Carissa's time off came to an end. She was back in that building working, but at least the workload wasn't as bad as before. A new boss was hired to run her office department. It was a woman, slightly older than most of the people in the building. She was authoritative but kind, giving people proper amounts of work and organized with the timing she wanted the documents in. With the way things were now, the atmosphere was slightly better than it was before. People were happier with the way things were being run. Except things were not going as smoothly for Carissa as everyone else in her department.
Daphne, Roxie and Emily were very cold toward her since work started back up. They've been shooting daggers at her every time they were around. Whatever documents she needed from them, they would not file and Carissa would have to fetch it herself. They were probably still upset about what happened at the mall. Carissa wouldn't be surprised if they entirely blamed the situation on her, trying to twist what went down in their brains to make it sound logical that Carissa deliberately embarrassed them in front of Hawks.
Nicola didn't change for the most part. She seemed more annoyed than usual, though. There had been a small rumor going around before Mr. Baxter died that their former boss had been giving Nicola less paperwork to do, but was paying her the same amount as everyone else. Some suspected they were sleeping together due to how they interacted like flirting and inappropriate 'body smacks'. Carissa never witnessed it, and Mr. Baxter was always messing with Carissa so she had no reason to think anything was going on between them. With Mr. Baxter gone, Nicola was obviously getting the right amount of work now and must've been mad about it.
It wasn't just her coworkers who were a problem.
Ever since what happened to Carissa at the library, 'little things' started happening. She felt eyes on her constantly. Driving to work, being at her home, having to do things off work like grocery shopping. Every day she could sense he was around. When she was at work, these 'little things' were occurring.
A flash of red through a stack of papers Carissa was carrying and the papers would fall to the floor.
Tickling sensations in her sensitive areas when she was trying to write something, like behind her shoulder or in the crook of her neck and she would mess up on the paper.
Discussing with another coworker documents regarding anything and suddenly messing up with her wording due to sudden pokes in unpleasant areas.
People started snickering at her. Pointing at her whenever she was around and making rude remarks or asking why she was acting so weird. Some people were even starting to believe some of the rumors her female coworkers were spreading about her, having found new ammo to go with.
Carissa started hiding whenever she went on break, locking herself in a distant janitor's closet. Sometimes when doing this, the doorknobs would turn slightly and the lock would be tampered with, as if something was trying to get in. She knew it was those damn feathers and grabbed the handle, holding the lock in place to prevent it from turning. This caused her to frequently be late back to her desk, and Nicola took this opportunity to torment her about being late.
She tried to ignore it. To not look bad in front of the new boss. If things went bad, she'd be fired.
Today the new boss wanted a meeting. She was planning to make some adjustments to how things were going to be run in the office to make things easier for everyone. Carissa was the third person in the room, sitting down in one of the middle seats. Once everyone was seated, the boss started discussing on the screen how things were going to be changed. It was a boring time, the bleak weather outside not making things any better. Regardless, everyone listened and wrote down notes to remind themselves for what to do later. Carissa was one of those people, writing in different colored pens depending on what things were the most important or what had to go with that information.
Something stood out from the entire background. It tingled in Carissa's peripheral vision, making her glance in that direction. Her body froze at the sight of a red feather floating there. It was outside the window, poking around as if it were trying to find a way inside. Suddenly it was out of view after disappearing behind the wall. Carissa went back to listening to the boss, trying to keep her mind focused. But knowing the feather was here, he was bound to do something.
It wasn't long before the feather became visible again. Carissa could see it moving around. No one else seemed to notice it. It was sliding across the floor, hiding behind stuff in the room to avoid view. She looked away again and put more focus into what her boss was saying. She didn't have time for this. She needed to understand the new rules of what her job was doing.
Carissa's jaw slowly dropped, breathing in a shrill air. Something slid under her legs, slowly reaching her mound. It was the feather, pulling itself under her legs and wrapping itself around her mound, cupping her. Carissa quickly shut her mouth and stared at the screen as her boss continued, but couldn't stop her face from heating. She reached under and tried to remove the feather, finding its shaft. But the feather wouldn't move no matter how hard she tugged at it.
Her boss glanced at her, raising an eyebrow. "Ms. Lockhart, is something wrong?" She asked.
Carissa quickly removed her hand. "N-No, ma'am. Nothing's wrong." She picked up her pen and continued writing.
During the next few minutes, Carissa's face got more red. The feather stayed cupping her for only a moment. It started to rub against her. She was wearing a dress, so the only shield keeping the feather from her was her was the thin fabric of her underwear. Still, that electrical pulse returned. Carissa could feel it enough. She was trying her best to remain silent as the feather continued to rub her. She bit her lip and closed her eyes, keeping her noises in. The feather started moving in more than one motion, giving off different pulses. Carissa tried to press her legs tightly together, but that only caused the feather to shift and rub its side against the outline of her mound, making the feeling worse.
It wouldn't stop. It kept going on and on. The more time passed, the more the feeling built up. Carissa's face felt like it was about to melt off. She couldn't do anything without making a scene. And finally, after several minutes, Carissa felt this blissful release between her legs. It took everything in her not to moan. She gritted her teeth as it became wet between her legs, soaking both her underwear and the feather, which finally removed itself from her and vanished completely. Tears built up in her eyes, the woman still biting her lip.
Thankfully that meeting was close to the end of her shift.
Carissa cried the whole way home.
It was safe to say at this point Hawks wasn't here to search for villains. At least not anymore.
But he was a hero! Why was he doing this?!
That wasn't the only problem. Local media has been spreading, people getting the idea that both Hawks and Carissa were dating. Them in the woods, Hawks kissing her at the mall. People were getting the wrong impression and Hawks was making it worse.
Carissa nearly ran over the curb pulling into her street. She noticed a familiar person sitting in a lawn chair in front of the garage of their home, the house diagonally across the street. Carissa recognized Mrs. Whitacre reading a book, her cat curled up in a ball next to her. It wasn't raining out, so the lady was probably taking advantage of that. Mrs. Whitacre spotted the car as Carissa pulled in, opening her garage door. She got up from her lawn chair and came forward. The cat's ears perked up and heard his owner going before following in pursuit.
"Carissa?"
As soon as Carissa opened the door, she heard Mrs. Whitacre call her. The elderly lady saw her tear-stained face when she turned her attention to her.
"Oh deary, are you alright?" Mrs. Whitacre asked. "Did something happen?"
"I'm alright. It was nothing, Mrs. Whitacre." Carissa reluctantly lied, grabbing her purse.
The lady didn't look convinced. "Do you want to come inside? I have tea and pastries." She offered.
"I-I'm fine, really. Thank you for offering." Carissa forced herself to lie again, her voice straining.
Mrs. Whitacre hummed lightly in suspicion. "Sweetheart, I've been meaning to ask you about something." She said. "Can I ask you right now?"
"Sure."
There was a pause before Mrs. Whitacre continued. "A couple of weeks ago, I saw something on top of your house. I didn't have my glasses on when I looked out the window. It was gone by the time I put them on. I assumed it was an animal." She said. "Now, I'm not entirely certain of this, but I think you might have some pest problem. I'm referring to larger animals, not bugs."
A fearful rock formed in the pit of Carissa's stomach. "What do you mean?"
"My precious Prince has been waking me up in the middle of the night scratching the windows while looking at your house. By the time I get to it, whatever it is always disappears. I've started shutting the windows completely so he can't do it anymore. But darling, I think you should take care of whatever issue it is." Mrs. Whitacre said.
Carissa took a moment to answer, slowly nodding. "Okay. I'll try to find out what it is. Thank you for letting me know." She said, forcing a smile. It didn't match her tearful expression.
She already knew what the problem was.
The two bid each other good day and went into their homes. The first thing Carissa did was make sure all her doors and windows were locked and covered. Then she hurriedly got undressed and jumped into the shower. It was very uncomfortable for her to do this, because she was never a hundred percent sure if Hawks wasn't around. But she wanted to hurry up and wash herself off before anything could happen. She prepped her puff as soon as the water came down on her body and cleaned the mess she made between her legs as best as possible, making sure all of it went down the drain. This was the first time she ever did…that. Not on her own accord, either. She felt so violated.
As the evening came, there was no sign of anyone. Carissa went about her usual business. Making sure the house was clean and neat, paying bills, making dinner for herself, and soon heading to bed. She wrapped herself up under the sheets and comforter, making sure they were wrapped around her body, leaving only her head exposed. She laid on her side, unintentionally facing the window. Not caring, the tired woman eventually fell asleep.
…
A couple hours must have went by because it was completely dark out when she woke up, half asleep. The mattress behind her sunk in, causing her to slightly move backward. It only lasted for a moment, a familiar warmth pressing into her back. Soft grunts followed by an inward sigh were heard from behind, soon getting comfortable. Something pressed into the back of her head, nuzzling into her hair. Carissa shivered, watching a gold-clothed arm slide over her body, the black-gloved hand resting close to her chest.
She didn't dare move a muscle. Her eyes closed, pretending everything was fine.
