On the drive to her house he felt how little control he had. She had picked him up from his apartment. She had taken him to the neighborhood to stake the house across from where her friend lived. And now it was she who had driven them way out into the country; now he had no idea where they were. The only thing he felt he had some control over was this this little blue package ontop his lap. His fingers held onto it like it was his final connection to

control

.

"Sorry it's such a drive." Jasmine shut the window and turned the AC on. "My dad says it's bad to drive at this speed with the windows down.

aerodynamics

."

"I like to drive with the windows down out in the country. Even when I drive this fast," PT said.

She glanced at him. Half her face lit up blue from the console of the

Subaru

. Inside here he felt safe. Even without control. In fact that is probably why he felt any sort of safety. Because she was the captain.

His index finger glided across the package, drawing sweat circles onto it as he imagined her gone and instead him being in the driver's seat. In this imagination he didn't have his phone, and he was stuck out here with no way back until morning.

It was so dark. It had grown dark so suddenly. Their staking escapade back at Avalon Woods felt like forever ago. But the time on the Subaru dashboard said it had just 20 minutes earlier.

"Not much further now," she said. "Never been out here before?"

"Once or twice. Just not at night."

Even though it was so dark she never turned the

highbeams

on. Instead she drove with only the first 20 yards ahead of them visible. There were winding hills and she took them smooth. Then suddenly she made a right turn into a long path surrounded by tall trees on both sides.

The entrance path alone was over 200 yards. Then when they emerged from the dense entrance of trees, he saw the richest neighborhood he had ever seen. The houses looked like the

mansions

that celebrities showed off on

MTV

Cribz.

He almost said "wow you live here?" but held his tongue knowing that that was probably the most banal thing to say. Something she probably heard millions of times already. Instead he wondered in silence, who the hell lived here? And why was Jasmine one of those people?

They passed about six houses before Jasmine suddenly turned the music back on. She cranked the volume so loud that PT suddenly felt like he was transported back to high school. When he would ride around with his best friend who would crank his rap music as loud as the car stereo would allow him even though it sounded horrible.

PT wanted to shove his fingers into his ears but he thought that might make Jasmine feel rude. Or worse, he thought that she would think he was a wimp. His fingers clung, caressing the package.

The loop driveway was made of ornate brick. Jasmine parked sloppily and shut the engine off. He followed her up the stairs leading into the mansion and she used a digital lock on her phone to open the door.

As soon as they entered the house certain lights came on so that the place was still dark, but lit enough to feel ambient and comfortable to walk around in. Jasmine didn't hit any light switches.

"Come on," she said as she escorted them straight through the foyer without stopping. They came into the kitchen where she offered him something to drink.

He asked for a

whiskey

thinking she was going to have an drink too, but she just grabbed herself a water and he was left drinking booze alone... booze he didn't want. But what was he going to do?

"We shouldn't open this on the first floor."

"Why?" PT wondered.

"I don't know. Aren't you worried that someone might be looking in?"

"I didn't think of that."

She showed him to the second floor where there was a lounging area. She guided him to a place that was sufficiently far from the windows but wasn't in a hallway making it feel awkward and clausterphobic.

He was about to open the package when she said, "wait. Let me use the bathroom first."

While she was gone he thought about pouring some of the whiskey out into the sink in that lounge. He kept thinking about it until he heard the sink running and then he decided not to do it. She returned and grabbed the package before he had the chance to grab it. His hands clung onto his unwanted whiskey

She used the same knife from before to open this package. Once the blue wrapping was off it was a brown boxboard box. She used the knife to cut into this as well. When her knife penetrated this box she made a face.

"What?" he asked.

She took the knife out and felt through the cut using her fingers.

"It's cold. Like metal." she extended it towards him.

He put the whiskey down on the table beside him and then took the package. Even before feeling it with his fingers he saw the light shine against it. Like it was blue gold. He used his fingers to carefully unwrap the rest of the boxboard.

"No wonder this thing was so heavy," he said.

"What is that?" she said. He extended it towards her but she was unreceptive, so he took it back towards himself and looked down at it. It was a small metal blue brick, shaped like a box. It looked exactly like the blue package that contained it, however this was made of all metal.

Suddenly he felt a heavyness. Not from the metal he was holding, but something heavy like the room was caving in on him. He noticed that he could hear a faint hum. And then he remembered the image he had seen of Larry's face before... when he had been at his apartment. And Larry's face looked like that of that one

Aphex Twin

album cover. Him peering in through the apartment. This made him feel a sudden shock of fear that made him not want to change his gaze for he was scared that that face would be someplace here. Were they being watched already?

"Jasmine," she whispered. "There's nobody here is there?"

She looked around. "No. We're alone. Why?"

"Even over there by the window?" he said without actually looking over. She looked over... and took a step towards it to make sure, but didn't get too close. "Nobody's there. Why you think someone is watching us with a ladder or something?"

"Sorry. I was just being paranoid." he said as he put the metal box down on the table near his whiskey. He left the whiskey there beside it.

Jasmine retraced the two steps she had taken and then the two of them looked down at the metal box while standing. They must've done that for a full minute before Jasmine, out of character, said "I think, I'm scared."

Now he was really scared. But he couldn't let her know that. He instead opened his arms and she came to him and he held her as she dug her eyes into his chest. He kept looking at the metal box and then towards the window. The whole time he waited for that face to appear again. It never did. But the humming continued.

He thought of asking her if she could hear it. For a moment he considered this. But then her face against his chest reminded him there was something else going on. And his mind forgot about that question.