The days were getting shorter. It would soon be Winter. I was bored out of my tree. I realized that when I was delivering pizza or going to school time seemed to go by so much faster. Now, I have too much free time on my hands. And I cannot get another job because I am really on call. Never knowing when Ivan might need me. The worst part is that I have too much time to think. I start thinking about filming wild beaver in the wild and how exciting that is going to be. I have waited so long. And Spring is just around the corner. Spring is just around the corner… no more taking photos of the DICE… no more Aurora. My thoughts always come back to her! It is extremely irritating. Not much irritates me. AND that is irritating. I wonder what she is doing right now? Of course, my contract does stipulate that I cannot have any contact with any of them outside the photo sessions. So, I am just left wondering. I mean we work together so it is just normal that I think of them… right? But… I don’t really think about Piper and Josie.
I have to get out of my apartment. Clear my head. I grab my camera and without any real direction I find myself at the nearest mall. The weather is definitely cooler now so maybe I can take some photos of shoppers. Halloween has only recently ended, but just like clockwork, the stores are already pushing their Christmas sales. Christmas music plays through the speakers. Christmas lights and decorations adorn the shops. Signs entice shoppers with Christmas sales. And people buy it all up. Like some sort of Christmas magic. I never really noticed that before. But it is all just a … fantasy.
It is slightly more difficult photographing people while they are shopping as opposed to at a park. People seem more suspicious. So, the vibe was all wrong. I did get some photos, but it just wasn’t working. I sat down across from a lingerie shop… with my camera in hand. On the bench I noticed a scarf. I don’t have a scarf. I picked it up. It was soft and warm like someone had just been wearing it. Without really thinking I smelled it. Familiar? People kind of looked at me odd. Weird, how just because I was holding a camera across from a lingerie shop while smelling a scarf would get so much attention? Would they have noticed me like at the food court? I felt like saying I film women without their clothes on for a living. And what a bunch of hypocrites! Maybe, if I like had Aurora’s white lace panties with the faint yellow stain in my hand and up to my face AND my camera standing at the entrance to the lingerie shop that might have been different! Honestly, I don’t even know why I was across from the lingerie shop. A security guard came over and asked me what I was doing? I told him I was a photographer. He politely asked me to leave. I no longer belonged in the real world. Wow. So, with scarf in hand, I left.
Ivan shortly thereafter contacted me and said the Viking pics were once again great. Unfortunately, the next shoot was also going to be outside. It was the last outside shoot. The investors at StarDreamers wanted some photos of the DICE in front of a church. Not naked… of course, being cold and outside. But again, there would be heaters and some smokers. Some lighting as well. The DICE would be wearing very sensual dresses with lace hats and gloves and even lace on there high heeled shoes. He said that we, being myself and the ladies, were to meet on location. He gave me all the details I would need and being just the photographer there wasn’t many. Hard to believe it would soon be over.
A church? With the DICE? Odd, I get thrown out, well, asked to leave the mall all decorated with Christmas spirit, and now I am going to be taking photos of three very beautiful women in front of church! I cannot … begin to understand. Life at Easter Bay was so much simpler.
The day of the shoot arrived and I drove my melted soft serve vanilla ice cream smelling Chevy Nova to the church location. It was early evening. The church had an ominous appearance. In the lighting, which was already set up, it gave an impression of black and white doom. Steps led up to three individual doors. I remember something … latin… nomine patris, et filly, et spirit sankti… or something like that. Anyway, it resonated holiness. And it was cool outside even with the heaters. Fake smoke swirled around the steps. Clouds were moving in. There was snow in the forecast.
I went and greeted the ladies who were… looking incredibly beautiful. Piper was wearing a blue tight-fitting dress. Josie’s was yellow and you could just make out her tattoo snake slithering up her leg. And Aurora… she was wearing red… wow, she looked really nice. They all had black high heels … pumps… is that what they are called? I don’t know. Black lace gloves and hats with like netting that came down just past their noses. Aurora’s blonde hair was in a pony tail. And she was wearing a light red lipstick… on her … lips.
We decided to get to work. And they posed on the church steps and in front of the church doors. I took my photos. What a contrast. These beautiful women glowed with bright colour and sensuality posing in front of the hallowed ground of a bleak church. And it so worked! They were like witches or demonesses or cast aside angels! They didn’t belong and to me they seemed perfect. Almost more real. More alive. And the church became like the dead or a fantasy. The smoke swirled around the women enhancing their nymphlike appearance. And I kept snapping my camera. It wasn’t a long photo shoot. I got a lot of great photos though. We ended just as snow began to fall. The crew packed up.
Piper and Josie said they had a ride. Aurora asked if I would take her back to the Mansion. Sure. After all, it was in my contract to… do what? But I did agree to take her. I loaded up my equipment and we hopped in my car. I don’t remember ever being alone driving with Aurora. The snow was definitely coming down heavier now. I could see goose bumps on her arms so I fired up the heater and we were soon on our way in my melted soft serve vanilla ice cream smelling Chevy Nova. I wonder if she could smell it. Then I remembered the wrestling shoot with the vanilla smelling lubricant! Funny. We drove through the snow not really saying much. Even now, I am at a loss for words when it comes to Aurora. I can talk to Piper and Josie without any trouble. But with Aurora, it’s like I am worried I am going to say the wrong thing. Or maybe the right thing. She is so strange.
We made it back to the Mansion through what now looked like a heavy snowstorm. I parked in the garage and we got out. Aurora said she wanted to show me something. Okay. Did I say she was strange? She took my hand and led me inside. Her hand was so small yet mystifying. I followed her and looked at the back of her red satiny dress as it moved over her … figure. Funny how clothes can be at times more… seductive than without clothes. She led me through the Mansion and as I followed her up the stairs she looked back and smiled at me. It was a warm smile like the one she had when she was sleeping that one morning. I remembered wondering what she was dreaming about and now I am wondering… what she is smiling about now?
I wake up. I wake up in the master bed. For some reason I expected Aurora would be there. But she wasn’t. The Mansion was quiet. I could here the blizzard outside. It was late in the evening. Really late. I suppose she must have had some urgency to leave and didn’t want to wake me up. That was thoughtful. I got up and went downstairs. The Mansion reminded me of the church. Quiet and lifeless. I had never been here alone before. I decided that rather than test my car in the blizzard I would wait until morning or at least until the roads were cleared. I started up the gas fireplace and it cast eerie shadows on the walls. I found the bar and poured myself a bourbon on ice then went and sat in front of the bay window. I watched as the blizzard raged outside. I thought of a book I once read by, I think, James Joyce about the dead and snow falling on graves. It wasn’t a very interesting book. I much prefer Great Expectations. But as the snow fell and the fireplace shadows danced around the room and being alone, I couldn’t get that image of snow falling on graves from my thoughts. It was an unsettling feeling of foreboding. Unnerving. It would have been nice if Aurora was here. I might even have come up with something to say. I finished my bourbon.
I turned off the fireplace and went back upstairs. I crawled underneath the covers of the master bed. Somehow, I could smell Aurora. I liked her smell. I didn’t have her white lace panties with the faint yellow stain, but I could still smell her. I closed my eyes and let her smell fill my thoughts. I curled up in a fetal position and imagined holding her. My hand under her pajama top. She wasn’t wearing pajamas though she was wearing that satiny red dress. I could still feel her flesh and her heart beating and her breathing and the warm sweet smell of her breath… and her kiss… the softness of her lips. She kissed me. She kissed me twice. No, three times. Once on the cheek though and the first time out at the cabin when she was high on drugs. But that other time… here in the Mansion, she said she was sorry and that kiss… felt… real.
I wonder what she wanted to show me? That’s what she said. When we got out of my car. She wanted to show me something. And she led me through the Mansion as I looked at her red satiny dress moving over her… body. She smiled at me going up the stairs. She really has a nice smile. I fell asleep wondering… what did she want to show me?
I was in the black fog. It swirled around me. I could see it, but couldn’t see through it. I wasn’t a wolf this time. I was just me. I looked around. All I could see was the black fog. Out of nowhere, I thought I heard my name being called. I ran in the direction from where it came from. I yelled out, Hello! Nothing. I kept running. Frightened this time. My name was called again in the distance, but from farther away. I ran! I ran as fast I could, trying desperately to catch up. Hello!!! My heart was beating, aching… my legs were burning and all around me was the black fog. HELLO!!! Nothing. The voice was gone. I was left … standing alone… in the black fog.