Much ofthe French I learnt must have stayed, as I understood most of the wordsand even how to pronounce them.As we sang, the audience that had stood o...tside the door crept in. Marthadidn't stop playing, so we kept on singing the Cantique de Jean Racine.Stacy stood by the door, quietly ushering people in. The room was quicklyfilling with students, but only students. Stacy politely refused entry tothe members of staff that tried to come in. We finished the song toanother big round of. And, usually, long; I was ordinarily not up until 4:00 or so. But with the memory of last night I was awake at 12:30 and by 1:00 I gave up on sleeping and got my butt out of bed.I didn't take a newspaper; my weird hours didn't cater to it. So my usual routine was to run a cup of coffee, look at a little TV while I drank it, do the three esses—shit, shower and shave—and then log on to the national news on my laptop. Which I did. Some asshole killed himself along with his wife and three kids,. Sure, I said coolly, we talked for a while until the class ended. I gave him my number and hes coming over to my house after school around 6:00. To be honest. Ive had a crush on him for a while and he flirts with me sometimes. Well, maybe he doesnt flirt with me, but I like to think he does. I took a shower when I got home from diving practice. He came around 5:45 and I had no choice, I had to answer the door in my lack of clothing. I was only wearing a pair of shorts when he came. I wouldnt. Each of them was wearing only a thick, shiny, rainbow-hued collar wrapped closely along the bottom of their necks.That hot, faint breeze also carried another payload of the scent he finally recognized. His eyes grew wider still at the smell of their sweat and lust overlying their fear and hopelessness. Above it all, rattling his nose, was another smell, a pervading smell of unchecked woman in heat.“Isanto!” His master called.The man who’d spent the past decade or so posing as Arlade Tinsto.