“No. It’s their choice.”
There was a long moment. The floor creaked again as Bronx took a step forward.
“They’re drunk. They don’t realize how dangerous it is out there,” Bronx said.
I snorted. “Nonsense, that one with the crush on you sees her foot. She knows what caused it. If she wants to do something stupid, who am I to stop her.”
“She doesn’t have a crush on me,” Bronx said. “If she did she wouldn’t want to leave.”
I didn’t know if that was a valid point or if Bronx was thinking too highly of himself.
“She’d do whatever Shannon tells her to do. At least that’s how it seems to me.”
Bronx crouched down next to me and looked over his shoulder toward the storage room. He turned back, but he didn’t look at me.
“I might have made a mistake,” Bronx said.
“A mistake?”
Before he could answer, loud noises from the storage room filled the air. He stood and made his way toward the doorway.
Bronx hesitated for a long moment before stepping out of view. After a moment there was a loud clank, followed by a heavy thud. Something was wrong.
I stood and took a step toward the storage room. I wanted to call out for Bronx my voice wouldn’t work. There was a new silence that was different from the usual silence.
With each step, I took toward the storage room my body filled with more and more dread. My mouth opened, but still, I couldn’t find my words.
I stepped into the storage area, my eyes scanning the floor. Jamie wasn’t where he’d been minutes ago.
Bronx was lying on the floor his arms splayed out to the sides, and his head twisted awkwardly. There was a gash just above his eyebrow, and blood streamed down the side of his face.
“Bronx!” I said, but it was more of a gasp than it was a word. Before I could take a step, something hit me in the back of the head.
I spun on my heel, which put me face to face with Shannon. She grinned as she raised something over her head and before I realized what was happening, she smacked me across the side of the head.
My body twisted and darkness swallowed me as I fell to the floor. I could hear them, but I couldn’t see them. Their words, however, made little sense.
They were moving around the room. They were somewhere behind me… talking about a gun. Talking about supplies. Telling someone to move.
Their footsteps got louder as they moved past me. I fought with all my might to open my eyes, but it felt like they were sewn shut.
I had to see.
Somehow, I managed to blink, but everything around me was a blur. I had to move my hand… press it to my eyes… get them to work.
Even though I couldn’t move, I managed to blink again, and again. Each time my eyelids closed and opened, I was able to see clearer.
“Move!” Shannon said. When she stepped to the side, I could see there were two people with her. One was definitely Monica, but it took me several more blinks before I realized who she had with her.
He didn’t have to turn around for me to know, but when he did, I could see that Jamie had his hands tied and his mouth sealed shut with a thick band of duct tape.
“No!” I said, but the word got stuck in my throat. Since no one reacted, I was pretty sure that they hadn’t heard me.
Shannon clicked on the flashlight and opened the front door. I could see the thick fog swirling around.
I reached out for Jamie even though he was well out of reach. The feeling started to come back through my body. I was able to raise up my head.
“No!” I said again, but my voice scratched against the back of my throat, barely finding its way out of my mouth.
They hadn’t heard me. Shannon pushed Jamie through the door, and before I could even get to my feet, they were gone.
Fifteen
My legs wobbled, and the room moved as if I was trying to walk across a merry-go-round. I felt the side of my head where I’d been hit and looked at my hand.
Blood.
There was blood on my hands.
It wasn’t much.
“Bronx!” I said shaking him. He groaned and rolled to the side.
I turned and looked around the room. Danny was standing there staring at me as if I’d just murdered someone.
“Danny! You have to help,” I said, but as I took a step closer to him, he took a cautious step back.
“What’s going on? Why is there blood on your hands? Why is he on the floor?” Danny asked.
I shook my head. “They took him. Those girls, they just took Jamie. We have to do something… we have to help him!”
“Took him?” Danny asked. “Took him where?”
“Help me wake them, please!” I begged, kicking at Nick’s side. His snoring stopped for a moment before he drew in another deep breath that made his lips tremble. “Shit!”
I couldn’t think clearly. My mind was a jumbled mess of words and blackness. What happened was like a puzzle, but half of the pieces were missing.
“Wake them up,” I said digging through Nick’s bag searching for another flashlight. I pulled it out, and stood, clicking on the light. “I’m going after him.”
Danny stood there frozen as still as a statue. I could feel his eyes on me as I made my way to the front door.
I filled my lungs with air from the main room as though I was about to dive down deep into a large body of water. My hand shook, and my heart pounded as I wrapped my fingers around the cool metal door handle.
I squeezed my eyes shut, mustering up the courage to pull open the door. As I pulled back, something pushed against the top of the door holding it in place.
My eyes popped open, and I turned meeting Bronx’s eyes. Blood coated his eyebrow, and the corners of his eyes were wrinkled with worry.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“They took Jamie,” I said trying not to break apart into a million pieces. “He’s out there.”
“You can’t go out there,” Bronx said shaking his head. “You know that.”
Nick and Blair stumbled into the room clearly still at least somewhat affected by the alcohol. It didn’t seem as though Danny had gotten them up to speed on the situation based on how they were looking at us.
“Where are they?” Nick growled.
“They knocked me out, and they left,” I said biting my cheek to stop the tears that were threatening to roll down out of my eyes.
Blair chewed her fingernail. “Those bitches were crazy… I didn’t think they’d actually do it.”
“You knew?” I asked, my tears drying from the heat that was rising through my veins.
Blair looked from me to Nick and then to Bronx. “I didn’t know,” she said, turning back toward me. “If I thought they’d do something like taking someone I obviously would have brought it up. You know that, right?”
“Then what do you know?” I asked.
“They talked about leaving,” Blair said her fists balled up at her sides. “But they didn’t mention anything about knocking you out or taking Jamie with them.”
“Why would they take him?” I said looking at Nick. It was a question I knew he didn’t have the answer to.
He shook his head.
“You should have said something,” Bronx said, the veins in his forearms popped out as his muscles tensed. He started pacing.
“They also mentioned something about praying to make the cloud go away, should I have mentioned that as well?” Blair asked with a sneer, but her eyes revealed that she was blaming herself.
“Shit,” Bronx said.
“We have to do something,” I said pointing the flashlight out the glass panel on the door. Over my shoulder I noticed Bronx turning away slightly as he ran his fingers through his hair.
My hand moved before I gave it much thought. I pulled open the door.
“Gwen!” Nick said, I could hear him moving behind me. The noises stopped abruptly, and I was pretty sure I knew why.
My
hand shook as I lit up the cloud outside the door. It was like a thick curtain that had been pulled down in front of the door, and it was bizarre, but it didn’t enter the building.
“Jamie!” I screamed. “Jamie, where are you?”
Someone touched my shoulder, and I swatted at the hand as I twisted away.
“Gwen.” Bronx’s voice was soft. Calm. And it angered me.
“No!” I said, fury bubbling up inside of me. “I’m going after him.”
“Wait!” Bronx shouted. “Is there any rope?”
Danny moved through the room stopping at one of the shelves. He bent down, vanishing out of sight for a moment before standing, holding two packages of bright yellow rope.
“Tie them together,” Bronx ordered.
“They’re too far out there,” I said.
“Maybe, maybe not,” Bronx said tying the rope tightly around my middle.
He threw the rope over his head and wrapped it around his waist keeping a bit of slack between us. Bronx turned, breathing heavily as he stared at Danny.
“Do not let go of that end,” Bronx said, his finger shaking as he pointed at the rope. “Seriously, do not let go.”
“I won’t,” Danny said.
“Fuck,” Bronx whispered just loud enough for me to hear. “This is a terrible idea.”
I turned. “Then don’t go.”
“Move,” Bronx said jerking his chin forward. “It would be worse to let you go out there alone. Let’s go.”
“Wait,” Nick said, and I turned just in time to see him stumble and fall into one of the shelving units. He shouldn’t have had any alcohol. None of us should have.
Blair knelt down and started fussing over a small cut on Nick’s cheek. I turned around, ignoring them and facing the cloud.
Every fiber of my being was begging me not to move my feet, but I didn’t have a choice. I took a step, and my heart raced faster than I thought possible.
Were my lungs tighter?
Was my throat closing up?
I was too close.
What choice did I have?
I took another step, and just as I was about to go out of the doorway and into the cloud, Jamie’s face pushed through the cloud. Bronx pulled me back before launching himself forward to close the door. He flipped the lock into place, and the metallic noise echoed through the room.
“Jesus Christ!” Jamie shouted.
I could hear Bronx breathing heavily as he stared at Jamie with a fair amount of uncertainty. I wasn’t sure if he wanted to kill him or hug him.
Nick looked like he was struggling to keep his eyes open. I wasn’t even sure if he knew Jamie was back.
Jamie’s hands were still tied together, and if I’d seen duct tape on his mouth, he’d somehow managed to take it off. He held his hands toward me and then at Bronx shaking them vigorously.
“Help me get these off,” Jamie said his voice shaking.
Bronx quickly retrieved a knife and cut the rope. He stared at Jamie as if he were somehow different.
“What happened out there?” Bronx asked.
“They took me… taped my mouth while I was sleeping and then tied me up,” Jamie said. “I thought I was going to die out there.” He looked at me. “Am I really here?”
My eyebrows squeezed together harder than my lips. I couldn’t say anything, but my head bobbed up and down.
“Yeah, you’re here,” I managed to say after a moment. I bit my cheek after I finished speaking to keep myself from bawling uncontrollably.
“How did you make your way back?” Bronx asked.
Jamie rubbed his wrists. “Luck. Pure luck. When that one, Monica, fell, I took my chance. I made a one-eighty and ran.”
“They’re still out there?” Bronx asked, twisting his neck to look toward the window.
“I… I couldn’t see them, but I’m sure they were somewhere,” Jamie said exhaling loudly. “Monica was screaming and screaming about her feet. She’s probably still screaming.”
Jamie rubbed his ears as if he could still hear her and was trying to wipe it away.
“Shit,” Bronx said as he started to pace.
“They could come back,” Jamie said as if he’d only first realized it at that moment. “They have Nick’s gun.”
Nick chuckled groggily. “Not my pistol.”
None of us were happy about the fact that we were down to one gun. Not that it really mattered considering the cloud that was holding us hostage.
“Maybe they’ll just keep going,” I said trying to sound hopeful. “Why did they take you anyway?”
Jamie looked away. “Those women were insane. They wanted to replace Danger. Turns out my hair color matches his.”
“Jesus,” Bronx said running his hands through his hair.
Something slapped hard into the window causing it to rattle. I gasped and took a step back when I noticed the bloody hand pressed against the window.
The hand pounded again and again before Shannon pushed her face against the glass. Her eye caught mine, and I wanted to look away, but I couldn’t.
“Let me in!” she shouted.
I looked at Bronx over my shoulder. Jamie took several steps toward the storage room, but he stopped when he was next to Nick.
“Help me! I was wrong!” Shannon shouted, pounding her palm against the window again.
I noticed the veins in her hand were protruding and blackened.
“What do we do?” Blair asked as she stood. “We can’t just leave her out there, can we?”
Jamie moved abruptly and quickly, grabbing something off of Nick. When he straightened, I saw the gun in his hand.
“Jamie,” I said softly with my palms out. “What are you doing?”
Jamie marched forward. “I’m getting rid of our guest.”
Sixteen
I looked at Bronx over my shoulder wondering why he wasn’t doing anything to stop Jamie. Then, I wondered why I wasn’t doing more.
But it didn’t take long for me to realize why I wasn’t. I didn’t want to let the woman that kidnapped Jamie back into our gas station either.
She’d stole from us and put Jamie in danger, Shannon didn’t deserve to get saved from the cloud.
Jamie's shoulders were pulled back, and his grip on the gun was so tight that I could see his white knuckles even in the darkness of the barely lit room. Jamie held the gun like he knew what he was doing, but I was pretty sure he had no idea.
“Let me take care of her,” Nick said nearly tipping over again, as he worked to get back onto his feet. Blair’s fingertips held onto him tightly, working to help keep him balanced.
Jamie ignored him. He stopped several inches from the door and raised the gun to Shannon’s eye level.
“Go away,” Jamie shouted.
Shannon frowned. After a moment, her frown turned into a grin as she reached behind her displaying the gun she’d stolen while Nick had been passed out.
“Get in the back,” Jamie said over his shoulder. It sounded as though his lips were barely moving.
I shook my head, refusing to leave him, but instantly felt Bronx’s hands on my shoulders. He slowly guided me toward the back room.
Shannon’s eyes were on us as we moved, they almost seemed to glow orange as her anger grew. She slammed her palm into the window again leaving behind a blood print.
“Let me inside!” she screamed.
And Jamie shook his head. He wasn’t even a little afraid of her bigger gun.
“You wanted to go out there,” Jamie said.
“I didn’t know,” she said her voice fading into nothing. She lowered her head, her shoulders bobbing as if she were sobbing. “Please! Help me.”
Jamie stared for a moment before slowly shaking his head.
Bronx pushed me back into the storage room, but when he stepped back out to help Blair and Danny drag Nick backward, I took a step forward.
“Get back!” Bronx said as Shannon raised her gun. She aimed the barrel right at Jamie’s head.
“No!” I shouted, and Shannon started to chuckle.
Jamie raised his gun. I couldn’t see it, but I knew his finger was on the trigger.
Bronx pushed us all back into the storage room. His back was toward the window.
I could see over Bronx’s shoulder, just barely. Time had seemed to slow down.
“Why isn’t he shooting her?” Nick asked between his teeth. “She’d be on the ground by now if he would have just given me the gun.”
“He doesn’t want to break the glass,” Bronx said.
“It won’t come inside,” Nick said. “You saw it… it like needs to be invited or something.”
I eyed Nick as I shook my head. “It’s not a vampire, Nick. It’s a cloud of poison.”
“He needs to do something before she kills us all,” Nick said as he pushed Blair and me behind him.
Shannon stared into the room, her eyes shifting around frantically. The blood-shot whites of her eyes seemed to glow in the darkness, reflecting the blueness of the clouds.
She bared her teeth like a wild animal, but only for a second before lowering her gun.
“Jamie,” I whispered, pressing my hand down on Nick’s shoulder attempting to see into the other room better. “Come back.”
“Not until she’s gone,” Jamie said, his tone hard as stone.
“Open the door,” Nick urged. “Kill her before she kills us.”
Jamie’s head lowered. I wasn’t sure if he was considering it, but before he could make a decision, Shannon raised the back end of her gun and slammed it into the glass once.
The glass weakened. Spiderweb-like cracks spread throughout the glass. She hit again, and it shattered. Bits of glass shot forward toward Jamie and rained down all over the floor at his feet.
The woman looked like a rabid animal as she stuck her head inside.
“Shoot her!” Nick said loud enough for her to hear.
“Shoot me?” Shannon looked shocked by his words. “Shoot him! He killed her!”
“I didn’t kill anyone!” Jamie said shaking his head.
“I saw you! You pushed her!” Shannon howled.
“Bullshit! You couldn’t see anything.” The veins in Jamie’s hand bulged. “I just tried to get away… she tripped and fell. At least that’s what I think happened.”
The Red Sky Series (Book 2): Blue Cloud Page 9