Cheating Death – Chapter 7
By MyNameIsCAL
Gazzy was late. Iggy paced the kitchen, back and forth.
"He'll be here," I assured him. But the truth was, Gazzy hadn't been answering his phone.
"I couldn't get him to come over for the past couple of days," Iggy muttered. "I'm worried."
Max came through the doorway. "Did you call him?"
I led her to the hallway between the kitchen and the bedroom where Nudge waited, in her dress. "I've called him several times. He won't pick up."
"Then I'll have to go get him," Max sighed.
It was almost comical, the idea of Max flying in a dress to force Gazzy to come here, so I shook my head and repeated what I had said to Iggy. "He'll be here."
But I called him again, standing in the hallway as Max left to go talk to Nudge.
"H-h-hello?" Gazzy stuttered.
"Gazzy, where are you?" I made a point to sound calm.
"I can't come." He sounded like he was going to start crying. Gazzy had always been the one who tried to stay strong, but there were times when he let his emotions get the best of him. Well, there were times we all did.
"Why not?" Max should be talking to him, not me, now that I thought about it.
"Because Angel, before all this happened, she had been so excited about them getting married." He sounded like a little child. "I can't go there and think about how she's not getting to see this."
"She would have wanted you to come."
"She's just telling you to say that, isn't she?"
"No, she's not. I haven't talked to her today."
"I…I need a half hour to pull myself together, alright?"
"Alright. But a minute more and Max is going to come get you."
There was a click and the line was dead. I returned to the kitchen and told Iggy that we'd only have to wait a half hour more. The minister, who had arrived here an hour ago, only nodded patiently when I told him.
Gazzy came, dressed in a suit that needed to be unwrinkled and hair that needed to be combed. He looked like he hadn't slept in days.
"I'm sorry," he said under his breath.
I was glad Iggy couldn't see the disheveled state Gazzy was in.
"It's alright," Iggy shrugged.
And then the wedding began. It wasn't extravagant. Nudge's dress hardly matched the inside of the house, but she had designed it herself back when there had been real plans, and nothing was going to stop her from wearing it. None of us were going to protest, it was her wedding. It didn't take long. They exchanged their vows. In fact, it almost seemed like a blur. Sitting on the couch watching it all happen made it seem more surreal.
"Well," Iggy said after the ceremony was finished. "Shall we get on with dinner?"
Gazzy stood and then sat.
"What's wrong?" Max asked, sitting next to him.
He looked at her and then at the floor. "I should get back to Angel…"
"Will you at least stay for dinner?" Max asked, sounding more convincing than I had on the phone.
"Alright," he agreed gruffly.
We moved into the kitchen. Nudge left to change out of her dress. Part of me felt guilty. This should have been bigger, it should have been better. But Iggy had this grin on his face that you knew would take a long time to disappear. Even Nudge seemed to radiate and light up the room.
"Fang, can you get some wine out of the garage?" Iggy asked.
"Sure." I headed down the hall.
And for what had been a few vision free days came to an end. I hit the wall, pain that had been absent for days suddenly hitting me again…
I didn't know where I was, or who these people were. Looking around, I still had to be in Arizona.
"I got a Psychology final tomorrow," the person next to me said. He wasn't my age, younger. Oh, I knew where I was now. This was some sort of college university campus.
"Good luck with that!" some other kid replied as they started to walk ahead of me. "I got Chemistry and…"
There was an explosion. The building in front of us exploded. The two guys that had been talking in front of me now stumbled back, walking right through me. Wherever this was, I wasn't going to physically going to be there.
"Holy shit!" one of them shouted.
And then there was a round of gunfire. This man, holding a machine gun, came running out of the burning building. He started to shoot, gun pointed at me, but the bullets went through me like nothing. Then I realized he had been aiming at the two kids. I was invisible.
"No! RUN!" I shouted, but no one could hear me. Before I knew it, I was surrounded by the dead and the dying. The gunner ran, getting into an unmarked van, making an escape…
Nudge shook me. "Fang, what did you see?"
I opened my eyes, looking around and feeling disoriented. It was only Nudge and me in the hallway.
"Some college...a bombing…a shooting," I shook my head. "None of us were there."
"But it must have something to do with us." Nudge helped me up.
It does, Angel chimed in. But I don't know what.
Nudge and I parted ways and I tried to shake the feeling of anxiety about not knowing what it had all meant.
