High Lives In The City

Intro: This story is quite long, and the majority of it does not contain much about sex. But it IS a good story, and I beg you to actually read the whole thing. It is actually a good story, and there is a well waited for sex segment you will enjoy. Thanks!

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Adrian Taylor stood at the foot of the "Thee Chiefs" throne. A light from the ceiling was shining on his head as he looked nervously over the room. His breath was calm, but his nervousness was deep within him. The Three Chiefs of The Order talked quietly in murmurs about Adrian's fate. He had stumbled upon something monumental; something that was far passed anything he had ever imagined would have been going on in the small city he lived in. He looked over the Chiefs' faces as they murmured.

He glance went from the Three Chief's throne and over the room slightly. He figured the room must have contained politicians as the majority. Most of them were probably local, but he would put money on some of them being federal. Hell, maybe some were even international politicians. Who knew how far up this thing went. Adrian was silent, and his eyes floated over the accusing eyes of the enormous crowd that stood in the darkness. He was surprised to find many of the naked women hadn't put their clothes back on. He guessed it was because they were so used to being naked around others that it seemed almost normal. Some of the people in the shadows whispered quietly to themselves, while others stood quietly with their arms folded, staring at him. The room he was in was a grand round hall. The sides had pillars that reminded him of Roman decor. It seemed to be white, white walls, and white marble floors; although it was too dark to see much of anything. The only light was the spotlight that was over his head, as well as the Three Chief's throne. The room was also mostly empty of furniture or decoration like what was in the rest of the building. The only thing that resembled furniture was the lavish thrones, which the Chiefs sat on. The thrones were large, and also reminded Adrian of Roman decor. And the Chiefs themselves were dressed in white robes that went to their ankles, with blood red sashes that were strung across their chest and tied at their shoulders. They all looked as if they were the same rank, as neither of them was dressed more extravagant than the other.

When the three chiefs all turned their heads toward Adrian at the same time, which showed they were finished talking, Adrian swallowed lightly. He knew this might be the end of his life. It's a rough game to play -stepping on people's toes that is- and Adrian was at the tale end of a losing hand. Adrian tipped his well-shaven chin up slightly, looking over the three chiefs as they stared at him. The one in the middle spoke first, in a gruff, harsh politician's voice.

"We've come to a decision mister Taylor. While your trespasses, as well as your meddling, are viewed as rather condemning, we are going to let your fate rest upon your own decision. I'm sure that what you've seen here tonight has made a large impact upon you." While he was speaking, Adrian couldn't help but think that this particular chief reminded him of a municipal judge. A rather mean, evil municipal judge.

"Many who come here for the first time, invited of course- much unlike you Mr. Taylor- cannot deal with what they see. Now, your position in your career may pose a problem in the decision you make, but many have learned to deal with career as well as The Order at the same time. So, Mr. Taylor, the decision is entirely up to you."

- -

For eleven years Adrian Taylor had been apart of the Meridian Police Department. He was a highly decorated division detective. He won Officer of the Year four times during his employment; one of the awards came during his first year. After 6,495 arrests, he has retained a seventy one percent conviction rate. During the years when Top Gun was big, Officer Taylor earned the name "IceMan" from his peers for arresting a young man during his mother's funeral. The kid had been on a robbery spree of thirty-five robberies in two weeks, and no one had caught him. Finally Officer Taylor had the evidence he needed, but he got a tip that the kid was leaving in two days. Taylor's only chance to get an arrest on him would be at his mother's funeral. It was the only place he was sure the kid would be, and it would be a day before he was to leave the state. So Officer Taylor did what was needed.

His home life was mostly lonely. He'd never been married, and the longest relationship he'd ever had lasted a short eight months. Adrian's guess to why women wouldn't stay was most likely due to the late hours of work, the early rising to the station, or the nights when he wouldn't come home because he was working on paperwork. His last girlfriend had actually come to the station while he was interviewing a suspect, cussed him out, and then left while he was too helpless to try and get her to stay.

Police officers are often asked if they have ever shot anyone. Adrian was only asked once. If he were asked again, he would nod his head solemnly, and hope the person wouldn't ask who. The truth was, Adrian Taylor had shot three people. Two had deserved it, if anyone ever deserves it. He shot them to defend innocent people that were in immediate danger. The third was almost unnecessary, but due to the mistake of a fellow officer, he had to go through with it. It was a woman, which makes it a hard thing to do to begin with, she was in her mid thirties, attractive, married, and she had two children, which makes it even harder to deal with. She was going through a stage of schizophrenia, which induced a horrible case of paranoia, and violent behavior. In this particular incident, she had a paranoia attack, and obtained a kitchen knife to defend herself with. She was locked in her room for hours, screaming about people coming to get her. When the panic attack wouldn't pass, her husband grew worried and called the police. Officer Taylor was the first on the scene. He arrived and asked the husband what had happened, and walked down the hall of the single story home to talk to the woman through her bedroom door. She refused to come out, and threatened if anyone were to come in, she would stab them. Other officers arrived, and stood back from the hall to try and help. Eventually, the woman did come out of the room, but she did it with her knife pointed toward Adrian. He backed his way down the hall, instructing everyone to leave the house except for the officers. For a moment, the woman stood in the darkening hallway staring at Officer Taylor while he pleaded her to put the knife down. She remained silent, and did not move. The thought that maybe she was slowly snapping out of it crossed Adrian's mind, he would soon realize otherwise. The hallway was long, on the right side were two bedrooms including the master bedroom in which the woman had locked herself in, but the doors to both rooms were closed. On the left side, the hallway wall broke into an open doorway leading into the kitchen. Officer Mencaird happened to be standing a few feet just inside the doorway, watching the woman.

His job was to wait until she got close enough to where he could take her down safely, and secure the knife to where she could not hurt herself, or any other police officers. There were also two other officers standing in the living room behind the kitchen. Without warning, the woman charged down the hall, raising the knife with it targeted toward Officer Taylor. Adrian had already unbuttoned the strap to his gun, and he pulled it from the holster as he backed away from the woman, yelling for her to stop. At the same time the woman passed the doorway to the hall, one of her children came running in through the from door yelling for her to stop. The child was immediately scooped up by one of the officers in the living room, and run out of the house. The child had distracted Officer Mencaird. Adrian yelled his name a few times before he realized Mencaird wasn't going to tackle the woman from behind. She was within inches of him when Taylor finally had to fire. He nearly closed his eyes when he did. The whole hallway filled up with smoke, and Adrian's eyes filled up with tears. The family never forgave him, despite his numerous letters of apology. He never even forgave himself for what he had done.

Adrian often got cases about homicide, but he also got an unusual amount of cases dealing with sex crimes. Even though he wasn't a sex crimes detective, he often found a lot of his cases tied in with sexual crimes of some sort. For instance, on his last case he was investigating a string of three murders in the downtown area. They were all women, and they were all similar in looks: young, long brown hair, bright green eyes, beautiful face and body. He traced evidence out of the downtown area from one person to the next. Eventually it lead to a local pornography producing group called Lightning Video. The head producer, Kyle Galliard was the leader of the group of five prominent producers.

Apparently what was going on, was a few of the girls had gotten ashamed of some of the work they were doing, and wanted out. Instead of filing a class action lawsuit for breach of contract, Kyle Galliard made a new contract on the girls' heads. He had some sort of moral complex to his personality; it wasn't okay to throw out a contract and skip town, but it was okay to kill someone who tried. The ordeal ended when one of the girls got away, and went straight to the police instead of straight out of town. Of course Officer Taylor was the person to do the interview. She gave a grisly story of everything that had gone on, and the threats that were made. She also had some very convicting evidence for the court. Mr. Galliard had told the girl that if she were to run, she would be hunted and killed, and he also let the fact that he had done it before slip out. Kyle won't be seeing a free sky for the rest of his life.

Somehow, Adrian had worked himself into a case involving sex again. This case started much like the case of Kyle Galliard and his band of murdering porno producers, but Adrian didn't realize that until the very end. It had started when a number of local prostitutes began showing up dead. When someone usually thinks of prostitutes, they usually think of pick garters, a fake wig, and a sleazy neighborhood. But these prostitutes were of a different kind. These were the type that made appearances at the mayor's Christmas parties, or the ones that were seen escorting the movie stars that visited meridian occasionally to dinner, and then a little something afterward. These weren't the usual street corner hookers.

When interviewing one of them, Officer Taylor found out the usual going rate was anywhere between $2,500, and $4,000 a night. They would only go to men that had large amounts of spend able money. The first girl showed up toward the end of August in a river gorge that had dried up over the summer. She had been a beautiful girl. A stunningly beautiful girl. Adrian couldn't recall ever meeting anyone so perfect before. Nothing seemed very suspicious about the murder, meaning it didn't seem to tie to anything. However, in the space of two weeks, three more had shown up. They all were found in the same type of fashion, their hands were tied, and they were naked. There were no signs of rape, or any other type of sexual crime evidence. Even though there were traces of them having multiple times in a short period, all the analysts figured it was a normal thing for a prostitute.

When two more girls showed up around the city, Officer Taylor began to think he had a serial killer on his hands. He also would have called in higher authorities to begin investigations if his mind hadn't been changed for him. Adrian was out asking some questions about town on an early September afternoon. He was at an estate of a local playboy who has been known to throw wild parties every once and a while. Adrian had been to a few of these parties himself; he had even met one of his pervious girlfriends at one. When he had gotten nowhere with his questions, he walked down the walkway of the house back to his car. When he sat in the driver seat he noticed a small piece of paper on his steering wheel. He looked around through his windows that might have been watching, but didn't see anyone. He took the paper and unfolded it slowly, reading what it said.

"Meridian Public Library, private room B, @ 3:45PM."

Taylor took a glance at his watch; it was already two forty-five. Someone had been watching, and most likely knew when he would be done with his work. He started his car, half expecting a bomb to blow him, as well as half the street up. But it started normally, and he drove toward the public library. When he arrived outside the sun had already began to make its slow descent toward the horizon. The sun was hidden behind the public library, and shaded the entrance steps. Officer Taylor walked up them slowly, glancing around to see anyone who might have been following. He wished he knew who he was looking for, whoever it was obviously knew how to look for him. The library was fairly quiet, even for a library.

There was an older white man reading a book at one of the tables in the middle of the first floor, and a couple more people in the rows of books, looking through the Dewey decimal system. Taylor walked up the spiral stairs toward the second level where the private rooms were. When he arrived, he took another glance. This floor was even emptier than the ground floor. He walked across to the opposite side of the room toward private room "B". Someone was already sitting inside. It was a woman, fairly young, dressed in a completely black dress. She was attractive to be sure. Blonde hair, bright blue eyes, almond tanned skin. Taylor half wished this meeting would be about something other than work. He opened the door and peaked his head in slowly. The woman raised her head to look at him; her face showed no giving expression.

"Hi, I'm Officer Taylor-" Adrian started.

"I know who you are, come in quickly." She cut him off, waving a hand slightly for him to enter.

Taylor entered the room, and sat in a chair across the table from her. He folded his hand, his suit jacket raising slightly above his waist, showing his gun and badge.

"What is this about? And how did you know where I was?" He asked.

"I've been following you. And I think you know what this is about. The murders you have been investigating lead to more than you think. It's not a serial murder, I'm sure that is probably what you've been thinking."

"Oh really? Who are you first, and how would you know so much?" Taylor leaned back in his chair slightly. While he looked at the woman, thoughts of the woman that he had shot three years ago crossed his mind. In his heart he felt like weeping about it. But he was a police officer, and he had to do his work.

"I won't tell you my name. But I am here to help you. Two of the girls that were found were friends of mine." Her eyes were getting slightly misty; she obviously was hurt. "I want you to know that by talking to you, I will most likely be the next to be found dead. I know you probably think you could protect me, but please don't even try. There's nothing you can do to save me from these people."

"Okay. I want you to know, if you do decide you do need help, you can come to me. Now, who are these people you speak of?" Adrian accepted her statement about him not being able to protect her; she seemed serious enough about it.

"It goes much higher than anything you imagined. I can't tell you too much about whom is involved because I don't know myself. I do know that most of the people involved are some type of politician. And there's also cops involved, as well as high social members. Who is involved is not what's really important. The group is also much larger than you think. It's a cult of sorts. The women you've found have been victims of some sort of ceremonial sacrifice they regularly practice. They kill them all the same way, with the same knife." Flashes of the crime scenes passed through Adrian's mind. He recognized what she was talking about. He remembered noticing a stab mark that was always on the neck, just where the two collarbones dip to make a u-shape. This was another part of each crime scene that made him think it was a serial killing.

"I've also been a working girl like the others you have found for many years," she continued. "After working with our corporation for a while, I was asked to do a private party that was very special. I said I would, but I wondered how it was special since I had pretty much seen everything. My boss told me that anything I saw or heard could never be repeated, and that I was to follow directions no matter what." She hesitated here for a moment. "I wish I never had agreed, and I would take it back if I could. Even if I wanted to tell you what I had seen I probably couldn't, there was so much going on. The party was like nothing I had ever seen before. All me, except for the working girls that went. There were girls for many different organizations, and added together there were probably over a hundred of us. The men were twice that many, probably two or three hundred. They all wear costumes of some sort, or at least masks. They start with a weird ritual to begin with in a closed room, and the girls wait outside. When their ritual is done, each girl meets a man outside naked. A lot of men fuck the girls, and some men just like to watch; or are two old to fuck. In any case, a lot of sexual favors take place. Some of the men even have some of the girls fuck each other. This all takes place in a gigantic two-story room, only the second story is merely a balcony that surrounds the entire first floor. From here the "three chiefs", along with a few other guys watch all of what is going on. Sometimes they jerk themselves off, but rarely." She paused again, and shook her head slightly. In the deep of her eyes Adrian could see tears were forming.

"I don't know my politicians, but I do watch the news sometimes. I know I have seen the senator of this state, and some other familiar politicians."

Adrian cut her off at this point. "You said they wear masks or costumes."

She frowned again. "Well...I have gone home with some of them." The deep regret in her voice made Adrian believe her, but he stayed somewhat skeptical.

"Anyway," she continued "I just wanted to warn you: Get off this case. Every person that has discovered this before has either joined them, or ended up dead. If you don't believe me, check the Police employment records. Officer Meyer two years ago disappeared, and Officer Lincoln suddenly quit four years ago." Adrian's mind flashed again. Meyer had been his mentor. He had won Officer of the Year more than Adrian had, and suddenly, just before Adrian joined the force, he disappeared without a trace. Adrian always wondered what happened to Meyer. He had a hard time swallowing that it was related to the same case he was currently on, but he does remember Meyer talking about a murder case he was working that looked like a serial killing just before his death. Adrian sat quietly as he looked at the woman across from her.

"I am getting a faint idea of what you're talking about here. But other than prostitution, I don't really see anything illegal in this story."

The woman started again, raising her hand slightly. "There's more. The women you have found lately are the same women that go to these parties. Every month, at the end of the ceremony of sex, one woman is chosen. Once again all the men gather in the huge room, and close the doors. The one chosen woman follows them in, and she never comes out. They do not let us stay near the doors, so I can never hear what goes on, but I know that some of my friends have been found in the gutters of Meridian in the past. You have to believe me, more than just sex goes on at this 'party'."