Drawn & Quartered

Chapter 3

Caitlin woke up hungover in the bed in Nina's spare room beside Matthias, neither of them clothed. Two discarded condoms lay on the floor beside her hand that hung off the edge of the bed.

She's love to say she didn't remember the night before. She'd love to say she didn't mean for what happened to happen. But she remembered and she meant it. She didn't plan to tell Ville, but she hoped somehow through telepathy he somehow knew and she hoped it hurt.

Another day had passed being broken up with Ville, and she didn't feel any closer to solace, in fact, she felt angrier. Matthias was a spite fuck, she knew it. But he wasn't bad company, he wasn't boring or hard to talk to, so all things considered, it wasn't a bad rebound. Aside from both having lost their fathers from the same terminal illness, they did have a lot in common, namely skiing.

In fact, in their drunken stupors last night, Caitlin, Nina, Mikel & Matthias had decided to book another room at Snowpark to spend Christmas and New Years together, Kara and her boyfriend Zak agreed to go too. Three couples splitting a room during a holiday week meant they barely paid anything for the room, it was a steal.

Furthermore, Matthias suggested bringing Cait's father's ashes to spread some on his favorite mountain slope, an idea which Cait fell in love with immediately. She hadn't thought of that and was impressed Matthias had.

"Ville would have never even considered that, I bet." She bitterly thought to herself.

Cait sat up and as she did, Matthias stretched and groaned. "Hey there."

Cait side-eyed him, "Hey." She replied, reaching over to the nightstand to grab another condom and straddled Matthias, "I have to go back to my-- Ville's house" she corrected herself, "to pack and bring stuff over here. But before that..."

Matthias raised his eyebrows, thinking he was the luckiest man alive. In his mind, he was good enough to score Ville Valo's ex, and not only that, she kept coming back for more, it did wonders for his self-esteem. "Yes ma'am, as you wish." He smiled.

Caitlyn shut her eyes and let Matthias do the work from beneath her. It was enjoyable, sure, but it wasn't Ville. No matter how tightly she squeezed her eyes shut and pretended, it wasn't Ville.

"Whatever. He can be trained. Rome wasn't built in a day." She thought as she tried very hard to mentally get herself to a place where she could get off with Matthias. When she did peek through a crack in here eyelids, she saw Matthias looking as though he won the lottery. It was great to be thought of as some sort of accomplishment or prize, admittedly, and it felt nice that *someone* wanted her. Even if she didn't particularly like them, but deep down Cait knew she just didn't want to be alone. Especially not during the holidays, and *especially* not the first holiday without her dad.

She might have been Matthias' grand prize, but he was a participation trophy at best.

December 22nd 2011, 3am.

Ville arrived home from the short tour HIM had done in the UK and Ireland, and he was spent.

Furthermore, Caitlyn hadn't called him once since he'd left, and with each day that passed he got more anxious and ornery.

He fully expected her to break and when she didn't, his conscious began eating at him.

He didn't *want* to break up with her, he was very much still in love with her, and he figured that maybe once he got home they could talk it out. Maybe his absence softened both of their hearts. He considered bringing home flowers just to break the ice, but getting home so late, it wasn't an option. The entire flight from Dublin to Helsinki should have taken 3 hours. Between delays and an impromptu layover, it had taken 15. So to say Ville was frustrated and exhausted was an understatement. He just wanted to come in and fall into the couch and go to sleep. He wasn't going to sleep beside Caitlyn. Not until they smoothed things over.

But upon getting out of his cab, his observation was the house was completely dark. Odd, considering Caitlyn usually left a light on downstairs. He walked up to the door, set the bags down and realized mail hadn't been taken in. Odd. Caitlyn was the one who had gotten the mail every day, so he thought maybe she forgot.

Tucking the mail under his arm, he got into the house. He sat the mail down on the entryway table and noticed the house smelled freshly cleaned. He flicked on a lamp beside the couch, and sure enough, the house was spotless. He smirked in victory. He had won after all. Caitlyn obviously felt so bad that she cleaned up the place for his homecoming, knowing it would put him at ease immediately. She knew he loved coming home to the a clean, cozy house.

But still, Ville thought, probably best to sleep on the couch. It was late, he didn't want to disturb her. Ville grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and started flipping through the mail, as he walked towards the couch. He passed the bookcase on his way in and something made him pause. His eyes lifted from the mail and he turned to see an open space on the bookshelf that made his stomach drop.

The spot where a large urn used to sit, was now empty. The ornate, red urn, that contained the remains of Caitlyn's father, was made of pure crystal. Ville had spared no expense when it came to all of Caitlyn's father's funeral services and the urn was no exception.

Ville quickly looked around the room for it, maybe she just moved it elsewhere. "Oh fuck..." Ville's body filled with dread, he looked outside, realizing he hadn't noticed if her car was there, and sure enough, it was not. Caitlyn was not there. "No no no no no..." he mumbled as he rushed up the stairs. If the ashes were gone, she surely was too. Entering the bedroom, Ville immediately realized her makeup and perfume no longer sat on the antique, 100-year-old vanity he bought her for their 4th anniversary. Rushing to the closet, he found her side barren. A quick look in the bathroom, it was devoid of all traces of her.

Ville felt like he had the wind knocked out of him and eased himself down on the edge of the bed in stunned silence.

Caitlyn was gone.