by Tim Sabados
“What do you mean by that?” Aryssa uneasily ran her hand over her thigh. “How can you not know? It’s your body and what happened wasn’t anything close to being normal.”
“I get that,” Charlie responded. “I don’t know why or how it happens.”
“So it’s happened before?”
Charlie slowly nodded. His features lost vibrancy and simply became blank. A distant stare that could be measured in years. “Twice,” he eventually said.
“So this is the third?”
“Yeah,” Charlie answered. “Both times they somehow fixed themselves within a matter of minutes.” He wiggled his fingers. “If I cut myself, it heals quicker than I can snap my fingers. It happens all the time when I’m wrenching on the boat.”
“But, why?” Curiosity clung to Aryssa’s voice. “I mean, how is it possible? No one I know can do that.”
“I’ve never met anyone either,” Charlie said. “I just don’t know what would happen if I was shot or seriously burned.”
“What about your parents? Maybe a relative had the ability.”
Charlie rested his head against the seat. “I’ve never had…”
“Alright,” the cab driver said. “We’re here.” He scrunched down into his seat as he peered out the window. “Are you sure this is where you want to go?”
“This is the place.” Charlie took some money out of his wallet and passed it up to the driver. “Keep it.”
“Much appreciated.” The cab driver’s smile stretched his Fu Manchu. The wrinkles atop his balding head deepened. “Don’t get anyone who wants to come here this time of night.”
Aryssa swallowed her uneasiness. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. She leaned toward Charlie. “Don’t you think we should let the cops handle this?” Tried to disguise the worry in her tone. “We don’t even know where we’re going.”
Charlie gazed out the cab’s window. “He’s here. I know it.” He slowly rubbed his hands together. “There’s something else in there. Something that I…” his voice faded into silence.
“Something else?” Aryssa asked in a tone that hinted at not wanting to know what it could be.
The cab driver turned in his seat to look at Aryssa. “This was the place to work back in the day. Employed a whole lot of people.” Clicked his tongue. “Even my dad.”
“Your dad worked here?” Aryssa nestled into her seat.
“Not in the factory itself, but in the offices,” the driver said in his raspy voice. “He helped manage the books.”
“Like an accountant?”
The cab driver tapped his temple. “He never went to college to make it official, but was smart enough for sure. Ran that department for years.”
Something clicked inside Aryssa. Could the cab driver be familiar with the room where she’d been held captive in the factory? “Were there offices in the basement?”
The driver squinted as if he were trying to cleave a piece of his memory. “I’m pretty certain there was a basement. It’s been a long time, but my dad took me there when I was young.” He paused. “If my memory serves me, there must be two if not three floors that were once used for offices.”
Aryssa looked out into the darkness at the same time Charlie did. “Are you sure?” Charlie asked. “All I’ve ever seen is that factory. Nothing out there looks like any kind of office building to me.”
“That’s because it was built to be hidden.” The driver flicked his wrist. “They wanted to keep those white and blue shirts separated, so they made a whole different group of buildings.” His head bobbed with certainty. “They’re connected, you know. There’s a tunnel in the basement that runs underneath the lot.”
Charlie looked over at Aryssa with his chin jutting forward. He slowly nodded. She could almost hear the gears turning in his head. “Think it’s still there?”
The cab driver shrugged. “Parts of it, I guess.”
“Maybe that’s where I was taken?” Aryssa questioned.
“If it’s going to be anywhere, that’s got to be it,” Charlie said confidently.
“You two really thinking of going in there?” The driver chomped on his gum. “Ain’t the thing I’d be doing this time of night.”
“I’ve heard the rumors,” Charlie said.
“Those ain’t no rumors. What you heard is true,” the cab driver said.
Aryssa fidgeted. “What’s true?”
The driver huffed. “Place is haunted. Plain and simple. Not even the bums go in there.” He paused as if trying to remember what he had heard. “There’s something deep inside that place. Something that ain’t right.”
“Like what?” Aryssa asked.
“I just know folks talk of some strange shit. Weird kind of things. Things that shouldn’t be in existence.” The cab driver paused. “They know not to get close to that place.”
“Close?” Aryssa rubbed her sweat-drenched palms over her thighs. “Like that office building?”
The driver shook his head vigorously. “Somewhere inside that factory. Down below the main floor.” A tense pause. “That’s all I know.”
“Aryssa laid her hand on Charlie’s shoulder. “Do you really think this is a good idea?”
Charlie stared out the window for several silent seconds. “Where are those offices buildings you mentioned?”
The driver pointed. “Back in there.” Motioned to the far right of the factory. “You see that break before you reach the end?”
“Kind of.” Charlie opened his door and stepped out onto the darkness. “Through there?”
“Yeah,” the driver responded. “Stick to your right and you’ll come upon a section of the building that doesn’t seem like it quite fits with the others. That’d be the place.” He rested his hand on the window frame. “Don’t really know what you’re expecting to discover.”
Charlie braced his arm atop the door. “Neither do I,” he mumbled. “But there’s something in there that I need to find.”
Aryssa slowly climbed out of the cab and kept the gun hidden underneath her leather jacket. The factory was a silent and gigantic menace. She swallowed hard. Should she back out? Was Charlie really going to go in there?
“If you ask me, I’d at least wait the couple of hours till daylight. Maybe even bring a few more people.” The cab driver shifted the lever forcing the transmission to clunk through several gears. “You know, strength in numbers.” The engine revved and the cab lurched forward. “Good luck.”
Aryssa watched the red taillights disappear down the street. She walked over to Charlie and stood by his side.
“Maybe it’s best if you go home,” Charlie calmly advised. “I can’t risk you getting hurt over this.”
Could Aryssa simply walk away and leave Charlie? Would she regret not going in and possibly finishing this once and for all? Despite her fear, that flame of determination started to burn brighter. She sighed. “I’m not going home.”
“I think you should,” Charlie insisted. “It’s not safe.”
“Everything that’s happened over the last several days hasn’t been safe.” Aryssa defiantly folded her arms over her chest. “I’m not running away from it now.”
“But…”
“But nothing,” Aryssa purposefully cut Charlie off. She sliced the fear from the edges of her voice. “If Sammy’s in there, then we finish this together.”
Charlie glanced toward the factory, then back at Aryssa. He sighed and seemingly expelled any last fragment of doubt with a harsh huff. “I’m not going to win this argument, am I?”
Aryssa stood her ground. “You’re not.”
“Damn you,” Charlie whispered. “Alright,” he held out his hand, “let’s do this.”
37
Click.
Sammy snapped the cuff around Kami’s wrist. He fought to catch his breath as he stepped back from the bed. The blonde Bulgarian kicked. Writhed. Screamed. She had put up a fight, but succumbed to the inevitable. Should’ve known that she was no match against two men.<
br />
“Now what?” the taller brother questioned. His chest heaved like an accordion. He kicked the mattress, jolting Kami from her contorted position. “Shut up already.”
Sammy cocked his leg, ready to do the same, but let his foot drop back to the floor instead. All the other things that were occupying his mind smothered his frustration over Kami. Everything around him was disintegrating. All his work turning to dust.
“Any word from your brother?”
The taller one pulled his phone from his pocket. “Nothing.”
Sammy tapped his cell and was greeted by his screen saver. No calls. No texts. Where in the hell was Ariek? Those two should be here by now. He ran his fingers over his head. Grabbed a wad of hair. Was this really happening?
“What do you want to do?” the brother anxiously rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet. “The sooner we get out of here, the better.”
The pressure to leave was squeezing Sammy from all sides. His thoughts were in disarray, buried under what felt like a pile of scrap iron. He glanced around the room. At the makeup counters, the closet full of clothes, the showers and finally the mattresses scattered across the floor. He gestured toward the door leading to the hallway. “We’ve still got that room.”
The taller brother cleared his throat apprehensively. “That one in the factory you’ve talked about?”
“Yeah, that one.”
“That’s your business, not mine.” The taller brother shook his head. “You can’t pay me enough to go there.”
Sammy sighed. He’d thought about this very scenario before. Tried to come up with a plan if things went south. Maybe blow up the place, except that finding bomb material was out of the question. Or trash it to make it look like the homeless camped here. But he was faced with a bigger problem. The two shackled women. What to do with them?
The taller brother must’ve known what he was thinking, He swiped his finger across his throat. “It’s the only way.”
Sammy bit his lip. Had it really come down to this? Was it in him to off these two women? Sammy used his finger and thumb to mimic a gun. “What about?”
The taller brother nodded. “That’d work too.”
The gun in Sammy’s pocket had been digging into his hip. Dread coated the cold steel and frosted his skin in a patch of inevitability. “What do we do with the bodies?”
“Just leave them,” the brother responded. “It’ll be a long time before someone finds them.”
“Don’t know if…” Sammy hesitated. “Don’t want to chance anything connecting us to this place.”
“Then we pack it all up and take it with us.”
“That’ll take too long,” Sammy reasoned. The gangrenous tips of sinister’s fingers dug into his rationality. There had to be a way to kill the women without any direct contact. “I say we burn it.”
“Burn it?” The brother folded his arms over his chest. “You mean all of it?”
“Yes, all of it.”
“But you’ve put so much into this place.”
“Doesn’t matter.” Sammy slashed his hand through the air. “We need to abandon everything.”
“You sure about that?”
“Very.” Sammy nodded. “Go and get those gas cans from the generator. We’re lighting this place up.” He tipped his chin toward the women. “By the time we’re through, no one will know who they really are.”
The brother’s eyes lit up. “Be right back.”
* * * * *
Charlie cupped his hands over a window and peered through the pane of glass. A sigh. It was just as dark, if not darker, inside as it was outside. A grunt of disappointment. They were no closer to finding that room than they were ten minutes ago. And the fifteen or so before that.
The sharp hiss of frustration sliced through Aryssa’s lips. “It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack.”
Charlie tried to shrug off the heaviness of defeat that had been piling on his shoulders. “This place is bigger than I thought.”
“They could be anywhere,” Aryssa said. “That’s even if they’re here.”
That pins-and-needles sensation was bristling through Charlie’s hands and arms. It was stronger than what he had felt on the boat. Why was it happening? Could it have something to do with Sammy? Or was it something else?
Charlie looked over his shoulder. Back at the broken windows and locked doors they had already passed. In front of him there was more of the same. He leaned against a windowsill. Was it hopeless? “I know he’s here,” he said in a tone filled with conviction. “I just don’t know if we can find him.”
Aryssa stood close. “We’ve tried.” Her head slumped forward. “I don’t think we will.”
Charlie silently nodded. Was it time to give up? Inevitability was seeping beneath his skin and knocking on the gates of understanding. “I guess we should…”
Wham!
A door flung open no more than fifty feet away.
Charlie’s entire body tensed. Aryssa gasped and flattened herself against the building.
A figure emerged from the door and darted away from them.
“Who’s that?” Aryssa whispered.
“I don’t know.” Charlie grabbed Aryssa’s hand and crouched. “We’re going to find out.”
The shadowy figure kept tight to the wall, scurried across a section of the lot and disappeared behind the door in a nearby building.
Charlie cautiously led Aryssa to the partially opened rusted door. Pale light seeped through the tiny crack. Everything was silent save for the distant hum of a motor.
“What’s going on?” Aryssa whispered behind him.
Charlie slowly pushed it open. “It’s a stairwell.” He quietly stepped across the threshold. “Must’ve gone down.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah.” Charlie squeezed Aryssa’s hand and then slowly descended. He kept close to the cinder-block wall. The air became cooler and the tension thickened. The dread solidifying his legs made them heavier with each step he took.
At the bottom was a long hallway. A lone bulb, surrounded by a barely visible haze of dust, dangled from a wire every twenty feet or so. The drone from that motor was a little louder. It all pointed toward the room at the end of the corridor.
Charlie warily stepped past broken doors and shattered glass. Did his best to avoid the random shards that would crunch under the weight of his shoes. A tattered chair lay on the floor like a skeletal corpse of a long-lost adventurer.
They passed a small conference room. The faint light from the bulbs revealed its decaying walls and barely legible graffiti. Charlie reached the end of the hall and put his ear close to the opened door. The motor chugged, its pistons snapping from the explosion of gas, like a dragon flicking its claw.
Aryssa squeezed his hand. The sheen of nervousness glazing her palm oozed onto his. Charlie slowly inhaled and peered around the threshold.
The noise from the large generator made the walls tremble. A few bulbs hung precariously from the ceiling and struggled to spread their light to the four corners. From the far end of the room Charlie heard someone’s feet shuffle. Within a few seconds a plastic gas can slid across the dirt-encrusted floor. Then another.
Who was in there? More importantly, why was anyone in there? Charlie leaned even farther across the entry. A man moved a box off to his side. He grabbed what looked like another gas can, shook it and then flung it against the wall.
There was something familiar about that man. Charlie pulled back behind the safety of the doorframe and thought for a moment.
“What’s wrong?” Aryssa asked in a barely audible whisper.
“I think I recognize him.”
“You do?”
Charlie tipped his chin. “I’m pretty certain it’s that person who tackled you in the alley.”
Aryssa’s hand squeezed a little harder. Anger seemed to smolder from her fingertips. “You mean that tall…?”
“Yes.” Charlie nodded his affirmation. “The very
one.”
“What’s he doing?”
“Digging through some boxes.” Charlie paused. “Whatever it is, I’m sure it’s nothing good.”
“Is Kami in there?” Aryssa asked with concern sliding from her voice.
“I didn’t see anyone else.” Charlie gestured toward the inside of the room. “I have a feeling she’s back wherever he came from.”
“What’s he doing here, then?”
“As best as I can tell, he’s looking for something. Maybe gathering supplies?” Charlie slowly exhaled. “I have a feeling he won’t be staying much longer.”
“Let’s hold back and follow him.”
Would it be best to wait and then follow? Charlie thought for a moment, but anger was urging him forward. This man had to have come from somewhere and that somewhere had to be the place where Kami, and maybe even Sammy, were hiding out. Had to be somewhere behind that door they had first seen him run out of. Would it be better if he took this person out and made it one less to tangle with? Or was it better to follow him and find out exactly where everything was located? Charlie balled his hand into a fist. If this was actually the person who had kidnapped Aryssa and those two kids, then he had to pay. Pay dearly for what he had done. An animalistic rumble slipped into Charlie’s tone. “Wait here.”
“What are you going to…?”
Charlie didn’t answer. He slipped across the entrance and quietly crept across the floor toward the figure.
The man pulled another plastic gas can off the shelf. He strained to lift and place it behind him. Perhaps it was a sixth sense, or maybe it was the nearly imperceptible sound of Charlie’s feet that tipped him off, but he lifted his gaze and looked right at Charlie.
The surprise that arched the man’s brows was the only response he could muster. Before he could react, Charlie leapt forward and swung the battering ram of his fist into the man’s gaping mouth.
Air burst from the man’s lungs. Blood splattered. Eyes rolled backward. Charlie sprang to land a second punch, but the man collapsed inward, buckled like a deck of falling cards and crumpled to the floor.