London Harmony: Flotilla (15 page)

Surely he wasn't looking at me, I looked back at the bar and realized he must have been looking at Hailey. I mean, what's not to look at there?

I put my head down and navigated the rest of the way to the girls and sat down. “Drinks are on the way.”

Billie said over the music, “And she seemed to be giving you an appreciative once over.”

I muttered to her, “I hate you.”

She giggled and leaned in to place her head on my shoulder playfully. I shook my head, unable to stop my smile and wrapped my arm around her head in a silly hug.

Then we sat back to pick out perspective hookups for the girls. I sat back in my chair and held my head when the world tuned out again. I could hear whispers from all around, I somehow knew some were outside the building. I could make out some words. “I wish I were dead.” or “I wish he'd look at me that way.” or “I wish she understood me.” It was coming from all around me, and I bit back a frustrated scream that I couldn't seem to control it.

Then just as suddenly as it hit me, it was gone, and I was gasping and reeling. The girls looked overly concerned, Stace asking, “Drake?”

I exhaled and said, “I think I might puke.” That was apparently the signal for my roommates to spring into action.

Billie was by my side helping me stand on shaky legs. “Let's get you to the restroom.”

Stacy was scowling, “You didn't drink anything from a strange glass at the bar did you?”

I chuckled and let them lead me along to the back hall and the restrooms, “No I haven't been roofied. I've just been having dizzy spells today.”

We stepped into the little hall in the back by the restrooms, it was overcrowded as usual, and I glanced up at Stace, who smiled down at me. That's when all hell broke loose.

Her eyes had gone wide with confusion then she fell forward lifelessly as the screaming started. There was a huge knife sticking out of the middle of her back. Blood spreading around it.

I looked at her in shock as people panicked and started running back into the club. Stacy? Someone had killed my friend? What was going on? I started to look up when I was slammed against the wall of the narrow corridor, a hand around my throat. I blinked as I looked into the eyes of the bald man.

He had a wild look in his eyes, he enjoyed bringing pain. I slapped at his arm ineffectually, he had a grip like an iron vice and towered over me. He must have been six foot four. I couldn’t get any air into my lungs. I saw two other men beside him, one had a gun in his hand. I was reeling in confusion.

Then Billie was there, hitting the bald man's arm with a fire extinguisher. She was screaming in fury. The second blow caused him to release me as one of the other men grabbed her hair and yanked her away as I slid down the wall. My vision swam with motes of light as I fought to remain conscious. I saw Billie being slammed head first into the other wall repeatedly until she slumped down in an unmoving heap.

I tried not to slip into hysterics. Stacy was dead, and Billie might be too. What was going on?

I heard a sharp metallic sound over the screams and music and Halley's voice booming out, “Hey! Asshat!”

Then there was a tremendous roar of sound and light as the shotgun she held spit fire. The man who had attacked Billie slammed back into the wall, breaking the drywall and leaving a halo of red blood spattered on the wall.

She yelled my way as the third man dove at her. “Angela, run!”

I nodded as I saw her knocked the gun out of the man's hand with the butt of the shotgun. Then she hit him with a solid right cross as I scrambled to my feet and staggered as fast as I could down the hall, Baldy in pursuit.

I slammed the emergency exit open and ran out into the alley, my mind numb. I was in shock. Someone had just killed my roommates. Now I was running for my life while Hailey took on three armed men alone.

The door was almost knocked off its hinges behind me as Baldy burst into the alley. Ok, so Hailey was facing two armed men, one of which was most likely dead already. I whimpered and ran. I could hear sirens in the distance approaching. I stumbled out onto the sidewalk at the street, and the man had almost caught up. I heard air brakes and looked up, I was at a bus stop.

Someone stepped off the bus, and I stumbled up the steps. The bus lurched into motion as I fumbled for my bus pass. I looked out the window as we pulled away from the curb, Baldy glaring at me before he ran back down the alley.

I was hyperventilating. I went to dig out my cell to call 911, but it wasn't there. I remembered putting it on the table back at Hailey's. Damn it.

Who were those men, and why were they trying to kill my roommates and me? And to do it in public with so many witnesses?

I needed to think. I glanced up to see what area we were in. I just needed to get far away from the man. Wait, the bus driver could call the police. I started to get up to make my way back to the front of the bus when I was hit by another nauseating wave of disorientation. The whispers were back. I closed my eyes tight against the onslaught, bunching my fists to my forehead as a thousand voices from all around me echoed in my brain, “I wish I had a car like that.” “I wish mommy and daddy would stop fighting.” “I wish Brad would shut up and kiss me.”

I don't know how long I was assaulted by the whispering ghosts of wishes of people around me, but when the bus stopped to pick up another passenger, I needed air. I stumbled out the back doors and onto the sidewalk. I took in deep breaths of night air and looked up.

There was the Coit Tower, looming above me. I always came here to think whenever the pressures of life and my lack of love life got to be too much. Had I subconsciously come here?

It was closed now, but I still walked up to the concrete tower. I needed to think. I know it was irrational, but I wasn't thinking really clearly with all the excitement and violence and blood... oh, the blood. I whispered, “Stacy?”

My vision was blurred by my tears as I stumbled to the tower. I swung my gaze back to the road when two dark SUVs screeched to a halt, and Baldy and three other men piled out of the vehicles and started running toward me.

I screamed, “What do you want with me?” Then I turned back to the doors. I blinked. They were propped open with some hoses leading out to a cleaning van.

I stepped in quickly and called out, “Hello?” Where were the workers, they could help me. I looked at the elevator at the center of the tower and hit the button a dozen times in my panic, they workers were probably cleaning upstairs, I reasoned.

The elevator doors closed just as the men in their dark clothes came sliding to a halt. I heard Baldy call out, “The stairs.”

I was shaking, I'm sure I had more adrenaline than blood in my veins at that moment. To my relief, there were two workers buffing the floors at the observation deck when the elevator doors slid open. And they were big.

I stepped out begging, “You have to help me there are men chasing...” I blinked as a spray of blood splattered across my face accompanied by the concussively loud sound of gunshots. The two men fell with bullet wounds to their heads.

I bit back a scream and turned to the men who had just arrived, led by Baldy. I backed up to the doors to the observation deck. I pleaded, “What do you want from me?”

He sneered and said, “That's an easy question. I'll tell you what the man who hired us said. Though I'd wager, he's just a madman, but his money is good.”

I backed out, and the men followed. I backed to the railing as he smirked and said, “We just want you to make a wish.”

With that, he lunged forward and hoisted me up like a sack of grain over his head and threw me over the railing.

That's how I found myself facing the last couple seconds of my life here. As I fell, I asked in confusion, “Why did they want me to make a wish?” He was right, whoever hired him was a madman. If I were to make a wish, it would be something like I mumbled as I accepted the fact I was already dead, I just need to hit bottom to finalize it, “I wish I could fly.”

My words boomed in my head, echoing in so many tones like dozens of voices and whispers echoed my words. They were young and old, male and female, in dozens of languages, but they were all me. Threatening to drive me mad before I died.

I screamed as my back felt as if it were on fire as my skin tore and stretched then with a whump and fluttering sound, something sprang from my back. I screamed again with the pain and effort as the wind pushed against the pieces of me that sprawled out impossibly far to my sides as my angle of descent changed. I swooped back up and away from the ground that promised an end to the insanity of the night.

My chest barely brushed the ground and I stared dumbly at my shadow as I arced back up into the air. I glanced to my sides and blinked as a whispered in disbelief, “I have... wings?”