The rain pelting the window of the cab was somewhat soothing to both it's occupants. Bridgette let her eyes travel over the buildings being lit by the lightning while Chas let his eyes travel over his passenger. Absently, both listened to the soft music of Billie Holiday flowing from the radio.

"Looking at you, I'd never take you for a jazz fan." she said finally turning toward her driver.

"Yeah, I guess most wouldn't." he said with a small shrug of his shoulders. "Left or right at the light?" he asked as they approached an intersection.

"Left. So, how do you make money driving people around for free?" She asked in a playful tone.

Chas watched as the light in front of him turned red. As he stopped he turned to her, "I make money by charging people to drive them around."His body leaning forward a little bit as if he was about to tell some big secret, " I make friends by giving 'em for free." he watched her expression for a moment before mentally slapping himself. "You know I never caught your name." he explained bashfully. "I know it can't be Bridy."

She let a small laugh escape before sobering up somewhat, "God no it's not Bridy. That's just what Mama Truveau calls me. Bridgette is the real one."

"It's nice to meet you Bridgette." he said holding his hand out. She shook it with vigor. He liked the way her skin felt. Damn Chas you need to get out more, he mentally berated himself. Noticing the light had finally changed he drove on. As the blocks flew by he couldn't help but notice how deplorable the conditions kept getting. Unable to stop himself he blurted, "You actually live around here?" Oh God, you are so smooth it's ridiculous. I'd be surprised if she wasn't eating out of your hand by the time you got her home. He prepared himself for a tongue lashing but was only met with a sad sigh.

"Yeah, I can't really afford much now." she said sullenly. Finally Chas actually did hit himself, smack dab in the middle of his forehead. She turned to him a shocked look on her face. "What did you do that for?"

"You know what, I'm really sorry. I didn't wanna make you feel bad." He looked over at her again when she started to laugh hysterically. "What's so damn funny?" he asked indignantly.

"You just smacked yourself in the head" she said as if he'd missed the humor in it. "It's not a big problem, you know, it's not often I get to talk to someone my own age. I could care less if you slipped up and called my neighborhood a dump. It is, you know." He looked at her with an awed expression. Turning back to drive a small smirk crossed his face, she was definitely someone interesting.

The car idled quietly as they sat in front of her apartment building. She was nervous. She didn't want her night to end so soon. "You know Chas I'm not really tired yet. Do you wanna come up for a while? I can make a mean cup of tea.." she finally asked nervously. It didn't even take Chas a second to say yes. He was out of the car and opening her door for her before she knew what was happening. A little eager isn't he? She thought smiling mentally.

He'd followed her quickly up the three flights of stairs that led to her apartment throwing warning glances at a few of the male tenants giving Bridgette some overly appreciative looks. The halls had stunk like stale beer and cigarette smoke. They were stained a horrible yellow color which he could only assume was caused by years of filth. They'd been dirty and in dire need of a good cleaning. To say he was more than a little shocked when he entered her home would have been an understatement. He followed her in and she quickly shut the door. Clean white walls and the smell of lavender assaulted his senses as he turned and watched her lock three separate dead bolts. I guess you can never be too careful, he thought. That's when he noticed the engraved charms surrounding the doors moldings. Tiny runic symbols traveled from floor to sealing. He couldn't be sure but he could swear they looked like a protection spell he'd seen before though protection from what he hadn't a clue.

Bridgette hurried around the kitchen putting a pot of water on to boil. She than gave Chas the grand tour which basically consisted of putting him in the middle of the living room and spinning him around, the apartment was a wee bit tiny. Apparently Chas had found it funny because that lop sided grin she was growing to like had grown on his face again. When the tea pot began to whistle she told him to make himself comfortable and ran to get it. Chas made himself at home on the sofa and looked about the room curiously, the shelves were lined with theology, religion, and occult books. Apparently they had more things in common than he'd originally thought. She returned minutes later with two cups of green tea. Bridgette handed him his cup and sat at the other end of the couch, feet curled up beneath her. They sat in a comfortable silence for a few moments both savoring the hot drink.

"So you live here all by yourself?" Chas finally asked curiously.

"Yeah, Mama always tells me I should get a cat or a man but I can't seem to find a decent one where either is concerned." She watched as his eyes wandered from her to moving across the room landing on her books. "I like to study." she said simply.

He picked up the leather bound volume lying on the coffee table, "I didn't take you for an

Aleister Crowley type."

"Like I said I'm quite the student. Why do you ask?"

As he walked down the hall way he decided he'd need to look through a few of Beeman's books to see what those charms on her door and, as he discovered, also on her windows were really for.

Alright there is chapter 4. Give me some feedback. What's good? What's bad? Where would you like to see things go? I'm getting a little writers block, why don't you help a girl out some?

Thanks

Detroit