Chapter Seven

 

Someone shouted something about a fire, which certainly explained the alarm. The curious timing of this fire, on the other hand…

Eric pushed his way through the hallway, calling out for Holly and hoping he didn’t get knocked over and trampled by a stampeding herd of deadly stilettos.

Some savior he was turning out to be. Delphinium had only asked him to come and find the girl named Holly and return her to the farmhouse. How hard should it be? But he hadn’t even managed to get her out the door before the place caught fire. If he were Del, he’d be very disappointed with him.

For the most part, the backstage scene remained calm. The women looked concerned, curious, but not panicked. They were bustling about just enough to make it hard to navigate the cramped corridor. Most were taking the time to quickly dress themselves before evacuating the building. But a few of them weren’t risking it. The nurse he’d glimpsed on his way to Holly’s dressing room shoved him aside, knocking him against the wall on her way to the exit.

Eric didn’t care if a fire had broken out in a crowded club or not. That was just rude.

Keeping his back to the wall to avoid any further costumed assaults, he pulled his phone from his pocket. “Can you tell where she went?” he asked. His voice was lost under the wailing of the fire alarm and the shouting of the women, but that didn’t matter. He didn’t even have to speak the words aloud. It was merely a force of habit.

NO. BUT I DO FEEL SOMETHING

“What kind of something?”

NOT SURE. BUT IT REMINDS ME OF DELPHINIUM

Eric looked up and scanned the busy hallway. The Indian princess ran past him, her huge implants bouncing obscenely. “Magic?”

MAYBE. I DON’T KNOW

He nodded.

The noise grew louder and more frantic by the door leading out onto the dance floor. Whatever panic had broken out in there was slowly making its way down the cramped hallway, moving through the small crowd like a living thing, carried on the women’s voices as news of the suspiciously timed fire spread through the building.

He had to find Holly quickly. He moved farther down the hallway and called out for her, but of course she wouldn’t hear him in all this chaos.

He leaned into the nearest dressing room to see if she’d gone in there and promptly collided with a busty brunette as she rushed out of the room. She was in her underwear, clutching her clothes and purse in her arms. She yelled at him to get out of her way (using very unladylike language, no less) and smacked him hard on the shoulder before shoving past him, shouting, “Pervert!”

“Sorry… My bad. I guess…”

A man at the far end of the hallway was shouting over the crowd, probably urging everyone to remain calm and exit the building in an orderly fashion.

Eric pushed his way through the oncoming traffic and checked the next room.

Holly was here, frantically helping two of the other dancers into their clothes. He recognized one as Margarita, the girl who replaced her on the middle stage. The other was a skinny blonde with a sleeve of tattoos covering most of her left arm.

Emily, perhaps?

“Holly!”

She looked up at him. “There you are!” She looked relieved to see him.

“Who is he?” demanded Margarita as she fumbled with her shirt.

“A friend,” replied Holly.

Margarita (if that was her real name) sized him up, as if she’d instantly decided she didn’t like him, yet she made no effort to hide her exposed body as she dressed. In fact, she turned toward him, almost daring him to try something.

He ignored her and focused on Holly. “What are you doing? We have to get out of here now!”

“No shit,” snapped Margarita. “What tipped you off? Was it the fire alarm?”

“We’re hurrying!” Holly promised him.

Margarita said something in Spanish. Eric didn’t understand it, but somehow he was sure it didn’t translate into anything very nice.

“Where’re my pants?” asked the tattooed blonde.

“Over there.” Holly gestured toward a chair next to where Eric was standing. A pair of khakis were neatly folded there. In a building full of skimpy skirts and cheesy, revealing costumes, they were a curiously welcome bit of normality. Eric picked them up and handed them to the girl.

“Thank you,” she said. In stark contrast to Margarita, who spoke loudly and clearly didn’t hold anything back, she was timid and quiet.

“I couldn’t leave yet,” explained Holly. “Not without making sure my friends were okay.”

“Well we’ve got to hurry.”

“I know. I’m sorry. But I can’t leave without Emily.”

“I’m fine,” insisted the blonde. It seemed that she was Emily. That was one mystery solved, at least.

“I wasn’t going to leave without her!” said Margarita, sounding insulted.

“I don’t need looked after!” insisted Emily, but no one seemed to be listening to her.

Eric wasn’t sure why Emily needed everybody’s help, but he didn’t ask. He glanced out into the hallway, watching for anyone who looked like a murderous, dark wizard. (And, of course, wishing he knew what a murderous dark wizard actually looked like.) “What’s going on out there, anyway?” he asked.

“Fire,” replied Margarita, as if it were the stupidest question she’d ever heard. “Duh.”

“I mean, how’d the fire start?”

“I don’t know. I ain’t no expert on fires. But it started at the bar. Some kind of explosion, looked like. I was on stage and I just saw this big fireball. Then shit got crazy and I got out of there.”

Eric turned and looked out into the hallway again. A young woman with fine, black hair was approaching from the direction of the dance floor. When she saw him, she stopped and stared at him as if startled, her wide eyes bright and green. Like Holly, she looked almost too young to be working in a place like this. But at least she was fully dressed. She wore faded jeans and appeared to have found a jacket to cover herself with that was several sizes too big for her.

Embarrassed to have surprised her by hanging out in the dressing room doorway like some creepy pervert, he turned away from her again as she hurried on toward the exit.

He could smell the smoke now. It was rapidly filling the building. Soon, the air in here would grow noxious.

Margarita finished dressing and grabbed her purse. “Let’s get out of here.”

“We’re almost ready,” Holly assured her.

“Come on! She can put her shoes on outside!”

“She’s right,” agreed Emily, taking her shoes from Holly and clutching them and her purse to her chest. “Let’s go.”

Eric looked out the door again, wary for any unpleasant surprises. He wasn’t just being paranoid. There were often unpleasant surprises at times like these. But he still saw no sign of an evil wizard. Instead, the naked cowgirl rushed down the hallway and into the room across the hall. A moment later, she emerged, carrying an armload of clothes. When she saw him, she stopped, her blue eyes wide and afraid. “There’s something out there!” she told him. “In the smoke! I saw it! It wasn’t human!”

Eric opened his mouth, but couldn’t think of anything to say.

The girl stared at him for another moment and then looked back the way she came, as if she expected whatever she’d seen to come running down the hall after her. Then she bolted for the exit.

That wasn’t good.

Eric looked back toward the stage. Something not human… Big surprise. Probably some kind of terrible monster. He’d seen more than his fair share. “Holly…” he called.

“We’re coming,” she promised.

He looked back at her. “We shouldn’t still be here. I really think we’re in trouble.”

Holly snatched her purse off the shelf and gripped Emily’s hand. “I know. I’m sorry. We’re ready now.”

“Keep your eyes open. Something’s not right.”

“What the hell does that mean?” snapped Margarita. “What’s not right?”

But Holly clearly understood. She looked back at him with wide, worried eyes.

“Follow me close. Let’s go.”

But as he stepped out into the hallway again, he nearly collided with Norval, who was dragging a familiar form toward the emergency exit. It was the old man, the one who’d been sitting at the next table while Eric was waiting on Holly the first time. Clearly, he was far too drunk to evacuate on his own two feet.

“I thought you left already,” said Norval.

“I was worried about Emily,” said Holly.

“We have it under control,” he assured her. “But you’ve got to get out of here. Fire department’s on the way.”

“What did you see in there?” Eric asked. “Was there anything in the smoke?”

Norval looked down at him, confused. “What do you mean?”

“One of the girls said she saw something in the smoke.”

It was clear by his expression that he hadn’t seen anything out of the ordinary. “Must’ve been confused. It’s hard to see in there. Smoke’s bad. You need to get out of here. I’m serious.”

“Yes,” agreed Eric. He might’ve been right. In the panic, the curvy, blonde cowgirl might have only imagined seeing something unusual in the smoke. But in his experience, it was also just as likely that she hadn’t. “Let’s go. Now.”

Holly nodded.

“Here, take this with you,” said Norval, depositing the old man into Eric’s arms. Not being nearly as freakishly strong as the burly bouncer, he barely managed to keep from dropping the poor guy into a drunken pile on the floor.

Norval turned and headed back toward the dance floor.

“Be careful!” Holly called after him.

“Say…” slurred the old man, his foul beer breath blowing directly into Eric’s face. “Aren’t you Agnes’ boy?”

“Um… No. I’m not.”

“Are you sure?”

Eric heaved him around and started for the emergency exit again. “Pretty sure. Yeah.”

“Funny… Spitting image…”

Eric doubted very much that the old man’s eyes were anywhere near sober enough to tell him apart from Jabba the Hut. As if to confirm this, he added, “Wait… Maybe Agnes’ boy was a girl…”

“It was probably one of the two,” Eric told him.

“I bet you’re right,” agreed the old man, as if it had been an astonishingly brilliant deduction.

Eric glanced back down the hallway. Holly, Emily and Margarita were right behind him. No one else was in the hallway. Everyone had exited the building ahead of them. If something awful was going to leap out and attack them, now would be the time.

But the most frightening thing that appeared was the bouncer with the big mustache as he came down the hall behind them, peering into each dressing room, making sure everyone had left the building.

He dragged the old drunk through the door and out into the brilliant sunlight. Most of the women had gathered here behind the club, out of sight of any passing vehicles. Some of them were still in their stage costumes, like the nurse, but most had either managed to get into their street clothes before exiting the building or had grabbed them on their way out and were dressing now. The only one still indecent was the middle-aged brunette, who was just standing there, still topless, still smoking her cigarette and still looking bored with her life.

Eric took the time to carry the old man a safe distance from the building and then lowered him gently to the ground. But before he could stand up and step away, his tee shirt was seized in a wrinkled fist and the man’s eyes flew open, almost bulging. “She doesn’t know!” he cried.

Eric stared back at him. “What?”

“You won’t be able to save her!”

“I won’t be able to save who?”

But the old man now only looked confused. “Who?”

Eric blinked down at him, stunned.

The old man wilted back onto the ground and rolled his bloodshot eyes away from him.

When he looked up to see if Holly had heard any of that, he found her helping Emily into her shoes.

Who didn’t know? And what didn’t she know? And who was it he couldn’t save?

Eric stood up, stretching his back, and said, “Make sure they don’t leave the poor guy out here in the sun.”

“I’ll take care of him,” promised Emily.

He nodded, then looked at Holly. “Now can we get out of here?”

“Yes. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” So far, he thought, but didn’t add.

Holly turned to Margarita now. “I’ve got to go,” she told her. “Promise you won’t leave Emily.”

“Jeez, Holly,” sighed Emily.

“You know I won’t,” snapped Margarita. “I promise.”

She turned to Eric now and said, “Okay, I’m ready.”

Finally, he thought.

The two of them hurried away from the crowd and around the corner of the building, their eyes open for any more unexpected surprises.

As they ran, Eric’s gaze drifted to the cornfield. He didn’t like cornfields. Lots of things hid in cornfields. He’d once encountered nightmarish things in a cornfield just like that one. Except that it had been August and the stalks had been a little taller.

But that was far from here, on the edge of another world.

“It’s the magic man, isn’t it?” said Holly as she kept up with his brisk pace.

“It’s probably not Santa,” Eric told her.

They hurried around the side of the building and into the parking lot where the van waited, undisturbed. No one seemed to notice them. Lots of customers were leaving. The bouncer in the American eagle cap who took Eric’s eleven dollars was barking orders from the front doorway at those who remained. He didn’t look well. In fact, he looked like he could have a massive heart attack at any moment. His pudgy face was bright red.

Wisps of smoke were drifting out of the open doorway.

This was no accident. Clearly something had happened here. Delphinium said it was important to find Holly first. Obviously, she was next on the magic man’s list. How close had he come to being too late?

“I hope no one’s hurt,” said Holly.

“I don’t think we can help them by sticking around. We need to get you away from here.”

She nodded. “Del will know what to do.”

He hoped she was right, because he sure didn’t have a clue.

He opened the passenger door of the van and ushered her inside, then he ran around to the driver’s side and jumped in behind the wheel. Seconds later, they were pulling out of the parking lot and speeding away.

With The Dirty Bunny shrinking in his rearview, he finally relaxed a little. But he’d barely had time to take a relieved breath when something darted into the road in front of them.