Authors: Chris Stevenson
Avy reared her baton upward in a striking position, the alarm piercing her ears. She saw the door give way with a final blow, then swing open on bent hinges. Two men rushed in, crouching low. Their feet tangled in the piano wire strung from the doorway posts. They tumbled face down onto the carpet. Avy jumped at one, raining blows on his shoulders. Sebastian and Chubby placed well-aimed swats on the other, smacking his knees. Some of Avy’s strikes went wild, hitting the man over the head. He scrambled across the carpet, yelping. She gave him a hard kick in the rear, forcing him to crawl out of the door and into the alley. Chubby took the other by the collar, then flung him outside. “And stay out!”
They heard another crash coming from the front of the theater. They ran down the aisle toward the main entrance doors, just when they were beginning to buckle. They could see three men on the other side putting their shoulders against the frames. Two panels of glass popped from the doorframes to shatter on the floor. The men scrambled on their knees to crawl through the openings.
Sebastian stood by a cord on the wall that led to a large package hoisted up to the ceiling. Before he yanked the cord, he waited until the intruders got to their feet. The huge carpet roll sitting atop the makeshift frame broke from its mooring, tumbling down. The men went to their bellies, disappearing under five hundred pounds of musty cinema carpet. Like pigs in a blanket, they thrashed under the suffocating load.
Chubby leapt in the air, coming down with all his weight on a struggling form. A gush of air along with a muffled cry for help escaped from underneath.
Avy picked out what looked like a head and gave it a sound crack with the baton. Sebastian pounded his fists on one man who seemed to be upside down flailing his legs. A leg popped up, tearing through the rotted pile. Sebastian twisted the ankle, tearing a shoe off, which he then began to use as a weapon.
Avy threw a bear hug on a shapeless form near the floor that rose up tent-like—the squirming mass pitched her backward. A knife drove up through the fabric, making frantic sawing motions. A slit appeared, then a gun thrust out from the opening. The barrel flashed several times. One bullet went through a display case. Another ricocheted off the floor and struck a wall poster. She swung the baton at the gun wielding hand but missed. The barrel panned around in front of her face. She ducked just before another shot zinged by her ear.
Chubby jumped on the upright mass, knocking it over. He wrestled the gun hand, prying the fingers back. Something snapped, followed by a howl of pain. Chubby wrenched the gun loose and pitched it against a wall. “I’ll cap your ass if you try that again.” said the guard.
A voice answered, “Okay—I give up!”
The three stepped off the carpet. Sebastian threw a heavy flap back, ordering the intruders out. He held his gun on the men while they crawled on their knees from under the carpet. Out in the open, the sweaty men backed up against the lobby wall with their hands up, breathing hard, staring down the barrel of Sebastian’s pistol.
“I’ve already called the cops,” Sebastian lied. “You’ve really dug yourself a hole this time.”
The men looked at each other dumfounded. One peeled off, running for the door. The others lingered for a moment before they broke into a run. The sounds of their footsteps faded down the sidewalk.
Avy rubbed a carpet burn on her elbow. “That was close. I think he parted my hair.”
Sebastian checked her scalp, running his fingers over it. “Thank God,” he said. “I didn’t expect gunfire. I almost let loose with some lead myself.”
“Sebastian, you’re not a killer. You’re not like them. They—” Something tweaked her nose. A heady, burning scent wafted in the air. It smelled like burnt toast. She turned around, aghast. Smoke billowed from both theater wings.
Chubby pointed to the back of the theater. “We’re on fire!”
Clouds of black soot frothed out of the theater wings in tornado-like swirls. An orange glare backlit the walls, evidence that the storeroom had caught. The decorative auditorium drapes were scant yards from the source of the fire. The animal cages sat next to them. They would catch any minute.
“Chubby and I will get the animals off the stage, then take them through the front,” said Sebastian. “Avy, you get out to the street.”
Before she could object, the two were running down the aisle. She had no intention of standing around just watching them. She remembered Gretchen in the backroom.
Avy squeezed through the broken front doors and turned around to face the entrance. She took two steps to get through it. She counted the Gates, ending at the rear exit door. Crouching low, she entered the backroom.
The top of the workbench was ablaze. A bright orange wall of flame had climbed up into the joist beams. Acrid smoke lay like a blanket just above eye level. She duck-walked across the floor, stepping over the mattress until she came to the cardboard box. The radiant heat broiled the side of her face and forearms. When she leaned down to get the dog by the scruff of the neck, a paint can exploded, showering a lava-like spray across the room. Falling to her knees, she screamed, feeling certain she was on fire. Avy brought the dog up under her jacket, pulling it tight to her breasts. She crawled over the mattress, noticed her purse on the floor and managed to hook her fingers in the strap.
Once outside, another explosion sent a heat wave up against her back. She started the Jeep, pulled away from the building, not stopping until she was a safe distance from the inferno. The dog cowered on her lap. Avy’s hair was singed, giving off a putrid odor. Though she’d received some hot spots on her arms and back, she had no serious burns.
From the safety of the vehicle, she saw a backdraft twister roiling out of the rear theater door, curling up the back wall toward the roof. A small window exploded, showering the parking lot with shards. Above the roar of the fire, she could hear combustibles popping inside. A shaft of flames shot straight up from the top of the building, turning the roof hatch into a missile. Sirens wailed in the distance. She backed her Jeep even further, reaching the far end of the parking lot, making room for any emergency vehicles that would need access.
And they would definitely need access to this, she thought. There couldn’t have been a more dismal scene.
A fire engine pulled into the rear parking lot, and a squad of firefighters jumped from the vehicle. They threw levers and unraveled hoses. One of the firefighters rushed to Avy’s side, asking her if she needed assistance. She shook her head, hypnotized by the flames, watching the paint peel and blacken on the walls—the walls they had just painted the other day. She couldn’t hear anything over the roar in her ears, but now that internal roar was one of rage. Everything in the world Sebastian owned was turning into flaming slag and cinders. It was an incalculable loss that could never be replaced. She hoped the two men stood safe on the other side of the building.
“I’m okay, I’m fine,” she kept telling the attending firefighter. She gazed at the Stadium Theater. Every inch of the building was engulfed in flames now, an orange mushroom climbed heavenward.
It seemed like hell on earth had arrived.
Chapter 17
There were no serious injuries other than a few first-degree flash burns. The Raleigh fire department had extinguished the inferno in less than two hours. Sebastian had to fill out a report and make a statement about the fire’s suspected cause. He had not revealed the entire truth about the incident. The animals were safe. The interior of the theater had been gutted. Most of the building walls had crumbled into piles of scorched bricks. Many of the stage props were unique, one-of-a-kind, and irreplaceable. A few of them were antiques or custom-made mechanisms.
They packed their cars up that morning with what little belongings they had, then drove off the property. Sebastian had to load all his animal cages into his car, tethering some to the roof. Chubby had called a friend who agreed to house the animals for a short time, and then the guard offered to let the couple stay in his small trailer. Avy declined the offer. She had no wish to bring any negative forces down on Chubby’s household. For all she knew, Drake had identified the guard as their accomplice. Which meant he would find out where Chubby lived.
They found a small motel on the west side of Raleigh called Lazy Acres. The rooms came equipped with an adjoining door. Chubby moved his gear into his side, having rescued all of it from the fire. Sebastian left to shop for personal hygiene items, necessities that would tide them over for their motel stay. He also had to arrange a meeting with his insurance agent to put in a claim. Avy shared doughnuts and coffee with Chubby while she waited for Sebastian to return.
Chubby gave the small dog gentle pats and bits of doughnut while he sat on the large bed, watching Avy prepare some complimentary instant coffee. “I can’t thank you enough for saving Gretchen, Avy. She wouldn’t have made it if you hadn’t rescued her. I don’t know how you got to the back of the theater so fast, but I’m sure glad you did.”
“You would have done the same for me,” she said, extending a cup to him. “You had your hands full with the animals. Will they be okay out there with your friend?”
“Sure, Henry has plenty of room. He’ll take care of the critters until Sebastian gets another place. That is, I hope he gets another place. He lost a lot. Well, you both did.”
Avy had to admit that the last curtain call on their act had dropped with a sickening thud. She could overcome the inconvenience of losing a job. However, Sebastian’s life centered on everything having to do with magic, his props, and performing in front of a live audience. She couldn’t see him doing anything else. Now that she thought about it, it had been her first exposure to a legitimate stage act. She couldn’t imagine working any other job, now that she’d had a taste of the limelight. She hoped they would have the opportunity to start the business up again in the future, even if it required a large investment.
The other side of her thoughts filled her with the most dread. If she had never met Sebastian, none of this would have happened. There would have been no attacks on the theater, causing the death of his animals or the ruination of his business. He wouldn’t be in grave danger now if he hadn’t made a vow to protect her. It all came back to her like a big accusing finger. She’d ruined his life. All because of some insane quest to prove her mother’s innocence.
Chubby glanced at her. “There wasn’t anything we could have done to stop it. Don’t feel so bad. I’m not about to let that happen again. They’ll have to go through me to get to you.”
Chubby had a penchant for devout loyalty. Coupled with his honesty, it gave her a terrible guilt complex. She hadn’t been truthful with him, and owed him a straight explanation of the facts. Now was the time.
“I have something to confess to you,” she said.
“Huh?”
She began to tell him about her meeting with Janus, including his association with her mother’s past. The more she talked the more he nodded. It seemed like he had expected it, waiting all along for verification of what he knew to be true. It fit right into his analogy like a perfect puzzle piece. When he heard about her interpretation of how the time dilation worked in Gate-Walking, he perked up with a heightened interest. He had some revelations of his own to express.
“It all makes sense now,” he said. “She did see a Catholic priest named Janus. They called him the ‘ghost lover.’ I knew your mother wasn’t crazy or delusional. At first, I thought she was losing her mind. Then later, I listened real careful to what she was saying. She never changed her story. She told me that this man interacted with me
at the prison, but I don’t remember any of it. There was nothing I could do about it anyway. My superiors told me I was making all of it up, and if I wanted to keep my job I had to shut up—wipe all those rumors out of my head. I had to obey. Deep down, though, I knew there had to be some truth to the intruder theory.”
Avy sipped from her cup, considering what he’d just told her. “I have to admit that you are more accepting than I was in the beginning. It was hard for me to get a grip on any of it.”
He looked reflective for a long time before he answered. “Don’t blame yourself. I had a long time to consider all of the facts. I also had your mother’s sworn testimony, which was firsthand. In fact, I was the one person in the world she trusted.” He looked at her with those steel eyes again. “Now isn’t the time to break that bond of trust. There is something else I have to confess to you.”
She wouldn’t have thought he had held anything back concerning her mother. If her mother had been an open book to Chubby, then he was the sole translator, having already explained everything that he knew.
She waited for him to reveal what more he’d held back on the subject.
“She told me once about an unexpected guest,” he began, “but it wasn’t the angel kind. She had a visitation during regular hours. It was a young woman, who Avalon claimed she’d never met before. This woman asked a lot personal questions. The questions dealt with a lot of emotional things. None of it seemed unusual because she thought this visitor might be interviewing her for a book or a magazine. But she felt she knew the woman somehow, or had seen her before somewhere.”
“What did she look like?”
“Avalon described her as a mirror reflection of herself—but much younger. Curious, I checked the surveillance tapes for that day. I saw you, Avy. Just like I’m seeing you right now.”
“It had to be a coincidence.”
“Just for my records, I recorded a still shot. I have it with me. It’s a three-quarter profile, but it’s got me convinced. It really hit home when I first saw you here in Raleigh.” He dug into his wallet to remove a small square of worn paper. He unfolded it and held it out to her. She looked at it. It was a photo reproduction taken from an overhead camera depicting the visiting area in a prison. In it, a barrier of shockproof glass separated two females. They were leaning forward toward each other, speaking through courtesy phones. The profile of the visitor looked like a dead ringer of her mother, even down to the color and style of the hair. The difference seemed to be in the lines of the face and the weight of the individuals. The mother was older, carrying an extra thirty pounds. Yet there was something in the appearance of the visitor that gave Avy’s heart a sound knocking. The hairstyle and earrings were close enough, but it seemed impossible that someone else would be wearing a custom-made bracelet on her wrist like the one Avy owned.