Smooth Criminal(s) | [Tag: Drake]

[CeCe Pierce]

Ten people were standing in a line - CeCe was one of them.
The first one in line was Carmen, then CeCe, followed by Dean, Geoff
, Hannah, the professor, Belle, the ginger girl and the last one in line was Silvio.
The older, Asian woman walked passed everyone and pulled the trigger of her gun, making everyone shrink together.
Carmen was safe.
CeCe was safe.
She was sweating so much and started crying when she wasn't shot.
Dean, Geoff, Hannah, the professor, Belle -
they were all safe.
Then the woman was in front of the ginger girl and it happened:
BANG

---

CeCe jumped up in her bed and grabbed the silk sheets out of reflex. I'm..., she thought. "I'm..alive", she whispered happily and tears of relief started running down her face. Of course, it was not her desire to end up being locked in a room again, but she was safe - she was alive. 
Not only that, but apparently the woman wasn't angry with her at all. The room was beautiful compared to that "shit hole" she was locked up in before. Thank god.., CeCe thought and smiled happily. Two beds with nice and apparently comfortable sheets, lamps, an actual wardrobe, so she could finally get out of that disgusting cocktail dress, other than that there even was a carpet this time, a big bookshelf, a wooden desk with a chair and not "naked" walls, they actually had "kind - of - pretty" wallpaper.
She couldn't see if the bathroom was any better, but she wanted to find out and maybe finally take a proper shower.
Yes, she still had to find a way out - safely - and get back home to her father. But right now, she was just happy to be alive and in a nice room.
So she stood up and walked to the bathroom, but then she saw it and stopped: Proper food. There were pancakes with syrup, a bowl of good looking, cut fruit - bananas, apples, pears, kiwis , peach and various berrie - , a cup of coffee and a carton of orange juice.
CeCe's stomach growled so loudly and she was about to immediately grab her plate. But there was a second one - CeCe quickly turned to the other bed and now that she took a proper look, she saw another person wrapped in the sheets. "Belle?", she asked nervously, "Are you there? Are you awake? Belle!"

[Drake Force]

A voice...

The raven-haired slowly blinked and woke up, with a headach again. "Nhhh...." Soon he noticed, that he was lying in a bed and he quickly sat up. Not a good idea. He moved a hand to his forehead and squinted his eyes in pain, holding it for a bit and massaging his temples. Then, he looked up and saw another bed next to him, with a stroked back blanket like someone had been in there, but got up.

His eyes kept wandering until he locked eyes with a girl. A girl with black hair and green eyes. A very familiar girl with black hair and green eyes. "Cece??", he asked confused and looked around more. "Where are we... is this another room? Are we still in that ruin of a mansion?" His eyes stopped at the food eventually and started to glow at the sight. That looked fucking delicious. "Is that... real?", he asked her, still staring at the pancakes. Slowly, he got up from the bed and walked over to her.

[CeCe Pierce]

Finally the person in the other bed sat up. But to CeCe's surprise it wasn't Belle, who was her roommate this time: It was Drake. A smile spread across CeCe's tired face and her lips slightly quivered.
"Cece??", he asked and looked around. "Where are we... is this another room? Are we still in that ruin of a mansion?"
"Drake", CeCe quickly walked over to him and sat down on his bed. "I am...", CeCe took a deep breath and tried hard not to cry. Not only was she safe, she was in a much better room, with food and Drake was her roommate. It gave her hope, that the two could find a way out together. "You won't believe..how-.. glad I am to see you", CeCe said happily, but her smile faded away. She hoped he would have been able to escape, that by now he would take care of her father like he promised. "I am sorry, that you are still here. I thought you were able to escape."

Suddenly his attention seemed to drift to the food, something CeCe could definitely understand. "It is real. In the g-", CeCe stopped. They probably really should eat something. CeCe's stomach still growled and surely so was Drake's. "Let's eat and I explain to you what...happened."

CeCe took her plate and sat down at the wooden desk. "So... Between you passing out and waking up here... The woman - .. It is an older, Asian woman who captured us or at least she must be the boss and had help - .. Sorry I am still confused and.. just exhausted.. So, this woman played a game with us. With me, Carmen - the detective - , um... a guy called Silvio.. My roommate Belle. A ginger girl.. Someone called Dean, "Geoff and Hannah" - a married couple - and some Greg guy. Oh... And a professor called "Hux" I think. So.. we all got a card and had to pair up.", CeCe stopped and wiped a tear away. He probably won't believe me.. Why should he? This is like a black stories card. "We.. Had to pair and the person who paired with the black heart.. Had to die - unless it was the red heart. It was the professor. The black heart. And the poor ginger died. Carmen had the red heart and our  detective guessed it wrong or maybe.. she wanted the girl to die.."

CeCe staired at her food and pushed the rest away from her. At least she was able to eat something, however, now her appetite was gone. "It was horrible.", CeCe said dryly, "All I wanted was to... I don't know. I just hoped you escaped because you weren't there with us. When the woman found out about the "wrong" pairing. I thought she would kill us all. But no, only the ginger girl died."

She drank a glass of orange juice and brought her plate back to the door. Until they wouldn't find a way out, she definitely didn't want to make that fury angry by doing something wrong.

[Drake Force]

"Drake - I am... You won't believe..how-.. glad I am to see you"

He could see maybe the glimpse of tears in her eyes, which surprised him. Not really sure what to do, he gave her a comforting look.

"I am sorry, that you are still here. I thought you were able to escape."

He looked down and nodded a little. "Yeah, actually I've been hoping the same for you. Thought you maybe had a hairpin to pick the lock or something..." At this, he glanced up again looking over her hair. "Hey, it's okay.. what happened..?"

"Let's eat and I explain to you what...happened."

Giving her a nod, he made his way over to the delicious food and ate it all up quickly. It was so good...! He looked around again while stuffing his face with the delicious pancakes and looked around the room once more, this time with more awake eyes. It actually looked like a kind of nice hotel room. Except that they couldn't just leave...

When they finished the plates, Drake shifted a bit an the floor to sit better and looked at her. Listening closely. At the mention of games, he didn't seem as surprised as Cece might have expected him to be. A few times, he nodded to her, but didn't say anything until she finished. Seeing how troubled she was, he carefully put a hand on top of hers to comfort her a bit. "That sounds ... troublesome. You know, actually - I was talking with this girl, Claudette, and she was in a game too. It was, mhhhh....", he needed a second to recall it, "Her and a few other people had been tied to chairs and it was like a russian roulette thing? So, one of the people there was about to get shot. The woman didn't die though, it was just a confetti gun. I thought it was just some weird psycho shit to scare us but... now someone actually died in one of these games..." His expression turned very serious, maybe even worried.

[CeCe Pierce]

CeCe looked up as Drake touched her hand by placing his on top of hers. It felt good to have some sort of comfort, she wasn't someone who looked for that kind of contact normally, but it was nice. She closed her eyes for a second and breathed calmly, before being able to focus again.
Drake told her about another girl, Claudette, who was in a different game. It was a similar situation, but apparently with less chance of surviving, since it was completely up to luck. 
"Wait... My partner Dean told us, that a guy called Geoff shot them? Dean didn't seem like he was fair towards Geoff, but maybe he was right? Geoff could work for the Asian woman as well?"

CeCe stood up and walked around, while thinking about the two games that were "played". "As far as I know... Hannah and Geoff have been through a lot together, apparently. I don't remember if she was in the game with Claudette as well, but...maybe? Probably.", CeCe's voice got more and more serious, "In our game it was all about hearts and circles and if we were to guess it right.. I thought circles could mean rings..Like wedding rings. Men and women would've perfectly paired up. Like this woman wants to force all of us to marry. And if we do something wrong, she .. why would she kill us ?"

CeCe was more than happy to finally talk to someone like Drake, someone she knew was capable of handling situations like this. 

[Drake Force]

Drake raised his eyebrows at the new infos. "Geoff... Claudette said, the guy who shot was tall and skinny, black hair and glasses. Hmmm... maybe he does?", he thought out loud.

"Hannah...", he repeated quietly. "I don't think I've heard that name before... Maybe they knew each other before they came here, like we did. Or, maybe even more, I don't know."

Her theory made him look at her perplex. "Wedding rings? Marry?", he mumbled. "Why do you think that? It could also be just a simple geometric form.. like, circle. triangle. recktangle. heart. Those four are pretty common", he considered. "Did anything that she said hint towards that? So, was she like, killing that ginger girl because she wasn't following her orders? Did you catch anything else?" His mind was racing, trying to make sense of everything.

[CeCe Pierce]

CeCe didn't know whether Drake was trying to make a joke or was serious. Looking at Drake, CeCe narrowed her eyes and raised an eyebrow as she sarcastically answered, "I know that a circle is a geometric shape, Nany Drew. But to me it felt like it could be a symbolic meaning."

"So, was she like, killing that ginger girl because she wasn't following her orders?"
"I...", CeCe tried to remember what happened without letting her emotions getting the best of her, "I think so.. No, definitely. Yes: The woman killed her because Huxley chose the wrong woman. Carmen chose this guy called Greg. She punished.. She punished the ginger girl, because... The other two didn't match up." CeCe looked at Drake in shock. The woman killed the girl, even though it was Carmen's and Greg's fault. CeCe tried to remember how the girl looked and thought about her until Drake called her back to reality.

"Did you catch anything else?"
CeCe tried to focus and thought about what she forgot to tell Drake. "Well... No.. She was just furious. But, a rather unimportant thing. I found a lighter - look!", CeCe put her one arm over her breasts and with her free hand, she carefully pulled the lighter out of her bra. Looking at the lighter, CeCe suddenly got an idea. She was able to look everywhere, but it was too dark under the bed. Carefully she kneeled and used it too look under the bed for some hint or clue. Maybe someone was locked in there before and what better place to hide something than under the bed?

"Maybe I can find..."

[PERCEPTION CHECK: CeCe used her lighter to look for a clue or hint under the bed.]

[Drake Force]

"I know that a circle is a geometric shape, Nancy Drew. But to me it felt like it could be a symbolic meaning."
He raised his hands, palms up, in a defensive manner at her offended tone. "I never doubted that. I was just wondering what gave you the impression, that's all.", he explained, hopefully calming her down again. The least he wanted was to make her angry at him.

"The woman killed her because Huxley chose the wrong woman. Carmen chose this guy called Greg. She punished.. She punished the ginger girl, because... The other two didn't match up."
The man's expression transformed into shock. He was confused and shocked, but he forced himself to speak out his thoughts loudly so she could hear them too. Nothing he would do usually. "Oh..wow..... Well, I guess that's the prove that we're dealing with a truely mad person... that's way more dangerous than a regular criminal who is just bored..." He raised his fingers to his lips and rubbed over his lower lip thought fully. That seemed to be a reflex when he was thinking hardly. "So, you think her goal is to match everyone up... but how does she determine the pairings? And, why did she kill the ginger girl when those, uhm.. Huxley and Carmen were the ones 'at fault'? I mean, they were the ones who had to try to find each other, right? Why then kill one of the so to say innocent people that just got matched up with them without knowing anything..? That doesn't make any sense...."

He was casually looking around and his glance brushed over her just briefly, but then snapped back again. What was she- He felt his cheeks blush slightly, but he also didn't look away. Eventually, he understood what it was about when she pulled out a lighter from there. Oh... I see... Well.. must be a safe place... "Oh, a lighter? That could come in handy..." He leaned forward a bit to take a better look at it. "Ah, it works! That's good. Hopefully it's still filled with much liquid." He watched her as she used it to look under the bed, tilting his head a little.

[Madge Baker]

PERCEPTION CHECK: CeCe used her lighter to look for a clue or hint under the bed.

RESULT: 7 - Oh, gosh! Who could have thought that in such a nice room there will be so much mess and dust under the bed?! Whoever tidied up this place did a really shitty job, taking care of the surfaces visible for the sake of esthetics only. But besides old mold and dust Cece has indeed noticed something.

Broken glass.

Lots of broken glass. And something else... Carefully shimming her way towards the unknown object Cece carefully picked up, not cutting herself on the dirty old glass. When she got out of the bed she saw that it was a black and white photo in a broken frame of a young Asian girl. Slim figure, dark hair, pulled up, revealing her face and round soft features. Probably in her teenage years, maybe about 14-15 years old she was smiling at the camera with the corners of her lips. She was posing in a park, wearing a light-colored summer dress.

Cece found a photo of a girl and can use the lighter 9 more times.

[CeCe Pierce]

Drake was right, the woman wasn't a normal criminal, she was truly insane. Nothing she and probably also not Drake ever had to deal with. 
"I don't know how she decides that. I have no idea if Geoff and Hannah got married here or back when we all free. Maybe she looks for something that connects people? That Huxley guy is a professor.. Carmen as a detective must at least be educated well and probably went to an expensive college. Who knows.."

CeCe noticed that Drake looked at her as she pulled the lighter out. Maybe he thought looking away would mean that he actually looked at her breasts? He probably did either way, but to CeCe's surprise he wasn't acting the shy and gentle guy. A welcome change in comparison to other guys. 

CeCe tried to turn on the lighter and it immediately worked. Good.. very good.. She kneeled down and carefully placed her lighter under the bed, trying not to touch the bed with the flame or anything else.
There was so much dust, it was disgusting. Not nearly as bad as her last room, but in a room like this definitely a surprise. Whoever cleaned that room definitely used "just put it under the bed" trick. 

"Maybe I can find...-"

All of sudden CeCe saw another source of light under the bed and just when she was about to panic and crawl out again, she realized it was her lighter. Not really her lighter, but the reflection of it. Glass... CeCe looked around. There was a ton of glass. "Damn..." , CeCe tried hard to not cut herself while moving her hand around to find something. Then she finally found something: A frame with broken glass. She grabbed it carefully and took the picture out of the frame and hid it under her dress.

"Well...There was a lot of dust.", CeCe said while standing back up and brushed the dust off of her dress. She realized there was no reason to clean this dirty and disgusting dress. "Drake.. would you..", CeCe said while walking to the bathroom, "Unzip me? I need a shower.. A proper one."

When she arrived in the bathroom, she gave Drake a serious look in case he wouldn't understand to come. She grabbed a towel and put the photo carefully under it.
She couldn't wait for Drake and looked at it:
It was a photo of a young Asian girl. Slim figure, dark hair, pulled up, revealing her face and round soft features. Probably in her teenage years, maybe about 14-15 years old she was smiling at the camera with the corners of her lips. She was posing in a park, wearing a light-colored summer dress.

No..No that can't - .. Can it? ... No.. No.

[Drake Force]

"I don't know how she decides that. I have no idea if Geoff and Hannah got married here or back when we all free. Maybe she looks for something that connects people? That Huxley guy is a professor.. Carmen as a detective must at least be educated well and probably went to an expensive college. Who knows.."

"Married?", he asked surprised and stayed quiet for a while, thinking. "If she truely married them in here... your theory might be right." He nodded as if he was seeing sense in her words. "So, she's trying to pair us all up... Honestly, I think trying to figure out her reasoning is secondary at this point. A crazy person doesn't need a reason to do what they do... Or they have a reason none of us could understand." Crazy people were the most dangerous kind...

When she disappered half under the bed, Drake crawled over to also catch a glimpse down there. "Oh, be careful with the glass-", he started, but trailed off. Of course she was quick and careful with her hands, she was a thief after all. Stupid... ,he scolded himself. She seemed to have found something, but he couldn't see it at first. It was a bit surprising at first that she hid it under her really short dress and he watched her as she went to the bathroom. Was she not gonna show him?

"Well...There was a lot of dust."

He didn't say anything. Then it hit him: Ohhhhh, the cameras. Of course. He sent an commendatory look her way. Smart girl.

"Drake.. would you unzip me? I need a shower.. A proper one."

Smirking slightly, he got on his feet and walked over to her, into the bathroom. "Of course." He put his hands on her shoulders from behind and came closer to her ear. "Good call..", he whispered and then unzipped her dress while still staying close to her. After this, he gave her a small wink and then walked over to look under the towel. His eyes widened. Could this be-? The asian lady who kidnapped all of them? His head snapped to Cece. He didn't need to say anything, she was thinking the same - he saw it in her eyes.

[CeCe Pierce]

CeCe breathed out calmly and relaxed when she noticed,that Drake understood her cryptic word and followed her to the bathroom.
Unfortunately there was a camera as well, but she hid the picture under a towel. 
"Of course", he said. All of sudden CeCe got goosebumps: Drake put his hands on her shoulders and CeCe hold her breath. It felt like 10 minutes of holding her breath, even though in reality it probably was for a second. "Umm.. Yeah, so..", CeCe tried finding words and going back to the topic.
Then it happened: He unzipped her dress, standing really close to her. They weren't this close since the party when they met for the first time. "Th-thank you", CeCe said and cleared her throat. After all, she really wanted to take a shower after showing the picture. Yes, she would've been able to unzip the dress by herself, but it would probably be faster this way.

When he walked over to look under the towel, CeCe realized that they were thinking the same thing. How were they supposed to talk about this without giving it away? CeCe didn't know how to go on.
"Believe me", she said smiling, but gave him a serious look, "Changed. Different. A lot." CeCe wanted to point out that this girl could be the woman, but that she looked nothing like the pretty innocent girl in the picture. "I mean my dress of course. It was pretty but now it is uncomfortable and ugly."
Maybe he would understand her, once again, cryptic words, maybe not. She could only hope.
She walked around the bathroom, holding her sliding dress with her arm in the breast are. Picking up various the beauty items, she held up a soap and asked indifferent, "Have you seen "it" before?". She hoped to find out, whether he saw this girl or woman before.

"By the way.. A drastic topic change, but...", she said stepping in the shower, "I really need a shower". She let her dress drop down, standing with the back to Drake, now only wearing her dance shorts and strapless bra. She took the bathtub curtain and closed it, threw out her clothes and took the shower.

[Drake Force]

"Believe me. Changed. Different. A lot."
The clever guy immediately knew she was talking about the kidnapper-lady. So she looked very different now. Hmm... How could he ask Cece in what way she looked different now? Besides being older, supposedly.

"I mean my dress of course. It was pretty but now it is uncomfortable and ugly."
He gave her a nod, obvioulsy understanding. "Yeah, I see what you mean. So... what kind of dress would you want now?", he asked carefully, going along with the dress-metaphor. "Discribe it to me... please."

"Have you seen "it" before?".
"Nope, I haven't.", he denied and kept following her with his eyes when she moved around half-naked. She really didn't seem to have any shame... And who could blame her, she was perfect. Her legs seemed to be endless and even in those weird sports-pants, her ass looked super crisp. So sexy, damn. Too bad he couldn't see her bra... Her next words pulled him out of his thoughts. "Oh, of course. I'll take one too after you're done. I'm leaving you alone now." She had probably seen his look, so he gives her a small, cheeky grins that says 'No regrets' and then leaves the bathroom to give her space.

[CeCe Pierce]

 "Yeah, I see what you mean. So... what kind of dress would you want now?", he asked carefully, definitely talking about the same thing as CeCe "Discribe it to me... please."
CeCe thought about how she could describe and suddenly started laughing. "Umm..Sorry, I...", CeCe took a few breaths to calm herself down, after all it was pretty serious, however she couldn't help a little chuckle, "After this tight thing.. Something.. much wider and maybe you know.. A bell dress, with beauitful umm.. wrinkles.. folds.. Whatever is the right description. And... red. A nice color..the color of anger."

"Nope, I haven't.", he answered her question. Meaning, that he didn't know the woman. At least in her younger days and only if it actually was the woman.
He was very concentrated, CeCe looked at him and realized he was actually watching her. He didn't seem too opposed by the look of her. She smirked slightly and went on undressing herself. Eyeing him up, CeCe couldn't miss that Drake actually had a very good shape. He was quite muscular and he had this dangerous and serious look. The type of person many girls wanted, but most couldn't handle. 

With her next words she pulled them both back from their thoughts. She started her shower and could hear Drake say, "Oh, of course. I'll take one too after you're done. I'm leaving you alone now."

The water on her skin felt incredibly good. This shower was so much better than the one in her other room. As the warm, hot water ran down her skin, CeCe couldn't stop thinking about Drake. What was this situation doing to her? She should focus on the woman and getting out, but her thoughts went back to Drake. CeCe couldn't help but wondering what it would feel like lying in such muscular and strong arms, since she was the usually the strong one herself. 

CeCe..What are you doing? What are you thinking, girl?... Every now and then her thoughts went back to him, no matter how hard she tried focusing on the deadly game and the psychotic, Asian woman.

A lot of time passed, CeCe took care of her entire body. Washed her hair with those amazing products and fixed everything she could with the products that were given. 
Then she took a towel and wrapped it around her.

"Sorry.. I know it took quite long", CeCe said, opening the bathroom door. There she was standing: steam from the shower behind her, wet hair and only wearing the towel. "It's all yours..", she said tilting her head, but quickly tried correcting herself, "The shower. I mean, have fun. It is much better than in those other rooms. You should try-.. However, enjoy your shower. " She said, walking over to her bed .

CeCe needed to distract Drake from this awkward approach. Looking down her bed and remembering what she found, she walked to the bathroom and took the towel with the picture and her lighter.
"Do you want to check if spiders are under your bed as well? Here, but give it back", CeCe asked and threw the lighter to Drake, quickly stopping the towel from falling down just in time.

[Drake Force]

When she started laughing, he couldn't stop a small snort to escape from himself too. He quickly cleared his throat though. This was serious, not some children's game. Still, the corners of his mouth were shivering.

"After this tight thing.. Something.. much wider and maybe you know.. A bell dress, with beauitful umm.. wrinkles.. folds.. Whatever is the right description. And... red. A nice color..the color of anger."
Alright, so the woman was pretty old by now, and probably fat. And angry. Wow, okay... He tried to think of the girl on the picture and morphed her inside his head to look older, fat and angry. Hmm... At least he had some kind of picture of her now and knew what he should look out for. "I think you'd look beautiful in your new dress", he said to give their conversation a proper ending before he walked out.

Alone in the slightly bigger room, Drake decided to check everything again. The door, the position of the cameras, the window and the view outside. The room was, naturally, on a different position, but it also seemed like they were on a different floor than last time. Hm, so the people here were held in rooms over two floors... There had to be quite many rooms that were still intact. He wondered why the asian woman decided to not reconstruct the broken parts of the building... Maybe for being unremarkable when someone passes it or sees it from above? That could be a valid reason.

"Sorry.. I know it took quite long"
He was still standing by the window thinking, when he heard Cece behind him, When he turned his head around, he paused for a few solid seconds and just stared at her.

"It's all yours.."
He turned around to her with his whole body and his eyes widened even more at her words. Was she- Did she- mean herself?? Or did he misunderstand something??

"The shower. I mean, have fun. It is much better than in those other rooms. You should try-.. However, enjoy your shower. "
Oooohhhhh.... of course. He didn't even realize he had held his breath before he exhaled now. Of course she didn't mean it like that... She was a professional. Her thoughts probably only evolved around how she could get out of here and not something dirty. He shook his head slightly to get rid of his own dirty thoughts and cracked a smile. "Oh, thank you. It's alright, I'm not in a hurry", he says jokingly. Why not look at their awful situation with a bit of humor...

"Do you want to check if spiders are under your bed as well? Here, but give it back"
it was difficult to unglue his eyes from her, but he cleared his throat again and took the lighter from her. "Thanks, I'll take a look." Drake swallowed really hard when the towel almost slid down to the ground. Dammit... The gods didn't seem to be on his side.

He kneeled down and used the lighter to look under his bed, to see if he could find anything useful, like the picture. They didn't really clean under the beds anyways, so the chances are high...


[Perception check, advantage through the lighter. Drake looks under his bed, the one they didn't check yet.]