The Rescuer Ch. 01

Using a ladle and a saucer, the porter expertly placed a little of the still steaming ganache over the souffles, one ladle for each separate trip. The few drips fell directly onto the little saucer, leaving the handmade tablecloth intact and spotless.

"Just let them cool for a minute or so, before you try them. Believe me, they are better when the chocolate hardens just a bit. I know!"

Lowell actually bowed a little bit while taking the heavy platter that had been underneath the crock, and backed away to tidy up things behind them. Shelly found herself almost fascinated, watching the chocolate before her swirl. It bubbled, darkened, lightened and changed shape, as the still warm souffle began absorbing and cooling down the melted ganache. The table was thankfully silent, as maybe half of the champagne in the glasses, and most of the other kinds of desserts before her roommates began disappearing eagerly.

Keeley especially seemed to love her rich bitter sweet treat, and made herself take small artfully arranged nibbles, using her delicate spoon to create a pattern on her plate. But the mood at the table suddenly changed, as the spoon abruptly clattered off the saucer. The redhead turned directly around in her chair, to stare back up at the top of the gate, that she had just walked away from.

The dessert and her friends were clearly forgotten... as she slowly stood up and floated trance-like back to the gate... not even blinking as is she was truly afraid the animal would come to life and fly away.

"See! There she goes again! She's losing it! The silly bitch is really losing it this time! Some women never learn! At least until a real man comes along to teach them a REAL lesson! The kind that they will NEVER forget!"

Scathingly bitter, Seth's vindictive tone was utterly sincere in it's cruelty.

Shelly's skin crawled, and she shivered, once.

Uncontrollably, she shied away in her seat from Keeley's boyfriend, betraying her unbearable feelings by interconnected remembered pain, fear, lust and shame.

But the shocked gasp behind her, let Shelly know that the one single second she'd been totally caught off of her guard all night, had been enough to let the sharp porter understand far far too much.

When she turned her head slowly around, Lowell's dark eyes were staring at her in horror, going back and forth between Keeley's boyfriend and herself. It was too late for Shelly to successfully deny anything.

The devilish look that Lowell had had on his face earlier, and was thankfully so brief, returned with full malevolent force!

To say that it had been merely, demonic, before was too kind of a description now!

The long soft fingers carefully regripped the largest tray, and the heavy shoes that had been fairly noisy all night, made not a single whisper as the porter turned to face the back of Seth's chair directly. Maybe only a fraction of a second away from criminal disaster, Shelly barely managed to wade in verbally in time.

"If you had the courage to do something about Keeley, like that, you would have done it years and years ago! As it is? You're just deliberately making both of yourselves miserable! When was the last time you had a single kind word to say to her? Or thanked her, for working herself half to death, doing all those extra shifts at the strip club? Just so you can stay home, and not work, even part-time anymore? Did you even tell Keeley how pretty she looked before we left tonight? She is, pretty, all the time! Right now? She's even more beautiful than I've seen her in years, or would be, if she wasn't so frustrated and sad! Don't you know that anymore? How lucky you are to still have her? All you've done so far tonight is make your relationship worse! Getting caught, looking at those two French tarts from the dress shop? That just added more fuel to the fire that will eventually burn us all! But you can't even see that? Or care? I really don't see why she stays with you anymore!"

The smooth, almost sleazy smile the louse turned to give her, Shelly knew all too well.

"Then why did you choose to come live with us? Beg us to rescue you? Really? Or did you show up on our doorstep for something else! Or should I say MORE of something else? What was it? What was your real reason for choosing our apartment to hide out in all these months? Care to tell me? The truth? Finally?"

The air slowly grew poisonous, as clearly Seth had totally forgotten they weren't actually alone. He had jealously dismissed a genuinely better man, and who was also much more dangerous than he ever could be.

The silence grew ever more vindictive, as real secrets were about to come spilling out, and ruin everything they all had hoped would be achieved by agreeing to take a much needed mutual night off.

But a sudden full throated squeal of triumph shattered the tension, and must have been heard all the way out in both of the maze and fountain gardens, as well as the busy street six floors below them.

Keeley stopped looking up at the gate and kicked her heels off... and after bending down to pick them up she ran like an obsessed Fury back past them in a blur made of bare white skin, green silk and flaming red hair... and the frantic rush didn't stop until she reached the other end of the bridge.

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It was so damn hard to put the heavy tray back down on the black tablecloth!

Even when Keeley had rushed by, it would have been a matter of a split second to bring it down on the back of the idiot's neck. But before he could really begin to consider the dozens of ways to make it look like an accident, the redhead's bare feet brought her back to the table just in time to prevent him from committing murder.

Keeley's agile climb, all the way up the twelve foot high left hand side of the gate, had shocked them all. As did the athletic leap back down onto the flagstones, while still only half way down the makeshift iron rungs. Those few seconds, of a close up look at the animal up there, seemed to have confirmed something very important. The speed of her return run was hardly any less than her previous effort.

Breathlessly Keeley blurted out her discovery to them all.

"They're the Twilight Gates! From the old fairy tales! The really old ones! From the children's books!"

Shelly looked just as blankly back at Keeley as her boyfriend had. When the redhead turned to him, for some corroboration that she hadn't gone completely crazy, Lowell barely managed to make himself not have an expression at all.

"Don't you people read? Ever? If it's not in a movie, TV show, or a music video? It doesn't exist? At least for you two? That author, the one that got in so much trouble for her very first book? You don't remember that either? She got accused of plagiarism, historic malfeasance and literary laziness! And got sued! By everyone! Over in England? None of this is ringing a bell? Not even a little bit? To defend herself, she spent years doing additional in depth research, Exhausted herself physically, mentally, emotionally and financially. She tormented herself by personally answering thousands of angry fan letters! But her pain was all worth it! She won a huge writer's prize in Great Britain, for her non-fiction book that came out of all that controversy! Still nothing? Any of you? She found out that there weren't just a few dozen versions of the old stories, like she had thought, but thousands of variations! It took her three long years to prove that she was right! Her version is the oldest! Or very nearly so! Only one other is known to exist, and it's from the same time frame. But it's told from another directly contradicting perspective! The success of her non-fiction book was enough to have them dismiss all the lawsuits! Her next series of Fantasy novels made her entire career bullet proof! She's famous! Beautiful! And rich! None of you know who she is?"

The boyfriend just weathered the outburst uncommittedly, but at least Shelly was honestly trying to jog her memory. To keep things civil, he tried to interject in just the right and perfect way.

"It was originally a poem, right? Maybe, maybe if you could remember a line or two? That might help?"

The deep breath she drew in, finally got them all to look directly at her face. For Seth, it seemed to be a total shock, and an intense pleasure for Shelly. For himself, suddenly he knew exactly why the man that had designed this building, had fallen so hopelessly in love with the redhead.

Where the blonde was gorgeous every single day, and outshined the sun on excursions like this one, Keeley rarely was competition for her. Whether that was at home, or in the strip club that he had never stepped foot in, but now knew so much about thanks to his new contact there.

Happy and ecstatic at finally solving the mystery, that had made her so miserable trying to remember, Keeley now looked like an elemental flame herself. No longer the moon, whose presence was only known by the reflected light from other objects. The thin frame, small breasts, clear skin and clouds of red hair, all danced submissively before the brilliant clear green eyes and a smile that could take over the world.

The joy and beauty within her had always been there... but now it was fully on display for everyone else to see... where before only her special friend had seen the true potential in her.

Maybe for her entire life only HE had recognized the person Keeley would become, if she was ever untarnished by pain, tragic memories, and crippling self doubt.

The soft musical voice, that he'd only the merest hints had existed within her, suddenly rang out clear as Keeley began almost singing out the ancient words.

"Where neither moon

nor sun hold sway

One by one Nature's true rulers

will come out and play

When the colors fade and

all the world turns gray

Then even the worst tyrant's

will learn to obey

While the humble seek

the lost Forest Hall to pray

Too proud kings and queens

we will always unmask and slay

Walls of altar stone and chains of iron

forged with dark magic bar freedom's way

But time itself must soon submit

and finally release us to rejoin the fray"

The silence following her recital was deafening, only broken by the soft breeze, and a few noises from the street below. Keeley's roommates were clearly stunned, but for different reasons. For the very first time Shelly was clearly accepting her now as an equal, while Seth felt the sudden probably permanent loss of the little girl he had always been able to dominate so easily.

Keeley saw her boyfriend's dismissive expression, and almost fully unleashed the last of her control on her drunken anger. A few curls were viscously grabbed off of her shoulder, and the redhead shook them towards his stunned face.

"You think that I just made that up? That I don't come by this red hair naturally? My mom has red hair! Although my grandmother died when I was just three, she had red hair! So did my grandmother's younger cousin, who came to visit us the summer after my mom's mom passed away! Long before you ever moved in down the street! She stayed with me, in my room, for three months! My older brothers couldn't be bothered, but she was special to me! Every morning before the sun came up, and every evening when the moon was gone, she'd take out a little book, and read me a little passage out of it. My grandmother's cousin never married, never had kids, and wanted the book to go to my mom! It'll be mine someday! I j-just blotted it all out, or tried to, b-because of everything... that h-happened... after... after... "

Memories too horrible to live in her waking thoughts... suddenly hit the redhead hard... and the bright visage clouded up and vanished.

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End of Chapter 01

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If you have stuck with me this far, please take a moment to vote kindly, and maybe even send me a word of encouragement?

Please?

Thankfully, Literotica DOES have a place to submit longer works.

But for me, hearing from the readers is the only way I can tell if even one more chapter of this story should even be uploaded here. There is more sex, as well as other true adventures, as the story unfolds.

The current cast still must be completely be introduced before a climatic scene ushers the story fully into their private lives and bedrooms.

If you have enjoyed learning about Keeley and her journey, please consider sending me a feedback. Hearing how the story, so far, has affected you, personally, will go a long way in swaying my decision to post the next already written section.

Thanks as always!

TheRescuer