by Randy Henson
Joe was worried about Matthew.
How had he become so powerful so quickly?
And what if Matthew started showing an interest in the Deville girl? Would he throw her in a cage like he had the others? If he decided to, could Moira stop him?
Joe thought about his promise to Moira.
But how would he be able to keep his promise if Matthew saw the Deville girl as a threat?
Joe suddenly opened his eyes when he heard the faint squeak of someone pushing open the glass doors.
Bradley.
“Catching some Zees?” Bradley asked as he stood there holding the door open, one foot inside the office lobby.
“What do you want?” Joe asked.
“Is the girl with the old woman?”
“Moira,” Joe said as he frowned at Bradley and took his feet down off the desk.
“So she is with her?”
“No, I mean show some respect. Her name is Moira, not Old Woman.”
“Moira, fine, whatever. Is the girl with her?”
“No one is with her. Moira is resting.”
“You sure?”
“You serious?”
“It’s just that I can’t find the girl anywhere.”
“What girl?” Joe asked, although he was pretty sure who Bradley was talking about.
“You know what girl. The redhead with the magic eyes.”
“What are you doing looking for her? You don’t have any business with her,” Joe said as he sat up straighter in his chair.
Bradley frowned for a moment and then asked, “Are attempting to tell me my business?”
Joe placed his palms on the desk as he leaned forward and said, “You heard me.”
“Whatever. Anyway, the girl is missing, in case you care,” Bradley said. Then he backed out of the office lobby letting the glass door close. Then he turned and walked away.
Joe sat there for a moment shaking his head.
What the hell?
Then he stood and left the lobby as well.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Matthew Davenport woke up in a cold sweat.
At first he didn’t remember where he was. He didn’t know what was going on but his heart felt like it was trying to hammer its way out of his chest.
Then he remembered.
I’m back at the galleria.
He reached over and turned on the lamp that rested on the nightstand. He then looked down at his t-shirt. It was soaked. So were the linens underneath him.
He’d been dreaming.
But what had he been dreaming?
He couldn’t remember.
He wiped the sweat off his brow with a forearm as he tried to recall his dream.
It was right there hanging on the edge of his mind. It was something important, something crucial. It had to do with the future. He could sense that. Something catastrophic was going to happen and it was up to him to stop it.
But what was it?
An image flashed in his mind.
Someone was on fire!
But who?
He swung his feet off the bed and placed them on the floor, but he didn’t get up. He just rested his elbows on his knees and buried his forehead in his palms.
Someone was on fire and, because of that, his life was about to change.
No… everybody’s life was about to change.
But how?
Then he remembered!
The girl!
And she wasn’t on fire… not really.
She could control fire!
He jumped up and ran to his dresser. He grabbed his clothes and scrambled into them.
Then he dashed out of his bedroom and ran down the hall.
He had to find the girl!
DEVIL GIRL: WANTED
(The Somnopolis Saga: Part Five)
By Randy Henson
CHAPTER ONE
“Can I put my hands down and stand up now?” Molly asked.
“Of course,” I said. Then I glanced over at the colonel and said, “Right?”
He gave me a small smile and a slight nod.
Molly got to her feet, as did Jack and Orin beside her.
“Oh, yuck,” Molly said as she pulled the back of her dress away from her body and examined it over her right shoulder. “It’s all soiled!”
“So how do we get out of here?” the colonel asked.
I shrugged and looked at Molly.
Molly was too busy worrying about her dress to pay us any attention.
“Molly,” I said.
“It was brand new,” Molly said as she turned to look at me.
“How do we get out of here? Do you know where these tunnels lead?” I asked her.
Molly pointed straight in front of her, down the tunnel we had come from, the one that had the ladder that led to the interior of the carousal, and said, “That way goes all the way to the garage.” Then she pointed to her left and said, “That way goes to the cages, of course.” Then she pointed to her right and said, “And that way leads to a door, but it’s locked.”
The colonel nodded at his men and motioned in the direction that Molly said led to a locked door. I started following the soldiers, Jack and Orin following behind me, and Dr. Nichols walking beside me. Dr. Nichols was watching me closely like he was afraid I was going to collapse.
I glanced over at him and said, “I’m alright.”
He nodded and then looked straight ahead as we continued down the tunnel, though I could feel him watching me out of the corner of his eye.
The tunnel began to curve slightly to the right and continued on for longer than I would have thought. Then it dead ended and presented a choice, left or right.
The colonel looked back at Molly and asked, “Which way?”
Molly pointed to our right.
The colonel pointed to our left and asked, “Where does that lead?”
“To the garage, like the tunnel we just left, only it’s a different part of the garage,” Molly said.
The colonel nodded and his men turned right and led us down the tunnel. The tunnel dimmed as we went and I noticed there were lights that had burned out and no one had bothered to replace their bulbs.
Molly skipped as she tried to keep astride with the colonel. She looked up at him and said, “Are you planning to shoot it down? It’s a pretty strong door. It’s all metal.”
The colonel looked down at Molly and said, “There’s no door this man’s army can’t get through, little miss.”
“Little Miss?” Molly said.
“Molly, I mean.”
Molly smiled up at the colonel and said, “You can call me Little Miss if you want. Just don’t call me Kid.”
“Yes ma’am.”
I looked over at Dr. Nichols. He gave me weak smile and shrugged.
There were a million questions I wanted to ask him, like who the hell were these soldiers he was with? But he looked a bit stressed and anxious, so I decided not to harass him just yet.
But when we were safely away from this place, I was going to get some answers.
I was going to make sure of that.
CHAPTER TWO
Joe followed Bradley out of the office lobby and watched him thread his way between clothing carousals and toward Macy’s escalators.
Joe didn’t follow him. Instead, he turned left and walked down an aisle that ran parallel to Macy’s north wall. The aisle passed between makeshift bedrooms where the galleria’s inhabitants slept, cubicles sectioned off by a variety of furniture: dressers, mirrors, privacy screens, and the like. Joe walked the length of the aisle to the cubicle where the Deville siblings and Orin Clarke slept.
Empty.
Joe turned and walked down another aisle that led to Macy’s main entrance. He stepped out into the galleria’s second floor thoroughfare and made his way toward the security offices. Joe made a left out of the thoroughfare and into a small hallway between a Hallmark store and a golf shop. He passed by a men’s restroom, a woman’s restroom, and also a famil
y’s restroom that had two walls lined with diaper changing stations.
Joe stopped at a recess on his left where a plain white door hid. The door was a pale gray and it had a black plaque on it that read SECURITY in white letters. Joe knocked twice and then turned the door’s knob.
He pushed through the door to find a large man to his left seated behind a large bank of security monitors. To his right was a shelf that held a PA system and an array of walkie-talkies. Above the shelf were racks of tasers, shotguns, and assault rifles.
The big man behind the bank of monitors swiveled toward the door to look at Joe.
“Hey, Joe,” the man said.
“Hey, Pete. You see the Deville kids anywhere?” Joe asked as he walked over and stared over the big man’s head at the bank of monitors.
Pete swiveled back around in his chair and scanned the rows of monitors for a moment before saying, “No, the last time I noticed them was maybe half an hour ago. They were leaving the food court with that hyper little blonde girl.”
“Molly.”
“Right, Molly.”
“You see where they went?”
“I think they took the escalator down to the ground floor and were hanging around the merry-go-round. Let me rewind and I’ll find out for you,” Pete said as he leaned forward and typed into the keyboard in front of him.
While Pete typed, Joe turned and walked over to the shelf on the opposite wall and picked up a walkie-talkie.
“I need a twenty on the Devilles,” Joe said as he pressed the walkie-talkie to his cheek and mashed a button. He then released the button and waited.
The walkie-talkie crackled but no one responded.
Joe mashed the button again and said, “I repeat, does anyone have a visual on the Devilles?”
“Negative, sir,” someone responded.
“Negative.”
“Negative.”
“That would be a negative.”
“Negative, sir.”
“Negative.”
Pete pointed at one of the monitors, “Got them.”
“Negative,” someone else said over the walkie-talkie.
Joe walked over and looked at the monitor that Pete had pointed at. It showed Jack, Molly, Orin, and Bernice all climb onto the merry-go-round. The camera that fed the monitor was located high up, and the kids disappeared once they were on the carousal.
“Is that happening now?” Joe asked.
Pete shook his head and said, “No, seventeen minutes ago.”
“Fast forward and see if they hop off.”
Pete pushed a key on the keyboard and a band of static cut through the middle of the monitor as the video fast-forwarded.
Half a minute later the band of static disappeared as the feed became live again.
“Well, it doesn’t show them getting off, but the angle has a blind spot here,” Pete said as he leaned forward and tapped a spot on the monitor where the top of the merry-go-round merged with a storefront.
“There has to be a camera that covers the other side. Find it and rewind it. I’m going down there. Call me on the walkie if you find anything.”
Pete nodded and said, “You got it.”
Joe then turned from the monitors and walked over to the door as he clipped the walkie-talkie onto his belt. He opened the door and stepped back out into the narrow hallway and headed for the escalators.
“Joseph,” someone shouted.
Joe was about to step onto the escalator. He turned to see Matthew Davenport jogging up to him.
“Yes?”
“Where are they?”
“Where’s who?”
Matthew frowned and then said, “Don’t play dumb. I heard you on the radio. Where’s the girl and her brother?”
“I think there down at the carousal.”
“Carousal?”
“The merry-go-round,” Joe said as he turned and stepped onto the escalator.
Matthew stepped onto the escalator behind Joe and said, “What are they doing at the merry-go-round?”
Joe turned his head slightly without looking up at Matthew and then said, “How should I know? And no disrespect intended, but what concern is it of yours?”
“Don’t be a smartass, Joseph. Everything that happens here concerns me. You know that. I could ask you why you’re looking for them.”
Joe now turned his head around far enough to look up at Matthew as he said, “Because your man Bradley is looking for him, and I don’t trust him. And neither should you.”
“Bradley? Why was he looking for them?” Matthew asked.
“Exactly,” Joe said as he turned around and stepped off the elevator.
Matthew stepped off the elevator and followed Joe over to the merry-go-round.
“I don’t see them,” Matthew said.
Joe and Matthew walked all around the merry-go-round but there was no one there.
Joe unclipped the walkie-talkie and handed it to Matthew as he said, “Why don’t you get your man down here so we can ask him some questions.”
Matthew grunted as he took the walkie-talkie from Joe.
CHAPTER THREE
As we all shuffled along the tunnel, Molly skipped alongside the colonel.
“You guys are real soldiers, right?” Molly asked as she skipped and looked up at Colonel Lundy.
“The realest, Little Miss,” Lundy said as he glanced down at her.
Molly smiled up at Lundy as she said, “I think soldiers are like a lovely orgasm.”
And that stopped our little train in its tracks.
Everyone stopped walking and turned to look down at Molly.
Molly’s smile faltered a bit as everyone stared down at her.
“A well-oiled orgasm?” Molly said, not sure.
Jack and Orin burst out in laughter behind me and I turned to look at them.
“That’s not what Joe said, Molly,” Jack said.
Molly turned to look at Jack and said, “It isn’t?”
Orin shook his head and said, “No, it isn’t.”
Colonel Lundy frowned and said, “Joe? Who’s Joe? And why is he talking to this young girl about orgasms?”
Orin laughed again and said, “He wasn’t. He was talking about armies and soldiers. He said that an army is a living, breathing organism and that when the soldiers are all doing their jobs then everything runs like a well-oiled machine.”
Lundy nodded and said, “Well, that’s all true. Who is this Joe? A soldier?”
Orin shrugged and said, “Maybe, at one time.”
“Joe takes care of us,” Molly said.
Lundy looked down at Molly and asked, “He’s your legal guardian?”
“Joe is head of security upstairs,” I explained.
“He’s the bastard that threw us in those cages?” the soldier with the shotgun asked.
I shook my head and said, “No, I don’t think so. I believe that was Matthew.”
“Does this Matthew have yellow eyes?” Lundy asked.
“Yes,” I said.
Lundy nodded and then motioned his men forward. They all turned and continued down the tunnel.
As we walked I noticed that the lights in the ceiling were getting weaker the further we got.
“We’re here,” the tallest soldier announced.
I nearly walked into Lundy as he stopped.
“Hell,” he said.
I saw Molly make a face in the dim light as she looked up at Lundy and said, “You owe me a dollar.”
“What?”
CHAPTER FOUR
Moira awoke with a start.
She had been having a nightmare.
She sat up and swung her feet onto the floor with a speed that belied her age.
The children, she thought.
She pushed herself out of bed, slipped on her fuzzy slippers and grabbed her robe off her bedpost.
The children were leaving.
She had to stop them.
She swung her robe over her shoulders as she shuffled to the
door.
CHAPTER FIVE
Bradley unclipped the walkie-talkie from his belt and stared at it.
“Bradley, where are you? Come in, over,” Matthew said on the other end.
Bradley hesitated for a moment and then mashed the walkie’s button.
“This is Bradley, over.”
“Where have you been? Get your ass down to the carousal.”
“Carousal?”
“The merry-go-round.”
“Roger that, over.”
Bradley clipped the walkie-talkie back onto his belt and headed for the escalators.
CHAPTER SIX
“H…A…L…E,” Lundy explained as he spelled it out. “That’s his name. Lieutenant Hale.”
“Oh,” Molly said.
“And what would you do with a dollar anyway? Blow your nose with it?” Jack said.
“That’s a good point,” Orin said.
Molly slapped her small hands on her hips and said, “It’s the pinnacle of the matter.”
“The what?” Jack asked.
“I think she means ‘principle’,” Orin said.
Lundy shook his head, looked over Molly’s head, and then yelled, “Today, Lieutenant!”
The soldier with gold eyes like mine walked over to the locked door and pressed his left palm against it. We all stood there staring at him for a moment until his palm started to glow. Then everyone jumped back a step and we turned our heads away as blue sparks shot out from the sides of the door.
I heard a load metallic click and when I turned my head again I saw that the door had swung halfway open.
Molly hopped and clapped her hands as she said, “Wizard soldiers! Cool!”
Hale pushed the door all the way open and entered.
Everyone followed.
“What was that?” Orin asked.
“What just happened?” Jack said.
I turned my head toward them and shushed them. After seeing a man throwing a car with his mind, I wasn’t too impressed with the unlocking of a door.
