by Charlie Tran
People mostly came to the bathroom in pairs.
But not this time.
I patted my hip, pushing the phone hidden deep in my pants pocket upward until it peeked out over the top hem of my jeans. I pulled it up as I flushed the toilet and got up to go toward the sink and turn the water on to let it run.
I had to contact Lucas. I needed him to help me. I had to wait while I turned the phone on from it's powered off state. I needed to conserve the battery and couldn't leave it on for days on end without risking not being able to use it at all.
"Come on, come on," I muttered impatiently, splashing one hand underneath the running water to simulate the sound of washing my grimy fingers.
Finally, the screen lit up and opened up to the homepage. Yes!
"What are you doing in there?" Glenn asked from the other side of the door. My anxiety spiked, and I knew I was almost out of time as I put in my PIN and watched as the app went straight to my message box.
"I'm just putting some water on my face!" I called out, actually splashing my forehead. It was cooling, and the waves of nausea were settling down. I swiped at the phone screen with my other hand, trying to text Lucas.
"Do you want me to get you a cloth to get wet and put on your face?" Glenn asked as he opened up the door without my consent... But it wasn’t like there was a lock to keep him out.
He froze in mid-step, the door partially ajar as we stared at one another for a few seconds before his eyes dropped down to the phone in my hand.
His face visibly tightened, brows furrowing as he slammed the door shut behind him.
"Silver. Give me that phone," he demanded.
"Glenn, please. I need to-" But before I could explain myself, he was on me. Instead of pouncing to take me down, he grabbed my elbow and pulled me hard toward him, sending me to my knees and my phone skidding across the unevenly tiled floor.
He rushed for it, kicking me in the chest as I pitched backward onto my butt. He snatched it up before I could recover from the sudden assault. The phone had remained unlocked, and I watched his fingers scroll through it.
"Lucas? Who the fuck is that?" He frowned, starting to type away.
"Stop! Give it back!" I growled, though meekly. I rushed toward him, trying to go for his legs to bring him down to the floor and snatch the phone out of his hands. He sidestepped easily, his fingers still flying over the touchscreen with a determined look on his face. "I said give it back!" I repeated, but he ignored me.
Instead of rushing him, I leaned over and sunk my fangs into his calf, biting down hard-but not hard enough to take out a chunk of his flesh. I didn't have it in my heart to do that.
"Fuck!" he shouted, dropping the phone as he howled in pain. The cell smacked into my face and bounced onto the floor right in front of me. I grabbed it quickly and began to send out a text. Help me! was the only thing I could think to send to Lucas. And just as I went to send it, Glenn kicked the phone out of my hands, my knuckles stinging from the impact. Instead of just taking the phone again, Glenn went a step further and put it out of commission.
He removed a gun from the back of his pants, the one I often forgot he still carried around, as he hadn't had a need to remove it. Until now.
He flipped it around in his hand, using the grip to smash the screen of the phone.
"No! Stop it!" I begged, holding onto my injured hand with a whimper as I watched him destroy the phone in three hard swings. Glass scattered on the floor around me, the screen bugged out, and I was unable to read or see anything on the screen aside from the soft glow that it emitted.
I wanted to lunge for it, hoping against hope that somehow I would be able to fix it and get it to work again, but before I could even think about getting it away from him, Glenn flipped the gun around in his hand and aimed it at me. I froze, my eyes widening at the sudden change in his demeanor caused simply by the fact I that he’d seen me with a phone in my hands.
I thought we were friends.
"What the fuck were you doing, Silver?" he asked, narrowing his gaze.
I could feel myself starting to sniffle, and I waved my hands in front of my face and shook my head.
"I-I'm sorry. I just wanted to talk to someone. I just-"
"You wanted to get me in to trouble?" he asked, as though I had personally offended him. He stepped closer, the gun in his hand beginning to shake as he grew angrier, his glare bearing down on me.
"No!" I shook my head again. “I wasn’t… I mean, I didn’t want to get you in trouble.”
"Who was it? Your pack? Your Alpha? Who are you trying to get killed by bringing them here, huh?!"
I closed my eyes, unable to look at him anymore.
"My mate!”
The few seconds of silence that followed felt like minutes. Hours. He didn't say anything for a while, and then I heard the click of his gun again. Backed against the wall, I peeked open one eye, watching as he put the safety on and returned the weapon to its hiding place at the small of his back.
"Fuck, Silver. Please. don't do that again," he huffed, shaking his head before burying his face into his hands and sighing heavily.
"I said I was sorry," I replied, my voice barely a whisper.
"You don't understand. If you get caught, I get caught. You'll be in trouble, and I'll be dead for not keeping you in line." He rubbed at his eyes, backing off even further to the other side of the small bathroom.
"Leon wouldn't kill you..."
"You don't know him. Sure, he's not as inherently bad as Declan was. But Leon is crazy. He's gotten himself so fucked up on all those drugs he's slinging that his head isn't screwed on straight. If he doesn't like something, he wants it gone. Not fixed. Fucking gone."
"I didn't know... I'm sorry, Glenn." Although I kinda felt like it should be him apologizing to me for shoving his gun in my face, I understood the stress he was feeling under Leon's thumb. If he wasn't there to bring food to the others who were literally starving in their cages, they would probably be dead by now.
He seemed to hold some kind of weight around here among the lowlier wolves, and I didn't want to know what he’d had to do to earn that respect. And I couldn't mess that up for him.
"Here. This is the reason I was comin' in any way." Glenn approached me and reached into his front pocket. I cringed, unsure of what he was gonna pull out. A razor? A pocket knife?
No. It was something wrapped in plastic.
"Take this really quick," he said, holding it out toward me. I gave it a curious glance before accepting it.
"A snack?"
"Unwrap it. You've been throwing up quite a lot lately. You're getting kinda skinny, but you're bloated as all hell. You're either really malnourished or..."
"Oh." I flushed a deep magenta as I removed the plastic wrapper.
A pregnancy test. The sight of it set off a roller coaster of emotions.
Glenn had taken to waiting for me outside of the bathroom again, but I didn't want to leave. I felt as though I couldn't go out there and face him. Not after our argument, and not like this. My breath was shaky as I stared at the results of the test.
I swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat, fighting back the emotions that were starting to build up and that I couldn't let get out of hand. I had to just walk out there and face him. So I did.
"That took longer than I thought," Glenn said, impatiently tapping his foot, his arms folded across his chest. He was leaning against the wall at the side of the door as I exited. "Well?"
I couldn't say anything and instead just handed him the test while I stared down at my feet. Shamefully.
"Shit," he gasped, biting onto his bottom lip while staring wide-eyed at the test results. "You're..."
"Pregnant."
"What are you gonna do?" he asked, handing the test back to me. I pocketed it quickly. I couldn't let anyone know what I’d just discovered. I didn't know what they would do to me if they found out.
"What do you mean? I've gotta get the fuck out of here," I h
uffed, scratching at my scalp and tussling up my hair angrily. "And I was about to do that before you busted my phone."
Glenn lowered his eyes, pushing off of the wall and walking away from me.
"Where are you going?" I asked, following him at a jog as he paced quickly away.
"First thing's first. Before you even think about getting yourself out of here, we gotta make sure that you keep you and that baby alive."
I continued to follow him in silence, weaving around a couple of the other cleaners in the maze of the club with my head lowered. Honestly, even if I did manage to get out of here, what was I going to do? What would my pack think?
More specifically, what would Lucas think?
All we ever did lately was argue. And he wasn't the type to take anything seriously. Would he care? Would he actually want to be with me if I gave birth? Was he too immature to handle such a thing? And he didn't act as though he seriously wanted to be with me before the baby. Why would anything change after he found out?
"Here we are," Glenn announced, bringing me from the ramblings in my head to look up and glance around, taking notice that we were in the kitchen. It looked ten times better since we had given the entire room a good cleaning. But even still, there was an old rickety feel to it that made it appear somewhat dirty.
Three other wolves were there, eating leisurely as they chatted among themselves. These wolves were never in the back cages, so I could only assume what their positions within this den of sin were.
"Hey, Glenn," one of them said casually, ignoring me completely before going back to their conversation.
Glenn nodded as we passed, pushing his hair back over his shoulder and grabbing one of the Styrofoam plates stacked to one side of the scarred countertop.
Carl was in the room as well, watching us with a stink-eye. Whenever it was near lunch time, he would stand right at the entrance of the hallway that connected to the kitchen and make sure that no one took more than their minuscule share of their food for the day.
Today, it looked like some type of lumpy porridge, thick enough to scoop onto a plate and eat with a fork, and a thin browning slice of meat that had a bit of salt and pepper on it. That was it, our one meal for the day. Glenn fixed his plate first before fixing a second-for me, I assumed. He held onto both as he went over to a small table shoved against the wall, away from the others who crowded the center table, and put both plates down. He practically fell into his chair, waiting for me to sit in the one across from him before digging into his meal.
I stared at the food with a frown.
"I'm not that hungry," I said with a shrug. I couldn't find the will to eat. Especially not after he’d busted my phone, threatened me, and then found out I was pregnant. My stomach was a knot of disgusted emotions, and I couldn't even think about food without the urge to vomit.
"I don't care," he replied coolly, gesturing to the plastic fork embedded in the pile of oats. "Just eat it and stop causing me trouble."
And so I did, not wanting to argue or say anything out of turn around these people. He too began to eat, though much more slowly, barely picking anything up on his fork. Glenn seemed far more focused on watching me eat instead.
10
Lucas
The sunlight was starting to fall, the moon already rising above the horizon as the evening quickly approached. I breathed into my hands, rubbing them together to keep my fingers warm. I should have been wearing gloves, but I wasn't expecting to be finding my way to a club tonight. I still hadn't told anyone about the text from Silver, and I wouldn't until I was sure of the situation. After all that had happened with Declan, they deserved a period of peace before rushing headfirst into another battle with the cursed Grey Brotherhood.
I came to a halt and looked up at the garish neon words at the top of the building.
Club Mega.
There was no one guarding the door out front at the moment, probably too early in the evening to need anyone to run security just yet.
I opened the hefty doors, letting myself inside to be welcomed to the familiar booming of pumped up techno music. The beat was nearly deafening though it was muffled somewhat by another set of doors beyond the coat check-in. A familiar looking man stood at an old-timey computer, tapping away at it with little care to my presence. I cleared my throat, attempting to catch his attention, and he finally looked up. He appeared to be somewhat sleepy with a dazed look on his face.
"Coat check in?" he asked, his attitude decidedly uninterested. From his lack of reaction, it was clear he didn’t recognize me. I nodded, taking off my hoodie and passing it to him over the counter. He looked me up and down curiously as though my attire was out of place. Sure, I wasn't done up to look my best, but my blue shirt and jeans weren't totally out of place. Right?
"Have fun," he said before turning around to place my jacket onto a hanger and add it to the assortment of other garments hanging along the wall.
"Thanks, I guess," I mumbled, moving around the counter to the next set of double doors and making my way inside.
Instantly, my eardrums began to pulsate to the obnoxious bass beat of the music. I gritted my teeth, looking left and right to see how many people were inside.
While there were quite a few people already partying-their drinking obviously well underway for the evening-there were fewer than I expected based on the overflowing parking lot I’d passed through on my way to the entrance. They were mostly people who were probably regulars of the establishment, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. They also appeared to be dressed similar to myself, so what was up with that dirty look from the coat check attendant earlier?
I took my time looking around as I walked toward the closest bar, searching across the sea of clubgoers for the familiar brilliance of white hair belonging to Silver, but I had yet to see anyone who fit his description. Maybe he wasn't here after all. Maybe he was at another club?
"What are you having?" the bartender asked tersely as he wiped a small stack of dirty glasses with a towel.
"Whiskey and diet," I said with a forced smile, receiving one just as fake as my own in return as he dried off his hands. He grabbed a bottle of bourbon from the lower rack, close to his ice scoops and flavored liqueurs, and poured a splash of it into a glass with a scoop of ice. He poured the remnants of a diet cola into it, the beverage having already lost its fizz. But it was fine with me. I slapped seven crumpled singles from my back pocket onto the bar after accepting the drink and shoved off.
The drink would help relax my nerves, and as a paying patron, it also let me roam around freely without being bugged for creepily staring at people. I hoped it did, anyway.
The top floor was a bust. No one around appeared familiar in any way, and looking over the ledge down to the main dance floor, I still couldn't find anyone that resembled Silver. But there were a lot more people down there than up here, so that's where I headed. I slowly made my way down the steps, still watching different people as a couple practically flew by me hand in hand, their outfits looking rather… strange. One of them wore a leather face mask that hid his nose and mouth, while the other had on a masquerade mask shaped like the face of a rabbit with many faux jewels glued to it in decoration.
Once I reached the bottom floor where the music was the loudest, I finished off my drink and swirled around the ice still the glass. I noticed that more people than not had their faces obscured in some fashion, either with masks hiding the lower or upper portions of their faces or just heavily jeweled with sticker gems that made them as indistinguishable as people wearing proper masks.
Is that why I’d gotten the weird look? Was it a masquerade night or something?
But again, not everyone was donning something to hide their face, and while there were many more bodies down here than above, it still wasn't quite packed this early in the evening.
"Silver, where are you?" I groaned with a sigh. I poured some of the ice into my mouth and chewed on the cubes, the cold feeling rather pleasant against my
molars.
As I circled the dance floor, there were many handsome faces to be seen, but none of them belonged to my Silver. I went to slosh some more of the melting ice into my mouth, only to have it spill over the front of my shirt.
"Shit!" I cursed, jumping at the coldness as the diluted booze instantly began to stain the front of my blue cloth shirt a slightly muddy brown. This was my favorite shirt, and now it reeked, and I looked like I'd been mud wrestling!
I frowned, holding the bottom of the shirt away from my torso, and stomped to the restroom.
"Why am I so stupid?" I continued to grumble, scrubbing my shirt off with a bit of hand soap in the restroom sink. I was very meticulous when it came to my clothes, and I didn't have many changes of clothing at Jude's place. I had refused to let him take me shopping for more when he offered. If this shirt was permanently stained, I was gonna be beyond angry.
I turned the faucet off, wringing the shirt to get as much water out of it as possible as I stared at myself in the mirror.
What the hell was I doing here? Silver was clearly not here, and he wasn't replying to my texts. I didn't know what he was getting at with his texts from earlier either. Was I just stupid to try to look for him at this point? Was he just jerking me around?
Or had I actually driven him off?
"No. Of course not." I shook my head, squeezing out the last bits of liquid from my clothing as I exited the restroom. "He wouldn't leave for good. He'd never leave our pack just because of me."
I slapped the shirt over my shoulder as I made my way through the crowd of stares, throwing one final look at the mass of humanity that had grown quite a bit during the time I'd spent washing my clothes. Suddenly, my eyes fell still, focused on something in particular. Not a person but a doorway.