All characters are 18 years or older. What follows may answer some questions. It may also raise a few more as you will see. A few more installments of this story line and then I will return to the Iron Bitch series. It is time to resolve things once and for all I think. After that... I don't know, I guess only time will tell. I hope you enjoy and as always vote, comment and tell me what you think of this story.
Bian Rong - literal translation Hidden Dragon
*****
Emergency Exit:
Quickening led me to the nearest exit of the Maze. She wished me the best of luck and I thanked her for everything. Precious had taken on a rather mundane appearance and I agreed a low profile was probably for the best. The two of us walked down one of the thousand alleyways that bordered the Maze towards our exit. I had woken up naked, alone and confused. So why did this alley seem familiar? As it ended I saw the emerald green wall and a singular scarlet door. Guarding that door was a face that was all too familiar to me.
"Crusher," I said as I approached the ogre.
"No Sir, I get that a lot," the ogre said smiling. "He's my cousin on my mum's side. My name is Splitter. Was your visit to the Maze a pleasant one?"
"It was... interesting," I replied and he smiled.
"I am sure it was. Welcome to the Hotel Diabolique. Shall I call ahead or do you have reservations?"
"Just passing through actually," I said trying not to show any shock at hearing the name of the hotel.
Splitter stepped aside and the crimson door opened and we entered the lobby of the Hotel Diabolique. It was as I remembered from my last visit with Loki. The staff of the hotel greeted me as they had the goddess, with great difference and displays of excellent service. I asked them for a limo for pressing business I had. I glanced at the scarlet door and my jaw almost dropped open. There was a white wooden border around the door but it was the curious knot work etched into the wood that caught my attention. It was obvious to see the pattern of a maze carved into the border.
Less than a minute later I was being escorted to the exit and there was a sleek brand new town car waiting for us. The driver asked for the address and I told him where home was. He opened the door and we slipped into the back. As we drove back to the estate I pondered a cover story for my near two day disappearance. The limo took another path away from the hotel. I noticed as we exited a narrow alley the demonic forked tail spray painted on the brick wall. I began to see a pattern.
'Warren,' Jeannie chimed in.
'Yes Jeannie,' I asked.
'I know this is going to sound odd. But I just tied into the local satellite network and I triple checked the data.' She said and then fell silent.
'What is it?' I demanded.
'The time, the current time is less than fifteen minutes since we entered the Maze. Some sort of temporal dilation has occurred.' She said her voice shaky and unsure.
'Why am I not surprised. Just accept it and we can ponder it later. All I want is to get home and climb into my bed and try and forget this day ever happened.'
The limo dropped me off at the gate of the estate. I paid him via electronic transaction and keyed in the security code to open the main gate. The driver whistled when he saw the mansion lording on the top of the hill. As he drove off I felt a sensation that I will call a psychic twinge. I actually flinched and turned in the direction of the source. The girl was short, maybe five feet but I highly doubted it, and dressed in a myriad collection of solids, stripes and flannel. She staggered up the street and she was mumbling as she approached.
"The Thanatons are dreaming..." she intoned in a kind of dull hopeless voice. "The Thanatons are hungry..."
I stood at the open gate and stared at her. My keen night vision allowed me to pick out details others might have missed. The first and most disturbing thing was the sickly green radiance spilling from her eyes, nose and mouth. The condition of her skin and hair told me she hadn't seen a bath or shower in quite some time. The stench coming off her confirmed the latter. But it was the power that couldn't be seen by the human eye that was most disturbing. She was possessed by something, something old and terrible. My reflexes kicked in and I lashed out trying to sever the connection. It must have worked. She crumpled to the ground and fell still. The verdant light no longer shone from any orifice. I picked her up and carried her to the estate. Precious watched all of this in utter confusion.
"Why did you help her," she asked as she walked next to me.
"Why did I help you," I replied.
"Because you wanted to fuck me of course," she said without hesitation or any hint of remorse.
"No, I helped you because you needed it. The sex was just a bonus... a really great bonus by the way."
She laughed and opened the front door. Charles, the number two guy on the night shift, stared at me with what could only be described at complete and utter shock. He backed away when he caught a good whiff of the street urchin. I called for the maids and told them to run a hot bath, a very hot bath. They raced upstairs and by the time I got there the tub was half full. They added bubble bath and helped me strip her. I carefully lowered her into the bath and she never moved. Precious and I scrubbed the girl clean and after washing her hair half a dozen times pronounced her clean. We transferred the girl to the shower for a quick rinse while the tub drained.
Precious dried her off while I studied her features as well as her body for any clues to her identity. Jeannie ran facial recognition as I looked at the tattoo on her inner right wrist and the brand on the back of her neck. I began to suspect human trafficking when Precious smiled and left for a few moments. She returned with shaving cream and a brand new razor. I gave her a questioning look and she just grinned. Precious sprayed the foam over the girl's genitals and shaved her hairy region with precise strokes of my razor. She muttered something about me not liking pubic hair.
"What are we going to tell her when she wakes up?" I asked Precious. "Oh sorry, I really hate a tangle of pubes so my friend here shaved you bald."
"Oh come on," Precious responded with a giggle. "Look at that cute little pussy. You have to admit it looks much better like this."
I just shook my head and carried the girl to one of the spare bedrooms. Precious wandered the second floor and picked out her own room. Isabelle arrived and helped me dress the girl in pajamas and sat with her until she woke up. I sat on the edge of the bed for an hour or so looking at her sleeping features. She was very cute and young. I thought she might be eighteen, early twenties at the oldest. Her complexion was a mystery to me. Her smooth skin had an odd pigmentation to it and I guessed that she was part Asian and perhaps part American Indian. Her eyes had the right shape and tilt to them for either Thai or maybe Vietnamese. There were strong prominent features that spoke of Sioux or Iroquois. Her small breasts were full and topped with dark nipples and tiny areoles.
She was in good shape despite living on the street. I looked at the tattoo on her wrist and it appeared like a Kanji character but I couldn't be sure if it was Chinese or some other nationality. Jeannie was running it and her face for clues. The character's meaning was much easier to discover than her identity. It represented the Mahjong piece, the silver king. This symbol was used by white slavers that worked out of Hong Kong. The brand on her neck was another matter entirely. I thought it might be another ideogram like the tattoo but it wasn't. There was a circle at the center of the symbol and just above the circle connected by a very shot line was a crescent moon. There were also five lines radiating from the circle, four of them were of equal length while the fifth was twice as long as the others. The longer line ran due south; the other four were west, southwest, southeast and east respectfully. The brand looked like it had healed so it might be as much as six months old.
My heart went out to her as much as it had for Precious. I told Isabelle that if she needed anything just ask and I wanted to be woken up when the girl had finished resting. I was off to sleep. I checked on Precious and she was naked and enjoying the Egyptian cotton sheets on her bed. I smiled as I closed the door to her room. The walk back to my room was short and sweet. It wasn't until I had looked at my bed that I realized king sized mattress or not, there was no room for me the way my family was spread out on it. I guess it is back to one of the other guest rooms. I stripped out of the uniform I had gotten in the Maze and hung it up in the closet. I climbed beneath my sheets and was asleep in no time at all.
I don't normally remember my dreams. It is usually a jumble of images and some song or another that got stuck in my head earlier that day. But I remember this dream. To my dying day I remember it clearly. The world was black. The blasted landscape was ebony sand as far as the eye could see. The dunes were broken by stony hillocks and shattered remains of massive stones that had been hurled by some kind of titanic force. They lay like fallen heroes of old flung to the earth by gods and demons. The air was cold yet dry and a crescent moon rose over the horizon. The sight of it filled me with a dread I had never experienced in my entire life. I took a few steps back and hit something. I turned and looked. My screams woke the nearest staff as well as Willow, Janine and my mom. They all came running in to see if I was alright. I was upright and covered in night sweats. I looked at the clock and even though I had only slept for a few hours I was fucking done.
"I'm up," I said and began to get out of bed.
"Hey, are you okay," Precious stumbled in naked, hair askew and stretching as she yawned.
My family turned on me like a pack of wolves. There were a dozen questions and I just held up my hand. I told them that this was my new live in bodyguard. She was here to protect me and would not be any sort of hindrance in my schedule. My schedule was a reference to them getting laid. The relief on their faces was clear and they asked me if I was alright. I told them I had a nightmare and I was going to take a shower and get some coffee. Mom and Janine raced downstairs to make my coffee while Willow returned to my bedroom and ran my shower. Precious and I followed her in.
"Who left the tub like this?" Willow asked clearly annoyed. "Warren, whose pubic hairs are these on this towel, did you shave your pussy and use my towel?"
