“What the fuck are you doing?” I take a few steps and stop. Because she doesn’t even look at me. Just… waits there. “Cadee? Why are you naked and painted up like a fucking freak?”
It’s wrong. The whole thing is wrong.
The white paint, the flashing red symbols that I don’t understand, the music, the lights, the flames, the party—it’s chaos. And it’s all wrong.
“Answer me, dammit. What the fuck is—” I stop talking because she has turned towards me and I quite literally lose my words. Finally, I manage to whisper, “What the hell…”
Her face is painted up too. That’s why I was having a hard time recognizing her at the elevator. Her eyes are gone. Closed, I realize. And painted over them are two upside-down crosses in red. But that’s not even the most disturbing part.
Her mouth is an eye. A large, all-seeing eye has been painted around her lips.
I walk forward and take her by the arm. “Who did this to you?”
She opens her eyes and the upside-down crosses disappear. “Leela.”
“Why?”
“I’m doing it for you. Don’t you get it? I have to give you opportunities to succeed, just like you do me.”
I’m shaking my head. “I don’t understand.”
She slides my jacket down my arms. I just stand there. It’s fucking hot out here on the bridge. I don’t even know how it’s possible since it’s nearly the second week of December, but sweat is pouring down my back. I don’t stop her when she continues, lifting my shirt up, and then I actually help her by pulling it over my head.
Her fingers tease their way up and down my chest. She closes her eyes and all I see when she sinks to her knees are those upside-down crosses flashing red at me in the strobe lights.
At the same time, her fingers are unbuckling my belt. Popping the button on my jeans. Dragging my zipper down and then she spreads her legs open and takes my fat cock out, cradling it in the palm of her hand.
Then she abruptly stands up and kisses me. Her tongue passing me a pill as her hand begins to massage my dick.
I am conflicted.
For maybe three seconds I consider spitting it out.
But she spoke my own words back at me. Jack’s words. Leela’s words.
This is a test. I failed the last one at Thanksgiving. Spectacularly. So I could use the easy A.
I swallow the pill.
Then she’s holding a chalice up to my lips. Wine. I take a drink, then try to pull away, but she keeps the cup there. Encouraging me to take it all. So I do.
She sinks back down to her knees. The metal chalice clanks on the glass floor of the bridge and rolls towards the edge. Falls. Disappears. Then crashes down below as people squeal and scream.
I look down at Cadee, unable to reconcile this—creature painted up in glow-in-the-dark white. She opens her legs as she squeezes my cock and then suddenly the beat is louder. The thumping so powerful, it might shatter the glass we’re standing on. And the light becomes a rainbow of colors that flash in patterns and reveal writing on her body. More symbols. And words too. But I can’t read them. They’re not visible long enough for me to read them.
“Cooper.”
My name echoes. It’s like the call of a siren. Otherworldly and ominous. Beckoning.
“Cooper. Watch me.”
I look down just as Cadee closes her eyes to reveal those upside-down crosses. And that’s when I notice that her mouth is the eye. And the eye is painted up in bright colors now. Yellow, and orange, and green.
And then my dick slips into the pupil as it closes around the tip of my head.
For a moment I’m lost in the grotesque symbolism. But then she’s just sucking me off and I lose track of everything else but how I’m letting her rise and succeed.
I don’t remember much after that. Just a few things. Squirting my come into her multicolored neon eye. People shouting and clapping, and then looking down to the third-floor terrace to find the whole party is watching us.
Then bending Cadee over the top railing and fucking her from behind as people cheer.
I wake up the next day in my bed alone.
My phone is buzzing somewhere out of reach.
It stops.
I go back to sleep.
It buzzes again.
Then I sit up and say, “Cadee?”
When I look down at myself, I expect to see evidence. But I’m wearing a t-shirt and a pair of sweat shorts.
I ignore the phone, walk right past it and throw open my doors. The cold December morning air hits me in the face and I take a moment to relish it, then look around.
Looks pretty normal.
Without putting on shoes or a coat, I go to the bridge. All the fire cylinders are gone. And when I look down, I expect to see trash. This place was trashed last night.
Nothing. Clean, like normal.
I cross the bridge at a jog, then pull Cadee’s door open and slip inside. “Cadee?”
But she’s not here, either.
I check the bathroom, even though I know she’s not in there. Just to be sure.
Then I go back to my room, pick up my phone, and realize it’s past noon and I’ve got nine messages.
Two from Jack. Both threats.
Four from Victor. He’s got the Glass House set up, just waiting on me.
Two from Cadee. One telling me she’s in the art building getting her first semester portfolio together. Then another saying she’s getting a mani-pedi with Leela at the spa in Monrovia and she’ll be back by four.
The last one is from my father. “Come see me. Now.”
I pull on some clothes and head downstairs.
No one is around. Not a single fucking person.
It’s creepy, but I don’t have time to worry about it. I take a shortcut through the woods to reach the gate that opens up near the admin building, then slip inside to find the place empty.
Shit, it’s Saturday. He must be at home. But I go upstairs to his office anyway, because I’m already here, so I might as well check.
No one, of course.
New Laurie’s desk is clean and her computer is off, just as it should be.
But the door to my father’s office is open. And that’s not how it should be.
I stand there in the doorway for a few moments. I want to go snooping through his shit so bad. But I know better. This place is wired from top to bottom.
This is just another test.
Did I pass last night?
Was fucking my girlfriend painted up with creepy symbols a test?
She said it was, so I have to believe her.
I leave the admin building, go to my car in the parking lot, and then drive around the lake to the mansion.
Jack is sitting in the great room when I enter. He’s pointing a remote at the massive TV over the fireplace. “Finally. Have a seat, Cooper. We have a lot to go over.” Then he clicks the remote. I’m still processing when the screen flicks to life and the party from last night comes into view.
Specifically, Cadee and me on the bridge.
The vid was shot from the third floor. But whoever was doing the filming was using a long lens, because every fucking detail is visible.
“What the fuck is this?”
Jack looks bored when his eyes meet mine. “Your final exam.”
“What?”
“Sit down, Cooper. You did OK. I guess. Let’s go through it together, shall we?”