet. After finding out that Ryan had just played a mean joke on Ashlyn, which was why Ashlyn was throwing such a fit, James had calmed down Ashlyn and then proposed dinner now that they were wide awake.
Ryan and Ashlyn had already taken showers and brushed their teeth, and James wasn't on jet lag -- since he lived in France -- and he hadn't even been sleeping apparently, so he'd been ready to head straight to the kitchen, so in the end they had just silently waited for Scar to freshen up so they could have dinner. Now they were sitting around the dining table in the kitchen, and after introducing each other formally, Ashlyn had finally finished telling Scar and James exactly what had happened.
James glanced at Ryan and commented, "Here's a piece of advice, dude. The ladies don't like to be the victim of any sort of stupid or mean joke. They prefer to be treated in a more chivalrous manner, if you know what I mean."
"She overreacted." Ryan protested. "It was just a harmless joke, but she had to be a drama queen and throw a hissy fit!"
"I'm right here, you know." Ashlyn snapped. "Whatever you have to say, say it to me, moron."
A pained expression floated onto James face. "Guys, please. Relax. Ashlyn, Ryan was just having some fun, and he's right, it was just a harmless joke...you kind of overreacted, in my opinion. However, Ryan, you still shouldn't have played such a...joke. It obviously scared Ashlyn."
"It never scared me." Ashlyn snapped again.
"Okay, I'm sorry, it didn't scare you." James quickly replied.
Scar laughed again. "Wow. You guys are just...hilarious."
"Some one's in a good mood today." Ashlyn muttered. "Surprising, considering your mood earlier."
Scar rolled her eyes. "I was tired this morning. And you're obviously tired right now."
Ashlyn sighed. "No, I'm just annoyed." She muttered. With another sigh, she glanced up at James. "I'm sorry." She mumbled swiftly. "You're right. I overreacted." She felt so grumpy, and she had just realized it. She was really acting like a downer, which, to be honest, was not an emotion she liked to feel. She was usually laid-back and chill, and she hated how for some reason, Ryan made her feel so touchy and sensitive.
"There's no reason to be sorry." James said lightly. He got up from the table and headed to the sink, his plate in his hand. Gently laying the plate in the sink, he turned back to them and leaned against the sink counter. "So. You guys must have a ton of questions to ask me." He added, getting straight to the point.
"How'd you know?" Ashlyn smiled, instantly feeling better. Finally, she was going to get some answers. She still wanted to know why there were so many pictures of Robby here. She was sure now that James probably didn't have a crush on Robby; he just didn't seem like the type -- besides, now that she was wide awake, even the theory of that seemed ridiculous. She thought such weird things when she was still drowsy from sleep. And she was also sure the apartment didn't even belong to James -- while she'd been waiting for Scar to freshen up so they could have dinner, she'd reviewed the morning at the airport in her head, and she vaguely remembered James mentioning that he'd be taking them to Robby's friends house (the friend that had been supposed to pick them up) when they'd first seated themselves inside his car.
James shrugged. "Why wouldn't you have questions? I mean, Kevin was supposed to pick you up in the morning today, and since he kept you all waiting and didn't show up, you must be wondering where he is, or what happened to him."
"Kevin? That's Robby's mysterious friend's name?" Scar spoke up.
James nodded, a confused look on his face. "Uh, yeah...didn't you know that?"
"Naw. Robby wouldn't tell us the name of his mystery friend. He just said the mystery friend was gonna come pick us up, and that we didn't need to know his name or anything because he'd recognize us, even though we might not recognize him." Ryan cocked his head and said thoughtfully.
An expression of surprise flitted across James's face and stayed there. "'Not recognize him'?" He echoed. "That's impossible! Robert told you that?"
"Yeah, you know...Robert Castle, our boss back in the USA?" Scar said slowly.
"Wait, what do you mean?" Ashlyn asked carefully, throwing another question at James before he could even answer Scarlett. She was getting a weird feeling in her stomach, and she just wanted James to say whatever he wanted to say straight up, without sounding all mysterious and confusing."What's impossible?"
"Wait right here. I'll be right back." James said as he quickly strode past them and out of the kitchen. Ashlyn, Scar, and Ryan waited anxiously for a few moments before James sauntered back in, holding something in his hand.
"Didn't any of you see any pictures of him yet?" He asked as he held out the photo frame in his hand.
"That's Robby!" Ashlyn gasped as she stared at the picture in the photo frame. It was a close-up of Robby, only his face showing as he grinned at the camera. "I saw his pictures, and I wondering why there were pictures of him here. I was just going to ask you."
James clucked his tongue disapprovingly as he walked towards them. He placed the photo frame on the table and sat back into his chair. "That's not Robert at all..." He frowned as he leaned back into his chair and took turns looking each teen in the eye. "Didn't...Robert...tell you? The pictures are of Kevin, the emissary representative of France that was supposed to come and pick you all up."
The three teens gaped at James, and finally, Ryan leaned forward and grabbed the photo frame. "Kevin?" He said loudly as he stared down at the picture. "How is this Kevin? It looks exactly like Robby!"
"I'm guessing Robert didn't tell you after all then, did he?" James replied after a long moment. "Kevin's not here right now, but I'll introduce you to him anyway...or his picture."
"Umm, wait, this guy...he's missing, right? I mean, he didn't show up today and he's not here...at his own, um, home...so..." Scarlett hesitated. "Who is he, James?" She finally asked, a nervous and somewhat frightened and worried expression on her face. It was clear she was confused, and just wanted everything explained to her right away.
An idea was quickly forming into Ashlyn's head as Scar spoke. The guy who looked like Robby...there was no other explanation to explain why he looked exactly like Robby, other than the theory that...
"That's right, he's missing...Say hi to Kevin Castle, guys. Robert Castle's twin brother." James replied gingerly.
...he was Robby's twin/identical brother.
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so....what do you guys think of this chapter ? good, bad? confusing, or do you guys get it ? should I explain anything more thoroughly? Did it bore you, or was it interesting? be honest!
this chappie is apparently 5 pages, so yay, i hope it made up for the extra short chappie last time :)
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Much Love Xo