Chapter 3

The key scratched soundlessly against the door before it found its mark inside the lock, and with a click the tumblers faded away and the door opened. He took a long drag on the cigarette as he continued walking, half lidded and bemused eyes looking out to the cloudy sky framing his balcony.

He dropped his coat on the chair next to the door, his heavy shoes crumpling the carpeting beneath him as he grabbed the icing bottle of wine out of the bucket, and opened the door to the lush balcony.

It was freezing outside, but he didn't care..there's a reason he liked New York...He took a seat on the comfortable, expensive chair out there, and threw his cigarette over the side, seeing the New York Times sitting on the little side table next to an ash tray.

With little interest, his eyes scanned the headlines, continuing to flip through until he found something he was actually looking for, and a dark smile crossed his lips. Taking a sip of wine, he read over the article.

'Patient Escapes from Asylum'

'On January 15th, A female patient escaped from the King's Holt Insane Asylum outside New York. The patient, Kathryn Mertuil, escaped after a schizophrenic patient had an episode, resulting in the chaos needed to let patient escape. Her doctor suspects that she had planned such an escape, so the patient is considered dangerous.'

It continued on, telling a story of which he already knew, and he smiled, seeing the picture of her, and lit up another cigarette, it was quite perfect really. He blew a few strands of dark hair out of his face, before taking another drag. She wouldn't keep her signature dark locks for long...and she would make herself very scarce. Just perfect.

He'd have to start soon, or else he'd lose her with the rest of these 'country's finest' otherwise known as donut chasing idiots. Taking another drag, he got up, a slight smirk on his face as he started out of the apartment, grabbing his coat and locking the door behind him.

----

Ronald kissed the sleeping Cecile on the forehead as he stood up, walking towards the window and looking out to the night sky behind him. It really was pretty in the city, no matter how many environmentalists said otherwise...

A shiver ran down his back as he thought about Kathryn being out again. Not that she was ever terribly bad to him, she was just a raving lunatic, in retrospect...she had planned out the entire thing from the beginning, ingenuous yes...but...scary in its depths. Everyone around her had a part to play...even the innocent girl on the bed behind him.

He wasn't worried for himself, he wasn't even truly worried about Cecile, as far as Kathryn went along, she'd just been another pawn in the woman's game. No...the only one he was truly worried about was Annette. She was the true downfall of the great Mertuil dynasty, and if Kathryn was out, he already knew where she'd be heading.

As it began to snow, the honks from the street below beginning their nightly melody, as he thought of it, and the lights continued to shine from the tallest buildings to the convenience stores on every block, he moved away from the window, kissing Cecile again before getting dressed.

He wanted to try to call Annette again, hoped that she was still safe...and was well protected...he didn't have much time...

"Ronald?" He heard a sleepy voice call him from the hallway. A slight sigh as he turned around, seeing her sitting up, the blanket around her lap and her breasts exposed to the world. With a slight chuckle he leaned against the door frame.

"Yes Cecile?"

"Where are you going?"

"Going to go see if Annette's alright, you know I get horrible reception in this building."

"Come to bed, Ronald..." She murmured, turning over and slowly slipping back into sleep. I only smiled.

"In a minute Cecile." He said softly, before closing the door behind him. Quickly, he walked from the 5th floor down to the main floor, the elevator had been out for about a week and God only knew when it would be getting fixed. As he walked out into the neighborhood, he flipped open his phone, leaning against the brick wall, and as he exhaled a puff of smoke lifted from his lips.

"Come on Annette, pick up the phone." He murmured softly, pulling his hood up as he felt the snow fall around him, listening to the steady ring of the phone over 5000 miles away.

"Hi..you've reached Annette's house, but sadly you didn't reach her, to leave a message just wait on the line until the beep, and I'll get back to you, Bye!" Ronald only swore softly, waiting for the beep.

"Hey Annette, it's me, Ronald...call me when you get this, it's important...call me as soon as you hear this alright? It's about Kathryn, my number's 395-1857, I'll talk to you soon." He said quickly, and hung up, flipping the phone and ending the call, he sighed in frustration..."Where the hell ARE you Annette?"

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Annette had just walked in as she heard Ronald on her answering machine.

"-as soon as you hear this alright? It's about Kathryn-"She quickly deleted the message, rolling her eyes. The LAST thing she wanted to hear about was her...but she would call him back soon enough. She sunk slowly into her couch, closing her eyes as she turned on the tv, smiling slightly as she slipped her stilettos off.

Another day, more publicity, press conferences, photo shoots. If she didn't like the art of acting so much, she would quit solely because of all the bullshit that went along with it. Already it was on the news, so she just slowly slipped off, unaware of the news, something about escapes and asylums...

"Annette!"She heard...him...calling behind her, and turned, seeing the blond man staring at her softly. She raised an eyebrow walking towards him.

"S...Sebastian?" He smirked slightly, moving closer to her.

"Annette...things are happening..."

"W..What are you talking about Sebastian?"

"Sh. It's not important...get out of Los Angeles, alright Annette? Please..."

"What...why?" She thought softly, looking up to him. "Why do you want me out of Los-

She woke up quite quickly, a loud, catchy intro starting a new show, and sighed. It was just her subconscious, nothing more...telling her she didn't need this anymore. She watched the television for a moment, before shaking her head, getting up and going into her bedroom to find something to wear.

She had to get out, or she'd kill herself, she thought wryly.

Easily, she found something that she'd bought when she first moved here, a dark red dress that went from her shoulders down to right above the knee, showing off her ample assets in a tasteful way, and finished off with a simple, yet stylized ponytail that ended in ringlets, and a silver necklace with a pendant in the middle, something she'd found inside Sebastian's glove compartment. (Whether he knew he had it or not...she felt as if it was hers) and a pair of stilettos that laced all the way up to her calves. She smirked, looking in the mirror, and looked quite the Hollywood Harlot, so out of character for her in the old days.

She looked down for a minute, before walking out of the door, Ronald's message had been forgotten as she walked out the door, back into the Roadster for a night on the town.

The wind had picked up a bit as she continued moving out of the house, through the breezeway, and into the car, waiting for the garage door to open as she fixed her make-up. The night would be hot anyway, she was glad there was a bit of wind to cool it down. As the garage door finished its ascent, she watched herself in the mirror, saw the dark look in her eyes, and wondered for a minute what she'd become since she moved here... what had happened to her in the brief few months since she'd left New York.

Her eyes mirrored his, she thought softly, before backing out and speeding into the road, looking for the best party she could find.

----

Kathryn stopped at a slightly rundown hotel with a bit of disgust...How she hated mid-west suburbia...She closed the door to the car, slinging a backpack over her petite shoulders, and walking towards the registration area, running a hand through her light blonde hair. She hated the color, it made her look like such a bimbo, but she already knew good and well what was coming, she needed to get a little suspicion off of her, and changing her hair color would fool them for a while.

"Excuse me." She said softly, a bit of souther twang came through, as she wanted it to, when she started speaking. "May I have a room for the night? I'm awfully tired..." She said softly, yawning softly as she plopped down a thick wad of money. "I hope this will do, I'm afraid I didn't bring my credit cards.

The greasy, sweaty, fat man who ran this, and it seemed to be all motels in mid-west suburbia handed her a key, and nodded, taking the entire wad.

"Yes, you can go ahead and get room number 18 he murmured, pointing across the dirty pool to the other wing of the motel. She smiled, watching as she started walking in that direction, feeling the man's greasy eyes on her back. A slight shudder, and she opened the room, closing the door behind her.

It was clean, as clean as such a room possibly could be, and she threw her bag down on one of the beds, plopping down on the other and closing her eyes. It pissed her off.

Her...that bitch was living it up in Hollywood, and where was she? In the middle of fucking Ohio, in a seedy motel that had probably been last used for a quick and uneventful fuck between two middle-aged people cheating on their spouses, made her blood boil.

She tried to get her mind off of it, pulling some folders out of her backpack and looking over the plan again, written out and having several people she'd need to get in contact with. Quickly, she picked up the phone, beginning to dial the first number.

'Kathryn...I really would have expected better from you...' Sebastian said easily, looking down to the curtains. 'Honestly...you should have just slept in the car...it was probably cleaner.'

"Not in the mood Sebastian." She said, barely looking up.

'Although...it IS a little kinky thinking about it eh?' He chuckled, sitting down at the foot of her bed, watching her for a minute. 'Getting all hot and went in a motel?'

"It isn't...Kinky in the least...it's disgusting."

'Oh...is it?' He murmured, kissing her softly, moving her back to the headboard, the folder landing quickly on the floor and the phone landing softly on its headset.

" ..Sebastian...I, don't have time for this!" He didn't listen, his soft lips trailing over her skin.

'Shh...don't talk babe...' He said softly, nibbling on her ear for a minute as his fun continued. Kathryn slowly lost her nerve...her arms coming up to rest on his, as her eyes closed.

"Mmm...no..S..." She said softly, moaning a bit as his hand hit a spot she hadn't touched in a while. Her disagreement turned quickly into approval.

This continued, increasing in intensity as it went on, Sebastian kneeling between her legs and continued to work over her body softly, eyes closed as he moved further down, biting her neck quickly, before a smirk came to those lips.

"I always preferred blondes..." He chuckled darkly, pushing off of her, and walking out of the door, closing it behind him.

Kathryn, half in confusion, half in anger, growled, throwing the glass used for ice at the door, hearing the satisfying shatter of it hitting the door, its pieces tinkling to the floor. She only closed her eyes, muttering lightly.

Damn him!

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A/N: Sorry about the wait, there were three main causes as to why it took so long

1. Hurricanes: last year, right around the time I was writing the beginning of this, Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne decided to come say hi all within one month of each other...sooo I was gone for a while

2. Computer problems: first, my comp died, I accidently deleted a program that started up the computer, and when my comp was fixed it was reformatted, so I lost everything...absolutely, everything...5 years of documents...goone. I was NOT a happy camper.

3. Lack of will to write: after that happened, I was uneager to write anything in fear of it getting lost again, but now! I have new computer, with fun stuff on it, and I wanted to write, so I cranked this out in about 3 hours. I hope you guys enjoyed it, it wasn't worth the wait.

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Reviews

Kerrimack: thanks hon! I'm really trying to keep the characters ic...it's been a bit hard with Annette, but other than that I have fun with Sebastian, Kathryn, and the rest of them

Lastarr: meh...whistles innocently

Blue Hour: In the author's notes I was addressing a review someone left me, it'd probably help to read that first. I appreciate your concrit though, and I'm working on longer chapters, although 'Quality before quantity' is something I like to live by. I hope you keep reading and it gets clearer for you!

Bobby: thank you much! that makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.

Morgaine Le Fay: I've never been one to do stuff other people have...I dunno, I just write what comes out...aaand it is I-know-who indeed. I think Cecile was waiting there, and now poof she is here

Jade: don't get me started on the sequels.. shudder I hope you like it!