I was through the door before Alice had even moved away from the table. It was only drizzling a little outside. I started walking as quick as I could. In fact, I jogged across the street, just to get a little more distance between me and her, anything to help me think a little more clearly. Something about her just hit me like a drug. I really needed a smoke, but I didn't want to waste one if it started pouring on me. I noticed, ironically, that there was a Taco Bell around the corner from the over priced piece of crap I was just in. Way more in my price rang.
I heard the sound of short, quick steps rapidly approaching me from behind. I kept up a quick, steady, pace, but she was practically running to catch up with me. I decided I wasn't going to wait for her to get the first word in. I was going to make sure and have the initiative this time.
"Look, just get the hell away from me," I said, rounding on her. Rain had plastered her hair to her head, and made it impossible to tell if the water running down her face was tears.
"It isn't supposed to be like this," she said quietly. "I... I'm sorry I looked through your things."
"Leave me alone, ok? I'm not the kind of person you want to get involved with." I turned and started walking away again.
"Jasper please!" she said, catching up to me again. "Where will you go? I can help you." I felt a hand grab my shoulder. This time the contact and my anger brought back reflexes I was trying to get away from. I spun around, grabbing her arm and pinning it behind her back. I shoved her towards the window of some shop that I had been walking by.
She turned around to find a drawn gun pointed at her. "Do I look like I need your help?" I demanded. I could feel her fear, and the familiar guilt and high I got from this power. Her mouth was open in a perfect o, her beautiful blue eyes so wide and frightened. Her eyes closed and she shuddered as I pressed the barrel to her forehead.
I leaned in to whisper, so close that my lips brushed her ear. "Run home, little girl. Don't look for me. Don't follow me. I am not interested in your help."
She slid down the wall when I pulled the gun back and put it into my bag. This time I didn't hear any footsteps following.
I was doing the right thing, wasn't I? I didn't need to stick around with someone who would snoop too much into my past. No good would come of that for me. And a girl like her didn't need to get her life ruined by mixing up with a guy like me. Right? God, couldn't this have waited until after the food? I was still hungry, and I needed to find this storm shelter.
I managed to find a convenience store that was still open. I was glad that the owner of Kwik Stop was still looking to make a buck even though doom in the form of a giant storm was supposed to be arriving. I wandered through the shelves looking for something that would keep, didn't need much preparation, and that was cheap. Choices were slim. I'd want a loaf of bread, certainly, but other than that, it wasn't really worth the money for chips and candy. I almost exclaimed with joy when I stumbled on a dozen cans of vienna sausages. I'd loved these things when I was a little kid, and they were a better deal than a bag of chips. I grabbed a couple of candy bars and a two liter of cherry coke as my luxury items, though I supposed that I could fill the bottle with water after I drank it. As an after thought I pulled some ritz crackers off the shelf too as I headed up to the cash register to pay.
The guy behind the counter looked like he'd had a decade similar to the past couple of days I'd been having, only with less physical activity. He rang up my purchases, giving me a weary eye the whole time as if he looked like he was a whole lot better than me.
"Do you know where the storm shelter is around here?" I asked.
"Sure," he rasped out as I paid, "It's just up this road about five blocks. The big old church."
"Thanks," I said as I took my change, counting to make sure the greasy old fool didn't try to short me. I headed out the the automatic glass doors that looked like they hadn't been cleaned since before I was born.
My shoulder twinged again as I dropped my bag to put my purchase in it. The gun was sitting right there on the top, as if accusing me. You left her there, crying and scared, in the rain. You saw her, how small and fragile she looked. Great job, it taunted. She'll definitely be fine on her own, attempting to be kind to strangers and people like you! I wanted to tell it to shut the hell up, but doubted an inanimate object would hear me. It's not like it had ears or something. God I was nearly as crazy as Alice. Visions, especially visions telling you to find a guy like me, were a definite sign of insanity. I shook my head again as a vision of those beautiful icy blues came into my mind. It was better for both of us if we never crossed paths again. Definitely better. Definitely. My shoulder protested again as I reslung my bag and started off down the street.
I hope she's ok. God, it was stupid to just leave her there. I mean, me sticking around wasn't a good idea, but threatening her, hurting her like that? That was stupid. I just over reacted. Maybe I was just too tired. I can't even apologize either, since I would never see her again. I'm sure I at least managed that much. To frighten away my good samaritan, my personal angel. But she'd go back home, hopefully some gated community, where she'd be safe from storms and creeps like me.
As I walked, I noticed that the street seemed less deserted as I went. Not that it was crawling with people. There still wasn't anyone around that I saw, but there were cars parked up and down both sides of the street. Finally I noticed a bell tower over the top of the shop I was in front of. I picked up the pace as I realized I was closer to my destination. As I got to the end of this block I was confronted with a huge brick church. The windows were outfitted with huge plywood covers, which was good, because judging by the size of the plywood, that much glass would mess up everyone trying to take shelter there.
The sound of rain behind me got me to stop gawking. Glancing behind me, a solid wall of rain seemed to be advancing toward me, and thunder crashed to go ahead and give me even more motivation to get inside. I dashed up some stairs to the huge doors that looked like the main entrance of the church, finding them, fortunately, to be unlocked. I jumped in just before the curtain of rain hit the steps behind me.
I walked into a long room. It was seperated off from whatever the main section of the church is called, where they hold the actual services in the church. Off to the right there was a large woman in a purple shirt behind a desk. A short line of rain splattered people were in front of her, receiving a pen and paperwork. That made sense. Some identifying information before they let you stay, just in case anyone turned out to be a wanted criminal. Or if some medical emergency or something happened. I joined in the line.
Soon I had made it to the front of the line. "Just fill out this form as best as you can," the woman said, giving me a weary smile as she handed me a pen and a form. I gave her a nod as I moved to the side of the oversized desk. I glanced down at the sheet she had handed me.
Name?
DOB?
Address?
Phone Number"
SSN?
I scribbled down answers to all of them, except for my social security number. I couldn't remember that. I mean, honestly, there's got to be a lot of people who don't know their social security number off the top of their head. I made my way back to the purple wearing woman, handing her back her pen and the paper.
"Thank you," she said, looking down at the sheet. "You'll be rooming in 220, just down the hall, Mr. Saunders. Due to space limitation, you'll be sharing a room with a Mr. Masen." I wearily nodded in acknowledgement.
I made my way down the hall she had indicated. The numbers started at 225 and went down. 222. 221. 220. I paused outside the door. Was there some sort of protocol for rooms that you were sharing with a complete stranger for the night. Leave the tip on the nightstand? I thought. What the hell. It's my room too. I opened the door and walked in to what was temporarily home.
It had two blue cots set up on either side of the room. Each had a pillow. One had a white blanket. The other, the one with some guy rising from it, had a blue one. He had a clear face, with messy auburn hair. I bet he thought he was quite the ladies man. Not that I really gave a shit. He had a flash of disgust as I walked in, which might have bothered me more if I'd bothered to hide the complete disdain I felt. He looked like he'd been living on his family's dole his whole life, probably never even struggled in school.
"I take it you're stranded here for the evening also," he said, extending his hand as he flashed me a winning smile that at the moment was much more likely to get him some dental work than it was a friend.
"Yeah," I said, turning away from him to sling my bag to the foot of the other cot. He hadn't kept his hand out like an idiot. Now he was standing there scrutinizing me as I went through my bag, pulling out a change of clean clothes, a towel, and my toiletries kit.
"I'm Edward," he said. "Edward Masen."
"My name's Matt," I said, not looking up from my bag as I checked that my soap, toothbrush, toothpaste,and shampoo were where they should be. "And I don't really give a shit." I grabbed the small pile I had made on my bed, and headed back out of the room to look for some place with a shower in this building. It was big enough that there had to be one somewhere. Edward could have fun doing whatever the hell he had been doing in there before I wandered in.
Honestly, my mind was still on Alice. I hoped she had made it out ok. The roads must be getting pretty bad, and she might not have been in the best condition when I left her. If she waited, and was trying to drive in this. I just ... I hope she was ok. That she made it out of this. I passed some big curly haired guy as I looked around. This hallway rounded a corner and seemed to just keep going. A girl with strawberry blond hair came out of one of the rooms. She turned towards me, heading down the hall in my direction.
"Do you know if there are showers anywhere here?" I asked when she got close. She looked up at me with frightened brilliantly blue eye. No. I blinked. She had hazel eyes.
"There's actually bathrooms at the end of this hall if you just keep going," she said.
"Thanks," I said, brushing past her.
Eventually, at the very end of the hall, near a door marked exit, I found doors that weren't just marked with numbers like all the others. The first one was the women's restroom, so I kept walking. So that would make the next door...
"Help! We need some help in here!" screamed a voice out of the women's bathroom. If I needed help, I sure would want someone to come into the bathroom I was in, regardless of what any sign on the door might have said, so I ended up heading into the first door after all. I found a short (not as short as she was) brown haired girl trying to stop a steady stream of blood another girl's wrist with her bare hands. Her eyes were staring out at us, but they didn't look like they had any idea we were there. She had a bruise on her cheek that she'd tried to hide under some make up.
"Go get help!" I said, shoving the other girl out of the way. I grabbed my towel, pressing it against what was definitely a deliberate slice. There was a matching bruise to go with the one on her face right where she'd cut herself. She started to struggle, dislodging my towel, knocking it away with her other hand. I grabbed her arm, holding both of her arms to the ground, now with all my weight on them to try to staunch the flow of blood and hold her down.
"No," she muttered. "No no no no Royce no!" Her struggles we're getting weaker, which I was taking as a bad sign. I knew the symptom. Maybe the flashback had passed, but maybe she just had lost so much blood that she couldn't fight back anymore.
"In here!" I heard the voice of the brown haired girl I'd sent for help. A blond haired man rushed in with some sort of bag. He moved like he knew what he was doing, pulling al sorts of medical equipement out of the bag.
"What's happened?" he asked me.
"She's lost a lot of blood from a deep cut on her wrist." A brown haired women, about the same age as our medic, came in.
"Come help me dear," said the man, after looking up to see who it was. "Here, let me have her wrist."
He took her wrist from me and suddenly I wasn't part of it anymore. The pair managed to stop the blood loss, as I just stood there with my now blood soaked towel.
I noticed a bloody piece of glass on the floor. I picked it up, wrapping it in my towel. I grabbed up my clothes and bag, which got blood all over them from my hands, and backed out the door. I saw her eyes staring blankly back at me as I left. Blue eyes.
Author's Note: I forgot to put this at first. But right now, one of our writers, Sierra Echo Bravo, is out of touch. Everyone should encourage her to get her chapter three up, view relentless reviewing and PM, so that when she gets back, she has an inbox full of stuff motivating her.
As an unrelated review question, what is the thing that scares you the most?
