Danny and Ray arrived just as the minister had reached the pulpit. They hurried up to the front rows and the other Hills made room and they sat down while the clergyman waited for the crowd to settle down. Once everything was quiet, the minister cleared his throat.
Rah-Rah sat in Marcus’s visitor’s chair, waiting for the man to come back to his room. As luck would have it, when he returned to the asylum last night Marcus was already asleep, and by the time Rah-Rah woke up this morning he discovered that the former NBA star was already on a round of sessions which would take hours to complete.
Lamar stood at the balcony of the suite he shared with Malik, sipping on a fruit smoothie as he stared out at the beautiful Seattle mountain vista. Living in a ski lodge-turned-mansion halfway up a mountain top in view of the Rockies Mountains surely brought in some spectacular viewpoints, but Lamar secretly felt that the view from his and Malik’s bed was the best view in the whole manor. I wonder how much longer I’ve got to be able to ...
It was Thursday, the next morning. Marquis, fresh from his early masseuse session and morning shower, sat in his bedroom dressed in his bathrobe, thinking as he ruffled up Leo’s mane as the lion purred quietly. He knew that he was in for a serious tongue-lashing from both his lover and his girlfriend, so for now he decided to keep his distance and wait until they calmed down before he apologized…
As he strode up to the caves, Marquis tried without success to find three seats on a non-stop flight from LA to Seattle right away for his friends, but the earliest he could book was two days from now. Disgruntled, Marquis hung up the cell phone- and realized that he had made it all the way to his destination.
Marquis had been with his girlfriend, Carmen, Kap’s girlfriend Angelina, and Jake ReVanche, all headed for the cafe for dinner when he got the call. He answered, then stiffened, halting in mid-stride. It was about three seconds before the others noticed that Marquis wasn’t with them; they turned around just as Marquis was hanging up the cell phone, staring out at the quad with a blank look.
The limousine pulled onto the final curve that led up to the gates of HT, which lay about half-way up the slopes of Mt. Rainier. “Your famille lives in a very high altitude,” Jake remarked in approval as the sleek car maneuvered its way up the mountain.
The day was nearing its end, the late afternoon sun lighting up the blood-red maple trees that were scattered across the acres that made up Crimson Crest.
Lt. Det. Danny Clark and his lover, Ray Smith, had slept past their usual wake up time, preferring to luxuriate in bed instead. Both had called out sick today, and decided to use the mental health day by seeing just how long they could stay under the covers, barring food and bathroom errands.
Pulling white bed sheets off his face, Robert Hill, a.k.a. Rah-Rah, peeked with one eye down towards the floor where his alarm clock radio lay broken to bits. It had startled him out of sleep, and in reflex his arm lashed out and swept the small electronic device off the bedstand.