He could be patient … but a day wasn't exactly the span of time he had considered though it was rare that he had been this eager. At first he had not come to the campus to see her again. He scanned the minds of various students, sorting through them, wondering where he should apply his attention but he found one of his minds kept wandering back to the night before.

Could it be that he was just that eager to carry out the idea he had? Of course it was modified from what he saw, that was what made things interesting after all. Taking something familiar and placing a new spin on it, it looked as if Kristy won out today.

He went from his selection process to actually finding her. He had never absorbed her schedule, he didn't think he would need it so soon but with his abilities it was easy to locate her. It took him sometime before he got a hit, sifting through the minds of students until he had found those that knew of her. Some had a class with her and he narrowed that down further. He knew just where she would be, if she was not sick or so on though having seen her the night before he had doubted that.

If she didn't show up then he would just up in her dorm later that evening if his attention was not pulled elsewhere though he doubted that.

His abilities let him waltz right into the classroom, his very presence hidden from the perceptions of all, even her, as he stood their quietly in a corner. When she arrived he watched as class began, casually his mind brushing against her own, feeling her thoughts and emotions. He had wondered just how she dealt with the night before, he looked for signs as to her confusion or lack there of.

Letting class get well underway he slowly encouraged her to sleep, slowly until she was asleep their in class. No one seemed to notice, though her eyes would soon open to the features of a middle aged man with a cigar hanging from his mouth. Brown eyes stared at her, he grinned as her gaze came back into focus. Her thoughts caught up with her soon afterward. An agent. Her agent. Mike Higgins nicknamed Broadway given the fact that he managed to get his talents juicy parts primarily in the theater.

“Jet lag catching up to you, huh?” She was in an office sitting on a leather couch that she recalled some joke going about that it was a casting couch as if he were a sleazy porn director. It was not though, Mike had never tried to take advantage of her even in the beginning. He was more or less a nice guy and the other actors and actresses just joked about the couch.

“Well, would you be interested? It isn't the normal stuff I give you but this was a bit special so I didn't want to give it to Veronica. I will if you pass on it though but I thought to give you first dibs.”

Kirsty had almost missed that morning due to oversleeping. She felt exhausted in spite of the fact that she had clearly slept as evidenced by the dream she had had. A dream that had felt unbelievably real and had left her feeling oddly sore. Her legs especially... She tried to ignore the niggling sense of wrongness as she hurried through her morning routine and rushed to class, not wanting to make a bad impression so early in her college career.

She made it to the classroom just in time. Her professor came in just as she was getting into her seat. The lesson started and she let herself relax. She'd made it and everything was going as planned. Nothing weird or wrong at all. Except for that weird dream last night. Her dreams had always been extraordinary but the dreams she'd been having since moving to Shokushu had been even more so. She wondered if the island had something to do with that. Something nagged at her memory. Something that man in her dream had said. There really hadn't been much talking... but wait... They had, hadn't they?

She closed her eyes and tried to remember. They'd had a conversation before all the love making. They'd struck some deal? She couldn't recall it though. She had a feeling it was important but she couldn't seem to grasp it. She opened her eyes again to see her agent staring expectantly back at her front behind his desk. Mike "Broadway" Higgins was a patient man but you wouldn't know it to look at him. He looked like a aging detective from a dimestore novel, complete with chewed up cigar and muscular leather sofa. A leather sofa she was drooling on.

Oh Crap! She must have dozed off. How embarrassing! "Sorry Mike." She sat up and wiped the moisture from her mouth. "I'm not used to being up this early." She flown in from Texas late last night because Mike had told her he had found a possible role for her. Mike was notorious for picking the shows that were going to make it big for his clients, thus the nickname Broadway. That fact alone made the airfare to New York and the lack of sleep worth it.

“Well, would you be interested? It isn't the normal stuff I give you but this was a bit special so I didn't want to give it to Veronica. I will if you pass on it though but I thought to give you first dibs.”

She smiled. "I wouldn't be here if I wasn't interested, Mike. I would like to know a bit more about the gig though. What kind of show it is?" He said it wasn't the normal stuff he gave her. Did that mean it was some new experimental type of theatre. Those always made her a little nervous. She preferred more traditional roles but she trusted Mike's instincts. She was curious to find out.

“Don't worry about it,” he set his cigar in his ashtray stood and rounded his desk leaning back on it so that he was standing in front of it. Made sense that she wanted the role, she took the first red eye out here but he couldn't resist having a little fun.

He made a show of scanning her slowly though it came off more like he was examining her than being overly lewd, having worked with her for so long it was tough to feign a lewd gaze though she was attractive she was about twenty years his junior. But she was the actress not he.

“It's an experiment … some softcore stuff, brief nudity. I got a hold of a script from Spain ...” he waited, watched her reaction and smiled shaking his head.

“Couldn't resist. Tell me have you ever heard of a story The Yellow King?” He was in serious mode now, awaiting her response as he leaned against his desk.

Kirsty raised a brow at this and leaned in closer. "The Yellow King?" She was a bit of a closet nerd and that name had certainly come up before. "Isn't that by one of those Lovecraftian writers?" The idea of a play set in the Lovecraft universe gave her chills. Of course something like that would have to be experimental. Madness was a huge theme in those books and the experimental theatre sect was obsessed with that stuff. The closest she'd done to experimental theatre was playing Charlotte Corday in Marat/Sade but still...

"I admit that's intriguing. It's definitely just softcore, mild nudity kinda stuff though." She was a little uncomfortable with the term "softcore" but that didn't necessarily mean sex. Mike only looked like a sleazy porno director. He knew she didn't do that kind of stuff. "Is there a script I can look over?" Sometimes there wasn't with this sort of stuff.

“I was just teasing about the nudity stuff and it sure is. Robert Chambers wrote a book with ten short stories, some loosely connected. Though I got something even better.” He rounded his desk again taking a script from his desk draw. He came over and gave it to her, the title page was blank other than the aforementioned name.

“There's an eleventh tale, certainly not your norm but can you imagine once it gets out that this has been discovered? The media attention will have the seats packed before opening night. After this they'll be calling me Hollywood. If all goes well I have a cousin that's shown interest in making a movie, and guess who gets top billing if that's the case, that is if you still want in, naturally you could still do the play and turn down the movie role if you wish or take on both, your call.

"Oh Mike, you big jerk! You totally had me going about that nudity thing." She was relieved to hear that it was just him teasing her. The most nudity she'd done on stage was coming out in a short bathrobe. She figured that she might have to show a bit more skin one day but she was happy to hear it wouldn't be required for this show. She took the offered script and began skimming through it.

"I'm thinking it might be a [I]little[/] early thinking about appearing in the movie, Mike. The directors haven't even seen me acting yet. They may not want me for the show." Unless, of course, they'd seen her in one of her previous shows and had asked for her specifically. That sort of thing was known to happen though they still usually did an audition first. Even if just for show. "What part am I trying out for?"

He certainly wouldn't have minded seeing a little more skin, she was gorgeous but he wasn't a leech either. Oh, he had thought of it, had the occasionally thought of it but dismissed it from his head before dwelling too long on the subject.

“Maybe it is but I've seen you act. No pressure though,” he grinned letting her know that her performance would matter but that was nothing to worry about. “It's the lead, Ann, it begins with the arrival of a mysterious package that leads her to an old village that's not quite as it seems ...”

He paused, thinking of adding more. The set up may have seemed familiar, being lured out of a big city to an isolate place, cut off to find out some terrifying secret or realize that things weren't quite as they seem. That seemed to be the norm of the horror genre but his pause eluded to something a bit different or perhaps he did not wish to ruin it for her.

“Just read it through at your leisure. We still have a ton of work, rehearsals, customs. Casting. I knew who my leading lady ought to be so you're only the third person to have that script. I want to generate a media buzz before hand too but since it's an original I'll let you read it first … well this ...”

He returned to his desk taking out a well worn leather book from the same draw. The book was not particularly thick, maybe two or three hundred pages. He turned it over to her and a key, there was a latch on it.

“This was given to me with with the script adapted from the story itself. The story is a better read.” He gave her the book and the key. The latch and lock looked new in comparison to the worn leather, the book smelled musty like an old book that had been stored in a basement for some time though the smell was faint as if it were stored in an area with baking soda for quiet a length of time to draw the odor away from it but it was impossible to draw it all out.

“You can stay in my place upstate. I'll be in the city and using my apartment here, I got to meet with a ton of people. Auditions will be a nightmare too since I'm planning on keeping the actual script secretive until we begin rehearsals so I'll have to match them up reading for similar parts from other works. You should now that there will be some isolation for rehearsals. I don't want the story leaked more than we have the eleventh story. More or less only a few of us will know it, myself, the actors, a few others to authenticate the work before hand so we don't have egg on our face later. Sound good?”

She looked up from the script in her hands and gave her agent another grateful smile. "Thank you, Mike. It would be a relief not to have to deal with the expense of a hotel here in the city." The quiet of a large house upstate would also allow her valuable time to read through the script and short story without distraction.

"Can I keep this copy of the script or do you need it back?" She asked, mostly as a courtesy. Her mind was already absorbing the story in her hands. She would have to be careful not to get carried away with it. Her special ability made rehearsing problematic at times. She would have to be careful to keep her distance from Ann until it was actually time to live the character.

“You can hold on to that copy. I was given a flash drive that possessed the actual script but that's the only copy I have printed at the time. I figured it would be easier for you so you can have a read through of it after looking over the story. Saves me the time in getting it to you after you've read the story and this is something I would prefer not to hand off to a courier.

“No sense coming back for it when I can give you everything at once.” He smiled. She had the book, the script, the key to the book … he took out his keys removing his house key for the place upstate and gave that to her as well.

“The limo driver that picked you up from the airport knows where it is and you still have my cell number, the new one right?” He confirmed ensuring that she had everything she had need of. He ran through a mental checklist.

“Would you prefer the staff present or not? I have a few regulars I use, just a cook and a maid. The others such as the gardener and what have you are called in from time to time as I need them but for the most part it's just the two others.”

He was allowing her to determine just how much solitude she wanted. With the staff she wouldn't have to worry about the little things having more time to focus on other things.

She waved off the need for servants. "It's just going to be me there and I don't need much. I don't need fancy meals or anything and I can clean up after myself. As long as your fridge is stocked I should be fine." Less people being around would also be better in case her special abilities got out of hand. "Oh, I might need access to a car or a driver in case I need to go into town for something, though. But they would need to stay on full time. Other than that, I shouldn't need anything."

She gathered up her things, tucking the script, book and keys into her oversized purse. She'd left her carry on bag with her clothes with Mike's secretary. She might need to buy more if she was going to be staying in New York for an extended period. She could worry about that later right not she was just eager to get to Mike's place and start really delving into the story he'd given her. She couldn't wait to pop the lock on that book and get to reading.

She said her goodbyes to her agent and headed down to the limo and they started out of the city towards the house and solitude.

He thought about provisions. He hadn't used the house in a bit but he did have hired help cleaning and the place was unusual kept stocked well enough since he used it at odd times. “It should be, but I'll have your driver bring up some extras in the morning. The limo is a rental and I rather have someone I know real well to be staying with you if anyone. I'll arrange for a rental and driver that will be there in the morning.

“Enjoy.” He referred to the book assuming that if she liked it she would take to the script well enough. The drive seemed long but she really couldn't recount much of it. She was dropped off and the driver would bring her bags in. The house was magnificent, something she would have expected a well off movie director to have, either he was way more successful then she realized or he had been well connected, maybe even both.

His money could have been coming from other means as well though illegal methods didn't really fit, maybe having successful stocks, but the place was practically a mansion.

There was both an indoor and outdoor pool. It being New York there were times of the year were the elements were not so kind. There was a recreation room full off table top games, a fuzzball table, air hockey, a pool table and dart board. Another was a miniature arcade though there were no less then twelve pinball machines and the games were old classics like Pac Man and Gallaga.

But more up to date games had been in another room with countless systems hooked up to a television about the size of the wall. There were bookshelves stocked with video games, each bookcase held the games of a different system.

There was a bar, and another room that had to be a music room. There were a variety of sound systems, it appeared that Mike collected them given that she even came across an Atrack system here that outdated the record player.

He had a huge selection of CDs, cassettes, Atracks and records with a system for each. There was even a grand piano here and volumes of sheet music, the majority being from bands she had never heard of or those that had caused a huge ripple in their time like the Beatles or Elvis, things that were far too tame these days.

There was a lounge, another huge television and even a library. It was tough to tell what he collected and what he was interested in though in the library there were tons and tons of plays.

He even had a movie theater inside the place! However he got his money he was clearly well off. The kitchen was fully stocked and the bedrooms were quite large and spacious. All throughout the places had been posters advertising this play or that, several she had never heard of. Some she was even on, most were older though, possible things he collected.

The driver placed her bag where she directed and departed. She looked about making her discoveries and getting acquainted with matters. There had been no shortage of things to do here, yet there was the pull of the new book too, one she could not totally forget as she went about the place distracted from it for a small while.

"Oh wow!" Kirsty marveled when see the size of Mike's house. It was more like a mansion from her perspective. "Mike must invest or something if he can afford all this." She indulged in a little exploring before finding a room to settle into but she didn't dally too long. There was a mystery book burning a hole in her suitcase so after a quick tour of the house she hauled her luggage into one of the guest bedrooms.

It was a large room done up in a simple art deck motif with black, cream and gold accents. There was a hint of old world Hollywood glamour without it being over done. Mike must have had a designer help him with the place. There was clearly a feminine touch to the room with the mirrored vanity and faux crystal chandelier hanging over the little reading nook by the window. Or maybe his wife had been responsible for this room... Did Mike have a wife? She couldn't remember.

She set her bag down on the bed and started unpacking a few things she was likely to need later. Hanging up the flirty navy dress she brought to audition in, setting her make-up and toiletries bag on the vanity. She considered showering briefly. She was still in her travel clothes and was seriously tired. She really wanted to read a little before she passed out though. She settled for changing into her night clothes, a light materialed nightgown, and curling up in the oversized chair in the aforementioned reading nook with the book Mike had given her.

She took a moment to set an alarm on her phone, a precaution for not losing herself too much in the story. She'd made that mistake before. And then examined the book's cover. It didn't look like much, a little old but in surprisingly good condition. The lock was the strangest thing about it. It clearly wasn't original to the book but why was there a lock on it at all? Had Chambers been afraid someone would steal his story? She put the lock to the latch and turned it, carefully in case it might damage the cover and openness the book to read. "Okay, Ann, let's see what adventures you are going to take me on tonight."

Have you found the yellow sign?

It was the first sentence of the book. It was a reference to some of the earlier stories though it was never really described as to what that sign was. As she read on Kristy had found that this tale was more of a narrative, at least it had the feel of being told from someone's unique point of view.

That was all that the message stated. My mind couldn't grasp it. I read and reread that single sentence, pondering who would find it important enough to pass on. I questioned the message as much as I inquired as to why my sister would spend the money to post it to me in the first place.

I checked and rechecked the parcel. It was big, containing the single envelope. I had to be missing something and for the longest time I thought I had. I turned it over again and again. Searched through the packing again, then the box and the envelop that the card came in. The card was about the size of an index card, black though the message was in yellow script penned by a hand that had been familiar to me throughout my life.

There was no doubt that this was Clair's penmanship starring back at me but I felt unnerved. I couldn't explain it. And yet I M memories flowed back, the scent of freshly baked bread floating in the air while we were indulging in our talks over the latest who done it novel were were engrossed in at the moment.

Such found memories, reading, talking, mother's cooking. It was strong as if it all happened yesterday rather than twelve years ago.

'Have you found the yellow sign?' I read this again, then more slowly as I pondered that exact reference.

Back in her classroom Kristy would find that Aegir was experimenting a little. He was well aware of her lucid dreaming though she was unaware she was dreaming at the moment. The scent of freshly baked bread would reach her nose soon after she read those words, a coincidence, or was she dreaming, doubtful she had already fallen asleep after reading so little though she was not able to read much further before she would hear the doorbell. As far as she was aware only Mike and the limo driver knew she was here, someone looking for Mike? Again, doubtful seeing that he used this place infrequently it would be easier to call him or try to get in touch through Face Book or something.

Kirsty jolted out of her reverie when she heard the doorbell. She couldn't have been reading very long but she had already been getting too absorbed, she could have sworn she'd smelled cookies baking just now. It was probably a good thing that the doorbell had interrupted her. Still, it was odd that it had rung at all. Surely Mike's friends knew he was in the city right now.

"Maybe it's someone dropping off a package." She thought out loud to herself as she headed downstairs. Normally, she wouldn't answer the door in someone else's house but if she didn't she'd be freaked out all night that it was a burglar scoping out the place to see if the house was empty. Better to just answer it now and verify to herself who was there instead of letting her imagination fill in the blanks for her. She opened the door without checking the peephole first, it's not like she'd be likely to recognize whoever was there. "Hello? Can I help you?" She asked confidently, as though she had nothing to be afraid of from whoever was on the front porch.

There was a man there. Young, dressed in a brown uniform and hat. He wasn't much older than she, being a good foot taller than her and tan. He was holding a cardboard box atop which was an electronic device that he placed there for convenience when he rang the bell.

The box was large enough to be held in two arms but not overly big or heavy it seemed, he showed no signs of struggling with it but as the door opened his eyes widened noticeably and she saw him check the name on the package then look ate expected to find someone that just shared the name of a famous person. Being a delivery man there had to be a lot of James Brown's and Brad Pitt's.

“You're even more attractive close up, Miss Baker. If you could sign for this ...”

Not only had he been familiar with her but the bigger question was who knew she was going to be here, Mike maybe playing a gag? Possible but not likely. But the delivery guy just stood there, gazing at her awkwardly, he seemed unsure as to what to say, uncertain though it seemed as if he wished to say something though was unsure as to what to say.