Run
dock doors, the only two they noticed on the whole building after she drove the Escalade around the perimeter. With windows down, the revving engine unmistakably came from inside, but she couldn’t tell from which door.
“There’s at least a four-foot height on those dock doors,” Ralph said.
“Yeah,” Amber said. “Is he going to Dukes of Hazzard it out of there?”
“I don’t know what that is,” Lorcthe said, “but I assume you mean he’ll take his chances on the drop.”
Amber leaned out her window as far as she could. “Can either of you tell which door he’s behind?”
Ralph got out.
“Ralph!” Amber said.
He ran and then stopped in front of a dock, listened, then stepped to the next.
“This one,” Ralph said and then jumped up on the platform.
Amber drove in front of the doorway, blocking it. There was no way anyone could clear them. The Escalade had the height, and without sufficient space to get up to speed there was no way to smash through. They had him.
“Ralph,” Amber said, “get back here.”
He didn’t. He hovered in front of the doorway, acting like some damn dumb shield or something. Ralph held the PMR-30. What the hell was he thinking? And then he paced back and forth, muttering something to himself.
“What is your friend doing?” Lorcthe asked.
“I don’t know.” But she thought she did. He muttered to himself, getting himself in a tizzy. Ralph hammered his chest with his fist.
“Oh my fuck,” Amber said.
The car engine revved at a steady rate, yet the door never opened. What were they waiting for?
“Ralph, goddamn it, get back in here, now. We have to—”
Ralph bashed on the dock door, over and over. “Open up!” he screamed, not out of fear but a roaring rage. “Open this door!”
Jesus, he was going off the deep end.
The bay door flew open a couple feet.
Ralph ducked down, gun forward.
Someone grabbed and pulled him in, the door slamming down.
“NO!” Amber said.
Lorcthe exited the Escalade, Amber right after.
They both jumped up on the dock, and as they reached to try and yank the door up, someone beat them to it.
Amber caught it all in seconds: the stranger pointed Ralph’s PMR-30 at him; Ralph had pulled the doorway open; and the stranger, dressed in black, reached into the car with the revving engine, an immaculate classic of the past—cherry red, a muscle car of some sort.
She didn’t have to say anything. Amber went left, Lorcthe right, remaining on the dock, but out of the way as the stranger shifted the beast of a car into drive and it rocketed forward.
The Escalade topped above the dock by a foot and a half. Amber didn’t have time to turn away; she had no sooner gotten out of the way than the red rocket plowing into the Escalade and then over it, crunching and denting the roof. The car’s front end tipped over the other side and smashed into the asphalt. When it did, whatever was holding the gas pedal down must have fallen. The engine went from roaring menace to purring idle. The back wheels continued to fight against the roof of the Escalade, but the car went no further.
Amber turned her attention inside, and her heart sank at the sight before her: Ralph was held down on the ground by the stranger’s foot, gun to his poor head that had been in a similar situation far too many times.
The man holding Ralph, disheveled, twitched his head like he had some sort of tic. “Who are you?” Twitch Man asked. “A-are you with Eziel?”
What the hell? Amber assumed the man part of Eziel’s clan. “Who are you?” Amber asked. “We are not with Eziel. We’re trying to stop him.”
“Do you know who I am?” Lorcthe asked.
“Why would I?” Twitch said. “Look, I just want to go. I don’t want no part of this no more. It’s not what I signed on for. Fucking bodies turning to shadow people, and… and I can’t even… they’re all dying over there.”
“Where?” Amber asked “We want to help stop this. Help us do that. And please, let our friend go. We won’t hurt you. Tell us what you know.”
His head twitched again. “No. No fucking way. Why, so Eziel, or Zeisule, or some other unholy twisted abomination can torture my soul? Jesus! Fucking Jesus! I didn’t sign on for this. All my friends are dead. And I assume that was your buddy in the warehouse, killed those others, those crazy fucking fucks.”
Amber edged toward him, her hands up. “Please, let him go.”
Twitch shook his head, glanced down, and lifted his foot from Ralph’s body, and pointed the gun in Amber and Lorcthe’s general direction.
“I don’t wanna hurt no one,” Twitch said. “But don’t trust you. No offense. I don’t think I can trust anyone ever again with what I’ve seen.” Tears pooled and streamed down his face. “Jesus fuck, help me, fucking help me.”
Twitch’s plea was not directed at any of them.
Ralph sat up, turning to watch the stranger’s rant.
“Eziel has been up to something, up that hallway.” Twitch nodded past Amber, to a gray fire door. “You can’t stop him, you know. You can’t. You know what he is, right?”
Amber nodded.
“It’ll tear this world apart. Fuck only knows what those shadowy nightmares will do. Don’t really want to find out, know what I mean?”
“Come with us,” Amber said. “Let us help you.”
“You can’t. You can’t.” Twitch backed away from them. He squeezed his eyes over and over again and started breathing heavily through his nostrils.
Lorcthe offered nothing, but what could she? Side glances revealed her curiosity at the man before them. Did humans appear weak-minded to her?
Twitch reached behind and pulled out another gun, tossing Ralph’s PMR-30 to him. Ralph caught it, his brow furrowed.
“Well,” Twitch said, “I flicked the power off, but it probably won’t affect them.”
“Won’t affect what?” Ralph asked.
“You’ll see. And then you’ll wish you hadn’t. Don’t go to the Nexus complex. Please, I’m begging you, for your own sanity, don’t go.”
Jesus, the Nexus. “Is that where Eziel is?” Amber asked.
Twitch nodded.
She wondered why there, again? They had gotten what they wanted, the incubus and succubus. Why go back to a place that was in the center of town? And then the obviousness of it smacked her in the face: people, lots of people.
“I’m sorry,” Twitch said. He looked up at the ceiling. “I’m so fucking sorry.”
Twitch grabbed his head and breathed heavier and heavier. “Tell your friend out there to tread carefully, and then all of you get the fuck out and get the fuck away from this place. Hell, I’d go to Antarctica if I could stand the cold.”
His head kept twitching, the tears streaming.
“Run,” he whispered and then brought his gun up under his chin and pulled the trigger.