"I can't believe you waited until now to tell me you couldn't come with me!" Addisin Goodnight growled into her phone as she sat on the side of the road along the coast of Florida in her car. "You couldn't have told me thirteen hours ago before I left to drive down here?"
"I'm sorry! I didn't know until this morning! And then things got crazy at the hospital and I haven't had a free minute since!" The voice of her cousin yelled back at her, bringing a smile to Addisin's lips. She and her cousin should have been sisters the way they fought and made up.
"Ok Kels I get it. But ugh this is going to suck without you!" Addie pouted, making Kelly laugh on the other side of the line.
"I'm sorry I wanted to go with you you know that, but I just can't leave right now." Kelly sighed before growling into the phone. "I have to go Addie be careful." She said and hung up.
Addisin blew out a breath and pulled the car back on the road, smiling when she read there was only forty minutes left to her destination. She knew it was probably a fake contest and there was some clause somewhere that said she would never be able to walk away with the house or the money, but the month's all expenses paid vacation at a house that sat along a beach known as 'The Shield House' was more then she could resist when she agreed to it.
She hit a small town twenty minutes later, and pulled up at a small grocery store to stop for needed supplies. The card that she had been mailed prior to setting out for the small out of the way coastal town was loaded with her first thousand dollars, and another thousand would be deposited on the card every two weeks as long as she was still in the contest. If she failed out for whatever reason she would have to return the card but if she managed to win it was part of the million prize.
She grabbed a shopping cart and started down the isles picking up things she would need, hoping that the kitchen had trays and pans so she could bake. She owned a bakery back in her home town; it was her passion and escape. There was no better feeling to her then being able to brighten someone else's day with once of her confections. She knew her employees would handle the business for her while she was away; they all shared her passion so she wasn't worried about her customers going without their indulgences.
Addison strolled down the baking isle grabbing flour, sugar, baking powder and soda, and all the rest of the stuff that she needed to feed her passion, before getting coffee, creamer, milk, bread, bacon, and eggs before heading to the check out, grabbing a couple of cases of diet Pepsi on her way past. She pushed the cart up to the checkout and started unloading.
"Well yours is a new face." The woman behind the register said with a smile as she started scanning Addisin's items.
"Yeah I'm…on vacation for a bit." Addi said smiling back at the woman.
"That's fun, are you staying at the hotel in town? No that can't be right with all this stuff. Relatives?" The woman asked smiling at Addi again.
"No I'm staying in The Shield House…" Addisin started but cut off when the woman dropped the eggs she scanning onto the counter and she heard several of them break.
"Ohh…I'm sorry we'll get you another carton of eggs." The woman said her hands shaking as she bagged up the groceries, and accepted the card Addisin held out to her.
"Is everything ok?" Addisin asked warily taking the card back from the shaking woman's hands.
"Yes fine. Everything is fine." The woman said quickly packing up the items and handing the bags to Addisin and turning to the next customer.
"Well thank you I'm sure I'll be back soon." Addi said and she thought the woman looked a little sad as she nodded and waved. She shrugged it off and carried the bags out to her car, putting them in the back seat before driving out of town toward the house. Twenty minutes later found her turning onto a dirt road as per the GPS. She followed the road for about a mile before frowning and thinking the GPS had gone wonky on her before she crested a hill and the house came into view.
"Wow." She breathed taking in the cream colored two story Victorian house with a wrap around porch and light blue shutters. It looked like it had just come out the pages of a magazine and the view of the ocean not far behind the house was amazing.
"This might not be so bad after all." She murmured to herself parking her car in the driveway next to a very expensive looking BMW SUV.
"You must be Addisin Goodnight." A man in a crisp looking business suit said rising form on of the cushy chairs on the porch and making his way to the top of the steps, his eyes taking in Addi's small form as she climbed up stairs.
"Yes sir." She replied, holding out her hand, surprised when he took it and pressed a kiss to the back of her knuckles.
"Manners. I like that. My name is David Otunga and I'm the lawyer for the proprietors of the contest. Shall I give you a tour?" The man said smiling as he released her hand and swept his arm toward the door.
"That would be great, thank you." Addisin smiled stepping though the door that David held open for her and whistling low at the living room of the house, a beautiful wooden staircase running up the back wall. She ran her hand over a brand new looking cream sectional couch as she walked by it, noting the coffee table sitting in front of it also looked brand new, and she loved the way the hard wood floors gleamed.
"Wow this is amazing and it's only the living room. This can't be a real contest there is no way anyone would just give this house away, its just way too perfect." Addi laughed looking at the lawyer as he smiled.
"I assure you the contest is real and should manage to win; the place will be yours along with the money." David smiled already liking this candidate. She was the first one out of all of them that hadn't questioned the money but the house instead.
"That's insane. What exactly does the contest entail though?" She asked really curious for the first time about the prospect of owning the place and images of having another bakery in the small town she just left danced in her brain.
"It's simple really; you just need to follow the rules set out for you by my employers." David said flashing a smile and stepping into the kitchen, raising an eye brow as Addi stopped dead in her tracks and squealed.
"Ohh. My. God." Addi breathed walking forward and setting her hands on the black marble counters, running a finger over it softly, before turning to the almost new looking Viking appliances. "This place is a dream come true." She said in awe shaking her head looking up at eh pot rack hanging over the top of the island with copper pots and pans hanging off it. Sure she would need a chair to get anything down but she could deal with that, she had been five feet tall since she was 15 and was used to climbing on things.
"You like to cook?" David asked, crossing his arms over his chest and glancing at the basement door quickly before turning his eyes back to Addisin.
"I'm a baker by profession, a pastry chef if you will, but I love cooking also. This kitchen is a dream come true are you sure they are actually giving this house away?" She giggled looking around the room and opening a door to a walk in pantry roughly the size of her bedroom in her apartment at home, squealing again when she found it almost fully stocked, with cookie sheets, cupcake tins, bread pans, and various shapes and sizes of cake pans lining a set of shelves.
"I'm glad you are enjoying the house would you like to see the rest?" David chuckled leading her toward the living room, taking her though a formal dining room and a fully equipped home gym, showing her a full bath with a shower on the lower floor before climbing the stairs.
"The master bedroom is at the back of the hall and there are three guest rooms here along with another full bath." David said opening doors and letting her peek at everything before stopping in front of the master bedroom, opening the door slowly and letting her move though in front of him.
"Ohh my god." Addi breathed taking the dark cherry bedroom set and floor to ceiling windows facing the ocean, the bed sitting so that it was looking out at the view and the TV was mounted to the wall above the windows.
"This is incredible." She murmured even liking the purple and grey sheets and comforter on the king size sleigh bed.
"The best part is through that door though." David smirked watching Addisin move over to the door and push it open, squealing again, as she took in the white marble bathroom, separate slate shower and Jacuzzi tub set just under another window that looked out across the ocean.
"This house is incredible." She said shaking her head as she moved back over to David.
"I'm glad you like it, shall we go over the rules?" He asked making his way down to the kitchen at her nod and opened his briefcase as they sat at the small table in the breakfast nook.
"The contest is simple, you stay in the house and do not break any of the rules printed here unless invited to do so." David said sliding a piece of paper over to her. "Any questions?"
"Um. How will I know if I'm invited to break any of the rules? And who would be doing the inviting?" She asked looking over the paper, looking at some of the things printed there like they were aliens.
"You'll know." David said smiling as he put a set of keys on the table, before grabbing his briefcase and heading for the door.
"Thank you for the tour. I would usually offer you a brownie or some kind of sweet but I don't have anything made right now." She said shaking her head while eyeing the oven.
"You can drop something off to me at the office tomorrow and I wouldn't complain about it." David chuckled glancing at the door to the basement again before heading out of the house.
"One batch of chewy fudge brownies coming right up." Addisin said happily looking at one of the pans over the island, reaching her hand toward it before laghing at how much distance there was between her finger tips and the pot she wanted.
"I'll grab it after I get everything else." She chuckled shaking her head as she moved into the pantry grabbing everything she needed and stacking it in the pan she needed for the batter before going back into the kitchen. She set the pan down and unpacked it before she started, her hand frozen in midair reaching for the flour bag at seeing the pot she had wanted sitting on the counter.
"David must have come back." She muttered to herself shaking her head as she moved the pot over to the stove and broke up a chocolate bar into it, when she got the feeling she was being watched and turned around from the stove, scanning the room quickly. She added a bit of milk and butter to it before turning it on low heat, thinking about how even if David came back there was no way he knew that she wanted that pot and she was freaking herself right the fuck out as she turned the oven on. She was mixing up the rest of the batter when the feeling she was being watched came back again.
"David?" She called out stepping out of the kitchen and into the living room, peeking out the door and seeing no other cars but hers in the drive.
"Ok this is getting weird." She muttered wrapping her arms around her stomach and going back to the kitchen, adding the melted chocolate mixture to the batter before putting it in the pan and setting it in the oven.
"I need to get the stuff out of my car." She said aloud, having a bad habit of not only talking to but also answering herself as she went out and started bringing the stuff in her car up the stairs on the porch.
She set her suitcase down by the steps, smiling at the little stuffed yorkie dog that was sitting three stairs up from the bottom on the side by the wall and took the grocery bags into the kitchen.
"That's going to be weird." She murmured to herself eyeing a large plate of sushi sitting on one of the shelves in the refrigerator remember the no touching it rule and hoping that one changed before the stuff went bad as she set the new carton of eggs in the fridge under the old one and put the package of bacon into one of the drawers. She put the rest of the stuff away quickly and put the dishes she used into the dishwasher as the timer on the oven beeped.
"And we have brownies." She said opening the oven and carefully taking the pan out, setting it on top of the oven to cool, almost dropping the pan when she felt something brush along her lower back, and she whipped around, pressing against the oven, but didn't see anything.
"Product of my over active imagination." She whispered to herself, putting her hand on her chest in an effort to keep her heart inside her body as she went into the living room and carried her suitcase up the steps and into the bedroom. She looked out at the sun setting across the ocean for a few minutes before opening her suitcase and pulling out her sleep shirt, striping out of her clothes and pulling the shirt over her head. The shirt was old, soft and hit her just under her ass and she loved the thing.
She headed back downstairs and turned the now cooled brownie pan upside down on some wax paper she laid out on the counter and cut them into pieces, before grabbing one and heading into the living room. She was beat from the drive and figured she would just watch a movie before she went to bed. She scanned the movies on the bookshelf before she laughed and took one out, carrying it over to the DVD player.
She popped it open and frowned when there was a DVD already in it. Addi pulled it out before putting hers in and making a face at the title, dropping it on top of the DVD player before laying down on the sectional, and laughing as one of her favorite movies 'Ernest Scared Stupid' started playing.
"I wonder how this one did." Hunter said switching on the cameras to the house as Randy stepped up beside him.
"What's that on the counter?" Randy asked squinting at the monitor that was showing the kitchen as the door swung open and then shut a few seconds later. He watched one of whatever it was lift off the counter and half of it disappeared quickly before it moved about a foot to the left and the rest disappeared.
"Something edible it looks like." Hunter laughed watching three more of the objects lift off the counter and then disappear before the refrigerator door opened and the plate of sushi floated out and set down on the counter.
"Well this one lasted longer then all the rest have." Randy stated scratching his chin, looking at the monitor that showed the living room, taking in the girls form sleeping on the couch. "She is almost polar oposite of all the rest. She looks like she's short too. What's that black spot on the inside of her ankle can you tell?"
"No I can't see it clearly hang on." Hunter said messing with the keyboard, and the frame of her ankle popped up on another screen and enlarged, showing a little black paw print tattoo. "Cute. The Architect will like that." He laughed closing out the image and scanning over the camera's looking for movement after seeing the plate of sushi was now empty.
"Here." Randy said pointing at the screen showing the bathroom and the switchblade floating though the air, disappearing off the edge of that monitor and showing up on the one in the living room.
"And it looks like this one strikes out too." Randy said shaking his head as he watched the knife flip open and move toward the couch, hovering over the girls form before arcing toward her body.
"Maybe not." Hunter murmured watching the shirt fall open over the girl's chest after having been sliced down the middle from neck to hem, the knife hovering above her body again. "We may have found a winner." He said watching as the girls body lifted into the air. Her leg with the tattoo on it lifted into the air and turned as if someone was looking at the marking before dropping back down and her body moved up the steps. The yorkie dog lifted into the air after she passed it and its sides depressed again as it moved up the steps also, the door at the end of the hall opening as the girl's body and the toy floated through and over to the bed.
The two men watched the comforter and sheet draw back and the knife flip open again slashing the shirt from neck to hem under her body and along the shoulders and arms. The pieces sliding to the floor. They watched her body lower to the bed and the sheet come up and tuck in just over her breasts, the yorkie dog finding its place next to her on the bed before the door to the room closed a few seconds later.
"Maybe we did. I wonder if they will come out in the day now." Randy chucked as the bedroom door opened again and the covers pulled back once more, the girl's panties sliding down her legs and off her body before disappearing and the covers were tucked back in around her body and the door shut once more. Both men laughed as six more of the objects on the counter disappeared quickly.