Chapter Forty-Seven: Rae
ZANE SNAPPED OUT OF THE trance he’d been in, playing with my hair or feeling sorry for the Influencers or whatever, and put his hand on my shoulder. “Time to pay the piper,” he said, giving me another stunning smile. He bent down, his lids dropping down as he got nearer.
I slid out of his grasp and moved closer to the door, wondering if I’d be able to outrun him. He was tall with long legs. I was willing to bet he jogged a lot too. He was too in-shape to think otherwise.
“What are you doing?” he asked, turning around. He didn’t look quite as happy as he had two seconds ago. If I didn’t know better, I’d say my Rainbow grip was slipping.
“Nothing. Just … getting some space between us. I get nervous when people get too close.”
“Why?” he sneered. “You too good for other people?”
I was shocked by his quick change of mood. He’d gone from sexy to assholey in the space of three seconds.
“No, I don’t think I’m too good.” It was stupid, but his words hurt my feelings. I’d always thought the exact opposite about myself.
“Too pretty, then? You’re too pretty for a guy like me to touch?”
“What? No! Don’t be ridiculous.” I stared at him, noticing something weird, and it wasn’t just his change in attitude. The angrier he got at my rejection, the quicker he lost that attractive quality that’d made me go gah-gah over him earlier. His skin wasn’t quite so smooth-looking now and his hair not so perfectly shiny and styled. His jaw was weak and pointy where it had once appeared strong and square.
His pants started to slide down, his big gut expanding the loosened waistband until it couldn’t take the pressure anymore.
Gut? Since when did Zane have a gut? What happened to that glorious six-pack?
I looked back up at his face and my mouth dropped open. “What’s happening to you?” I whispered.
He took three steps towards me, a malevolent smile taking over his expression. “What’s the matter, Rae? You don’t like what you see anymore?”
I moved back until my hand was on the door. “Stop right there, Zane. I’m not kidding. I don’t know what the hell’s going on, but there’s something wrong with your face.”
He tipped his head back and laughed; it had a distinctly bitter quality to it. “Something wrong with my face? That’s a good one.” He glared at me again. “There’s never anything wrong with my face! My face is perfect! Look at it! Can’t you see?” He picked up a hand mirror from the side table and threw it at me violently, making it crash against the wall right next to my head. Big shards of glass bounced off my arm and landed at my feet. “Of course you can’t see,” he growled. “No one can. I’m invisible.”
Suddenly two and two made four in my brain. The math added up, and I realized what had been staring me in the face all along.
“You’re an Influencer, Zane, aren’t you?”
He glared at me, angry tears shining in his eyes. “What was your first clue?” He took one more step, now almost close enough to reach out and grab me.
I turned the handle of the door, preparing to yank it open. I prayed the reason I could see Zane for who he really is was standing just outside in the hallway.
“My first clue was this.” I bent down hurriedly and picked up the biggest shard of glass I could reach, holding it up and reflecting his image back at him.
His feet froze in place as he lifted his fingers slowly to his face and touched his cheek in silence, rubbing it and moving the skin around. Then he lowered his gaze to his belly and used his other hand to rub the furry layer of fat that lay over his pants. When his eyes came back up to meet mine, they revealed a very unhappy man.
“What have you done to me? What have you done?!”
He came at me like a charging bull, roaring his displeasure at losing his beautiful looks.
I did the only thing I could think of to save myself. Jumping to the side, I opened the door and stuck my foot out, leaning my upper body away so he couldn’t grab me.
He reached out a hand for me but missed. I used my shoulder and back to shove him through the doorway with everything I had.
The side of his foot caught my toe, sending him into a heap on the floor of the hallway with his pants around his knees.
Chapter Forty-Eight: Malcolm
“YOU BITCH!” THE FAT GUY yelled. He scrambled to get up, but his pants kept getting in the way. I was about to help him to his feet when Rae stuck her head out of the room he’d fallen from.
“Malcolm!” she said, clearly relieved. “And Jazzy. Oh my God, you have no idea how happy I am to see you guys.”
She tiptoed around the fat guy to avoid stepping on him and then rushed over to us, grabbing me into a huge hug with her good arm and gesturing for Jasmine with her other hand.
I held her to me tightly, a little too choked up to speak at first. I couldn’t believe our luck at finding her in this huge maze of a place.
“What the hell was going on in there?” asked Jasmine, pulling out of our group hug and staring at the guy on the ground. “Why are his pants off?”
I leaned back a little to look at Rae. She didn’t meet my eyes at first, but when she finally did, I saw something that looked like guilt.
“Please don’t be mad at me,” she said, anguish in her voice.
I clenched my jaw to keep myself from blurting anything out. I didn’t want to jump to conclusions. She and I cared about each other and that was no small thing for people like us. As far as I was concerned, nothing had changed in the few hours we’d been apart, no matter what this looked like.
“Well? Who is this guy?” asked Jasmine, moving back from him as he stood and fixed his pants.
“I’m Zane,” he said, pulling up his zipper. “Who the hell are you?”
“Zane, this is my boyfriend Malcolm and my best friend Jasmine.” She looked at me and then Jasmine with a worried expression. “Guys, this is Zane. He’s an Influencer. I think he makes people see him a certain way.”
“No, wrong, know it all. I make people see beauty. That’s what I do. That’s who I am.”
“Could-a fooled me,” said Jasmine under her breath.
“He’s right,” Rae said, stepping away from me and towards him. I got the impression she felt sorry for him. “His influence is really strong. He’s beautiful, really truly.”
Zane looked at her, maybe angry at first but then a little less so.
“I don’t get it,” said Jasmine. “All I see is an overweight, fuzzy potato with legs.” She looked at me. “What do you see, Malcolm?”
“Hey!” said Zane. “Watch the language. I ain’t no potato.”
“I just see a guy,” I said, a little disgusted to be checking him out like that. I looked up the hallway and down. “We need to go. Zane, do you know how to get out of here?”
“Of course I do, but I’m not telling you. I’m going to tell Helen you’re running around without an escort. Your ass is going to get baked.” He smiled like he really enjoyed the idea.
Jasmine walked over and went toe to toe with him. “You tell that bitch anything and I’m going to put your balls in a vice and shut ‘em down, you know what I’m sayin’?”
Doubt flashed across his face. He looked at Rae. “Is she serious? Is she an Influencer too?”
“Uh, yeah,” Rae said. “Ball shriveler. Don’t make her mad or they’ll turn into raisins.”
“Black raisins. And then they fall off,” Jasmine added, nodding.
I cupped my hands over my jewels and shook my head at him. Just the idea made me get a stomach ache.
Zane put his jewel protector hand-cup on too. “Yeah, okay, I won’t say anything to Helen. But you need to smash me over the head or something and knock me out. If she finds out I didn’t bring Rae over to her office out of choice, she’ll kill me. I don’t want to get baked.”
“I’m not sure I even what to know … but what does getting baked mean?” I asked.
Zane shivere
d. “Ugh. It’s bad. There’s a temperature Influencer in the compound somewhere, and he can make you feel like you’re on fire on the inside. Nasty stuff. People tear their skin off to make it stop. One guy even drowned himself.”
“Yeah, let’s not get baked,” said Jasmine, rolling her eyes, possibly in fear. “Is this your love nest? Go on in, I’ll be happy to bash you over the head with something.” Jasmine pushed on his back a little, making him trip into the room.
“What are you going to use?” he asked.
“How about this chair?” Jasmine grunted as she said it, so I pictured her with it over her head. It must have been an accurate assumption, since the next thing I heard was a loud bark of pain and then the sound of a large person falling to the ground.
I walked to the doorway and saw Jasmine putting a chair down on the floor next to an unconscious Zane.
“You actually hit him with a chair?”
She frowned at me. “Of course I hit him. Asshole was going to rat us out. What’d you expect me to do?”
“But we didn’t ask him how to get out of here yet,” said Rae. “I don’t know how to get out, do you?” She looked at Jasmine and then me, desperation in her eyes.
“Uhhh, no. We don’t know exactly,” said Jasmine. “But we do know where the front door is, so why don’t we just go there?”
“Oh, so we’re going to just waltz right out of here without anyone saying anything?” I asked. “I’m pretty sure that’s not going to work.”
No sooner had the words left my mouth than an alarm started going off. A light was flashing in the corner of the room and the door began to close on its own.
“Holy crap! Help!” said Rae, throwing herself against the door to keep it open.
I grabbed the chair Jasmine had just put down and shoved it in between the door and the frame, blocking it from closing. It strained against the steel furniture, and I wasn’t sure how long it would hold.
“Come on!” I yelled at Jasmine. Rae was in the hallway, wringing her hands and looking to towards the end of the hall where we’d entered this part of the compound.
“Hurry!” she said. “People are going to catch us out here!”
“Hold on a second,” said Jasmine, pulling open drawers and throwing things around.
“What are you doing? We have to go.” I went over to grab her, but she shrugged me off.
“I’m looking for an ID badge or something. He has to have one. We can use it to get out.”
I grabbed the suit jacket off the bed and searched the pockets. “This what you’re looking for?” I asked, pulling a hard plastic card out of the inside pocket.
“Perfect,” she said, snatching it from my hand and attaching it to my shirt. “You’re our escort. Now escort our asses out of here.” She pushed me to the door and I jumped over the chair, joining Rae in the hallway. I took her by the hand and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek as we waited for Jasmine to join us.
Chapter Forty-Nine: Rae
JASMINE KICKED THE CHAIR INTO the room and the door finished closing on its own. The sounds of a lock engaging followed, and I tested the handle just to be sure. The door was sealed shut.
“Damn, they don’t mess around,” said Jasmine. She looked up at the corner of the ceiling as we approached the end of the corridor. “They have cameras. They see us now. Everyone else is probably trapped in rooms, so it’s not going to take them long to get to us. We need to get to that front door and just go out guns blazing.”
“Do you have guns?” I asked, hoping she was just being figurative.
“We have one. We’ll go out gun blazing not guns,” said Jasmine. “The good news is, with you two together, that fucking Blood Boiler isn’t going to be able to do anything to us.”
“Thank God,” I said, jogging along while holding Malcolm’s hand. “That sounded awful.”
“Yeah, and I thought making people depressed was bad.” Malcolm squeezed my hand and pulled me closer. We bumped into each other, but I didn’t care. Just feeling him near made me feel better, even if it did make running more difficult and hurt my cut arm.
“Turn here,” said Jasmine, slowing down to take a right when we got to a point where there were three hallways to choose from.
“Are you sure?” asked Malcolm, coming to a stop, breathing heavily.
“No. But unless you have a better idea…?”
We both shook our heads.
“Fine. Come on.” Jasmine took off again, leaving us behind.
“Hurry,” said Malcolm, “we can’t let her get too far ahead. I’m supposed to be her escort.”
I tried to speed up, but my legs wouldn’t cooperate. They felt like they were made of lead. “I’m about to collapse,” I said, barely able to get the words out. I was so out of shape it wasn’t even funny. The blood loss definitely wasn’t helping.
Malcolm put his arm around my waist, giving me a boost of speed. His head was down as he helped me, so he missed Jasmine’s epic crash right into a guy coming from another hallway.
“Oooph!” she yelled, as her body ricocheted across the corridor, banging into the opposite wall. She fell to the ground, her arms and legs splayed out around her.
The man fell on the ground too, face first, his gun skidding across the floor towards us.
Malcolm let go of me and scooped it up, running over without missing a beat to get to Jasmine and help her on her feet.
“Sorry about that,” he said to the guy.
“What the hell’s going on?” the stranger said, standing up and brushing himself off. “What are you running around like that for?” He glared at Jasmine. “Who are you? Where’s your badge?”
Malcolm held his out. “Here’s mine. I’m escorting her out of here.”
“Who is she?” asked the guy. “And give me my gun.” He held out his hand.
Malcolm held it down at his side. “Let me see your badge first.”
“What?” The guy was clearly offended.
“Let me see your badge, I said. You heard me. Show it.” Malcolm waved at the guy with the gun. He was totally pulling it off, acting like a cop or security guard or something.
“Here,” said the guy, pulling a card out of his pocket and shoving it in Malcolm’s face. At the same time, he stared at Malcolm hard. After a few seconds he frowned. “What the hell?” he asked, as if waiting for an explanation.
Malcolm backed his chin up into his neck. “What the hell, what? Are you asking me a question?”
“Yeah, I’m asking you a question. What the hell are you doing to me?”
“I’m not doing anything. I just asked to see your badge. It looks good. Why don’t you go ahead and continue on with what you were doing.” He waved the gun carelessly, gesturing down the hallway.
I walked over quickly, getting between them. The guy was trying to use some kind of influence over Malcolm, but it wasn’t working and he knew it. Maybe he was the Blood Boiler. I needed to make sure that Malcolm’s powers didn’t get discovered in here and that this guy would get lost quick.
“I can see you’re an Influencer,” I said. “Right now you need to get to your quarters and let us get to ours. There are intruders in the building who are trying to kidnap us.”
“No shit, Sherlock, that’s who I’m looking for. It’s you, isn’t it?”
I laughed at him as genuinely as I could. “Yeah, right.” I moved in closer, putting my best scary expression on my face. “I’m no kidnapper. I’m an Influencer. You’re being influenced right now, can’t you feel it? I’m sucking your influence right out of your body. That’s my skill.”
He backed up a step. “Say what?”
“You heard me.” I moved even closer, ignoring Malcolm’s panicked look. “I’m a Soul Sucker. That’s my influence. Can you feel it? Can you feel your soul leaving your body?” I opened my eyes really wide and then slowly shut them for effect. Then I opened my mouth really wide and inhaled loudly, letting out a horror-film-worthy whine, the best imitation of a soul sucker
I could come up with on the spur of the moment.
“Fuck this,” he said, and took off running down the hall in the opposite direction.
Chapter Fifty: Malcolm
JASMINE WAS DYING LAUGHING. WE were trying to run, but she kept falling behind and bending over to catch her breath.
“Soul sucker … whooaaarrrrooohhh …” She was imitating the horrible asthmatic sound Rae had made while she was pretending to suck that idiot’s soul out. “Classic, Rae, classic.” She stood up, her face flushed with humor and exertion.
“Are we almost there?” Rae asked, pinching a stitch in her side, ignoring Jasmine’s amusement at her expense.
“I think it’s just through those doors,” Jasmine said, pointing to big double doors with no windows on them ahead of us.
Rae walked up to them and pushed. “They’re locked.”
“Maybe we should shoot them open,” I said.
“Oooor, we could use your badge to open them,” said Jasmine, rolling her eyes. She snatched the plastic off my shirt and waved it in front of a black box next to the door. A light on the box went from red to green and the doors moved just slightly, unlocking.
Jasmine pushed on one a little, looking through the crack. She waved us over, whispering as she stared into the lobby.
“There are two guys in the main area out there. That’s it. Aaaand … holy shit … is that …? No… no no no no noooo…”
“What,” I asked, trying to look through the crack above her head.
“Fuck me backwards, it’s Kootch. Kootch is out there.”
“Where,” I asked, “I can’t see.”
“Is he okay?” asked Rae. “Is he hurt?”
“He’s fine,” said Jasmine, pulling away from the doors.
I kept looking and finally saw what she’d seen. Kootch was on the driver’s side of a truck, standing up on the running board while hanging onto the open door and roof, talking to someone standing in front of the truck. I couldn’t tell if Kootch was alone or if he had someone with him. If he did, they were staying out of sight.