Model Beast
By Thomas Mc
Chapter 2 : The Paint Job
Devin, Michael, Caroline and Sharon were all seated with their parents, Jacob and Linda, in the dining chamber, eating breakfast. The subject of the magazine photographers had come up and Jacob was expressing his thoughts about the matter.
"It would probably be a good idea to stay completely away from the park until they finish. We don't know when, where or how late they will be out and we don't want one of them spotting one of you, especially if there's also a camera handy." He paused when he sensed embarrassment from Devin and looked over at him.
"Ah . . . too late dad." Devin remarked. "I've already encountered one of them."
Jacob and Linda both looked at him startled. "When? Where?" Linda asked as a worried frown settled on her face.
"In the upper storm drain tunnels near the band shell entrance." Devin replied.
"In the tunnels? Inside the entrance?" Linda asked, very disturbed at this revelation.
Devin proceeded to tell them what had happened yesterday afternoon. Sharon and Caroline were both a bit impressed that their brother had actually spent time with Emily Hansen the supermodel. Jacob and Linda were both a bit worried that an outsider had found her way into the tunnels. Jacob decided that he wanted both entrances that Emily had passed through, to be carefully watched while the photographers were still shooting in the park. It was decided that Michael would keep an eye on the entrance near the band shell and Devin would keep an eye on the Belvedere Castle entrance.
~ o ~
Emily slept in late. It was going to be a long evening. They were all supposed to show up at the Castle by four to begin preparations for tonight's shoot. It would take about three hours to get prepped and have the body paint applied before the first round of the shoot began. She lay there thinking about yesterday's adventure. The long dark gray hooded cloak draped across the table over against the wall kept reminding her of what had, apparently really, happened.
She glanced at the bedside clock. [9:45]. She got up and got prepared for the day. She wanted to get a little shopping in before she went back to the park this afternoon.
As she was about to leave the room, the cloak again drew her gaze. She stopped, picked it up and began to examine it in the morning daylight that streamed in through the window. It was made of sturdy charcoal gray wool and had a black satiny, one-and-a-half inch wide trim along the edges and around the neck. The black trim was decorated with intricate dark blue scroll work embroidery. The cloak was held together at the neck by a leather thong that looped around two large smoky gray quartz crystal buttons. The deep blue satiny liner was removable and was held in place by a dozen ties that looked, for-all-the-world, like they were made from shoe laces.
As a top fashion model, and a bit of a clothes horse, she had a pretty good appreciation of quality custom made clothes. The embroidery on the black trim was hand made, and very beautiful workmanship at that, not some cheep repetitive product off of a machine. She couldn't help but admire the fine craftsmanship that had gone into the making of the cloak.
After a few moments' consideration, she shed her 'Christian Dior' coat and threw the cloak across her shoulders. Then with a self-satisfied grin she headed out the door.
~ BntB ~
Emily entered her hotel room carrying her load of packages. She dropped everything on the bed and started opening and sorting. Once she had all of her purchases sorted and ready to pack she made a surprising discovery. Everything that she had bought went very well with the dark cloak of Devin's. She hadn't done it intentionally, but there it was. She shook her head bemusedly smiling to herself as she packed it all away.
She had settled in for a while and was making sketches of the scrollwork on the cloak's trim when the phone rang. It was the limo, time to go. She jumped up and headed out the door, grabbing the cloak on the way. In the lobby she met up with the three other models that would be involved in today's shoot. Again the other girls were admiring her cloak and asking her where she got it and she again insisted that the Creature of Central Park had given it to her.
Emily and the other models entered their trailer and changed out of their street clothes. Emily glanced at herself in the mirror by the door. Not bad for a twenty-five year old, over the hill model. She had been in the business since she was fourteen and she loved every minute of it. Most models were on the downhill side of their career by the time they hit twenty-five. Emily was at the top of her game and was hoping to emulate her idol, Victoria Burch, who had worked as a top model late into her fifties. It was a rather lofty goal to shoot for, but Emily had never been accused of being timid.
The others put on long robes, Emily put on Devin's cloak, and they all headed out of the trailer. They were all led into the castle and down to a large, familiar, basement room where the four make-up stations had been set up.
~ o ~
When Devin had first arrived at the castle, he had entered the basement and looked it over then checked out the top of the basement stairs. After assuring himself that everything was as it should be, he had settled in with a good book.
Some time later he was disturbed by the sound of people coming down the stairs into the basement. He felt ten distinct presences approaching and hurriedly entered the hidden stairway just before the intruders entered the basement. Looking back through the spy hole, Devin watched several people drag a lot of equipment into the basement and begin setting up. After about an hour's worth of work, they had four identical stations of some sort set up in the room. Each station consisted of what looked like portable make-up tables plus a second table that held several small containers of what looked like paint along with dozens of various sizes of artist brushes.
Most of the workers left the room and the few that remained, apparently settled in to wait. Devin settled himself down on the stairs as comfortably as he could and also prepared to wait as well. He didn't think they could find the door and it was currently bolted from his side, but he couldn't leave it unguarded.
After about another hour he sensed additional presences approaching and jumped up to check the spy hole. He saw four gorgeous women reaching the foot of the stairs, including Emily. She was wearing his cloak.
~ o ~
Emily clearly remembered this room. This was where her 'Creature of Central Park' had led her out of those tunnels yesterday. She knew that there was a spy hole, somewhere in the far wall, which allowed someone in the hidden stairway behind that wall to see into this room. Her creature had peered through it before he had opened the secret hidden door.
She turned her attention to the current contents of the room. She glanced at the four work stations that had been set up, then immediately headed straight for the makeup station closest to that back wall with its secret door. She knew that would make her the only one of the four models to be clearly visible to anyone who might be behind that wall.
As she approached the back wall, Emily had a very strong feeling of being watched along with an indefinable air of familiarity. All her life she had often been able to sense the approach of other people before she saw them. She even bragged that no one could sneak up on her, usually. She was almost positive she could feel someone beyond that wall as she walked over to it and she just knew it had to be Devin. She thought about Devin looking through that spy hole before they had entered this basement area yesterday and smiled to herself. If Devin was there, keeping an eye on this particular entrance, he was very shortly going to get quite a surprise.
~ o ~
Devin watched as Emily headed towards the nearest of the four stations that had been set up in the castle basement. He assumed they were makeup stations since there were no changes of cloths in evidence. She was still wearing his dark gray cloak and he couldn't take his eyes off her face as she approached. She was gazing right at him, or at least the wall where the door was located. He saw a smile cross her face like she had a little secret. From the flow of her emotions he was pretty sure that she knew, or at least suspected, that he was here. There was also a large component of mischievous amusement in her emotions. A man and two women were standing near her and one of the women leaned in and said something to Emily.
Emily nodded to the woman and removed the cloak with an almost dramatic flair. Devin was shocked to see that she had absolutely nothing else on underneath the cloak. Her smile definitely widened as she then stepped over next to the wall very close to where he stood. Devin dragged his gaze back to her face and could clearly see the sparkle of amusement in her gray eyes. She definitely knew he was here and must have had a good idea what he was seeing, feeling and thinking.
~ o ~
There were about a dozen steamer trunks along the back wall, two of which were placed where Emily figured the hidden door was located. She pulled those two steamer trunks, they were empty and relatively light, away from the wall and carefully laid the cloak over them. Then she went back to the station throwing just a tiny bit more wiggle into her walk. Emily smiled to herself as she walked back to the makeup table. If Devin really was back there, and she would bet all her pay for this shoot that he was, he was certainly getting an eyeful now. She reached the table, turned and looked straight at the wall.
~ o ~
Devin sensed curiosity, impish amusement and even a hint of wistfulness definitely coming from her. The two women and the man surrounded her and started to wipe her down. Then they began applying paint to her body. Devin tore himself away from the view and sat down on the stairs trying to get his own unruly emotions under some semblance of control. Soon though he was drawn back to the spy hole. She had her back to him and they were covering most of her lower back in blue paint.
Then they turned her towards the wall where he was hidden. She winked at him. He gulped. She did know he was here.
After a couple of hours they were finished and they stood back from her to observe their handiwork. It looked like she was wearing a colorful one piece bathing suit. The illusion was perfect. If he hadn't seen the work being done, he would not have known that it was only paint.
Emily joined the other three girls and the four models trouped out of the room and up the stairs. Devin realized with a start that he had been totally unaware of the other three models that had been going through the same process in that room.
Within a few minutes the room was empty and Devin entered. He looked down at his cloak that had been draped across the steamer trunks that she had pulled away from the hidden door. There was a piece of paper on top of it. He picked it up and read the note written on it (in lipstick).
o - - - - - o
Thank you for the use
of your beautiful cloak.
- E.
o - - - - - o
He smiled to himself for a moment then looked up and thought for a minute. A big grin crossed his face as he wrote something on the note she had left him. Then he left the room and ran back into the tunnels. He didn't know how much time he had before they returned so he had to hurry.
Forty-five minutes later Devin was looking down at the steamer trunks and smiling to himself. He heard the commotion of several people coming down the stairs and quickly retreated into the hidden stairwell. He looked back through the spy hole to see what her reaction would be.
~ o ~
As they entered the basement Emily quickly made her way over to the far station. She glanced over at the place where she had left the cloak, and was very surprised at what she saw there. The cloak is still there where she had left it and there was also a single long stemmed white rose lying across it. She had once read an article about the meaning of different types of flowers and knew that a white rose could mean either 'friends' or 'forever' or both.
As she got closer she saw her own note underneath the rose and there was something additional written on it. She picked up the note and read the simple reply that he had apparently written at the bottom of it.
o - - - - - o
You're welcome. I hope
you enjoy it.
- D.
o - - - - - o
She picked up the rose and inhaled its fragrance. She returned to the work station, a smile spreading across her face.
~ o ~
The paint was cleaned off her body and a new bathing suit design was painted on. This time it was a bikini style. Several times during this process she would look directly at Devin in his hidden location and smile or wink and occasionally raised the rose that she was still holding, up to her nose and breathe deeply.
Finally they were finished. Emily placed the rose back on top of the cloak and they all headed back up to the surface. Devin settled in with his book to await their return. Finally he gave up and headed back down to grab a quick snack before returning. He got back to the hidden door just as the models were returning from their shoot.
After the paint had been cleaned off, the models put on their robes and headed back up to the surface. Emily draped the cloak across her shoulders. After glancing around to be sure nobody was watching, she blew a kiss at the back wall, then, holding the rose up to her nose, turned and followed the other models up the stairs.
It took another two hours for the work crew to pack up all their equipment and haul it all out of the basement. Finally Devin felt it was safe to leave his post and headed back to the home tunnels.
~ o ~
In the limo on the way back to their hotel the other models were curious about the rose Emily was holding. She smiled enigmatically at them and told them that it was from an admirer.
Back at her hotel room Emily looked again at the note Devin had left for her. She had tried to return the cloak to him but he had left this note and the rose instead of taking the cloak. Apparently he intended for her to keep it. She pulled it tight about herself feeling its warm softness against her. She took it off and carefully hung it up in the small hotel closet. That night she fell asleep thinking about her creature and wondered what he had thought about what had happened today.
~ BntB ~
The next day's shoot was over at the carrousel. Emily kept looking for signs that her creature was nearby but it was broad daylight and she didn't really think he would be in that park at this time of day.
The next day of shooting was over by the Central Park Zoo. The animals were a little less than perfectly cooperative and the shoot ran late into the evening. Shortly after sundown, just as she and the photographer were getting very exasperated, she spotted a large hooded, cloaked figure just inside the woods around the Zoo. Her temperament improved dramatically.
The last day of shooting was held out at the Statue of Liberty. That night Emily caught a flight out to France where she would begin work on modeling the new spring lines from Paris. She would be in four different fashion shows over a two week period. As the plane took off she glanced down at the charcoal gray cloak that lay carefully folded in the empty seat next to her. She had worn it in the airport and had refused to let it out of her sight on the flight. She had become very attached to it.
~ BntB ~
About two weeks after the fashion shoot in the park Linda noticed that she hadn't seen Devin in his favorite cloak lately and he admitted that he had given it to Emily that day he had found her in the upper tunnels. A week later she was up in the brownstone with Elizabeth watching a fashion show on the video. During the show they interviewed the models back stage and Emily was wearing Devin's cloak. By the next day it had become a major topic of conversation down in the tunnels.
Continued in Part 3
'Beauty and the Beast' and its characters are owned by Witt-Thomas Productions and Republic Pictures. No infringement on copyrights is intended. This story is presented merely for the enjoyment of fans. Original concepts and story elements may be used by other authors as long as appropriate credit is given.