Shit.

She’d learnt on her first day that few things were synonymous with Mark Sade, topping the list was ‘fucked up’ and ‘awesome parties.’ His other qualities seemed to be obnoxiousness, self righteousness and vanity. He was handsome and carefree and there was something psychotic in his eyes. He was a cat, she was a mouse and it was time for a game.

It turned her on. She couldn't help it.

Lilith smiled softly and leant against the copier, her vintage camera rested its weight on the lid, the strap around her neck slackened, her back arched, her jacket slipped off her naked shoulder ever so slightly, she tucked stray dark hairs behind her ear and with her chin tilted up she angled her head to look at him. He was taller than her, most people were.

“Hello Mark,” she had her doubts that he knew her name, obviously though she had not failed to pass unnoticed over his radar, was that a good thing or a bad thing? There was a listlessness to her voice as she addressed him, but that changed as she rocked back on her heels and pulled on the copier lid, it jerked but did not open, she exhaled evenly, his hand was still pressed atop it.

“I like pictures of dead people,” she said bluntly, it was certainly a strange thing to say, considering the pictures she was photocopying were of ‘missing’ children from up to a decade ago, most of them were young and had they been alive today, no doubt they’d have been about her age.

She had a feeling they were almost definitely dead.

“Do you have a problem with that?” it was more of a rhetorical question than something aimed specifically at him and with those words she pulled hard on the lid, opened it despite his hand, removed the paper that was in there and slipped in a new piece. The lid slammed closed, she pressed a button, the machine whirred to life and a green light beamed out about the edges of the lid.

“I heard you had fun last night,” she didn’t, she guessed, it had been a Friday night, there was gossip through the school of an event and Mark had a somewhat pale, clammy complexion with deep dark bags under his eyes. “Did you have fun with Stacy too?” she wasn’t looking at him now, she seemed to ramble with no real coherency despite that fact that she liked to get inside people’s heads – Mark would prove a challenge when it came to that.

“She may be small but I bet she’s not very tight.”

Was he still the cat by this point, or had she taken that illustrious position?

“Sure, she’s probably good for a spell, but I guess after a while…after you get too close for her for too long the novelty must wear off and you realize how she’s cheapened what once used to be such a precious little toy.” Lil sighed and replaced the sheet of paper in the copier; she had a total of four copies by now.

“Tell the truth,” she looked at him out the corner of her eye and grinned, “How badly did you want to slap her, when she thought she was still good enough to play games with you?” There was a stillness between them then, Lil broke it within seconds, she didn’t like long silences.

She lifted her small pile of papers and shoved them into her canvas bag. Mark was an intriguing individual, on the surface he seemed easy to read, for five years now Lil had been reading people, so many beings in this world were so mundane – he was not, there was more rippling beneath his skin than an inflamed ego and she wanted to peel the layers back until she discovered what it was.

Casually, Lil tossed her bangs from her pale grey eyes and stared out the door for a moment, the day was still bright, the wind still ravaged the world outside, yet it seemed immensely more vicious now than it had been when she’d entered the library. She left the ajar folder on the desk and began to button her jacket, her camera she’d now placed into her bag, her hands stuck in her pockets and she turned somewhat whimsically on her heel to face Mark. They were standing very close, he smelt of – well…lots of things, sex and Corona mostly yet astonishingly he was quite clean, despite the sinful musk that hung about him.

“Want to buy me a burger?” The request was so innocent and perfectly typical in contrasted sharply to the twisted musings that had slipped her lips before, but there were hidden intentions behind her guileless words, there were wheels turning behind her eyes.

Mark had unwittingly posed himself as being useful to her.

There was no turning back now.

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