[DeppAngel]

Ch 7 – Concealing


Criss and Liliana arrived at a storage in a lonely part of town. Criss opened the lock on the door and took the chain out. Then he opened the big blue doors, and said, "Well, come on in." Liliana was just standing there, and didn't move. "Oh c'mon, what are you afraid of?" he asked sarcastically. "Well, I got my reasons to doubt you, you know. You've been acting very strange the whole morning, it's like you're a different person from the man I met yesterday," she said.

Criss looked down and swallowed. Then he looked at her and said, "I'm sorry, it's just that…you're the first one to know my secret." Liliana began to feel that the Criss that she had met at first was coming back, but there was still something wrong.

Criss then tried to reach to her with his right hand. She looked at his hand for a moment with a sense of suspicion. Finally she gave in, and held his hand, and they both went inside the dark and damp storage.




They walked for a little while, and then stopped. Criss whispered, "Stay here. I'll be right back. Don't move from here, ok?" and he left quickly. Liliana began to get the chills all through her body, as she looked around her in the middle of the darkness. Then the lights turned on, one by one. Criss came back running and said, "Ok, let's go." "Go where?," she said. Criss held her hand, smiled at her, and said, "Follow me." They walked some more into the huge storage. There was a great amount of garbage scattered all around. Suddenly, Criss said, "Stop." Liliana waited for him to unlock a metal blue door. They entered the room. It was a locker room. Everything seemed to be normal, until Criss went and opened one of the lockers and took a big black bag out of it.

It was a plastic bag with a hanger coming out of it. Obviously, it was some kind of outfit. Criss showed it to Liliana and said, "Look," as he took the clothes out of the bag. The outfit seemed to be some kind of uniform. It was royal blue, and it included some kind of hat. Criss put the outfit which was still hanging from the hanger onto his chest and said, "What do you think? Does it look good on me?" Liliana was extremely confused at this point. She had no words to describe what was going on. Then she said, "Well, I don't know. Are you planning to put it on? Is that the uniform for your real job?"

"More or less," he said. "Well then, is it?" Liliana asked. "Soon, my dear, you will find the answer to all your questions, but in the meantime…" he said as he went to get another outfit from another closet, "put on this outfit. It should look great on you." He gave the bag to Liliana, and she barely held it with her fingers. She didn't understand what she was getting herself into. Now she regretted not having run away while she still had the chance.

But that was then, and this was now, and she had no choice but to go along. Criss left Liliana in the locker room so she could change her clothes in privacy, while he changed his outside the room. When Liliana took the clothes out of the bag, she told herself, "No way, no way!" Criss finished putting the uniform on, and as he pulled up his zipper, Liliana opened the door.
Criss looked at her, and said, "Wow, looking good."Liliana looked mad. She said in a loud voice, "There better be a good reason for making me wear these clothes!" Criss said calmly, "There is." She shouted, "Well, I demand to know right now!"

Her outfit consisted of a long black dress with small diamonds embedded on the lower part of the dress and a black hat with some black feathers on top as well. It wasn't exactly embarrassing, but it was just too elegant for her taste. She thought, "How come I'm wearing a very expensive dress while he's wearing that ugly uniform?" The answer was closer than she thought.

Criss and Liliana walked out of the storage. Criss locked the gate behind him and said, "Liliana, head to the nearest bank. You know where the JP Morgan Chase Bank is, right?" Liliana said, "Yeah, but…" Criss interrupted her, "OK, go there immediately; I'll meet you there soon." "But where are you going? What are you gonna do?" she asked in a frightened tone. "Don't worry; just wait for me there, ok? He said. The tone of his voice reflected the urge he had to leave right away.

Criss left in the opposite direction and turned around a wall. Liliana, looked at him as he ran away, trying to decide if she should do what he has said or not. And, just like the last couple of times, she ended up following his directions.


She hurried to the bank. People looked at her and mumbled with one another. They probably were asking themselves who was that rich woman and where she was going. When she finally arrived to the bank, she walked in, and found a chair where to sit. Suddenly, she heard a phone ringing. The sound was nearby, and no one seemed to pick up any phone. She knew it wasn't her, since she had left her cell phone at Johnny's apartment.


The ringing kept going. She thought, "Well, there can't be any pockets on this dress now, can it?" and as she searched with her hand around the dress she fell a small part that was different from the other material from which the dress was made from. She examined it, and realized it was a very small zipper. She opened it and inspected inside that pocket. To her surprise, there was a small cell phone inside. She quickly took it out and answered it. "Hello?" she said. "Stand in line," a mysterious voice said. "Who is this? Is it you Criss?" she asked loudly, since she could barely hear due to all the people that were talking and passing by around her. "Lower you voice," He said, "and don't say my name out loud. Now please do as I say and stand in line, I'm almost there."





"But--," she said, but the call was dropped. She tried to redial but the number turned out to be private. She had no choice. She had come this far, and had finally understood what Criss had said earlier about not being able to turn back. She rose from the chair and walked towards one of the lines. There she waited for about five minutes, constantly checking her watch.

Then, she turned around to look at the door to see if he was coming. She didn't see him.

Outside the bank, a van had parked almost in front of the entrance. A man in a uniform came out of it, and walked into the bank, looking down and holding a packet of papers which seemed to be bank receipts with his left hand, and a big black sack hanging from his right one.
He walked through the front door. Liliana felt a cold wind blowing from behind as the main door opened.