Ensnared

by I N Foggarty

  Helen, the now apparently outgoing assistant manager, had fixed the polo shirt situation by calling the girl Anna had replaced. Though away at college her grandfather had willingly dropped off the shirts she still had, which Anna now wore. They had still been a bit figure hugging for her liking but much better than the alternative and were now suitably baggy that she didn’t think about it anymore. Regardless, this went far beyond a lame attempt to have her look slutty. She had barely turned eighteen, while had turned thirty a few years ago. Though she wanted and needed the extra money she would not stoop to that level. He could already force her hand into ditching school to come to work. She wasn’t giving him any other leverage.

  “I don’t think I’m assistant manager material.” The look on his face slowly darkened when she spoke. “Besides. The store would be better off if you brought in someone new as a direct replacement for Helen.”

  “Go clear out the popcorn machine and let’s go home.”

  Anna didn’t need telling twice. Quickly she made her way out from behind the counter and over to the popcorn machine. She could almost feel the rat-man’s gaze on her ass while she scooped the dispensers clean; there wasn’t much left in either side tonight. “Get a move on, Richards,” Jason said impatiently from the front of the store when she hurried to the cleaner’s closet to fetch her guitar and rucksack.

  Zipping up her thin hoodie, she made her way to the front door and barely managed to get her guitar out of the doorframe before Jason slammed the door shut and locked it. Her rejection had clearly pissed him off. Once the shutters were down Anna pulled up her hood. No sooner had she done so a bright blue flash lit up the sky from the direction in which she had to travel. Half a minute later and a loud crack of thunder sounded overhead, like a massive avalanche. Then came the rain. From out of nowhere sheets of icy cold water began pouring from the heavens, as though someone had evaporated the entire body of Lake Michigan earlier that day and the clouds had now kindly decided to return it.

  Anna didn’t bother to hang around for the offer of a lift she knew would not be forthcoming. Turning she broke into a run, her clothes almost instantaneously saturated in water. Up ahead the local building height dropped slightly and she was able to see the next bolt of lightning tear across the sky. Anna could not appreciate the beauty of the sight as a gust of wind swept round a corner and sent a barrel load of the chilly water into her face and down her neck. She had to get out of this storm.

  A block later and the rain had soaked through her clothes to a point that she might as well have been naked for what little protection they offered her. Underneath her hood, her hair was plastered to her head. The only small mercy being that she had tied it back before starting work so the wind had been deprived the pleasure of blowing it over her face. Freezing cold, she at last came to a deserted bus stop that would allow her to get as close to home as public transport would allow. She stood shivering feeling the water soak her socks through her converse.

  After about five minutes, during which she had almost given up hope, the bus she wanted finally arrived. When it pulled into the stop she had to jump backwards to avoid being splashed by the small wave of water that the vehicle sent crashing onto the sidewalk. She hoped the bus hadn’t arrived too late. The outer skin of her guitar case may have been waterproof but she didn’t have much faith that it would hold out for long in such a storm. Had she been more attentive when leaving the apartment that morning she would have turned right back around and left the instrument at home. She would also have taken a better jacket with her but in this much rain, it would have fared little better. The bus doors opened and Anna gratefully climbed the few steps that led to the driver's cab.

  “Hurry up will ya,” the large man behind the wheel shouted to her, pointing to the money collector. “You’re letting the water in.”

  “Sorry,” Anna replied, her wet hands struggling to grasp the change in her pocket. Withdrawing her hand she glanced at the collection of coins to count them and almost cried in disbelief. She didn’t have enough.

  “Get a move on, Kid,” the irate driver barked again as she stood there rooted to the spot, staring at what coins she did have.

  “I don’t have enough.” She had spoken more to herself than to the driver but he had heard her none the less.

  “Then beat it, Kid. I ain't got time for no freeloading hitch-hikers.”

  “Please…” A look of desperation spread across her face and a chill ran up her spine. “I’ll give you all the money I have.”

  “I said beat it, Kid!” As he spoke the driver thrust his thick arm out and shoved her backwards towards the steps. Struggling to maintain her balance on the wet surface, Anna slid backwards and toppled out the open door. In freefall, she had just enough time to swing her guitar case around in order to avoid landing on it. A dull thud sounded, her rucksack cushioning the fall. However, the slamming of the bus doors drowned it out. She didn’t even have time to move as the driver shot off. Anna could only watch helplessly at the tidal wave of water that rose from the gutter and came crashing down over her.

  Her lungs ached and she struggled to catch a breath, more water than air entering her mouth. Forcing herself to roll over she remained on her knees for several moments, her breathing slowly regulating. With great difficulty, Anna picked herself up off the sidewalk and almost cried out when a stabbing pain flared up in her coccyx region. There would be a nasty bruise there by morning. Completely deflated and now in agony, she forced herself to limp the rest of the way home.

  By the time the lock on her apartment door clicked shut she would have probably have been drier had she gone for a swim in the lake. Freezing to the bone and shivering uncontrollably Anna staggered into the bathroom and stripped her entire outfit off in the shower cubical. Grabbing a towel she dried her body and hair as best she could. However, no amount of drying could bring warmth to her frozen limbs. Wrapping the now wet towel around her she began unzipping the guitar case, dreading what she might find.

  Somehow, whether by sheer luck or intervention by some divine being she did not believe in, her beloved instrument had survived both the rain and her unprecedented fall. Clutching its neck with what little strength she could muster Anna moved through the apartment and placed it back where it belonged beside its brother, or to be more accurate, its niece.

  Back in the bathroom she opened her rucksack and was not surprised to find everything sodden. The clothes would wash but everything else had been ruined. Great, she thought, holding one of her drenched notebooks up by the corner. She’d need to buy new notebooks and pens probably. With this and the extra cost for laundry her total for the week had just shot up to $52; she was now $12 into next week’s budget. She couldn’t afford to take a hot shower tonight to warm herself.

  Too tired to figure out how she would do her schoolwork for the rest of the week, or how to explain what had happened to her homework, Anna headed for the bedroom. It was a struggle to pull her pyjama trousers on, every movement of her legs bringing about a fresh stab of pain from her lower back. She had still not found the blue shirt that completed the pair so she gingerly put on the first t-shirt that came to hand; the same one from Monday.

  Half climbing, half collapsing she got into bed. The thin duvet did little to warm her icy skin. Huddling it around herself Anna curled up into the foetal position. Her head pounded like something inside wanted to break out and her back felt as though it was being repeatedly knifed by a dull steel blade. Sleep did not wait long to take her but it brought her no measure of rest.

  Heads or tails?

  Tracing a jagged line through the sky, the blue flash of lightning tore the clouds asunder and for the briefest of moments illuminated the interior of the black Mustang. Engine off, the car sat motionless beside the curb, the rain hammering down upon its bodywork from the now disgruntled sky. In the distance, thunder roared like a caged beast set free from its bonds.

  It was beautiful Dylan thought, darkness descending upon the vehicle
once more. Yet neither he nor his companion had come all this way to watch the lightning. “Where the hell are we, Dylan?” the girl in the passenger seat hissed at him impatiently.

  “Outside a DVD rental store,” he replied smoothly. “This must be the only one left in the country.” He chuckled at his own joke.

  “You drove us all the way out here to find the last DVD rental shop in the country?” The girl’s features looked dark and foreboding; like the clouds.

  “No. I drove us out here to find someone who works in the last DVD rental store in the country.” He smiled when her face twisted with rage. Natalie clearly didn’t pay enough attention to Matt as her obsession would have led him to believe. Before she could unleash a savage tongue lashing at him, he pointed to a figure on the opposite sidewalk. “Anna,” he said softly. The figure broke into a run.

  “What’s your game, Dylan?”

  “After all today's antics, you’re currently a coin in the air. On one side, you want to destroy Anna and claim Matt for yourself. While on the other, you don’t want to hurt him and are pondering caving to his request. I need to know which side that coins going to land on.” He watched as the now drenched figure approached the end of the road and turned on the ignition.

  “That doesn’t explain why we’re here.”

  Ignoring her, Dylan switched on the wipers and headlights. Shifting the car into drive he pulled away from the curb and slowly accelerated to a casual pace. “You have two choices. Either, we can pull over beside her, offer her a lift and make out that you were the one who saw her and asked me to stop.” He twiddled the wheel in his hands, guiding the car around the corner to continue the pursuit. “Or we can drive on by and figure out a way to take her down while I take you home.”

  “What’s the point in all this, Dylan?” the girl snapped.

  “Simple. Breaking up Matt and Anna is going to be risky. Even if it works he’ll never talk to either of us again if he finds out we had anything to do with it. And if Anna finds out first… Well, let’s just say we won’t have to worry about what Matt might do.”

  “What has that got to do with anything?”

  “I’d rather not lose my best friend over something that’s actually in his best interests. And I don’t particularly fancy having my head torn off my shoulders and shoved up my ass. In other words, I need you to decide which side you’re landing on as I can’t split them apart by myself. Heads or tails, Nat.”

  The girls face remained expressionless while he made another turn. Though his wipers were at full speed they were barely able to keep up with the rate at which the rain bombarded the windshield. He’d sure hate to be in Anna’s sodden shoes right now. Speaking of Anna, she had stopped running and now stood at a bus stop. Hastily he pulled over. If Natalie chose to be nice, he couldn’t have Anna suspecting they hadn’t come across her by accident.

  He turned to look at the chocolate haired girl. Her eyes were fixed on the hooded figure and he could see they held no pity. “I want Matt and she stole him from me. Let’s go, Dylan.”

  “Then I’ll help you get him,” he said as the coin fell decisively and he put the car back into drive. When he drove off he took one last glance at the drenched girl. In ancient Roman myth, the deity Janus was sort of like the coin analogy he had used, two-headed like the coin and two-faced, just like Natalie. He turned to look at her and saw her sitting staring out the windshield, arms folded across her chest and lips pursed. Janus presided over the beginning and the ending of conflict. Yet Dylan couldn’t be sure which he was doing… beginning or ending a conflict. It didn’t matter really it needed to be done.

  You should never have come back into his life he thought. He took one last glance out of the rear-view mirror at the figure, stooped and soaked in the rain. One face looking forwards and the other backwards, just like Janus.

  The silver lining

  Raindrops bounced off of the sidewalk, car roofs and any other targets unfortunate enough to be beneath the open sky. The thunder had moved south and now only a distant echo of it could be heard in this part of the city. As his heavy boots hit the tarmac with a ferocity to match the rain, Ramone hunched the back of his jacket closer to his neck, another cold droplet slithering down his back. His earlier passing comment about the day had proved to be incorrect. Things had gotten worse…much worse.

  He’d been forced to wait almost an hour for El Roca to pick him up from Jaspers and so they had hit the start of the rush hour traffic. It had taken until 5 pm for him to wander through the doors of the sunset grill, by which time all he had encounter was Olivia and a mouthful of abuse; no Maria. Upon leaving, he had intended to go home and wait for Maria to come in from work.

  Unfortunately, an ultimatum from Sergio, either report in or fuck off, had put pay to that idea and so he had been forced to take a detour to headquarters. The situation deteriorated further when it transpired that Carlos and the others, had all peddled the same story to Sergio about how he had been responsible for the Pirelli deal going south. His head filled with shit, the drunken bastard had done his usual shoot first ask questions never routine. He had stormed out after Sergio had thrown a bottle at him. A good thing too as no sooner had the door slammed shut, a bullet had ricocheted off the wired glass panel.

  By the time he had made it back outside the storm had taken hold and without transport, he had been forced to trudge through it. He would have jumped a bus if any had been in sight when he had passed a stop, but his luck did not allow for that prospect. Turning the final corner into his home street, Ramone tried in vain for the third time since entering the downpour, to light a smoke. However, no matter how he shielded the lighter and tip he could not protect them from the elements. In the end, it wound up like the other two; crushed under his boot. His ribs ached, causing his breathing to be shallower than normal. Jasper had said lay off the cigarettes, not bloody likely but it looked like the weather was going to ensure the good doctor got his way.

  Making his way up the cracked path that split the trash pile of his front yard he cursed under his breath. The lights were on, Maria was already home. Things had just gotten worse by virtue of her getting home before him. How had he managed to let things spiral out of control so spectacularly? Gripping the door handle he shoved his weight against it in order to free it from the frame. Just another in a long list of things he wished he had taken the time to fix. When it burst open the ever messy hallway greeted him and… “Ooof.” He staggered backwards and tripped on the doorframe, something bulky having been thrust into his chest. His foot slid on the wet porch and he landed hard on his back. A flare of hot burning pain erupted through his left side and stole his breath. Winded he blinked stupidly at the light spilling from the doorway.

  “Don’t you dare think you are coming in here, Ramone.” The voice unquestionably belonged to Maria. Struggling to get to his feet Ramone realised what had been shoved at him. A large holdall, bursting at the seams with what he surmised was the scant contents of his wardrobe amongst other things the woman had decided would fit. “I told you, Ramone, that if you did not show at Olivia’s we were through. So guess what, Mister, you are out’a here.”

  “Maria…” Ramone spluttered through a mouthful of water, a stab of pain in his ribs preventing him from rising further than his knees.

  “So you finally get down on your knees, do you? Too late, Ramone. We’re done, finished, caput.” Before he could say another word the front door slammed shut. Rising through the pain he stepped back onto the porch and tried the door; it was locked. Fumbling in his pockets he withdrew his key and stuffed it into the lock. As he turned it he forced his shoulder into the door once more but this time it held firm.

  “Maria,” he bellowed, hammering his fist on the door; she had put the deadbolt across. “Maria!” No answer.

  Kicking the offending woodwork did little to help matters. He had fitted the bolt himself and knew it would not give against any force he could currently muster; his ribs acting as a handicap. A
trip around the back of the house proved fruitless; the kitchen door was also locked and bolted. He could have broken one of the windows, however, if Maria were to call the cops he could end up in serious trouble. Maria’s was the only name on the lease so she would probably be able to get him hung up on a breaking and entering charge. Even if that failed a run-in with the law could land him in a cell for the night then for a long time if the hazel-eyed girl were able to finger him as one of her captors. He couldn’t risk it.

  Despondently Ramone made his way back to the front of the house. The holdall that now held his only possessions had become sodden in the downpour. Though he did not know what she had packed it was a safe bet that Maria had not put any money in it. He had very little on him and finding a suitable bridge to camp out under did not seem at all appealing. No money, no house, no job… no Maria. Of the four, he needed a roof over his head the most. At least the sofa at Ronaldo’s was comfier than the slab he had spent the morning on at Jasper's. Slinging the bag over his shoulder he set off once more into the rain.

  ##

  Ramone had made this particular trip back to headquarters on more occasions than he wished to count. Whenever he argued with Maria he inadvertently ended up there in the end. Tonight felt different, though. For one he headed straight there without any stops, save to buy more tobacco. He had also managed to catch a bus on coming out of the store. The finality of the situation had also taken its toll. Maria had threatened to kick him to the curb before yet had never followed through. Now that she had, it just felt so over. Or maybe he was just letting the events of the past day get to him.