I Am the Night

by Rachel E Rice

  Holding her stomach and gasping for air, she said, “I need to get out of here.” Hannah standing this time but not too successful slipped back down into the seat. Justin rose and extended his hand she took his hand standing facing him.

  “I’m going to take Hannah out for air. We’ll be back in a few. Order me another drink,” Justin said.

  “I’m alright. I don’t want to ruin your night. Just get me to the door. I’ll wait out front at one of the tables, and when I feel better then I’ll come back in,” she said trying to pretend she was ok.

  Hannah turned and took a few uneven steps. Then she reached for Justin’s arm. He walked her through a crowd of people coming into the bar and opened the door and they stepped out into the chilly night air. Hannah wore a heavy jean jacket yet she felt the wind and cold slice through it causing her to shudder.

  Justin placed his arm around her shoulders to bring her close to his chest. She moved away not wanting his attention nor his help. She needed to be sick alone. And she didn’t want him to see how graceless it would be to vomit on his nice leather jacket.

  “I’m okay, Justin. Go in.” She pushed at his chest and he didn’t budge. Looking up at him she said her speech slurred, “Wow, that’s impressive,” she said referring to his hard muscles. “I want to be alone in my misery. I feel better really.” That was furthest from the truth. She felt like shit and her face showed it. She was already a pale girl and sometimes she had rosy cheeks but not in the middle of winter and not now. She looked like hell and she knew it.

  Justin reluctant to leave her alone turned away from Hannah and strolled back to the bar, after looking back several times to see if she needed him. He didn’t want to come on too strong and drive her away from him.

  Hannah felt Justin couldn’t help her because by now he was as much inebriated as her.

  Entering the bar, he found his seat near Chase with Gabriela sitting in the middle of Bryan and Chase. They didn’t look up or notice when he sat. Their only focus was Gabriela and who she would choose to kiss next. They were taking turns kissing her as the other sat there waiting for his turn like a dog waiting for his snack.

  No one noticed Hannah’s absence but Justin.

  HANNAH NEVER FELT THIS bad in her entire life. Even when she had the flu. Her head ached, her stomach hurt, and she knew she was on the verge of throwing up everything she had for breakfast.

  Glancing to her left, there was an alley between two tall buildings. It was dim lit and she didn’t see anyone at the time. Not even a moon to bring attention to her standing there. When she ambled to the dark corner facing the side of a building to bend over, her eyes caught the image of two men sitting on the bottom of a fire-escape.

  By then it was too late for her to move. She felt the bile of the vomit entering her throat and she knew it wouldn’t be long before she would have some relief. All she could do was lean over and wait for the release of food and liquor. She had a bad feeling about the two men and something told her to run but she didn’t want the sour food and stench all over her. When she goes home her parents, especially her father, would know that she had been out drinking.

  Still no relief, her head pounding and her stomach bubbling, she glanced to the side and the two men were headed in her direction.

  Her head was down and before she could do anything, all she saw were their feet approaching her. They were wearing sneakers as they stood behind her. With her hands holding on to the building, she turned around looking for a way out and she vomited on their feet.

  One of the men wearing white sneakers yelled, “The bitch threw up on my sneakers.” Then he grabbed her long curly hair in his fist and jerked her head back and around to face him.

  “What are you doing here alone?” The other man tall and with a gruff voice grabbed her and placed a large hand over her mouth to keep her from screaming.

  The shorter one still angry about his sneakers looked around searching for her friends and said, “Bring her to the basement.” When Hannah heard this, she knew that she was in serious trouble. Hannah gave out a muffled scream hoping someone going into the bar would hear her, but it was a quiet sound that had to compete with the noise of taxi horns, and music by Sam Smith playing in someone’s apartment or the bar she didn’t know which.

  “No one will hear you, bitch,” the short bald man said. Hannah tried to dig in her heels to keep from being taken. Her father had warned her against going willingly with an abductor. “Put up a fight,” he said. “You know what will happen if someone gets you alone. You won’t have a chance. And for God’s sake stay off dark streets at night.” She remembered his words during her struggle but it was too late.

  The tall blond guy drugged her along as if she was a rag doll, but she was doing her best to drag her feet, scratch, and bite and fight while the other guy was watching out for anyone who came looking for her.

  Where was Justin when she needed him, and why was she so stupid as to tell him that she didn’t want his help?

  As the two men managed to get her to the basement steps, she looked down at the open door. She had to do something before they got her behind that steel door. She opened her mouth wide and brought down her teeth on the soft skin between his thumb and finger. She bit him hard where he let her go and Hannah began screaming for help.

  “That cunt bit me. I’ll probably need a tetanus shot. I’m bleeding,” the tall blond squealed.

  When Hannah tried to run past the blond as she tried screaming over the sound of loud music and laughter from the bar, the short one still angry about his sneakers, came running and hit her with his fist and then backhand. Hannah crumpled and fell backward on an old soiled mattress.

  “You didn’t kill her did you?” He bent and placed his hand under her neck to check her pulse.

  He stood looking at his friend. “She’s not dead. Let’s get her up and into the basement.

  “We could fuck her here, and leave her body in that trash once we finish,” the short one said as they stood over her trying to decide what to do, “they won’t find her for months, maybe years buried under all that garbage in New Jersey.”

  “WHAT IF I TAKE HER with me, and you two go back to what it is you were doing before you saw her?” The voice hard with a high degree of coldness. A hardness that neither one had heard on the streets of New York. It was low and yet loud because of the deep timber in his voice. There was a threatening edge to it. Yet the two men thought nothing of it. They were predators of the worse kind and they didn’t scare easy.

  “She’s ours. We saw her first,” the tall blond said.

  “I think you may have misunderstood me. I wasn’t asking for your permission,” the tall stranger stood six feet and he wore a black shirt, black pants, and a black duster over it. He had a day old growth of a dark beard on his face. His hair dark and full.

  “Who are you? Do you think you’re some kind of super-hero where you can take a bullet? The tall man the height of the stranger pulled from his pocket a chrome plated twenty-five and the short man a thirty-eight short barreled pistol and pointed it at the stranger.”

  “I’m your ultimate nightmare,” the stranger said with a closed smile.

  “My nightmares come at night, in my bed,” the tall man said as he laughed loud turning to his friend and his friend laughing along with him.

  “I am the night,” the stranger said. “The first night, and the last night you will ever see.” He stepped closer to the tall guy as his eyes changed color. “I don’t want you to miss. Is this close enough?” The men weren’t convinced yet. So they stood there with stupid grins on their faces.

  A bullet rang out at close range and nothing happened to the stranger. On seeing this the short one took off down the alley and up a fire escape. Scurrying inside their seedy apartment, the window fell down with a bang. The tall one looked back watching his friend, unable to move. When he turned to the stranger, he saw him wrap his one hand around his throat.

  He watched as the stranger’s
two large incisors slid down past his lips and he watched as the stranger leaned and plunged his teeth into his neck unable to move. He felt his life drain from his body.

  With his legs flying and arms waving about and then going limp, he looked like a rag doll. His clothes falling from his shrunken body. A mere skeleton laying in the stranger’s hand. All skull and large eyes looking back at the stranger. The stranger waved his hand and the garbage bin opened and he tossed the body inside and waved his hand and it closed.

  The stranger looked down at Hannah lying on the soiled mattress.

  The stranger stood over Hannah and reached for her. She still hadn’t gained consciousness. He passed two fingers over her mouth to wipe her mouth of the man’s blood. Bringing it to his lips he sucked his finger of the blood.

  Looking down at her he thought how beautiful she was cradled in his arms and still, she wasn’t cognizant of where she was and who was carrying her.

  The stranger leaned into to her placing a strain of her reddish hair to the side, watching at her rosy mouth. He smelled her scent and became overwhelmed. It was her time of the month. He knew he shouldn’t be around her because she was so tempting and aroused him like never before.

  He had no will around this female. She was too beautiful and too alluring and would only be a distraction and the death of him sooner or later. But he needed to make sure she was ok before he released her.

  He needed to savor her smell one last time, feel her warm skin, look into her youthful life-filled eyes before he could say goodbye.

  As if he willed her to look at him, her eyelids opened and her green eyes stared up at him. He paused and looked at her. She was in his arms leaning her head against his chest. It had been many years and he couldn’t remember when or if he ever felt this feeling for a human female. Maybe never until today.

  It was a longing to be loved and to return that love. It was a longing to feel himself inside a warm body. Not any woman’s body, her body.

  Before he reached the sidewalk he said to her, “Do you remember anything?” His voice soft, soothing, and non-threatening.” Hannah could see him in the faint window lights coming from the apartments and the sign from the bar. She stared at him unable to speak. His face magnificently handsome and pale with chiseled features and high cheekbones. His lips full over even teeth.

  If she could wish for a man it would have been him. She could dream about him now. Her knight saved her. The man of her dreams who now would be only in her dreams.

  Mesmerized at his gaze, her eyes followed up and she focused on his eyes. They were the bluest she had ever seen. Icy radiance, her first thought only had she seen that color once in new snow. His eyes glowed as he moved through the seamless darkness of the alley carrying Hannah.

  For some reason, she wasn’t afraid of him. She should have been, but because of what she remembered about the two men trying to rape her and kill her, she felt safe in the stranger’s arms. So safe that she didn’t want to leave him.

  His presence affected her in ways she couldn’t comprehend. She felt the power and charm he emitted. The power his body possessed over hers. To fight his power she knew she had to resist because she wanted to go with him and she didn’t care where it was.

  But where was she going with him, and where was he taking her?

  Was she safe because she was still alive and hadn’t been molested? “Please put me down. I can stand,” she said with a tone of gratitude and strength. The stranger placed her on her feet. He raised his head as if taking in a breath. He was remembering how she smelled in his arms and how he would have to pull himself away from her before he forgot who he was and why he was out walking.

  The stranger turned quickly sensing an approaching male.

  Then Hannah heard Justin calling her name, “Hannah, where are you?” Hannah rushed in the direction of his voice emerging from the alley, she turned around to thank the stranger. He was gone. She looked up. He couldn’t have vanished into the buildings. He wasn’t dressed like he belonged in that neighborhood. The feel of his clothing, fine cloth, and expensive.

  She stared into the darkness not believing her eyes. The alley behind her a dead end. “I’m here,” she shouted when Justin didn’t see her. He walked closer to the edge of the building and then peeped around it to see her eyes large with fright.

  “What are you doing in that alley?”

  “I felt sick and I didn’t want anyone to see me throw up,” she said her voice weak as she grabbed at Justin’s arm.

  “Why didn’t you say that was the first time you drank liquor? You needed to eat first before you went out and drank Tequila. Stick with a beer if you must drink.” He touched her hair and pulled it from her face.

  “I don’t think I’ll be doing that again. I feel terrible and I’m sure I’ve looked better.”

  “Yeah you did,” Justin tried patting her hair down, “before you walked into that alley. But you’re still beautiful,” He said sensing she needed a hug. He brought her to his chest and wrapped both arms around her. Looking down at her he kissed her forehead and said, “Don’t you know better than to do something like that? Someone could have found you and raped you. There’s a serial killer stalking women in this city. Let’s get you home.”

  She didn’t want to tell him just how close she had come to being raped if it hadn’t been for that stranger but that would have completed the matter more than it was now. Because she began to wonder and question.

  Why was he in the alley? Was he the serial killer? She dismissed that thought. He didn’t need to kill women, he was too handsome. Now that was an ill thought. Maybe that’s how he found his victims. But what was it about her if he was a killer? Why did he leave her alive if he was the one stalking and killing women?

  Her thoughts were absurd and they made her smile but she shouldn’t be smiling. She had more luck than sense.

  Then Hannah stumbled along with Justin holding her, and into the light in front of the bar. “Sit down here.” He gestured at a small oval table with two chairs. “I’m going in to tell the others that I’m taking you home. And don’t go anywhere.”

  “What time is it?” Hannah asked. Justin reached into his pocket for his smartphone and glanced at it.

  “It’s eleven o’clock.”

  “Oh no.” She let out a hard breath. “My father must have an Amber Alert out on me. And I have a test tomorrow in my English Lit class. I will have to stay up all night and read if I expect to pass. And I have to pass that class.”

  Hannah did as Justin said. She sat at one of the tables in front of the bar. It was a cold dark night and only one couple dared sit in the open patio. They must be in love and can’t feel the cold, Hannah thought as she watching them kissing and looking lovingly at each other.

  She turned away out of embarrassment and glanced the other way at the traffic and watched as the yellow cabs passing, and then she noticed that a black Lincoln SUV had stopped in front of the bar but no one exited.

  It just set there in the no parking zone right in front of the dark windows up. She felt someone behind the window watching at her and when Justin came through the door it pulled off. She wondered if it was the stranger who had rescued her from the two men. She thought she should tell Justin about the two men trying to rape her and the tall stranger with a small clean shaven beard who came to her rescue. She decided against telling him.

  Justin walked out holding her purse in his hands. He reached for Hannah and she stood weak legged and tried gathering a strong smile but she couldn’t.

  “Would you prefer to come to my apartment instead of facing your father?” Justin asked. He placed his hand on her hair. “You have puke in your hair and your white shirt is full of dirt. What were you doing in that alley?” He questioned brushing her jacket with the back of his hand.

  “I don’t remember,” she said not meeting his eyes. “Maybe I could stop at your place and clean up first. Then go home.”

  “Stay here and don’t go anywhere.”
He walked to the curb to hail a cab. The third cab stopped and he helped her in. He gave the address and it wasn’t far from the bar.

  When they stepped out of the cab in front of Justin’s apartment, he saw the same limo. She knew it was the same because as the limo drove off she took notice of the license-plate and she remembered the number. Why was the car following her? She wondered.

  Chapter Three

  JOVANI THE PRODUCT of an aristocratic Italian family, lived the life of a playboy, drove fast cars and dated models. He lived in mansions only some can dream about. When he came to the United States he changed his last name to Nightingale. His Italian name too difficult to pronounce and too worrisome for anyone who wanted to forget everything associated with his name.

  Looking for a new start, what better place than New York but with indescribable wealth, it became difficult for him to be inconspicuous, discreet, or unassuming.

  In Manhattan as in all large cities, if you were looking to hide, you couldn’t with your desire to live as you had before. Word spread fast like a racehorse out of the gate. He was the new blood in town. A blueblood prince who was maybe twenty-seven but no more than twenty-nine, and he wore no wedding rings, which meant that no woman had marked him yet.

  When the local realtor contacted by his servant informed the woman that he could meet her only at night it didn’t ring any bells. Playboys slept during the day and romped at night on one young willing woman after the next into the early mornings.

  The only currency was money, not gossip, and he had more than enough to purchase a townhouse in the most affluent part of town and anything else the realtor could sell.

  Seeking to bring this whale in, she made sure she checked his background where she discovered that he had old money. Money passed down from generation to generation. No fly by night make the money today and it’s gone tomorrow kind of money. Therefore he became a prime candidate to pass off the deal of a lifetime. Sell him a townhouse, an apartment or anything else she could. By his reputation, he never looked at the price. A true aristocrat she thought.