Standing in front of the warehouse was nerve racking. It was about seven thirty and Matt was off in the distance making sure everything went smoothly. But that didn't help my nerves. I knocked on the door, the folder of information in my hand. It took about five seconds for the door to open.
A big feeling man stood in the door way. He grabbed me roughly and pulled me in. His hands were the size of plates that spanned my whole shoulder as he lead me, rather meanly, through the building.
"Wait here." He told me as we stopped. He let me go and I heard a door open. "She's here." I heard his muffled voice through the door. It opened again and he pulled me inside. The room smelled weird.
"Are you alone?" Came a voice somewhere in front of me.
"Yes." He got out of the chair he was in.
"Give them here." I held out the papers and he snatched them from my hand. He leafed through the papers and gave a satisfied huff. "Thank you Miss Treaty. Kill her."
"What!" The big man grabs me again and pulls me out of the room. "Wait, what about Loralee? Will she be let free?" I called.
"Yes. She'll be let free. You on the other hand will die painfully. Just like your father." He yelled back. He seemed so, calm. Sadistically calm.
"My, my fa-" I couldn't get the rest out because I was beginning to be dragged backwards by my hair. I was pulled for a while as I kicked and screamed.
"LET ME GO!" Eventually I was thrown into a cold room on my hands and knees. It smelled like meat. Raw, bloody meat. "Please don't do this. I won't do anything again. I promise." He walked away from me and I heard him pick up something blood chilling. I heard the ring or metal on a counter. He had picked up a knife. "Please. Please."
I was scooting backwards as his footsteps grew closer. "Please." He grabbed my hair again and lifted me to my feet. "PLEASE!"
I heard a solid THUMP as something hit the head of the man with the knife. He grunted as if it was more annoying than anything else. He let me go and looked around. I managed to get up and back a few paces away from him when I heard the fighting.
Someone light on their feet was fighting someone slow and heavy. Then I heard that bleased heartbeat. Matt had come to save me. The fight lasted about two minutes after that. The big man hit the floor with a crash and Matt was over to me.
"We need to go." He urged.
"What about Loralee? What about the papers?" He pulled me, gently.
"We don't need the papers. I made copies." He was avoiding.
"We need to help Loralee." He was still guiding me away. "Hey!"
"She, she's gone, Alex." I stopped walking.
"What? Wait. No, no they promised that she'd be fine, that she'd go free!" Matt rubbed my arm sympathetically, but I yanked away. "Are you sure? Are you sure she's dead?"
"Yeah. I'm sure. She was dead before we got here." This can't be happening. This can't be happening! He started dragging me along again, and I didn't resist. He pulled me out of the room and into a hallway. We were met by three, no, four people. Matt took care of them quickly. Then I was being guided away again.
Soon we were back outside, and it was raining. It was coming down pretty hard as Matt pulled me away from the building. Within a minute, my clothes were soaked to the skin. He ran with me for a little over a mile when I slipped.
I skidded across the cobblestone ground. The alleyway wall stopped me as I slammed into it. I stayed there, wet and numb. Matt tried to get me up, his gloved Devil hands pulled at my arms and his deep voice yanked at my ears.
"She's dead." I said almost to nothing. The pulling and the yanking stopped.
"I know." He kneeled in front of me, the rain sliding off of his hard armor. We stayed there for only a moment when he took both my hands in his. "Come on. Let's get out of the rain." He pulled me up and lead me off into the night.
We were at his apartment. We climbed up to the roof and got in that way because he was still in his vigilante suit. He sat me down on his couch as he went to change. When he came back he headed for the kitchen. "Are you hungry?" He opened his fridge.
"Yeah. Whatcha got?" I got up and joined him.
"Left over Chinese, left over Mexican, some milk, anything sound good?"
"Chinese." He handed me a cardboard container. "Thanks." There were already a pair of chopsticks in there when I opened up the container. I move away from the fridge and sit on the cold ground. "Smells like pork." I was joined by Matt with his Mexican take out.
"Beef and broccoli." He confirmed. We sat there and ate our food in silence when a knock sounded. "I'll be right back." He placed the container on the ground where he was sitting, and left. A moment later the front door opened.
I intently focused on the sound of my chewing as to give Matt his privacy. I noticed the different spices in the pork and felt the individual fibers in the cardboard container. Then,
"Alex?" It was Karen's voice. I look up from the container and faced the woman in front of me. "What're you doing here?" I didn't have a good excuse for that.
"I, uh, Matt helped me, do something." I heard Matt laugh.
"She knows what I do, Alex. It's okay." I called it. I knew that she had to know something.
"Oh."
"You knew he was, you know?" Karen asked me.
"I knew yesterday when you brought me over here." I stayed on the ground.
"Oh." I heard her scuff her heals.
"What're you doing here though?" I didn't want her to ask me again. So I asked her a question.
"I came to see if you were here, and you are. I have some news on the case we were working on. I found out-"
"Karen, I, I'm not working on the case anymore." I picked at my food as her heart quickened.
"What? Why? This isn't because Matt told you not to is it?" She smack him.
"Ow!" He yelled as he rubbed his shoulder.
"Why are you making her stop?" Karen berated him.
"No, Karen, Matt didn't make me stop anything. I chose to stop."
"Why?" I couldn't discuss this right now.
"Some things, happened." I went back to picking at my food, a few tears fell into the broccoli. I stayed quiet as Karen looked at me.
"Are you okay?" She kneeled next to me.
"Great. I'm just great." More tears fell. My glasses started to slide from my face. She grabbed ahold of them. She gasped as she saw my eyes. My scars. My burns.
As she placed the glasses on the ground, she reached up to touch my face. My immediate reaction was to stop her, but the gentleness of her fingers stopped me.
"What happened?" Her voice was so sorry for my burned, blind eyes. She ran her hands over the charred flesh.
"Please." I grabbed her wrist. "Don't." She continued.
"What happened?" She asked again. I pulled away from her. This was too much.
"I can't." I got off of the floor and took a few steps away.
"Alex, what happened to you?" She followed me.
"Something bad. Please, Karen. I can't talk about it. Not right now."
"Okay, yeah okay. You're right. I'm sorry." She took a step back and Matt walked over.
"Are you okay?" He didn't touch me. He didn't give me a comforting shoulder touch, or a sympathetic hand squeeze. I appreciated that so much.
"Do I have to be?" I almost laughed.
"No. No you don't." Karen answered as she squeezed my hand. I slipped my hand out and rubbed my face. I could feel the scars. My ugly scars.
"I think." I sighed deeply. "I think I'm gonna go home." I retrieved my glasses from the floor and returned them to my face. So, they could mask my eyes. "Today has been, way too long. And, and I think I may still be a little hung over, so." I forced a little laugh as I made my way to the door.
"Hung over?" Matt asked.
"She, she uh went to Josie's after here last night." Karen old him. I grabbed my still wet coat.
"Thank you for helping me with the case Karen. I appreciated it more than you'll know."
"Absolutely." I heard her scuff her shoes. I left the apartment.
"Thank you for trying to help me. And I'm sorry about being a nuisance about that file." I whispered to Matt. I knew he heard me because I heard a whisper back.
"There's nothing to be sorry for. If you ever need my help again, you know where to find me." After that I left the building, finding myself in the rain, again.
I almost called a cab to take me to my apartment, but I thought different. Those bastards will pay for what they did to Loralee. I don't care if I die making them suffer. I don't care if I have to tear every brick out of every building to find them. But they'll get what's coming for them.
