Chapter 4: 4. Missing

"Thanks for giving me a hand Mara," Amber said as I crouched down and followed her into the crawlspace. "I know it's in one of the boxes we put down here in June, it shouldn't take too long to find it."

I asked, "Do you know which box? Or do we have to go through them one at a time?"

She grimaced, "We'll have to check each box, sorry. Luckily there's not that many."

We both ended up sitting crosslegged on the cold cement floor next to the stack of brown cardboard boxes we'd brought down here when Amber moved in. It was dark, and even though I could see just fine Amber couldn't. So she had a flashlight with her, plus there was a bit of light coming in from the laundry room.

It was evening, second Saturday of August, and a week had passed since our latest party. Grace exchanged a few texts with me and Melissa on Thursday, and we had plans to go out tomorrow for another photography day. Amber would be coming with us as well, but we had to find her camera stuff first. And she needed to get it out tonight instead of waiting till tomorrow, so she'd have time to charge up the batteries and make sure everything was all ready to go.

"So how should we do this?" Amber asked. "There's not a lot of space down here, maybe we should just haul the boxes out and check them in the laundry room?"

I moved closer to the pile and suggested, "I'll move the boxes over to you one at a time, you can check them, and if it's not the right one I'll take it back and make a new pile next to the original."

"That means you're doing all the heavy lifting," she said with a frown.

"Not really," I grinned. "Demonic strength, remember? None of these boxes are heavy to me."

She smiled, "Right. Ok then, that sounds good?"

I grabbed the first one and set it down in front of her. She opened it up and checked inside with the flashlight, then shook her head and said "Nope."

That box went off to the side and I shifted the second one over for her. It was pretty quick, and none of them were heavy. It was just a lot of twisting back and forth moving them off the first pile, then into a second pile.

I wasn't counting either but it felt like there was only about fifteen boxes down here. Some were heavier, some were lighter, but none of them was even remotely difficult for me to pick up, even when I had to twist at odd angles.

We couldn't have been at it more than ten or twelve minutes when I let her know, "That's that last one."

"Really?" Amber frowned. "It's not here. I was positive it was down here."

I looked around, "I don't see any more of your boxes. There's some of Sue's stuff back there in the corner, and those big plastic boxes are full of my and Melissa's winter clothes. Oh and some of our studio lights and stuff are in there too. And that other pile of stuff is our cottage slash camping gear."

The small succubus frowned as she looked around with the flashlight, but her light didn't reveal anything my night-vision missed. There weren't any other boxes.

"Do you have any more boxes in your bedroom?" I asked. "I remember when you moved, there were a couple in the closet that you didn't unpack. Or maybe your camera stuff is in your desk?"

Amber shook her head, "It's been almost two months Mara, I've unpacked everything in my room ages ago. And it's not in my desk either."

She frowned as she looked thoughtful, then she finally sighed "Crap. You know what? I bet I mislabeled the box. It probably ended up with the stuff to be donated."

"Oh shit," I grimaced. All that stuff was long gone, Melissa and Susan took it somewhere the same day Amber moved in with us.

After another few seconds she shrugged, "Oh well. Nothing I can do about it now. And I guess the good news is now I have an excuse to buy a new camera?"

"I guess," I frowned. "It's still annoying though. Like even if we can afford to replace it, I'd still be sad if I lost all my camera gear."

Amber shrugged again, "Yeah, it's not great but I'm not going to lose sleep over it. Anyways let's go back up and rejoin the others?"

The two of us emerged from the crawlspace and we made our way back upstairs. We both grabbed drinks as we passed through the kitchen, then headed into the living-room where Susan and Melissa were relaxing together on the sofa.

"What sucks is there's no way I can replace that stuff in time for tomorrow's outing," Amber commented as we both sat on the sectional next to our other two girlfriends.

Sue asked, "What's wrong?"

Melissa added, "You couldn't find your camera?"

Amber had a sip of her drink then told the two of them what she figured happened to her gear.

"Damn," Melissa sighed. "I'm sorry Amber, that really sucks!"

"It's ok," she replied with another shrug. "Like I told Mara, it's an excuse to buy some new equipment."

I suggested, "You could borrow a camera from me or Melissa for tomorrow, so you don't have to miss out? I was going to use my DSLR tomorrow but I've got a mirrorless and a few lenses you could take?"

"Same," the tall busty blonde chimed in. "Actually I was planning to shoot with my mirrorless again, so you're welcome to take my DSLR if you like."

Amber smiled, "Thanks girls. Why do you both have two sets of gear though? I didn't think the course required both a reflex and a mirrorless?"

"Nah it wasn't because of the college stuff," I replied.

I grinned as I explained, "The program requirements were basically either-or, but DSLR was preferred. When me and Melissa were buying our equipment last summer I got the mirrorless system as well, because I read somewhere it was a good option for doing the cam-girl stuff? Like it was a better choice for movies and could do stills as well. It takes different lenses than the reflex, but it's the same brand so the rest of the accessories are the same."

"I got the same model," Melissa added. "So me and Mara could pool resources, for any special requirements that came up in the classes. Like we only need to own one super-telephoto and one super-wide-angle between us, we can just share them. And I got the same make and model of mirrorless for the same reason."

The small brunette nodded, "That's good thinking. And since I'll have to get new equipment anyways I may as well stick with the same brand as you two. And for tomorrow, Melissa if I could use your DLSR that'd be perfect. Thanks very much!"

"You're welcome Amber," the tall blonde smiled.

"What about you Susan?" I asked the curvaceous redhead. "I know you said you weren't really into photography, but I don't like that you're left out of all this. Are you sure you won't come with us tomorrow?"

Sue grimaced, "I don't know? I'll think it over and let you all know in the morning, ok?"

"Sounds good," Melissa said.

After that the four of us were quiet for a bit, just chilling and sipping our drinks and stuff.

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Eventually Amber spoke up and broke the silence, "So you two each got a whole camera system specifically for doing nude selfies? But you haven't been doing that lately have you? I remember you mentioned it at one point, but I don't think you've actually done it for as long as I've known you."

I blushed, "Yeah... So we started last September, when me and Melissa moved into our apartment together? And we did it for two months I guess. We each did solo stuff, and we had a couple cross-overs together, or like she co-starred with me and I co-starred with her. Then we had that whole thing with Verothilas stalking me and trying to kill us and everything, but she first revealed herself through my cam-girl stuff. She'd been following me and buying all my pictures and movies and stuff."

After a gulp of my cooler I continued, "So I stopped doing it while we were dealing with her, and by the time we sorted that out at the solstice Sue had joined the team. Plus we kind of trashed her house by doing the magic in here? So she moved into the apartment with me and Melissa, and there wasn't room to set up the lights and camera and stuff. And since we all moved in here I just haven't got around to it? I've thought about it a few times though. Maybe setting things up in the guest room, or down in the den or whatever."

Melissa pointed out, "It's not like any of us need the money. It was kind of fun though? I don't know if I want to get back at it, but who knows?"

"Grace wanted to try some boudoir photography," I mentioned. "Maybe we could set up the lights and stuff in the guest room, then invite her over to do a shoot."

"Oh yeah?" Amber asked with a grin. "You mean she wanted to get into it as a photographer, or a model?"

"Photographer I'm sure!" Melissa laughed. "I'm positive she's way too uptight to be on camera in anything other than a fashionable outfit and with proper make-up and stylish hair."

I giggled, "You never know? Maybe if she starts out behind the camera, she'll eventually get comfortable enough to join us in front of it?"

The tall blonde rolled her eyes while Amber giggled as well.

Susan drained the last of her cooler then asked, "Speaking of Grace, what's the plan with her?"

"You mean other than our photography excursion tomorrow?" I asked.

"Yeah," Sue nodded. "You've been working to get closer to her since summer break started. As of last week she knows about us and Lily and magic. Are we trying to convince her to join us?"

All three of them were looking to me for the answer, and I grimaced slightly.

"Lily said I'm not allowed to offer or anything like that. She said if Grace asks, then we can discuss it. But she doesn't want me to make the offer or even really bring it up or whatever."

Melissa half-asked, half stated "But you want to. You want her to join us, right? That's why you've been going out of your way to spend time with her and invite her to parties and things? That's why you want us to get to know her better."

I shrugged, "It's not that I want her to join the DLP. I mean, I'm not saying I don't want her to join either, just that's not what I'm trying to do?"

"So what are you trying to do exactly?" Susan asked.

"I want to help her," I explained. "She hates how her parents treat her, all their rules and expectations and stuff. They're controlling her, demanding she act in a certain way because of their religion and to keep up appearances and all that crap. She's gay, she knows she's gay, but she can't be out and she can't have a girlfriend or whatever because her parents would freak. Meanwhile her uncle's exploiting her and she can't even do anything about it because her folks would take his side. Better to let her suffer than have people find out the priest's brother is a shitty person."

"Ok," Melissa said with a frown. "I know I said back in June that I wasn't comfortable trying to help her because I wasn't sure she wanted help. I didn't want to get involved with her and her religious parents if she still bought into that homomisic crap. But considering you two spent the night in bed together last week and she wasn't freaked out about you being half demon, I guess that's not an issue anymore."

Amber asked, "Why doesn't Lily want to help her? Or why doesn't she want you to offer Grace help?"

"I think it's because of the whole priest dad church thing?" I responded. "Or maybe because we're working on finding Armaros's true name and all that? I don't really know actually. Lily, why don't you want me to offer Grace our help?"

My demon mom had been quiet all evening but I knew she'd be listening.

"It's not that I don't want to help her Mara," she replied. "But I don't want you to offer it or bring it up. If she asks, then you can answer. But it has to come from her, not us."

I frowned, "Ok but why? You didn't have that restriction on anyone else, right?"

"Part of it is because of her father's connections," she replied.

That didn't really clear things up so I pressed a bit, "Ok that's part. What's the rest?"

Lily sighed, she almost sounded embarrassed as she explained "Remember what I told you at the end of July? Grace has worked for me before. Twenty-five hundred years ago, she signed a contract with me. I'm not comfortable pursuing her for another contract when she's already fulfilled one, albeit in a previous life. It would feel like I was taking advantage. If she asks though, if the idea originates with her, then that's a different matter. That's why I don't want you influencing her by making an offer."

"Ok Lily," I sighed. "I understand."

Once I relayed all that to my girlfriends, they understood too, more or less.

Finally Susan said, "So what I was getting at in the first place, if Grace does sign a contract with Lily are we all on board with her joining the DLP? Would she be moving in here?"

"It feels premature to start talking about that," Melissa responded.

"Mara, what's your demonic intuition say?" Amber asked.

I frowned, "She wants to get away from her parents, but I haven't got any vibes that she wanted to move in with us."

"Then let me put it another way," Susan said. "If it were to come up, does anyone not want Grace to join us or move in?"

We all sort of looked around at each other, but nobody seemed against the idea.

Melissa asked, "What about you Susan? It's your house after all, and you brought it up."

"I was only asking because of space concerns," Sue replied. "I realize we might want a bigger house at some point. We might need more space, or a bigger yard, or there's a hundred other reasons we might want to move. I'm not opposed to moving, but I'm not ready to do it yet. We just got the house fixed up, I want to enjoy it for a few years."

She continued, "I'm not against Grace moving in either, but I want everyone to be aware of the logistics. We'll probably lose the guest room, that's five people sharing the bathroom, and another car in the driveway."

"That makes sense," I said. "And I don't want to move any time soon either. So I guess we all need to be aware of that stuff, and we can discuss it if Grace or somebody else was ever looking to join us here."

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