If I hadn't seen it myself I wouldn't have believed it was possible. I knew the door had been locked and yet when he pulled on it, it flew open. When I saw the door jamb was bent, my jaw dropped. The ting of metal pieces hitting the ground brought me back just as Rob entered the same darkness I'd watched Paul disappear into a few hours earlier.
Chapter 9
It was dark inside the entrance, darker than I expected it to be in the building. After all, it was daytime in Toronto. Hardly the bowels of hell. Although the way my stomach felt, it may as well have been. I couldn't keep myself from flashing back to the small room I'd seen Paul lying in.
The outside door opened into a plain hallway with white walls and beige tile on the floor. The florescent lights above us were dim, except for one that flickered. Bright, then dim, then bright again, keeping pace with my heart rate.
At that moment, it served as a flashing warning light, telling me danger was ahead. I stiffened my resolve.
I needed to find Paul and I was willing to put myself in danger to save my best friend.
I looked at Rob. Before today had dawned with so much excitement, the cool detective in front of me had been a stranger, even though he was apparently my godfather. But that didn’t matter. Since the moment I’d met him, I known without needing assurances that I could trust him implicitly. The story of how he’d met my dad had merely solidified that impression. Not many people would do that for a stranger at any age, let alone in their early teens.
Now here we were, looking for my friend. Another person he’d never met. Although it was his job, I knew he was a man who would continue to help others it even if it wasn't.
It made me want to do something to help others the way he did, and for the first time, I wondered if I could use my talent the way he did. But how could I when I hardly knew what my own abilities were?
Rob looked back at me, lifting his eyebrows. I knew he was checking if I was okay, and I nodded my head. I wasn’t sure if I was or not, but so far we were safe, so that counted for something. The corner of his lip quirked up, like he’d read my rambling thoughts, then he jerked his head to the right.
I hadn't noticed it before, but now I realized the hallway branched. He pointed to the right again, before pointing at me and making a gesture I assumed meant ‘stay close’. I whirled when I heard the faint scuff of shoe leather behind me, relieved to see it was only my dad. He’d been so quiet I hadn't heard him. I looked at Rob and he gestured for him to head left. My dad nodded, raising the small gun in a ready stance.
It was so strange, seeing him with a gun looking so intense. What exactly did he do for a living? Either way, I felt useless in comparison to both men. With no weapon, training, or flashes of knowledge, I wasn’t sure what I was doing there.
A pit formed in my stomach the deeper we walked into the building. It seemed to be some sort of office building, or storage building. Doors led off the hall in many places, each one a plain, dark gray with handles similar to the one on the outside. It was unnaturally quiet except for the sound of the florescent lights clicking on and off, the sound as they flickered reminding me of a mosquito buzzing beside my ear while I was trying to fall asleep.
Quiet, but irritatingly loud.
We were halfway down the hall when I paused. I hadn't seen anything, not even a flash, but something told me I wanted to stop now, so I did. Rob must've sensed something as well because the instant I stopped, he turned to me, tilting his head.
"What is it?" He mouthed.
I shook my head, not knowing why I’d stopped or what to say. I closed my eyes, tilted my head up as if I was trying to smell the air, and waited for the tingling to come again.
There it was, the same knowing sensation which had told me to stop in the first place. Without opening my eyes, I turned until the tingle became stronger. I kept turning, but when it began to fade, I stopped and turned back, raising my arm and pointing to where I could feel it most intensely, then opened my eyes.
I was standing in front of a door with my index finger pointing directly at the handle. When I gasped, looking to see what Rob thought, every muscle in my body was tight.
He gestured for me to pull back, and I let him to go in front. The same as he had outside, he tried the door, giving it a brutal, quick yank when it didn't budge. Once again, it swung open easily. Rob was completely blocking my view into the room, intentionally I was sure.
If there was danger, or worse, something I couldn’t handle seeing...
I shook my head and forced myself not to complete the thought. I waited until he entered, catching the tail end of him sweeping the room before descending a set of stairs.
At first it was too dark to see much and I thought I had been wrong about what I had sensed inside. It didn’t look the same as my dream. But as my eyes adjusted, I saw a faint light coming from the far left corner of the room.
My mouth went dry. If someone was lying in wait, I would be an easy target, framed in the doorway of the comparatively well-lit hall. I nearly threw myself at Rob, catching up so I was only one step behind.
Wincing when a step creaked, I paused, continuing forward more carefully when no one burst in at the noise. By the time I reached the bottom, my eyes had adjusted well enough to see two windows; one on each far corner wall, only a few feet from the ceiling. Boxes were stacked as high as the ceiling in some places, leaving rough rows barely wide enough for a grown man to walk through, reinforcing the idea the building was a storage place. What would be stored underneath a nightclub/bar?
Alcohol? Drugs? Or something else?
The room remained as quiet as the hallway had been and my hopes of seeing Paul alive began to dwindle, fast. Then I had the same tingle, except this time, it wanted me to go forward. I allowed it to control me, using it as my guide as I made as straight a line as possible through the boxes to the right corner of the room where I saw an open space underneath one of the windows.
Careful not to bump any of the boxes in case they toppled or contained something unpleasant, I walked slower than I wanted. The tingle was more insistent now, more of a push than a nudge. When I finally reached the window, I saw nothing outside and my heart sank. There had been a bus stop sign in my dream that I’d been able to see from my legs. But this window only revealed the sky which mocked me with its blueness.
I stepped back, perplexed at how my new abilities had let me down. As I did, my perspective changed and the street came partially into view. I rolled my eyes, irritated by my own foolishness. Of course. I was too close standing directly beneath it. I concentrated on what I remembered seeing outside the window and moved slightly to the left, then to the right, before stepping back a little until I could see the sidewalk and grass in the bottom frame.
There it was. The bus stop sign and the numbers for Kensington. The one which had led us to this building. But no Paul. I turned in a slow circle and I scanned the room. I still couldn't see him. He wasn't where he needed to be for me to see this image, in fact, there was nothing where he should have been except boxes.
Wait a minute, what had I wondered earlier? Right. What are they storing here?
I looked at the stack directly in front of me, close enough to touch and bit my lip. Surely he wasn't inside one?
Before I could see if I was right, the lights went on.
Chapter 10
"Who are you? What are you doing here?"
A man’s voice came from the stairs and I cringed, knowing before I looked what I was about to see. For a moment I closed my eyes and imagined I was going to wake up in my bed and be safe, but that hadn't worked as a child, and I knew it wasn't going to work now. Taking a deep breath, I straightened my spine and turned to face the unwelcome questioner.
It was the larger of the two men I'd seen in my dream. One of the men who had kidnapped my best friend. Maybe it was the knowledge he’d hurt my friend which encouraged me to act so boldly, or maybe it was because I was hoping to distract him from Rob. Whatever gave me the cour
age to do it, I had if I drew his attention, Rob might be able to slip behind him and knock him out or something.
I moved a few paces closer to the stairs, consciously placing myself between the boxes and the brutish man above me.
"I'm looking for my friend. I believe he’s in here somewhere. I pinged his phone and it brought me to this building."
It was a straight up lie, but I hoped he didn't know that. The man's eyebrows went up, then back down as his lips curled into a sneer. Rats. Looked like maybe he did.
"Really? A cell phone? How dumb do you think we are? We checked him over thoroughly before bringing him inside."
I tilted my head, wondering if he would realize what he’d said before I pointed it out. It took a moment, but there it was. His lips tightened into a line and his eyebrows bunched together even more tightly.
"So, you do have my friend." It was a statement, not a question.
Giving up all pretense, he stepped down the stairs, sauntering closer while keeping his eyes firmly fastened on me.
"How do I know if I have your friend? I have, over the years, had many people's friends as guests. Sometimes I'm also friends with these friends."
I rolled my eyes, knowing the man thought he was drawing things out, giving me answers before he pounced. Unless he was even more cool and intelligent than he appeared, which I highly doubted, I was certain he didn't know I had anyone with me.
I pushed aside the thought that whispered maybe he’d found the others already and that was why he was acting so bold. Fear wasn’t going to be helpful right now, and worrying about my dad would only distract me from what was happening here and now.
Besides, after watching my dad pull a pistol out of his sock, I had a feeling he could handle himself as well as Detective Rob. Boy, I couldn't wait to have that conversation. If I had the chance to have that conversation later, that was.
I watched him close the gap, taking the last step onto the cement floor and off the stairs. He was about ten feet away, far too close for my comfort. I still couldn't hear or see Rob or my dad, but I felt Rob nearby.
I had to keep him talking.
"Why did you take him? I mean, he's just a dumb kid. No one would've believed him if he'd said he saw the two guys who’d shot the guy at the convenience store. Not to mention he’s a guy. You and I both know his description would've been shit."
The man snorted, angry eyebrows smoothing out as he stalked toward me, reminding me of a cat toying with its next meal.
"Probably. But we were told not to take any chances. I have a job to do and don't like to leave loose ends. So while we were figuring out what to do about that particular complication, we brought him here, to the storage area."
He waved an arm around the room, dismissively encompassing the boxes and furniture.
"Oh?" I tilted my head to the side, pretending an interest I didn't feel. "What kind of things do you store down here? For the bar upstairs, I'm assuming."
He grunted, but didn't answer my question. "Unfortunately, it appears my loose end has developed a fray and has split into pieces. One piece has been taken care of, so I guess that just leaves you."
I took a half step back, wondering what Rob was waiting for. Did he want me to deal with this? Surely not. "What do you mean, you took care of the other loose end? Where is Paul?"
I heard the tremor in my voice and gritted my teeth. I didn't want to look scared, though I was sure I did. I'd never faced down someone so dangerous before. I had no weapon, and Rob and my dad were still unaccounted for.
He shrugged. "I imagine he won’t be talking to anyone again pretty soon." He looked at his watch, wrinkling his nose. "There's only so long you can go without air, after all. If my guess is correct, he has maybe half an hour at the most, less if he isn’t passed out already."
I had to do something. If Paul was here in a box or somewhere nearby and he only had minutes, this couldn't wait. Without taking my eyes off of him, I allowed my peripherals to take in the room and called my finding ability to me.
Please, if I have any gift at all, show me something now. Help me find something to defend myself and find Paul.
As if I’d been answered by heaven itself, at that exact moment, a glow lit up a box directly beside the large kidnapper. He was closing the distance between us quickly, and before I could reconsider my half-baked plan, I jumped.
Lunging toward the box, I knocked it over and it tumbled onto him. He cursed, trying to stumble out, but as he moved more boxes fell, several spilling open to reveal the contents as rope.
Rope? How was that going to help?
I glared at it for a moment, wondering if the flashes were part of a huge cosmic joke because of something I’d done in a past life. Maybe I’d been a bad guy, like the Sheriff of Nottingham instead of just good ol’ Mark Notting. Because so far, things were taking a turn toward me ending up dead.
Then I saw it.
The rope had tangled as it fell, trapping him in heavy cords of loose rope around his arms and legs. Even without my intervention, the more he struggled, the more entwined he became. He let out a bellow of rage, and I scanned the area to see if there were any other items I could use as a weapon. He may be trapped temporarily, but I knew the rope wouldn’t hold him long.
When I saw nothing else of use, I changed directions and darted past him, heading for the stairs. I was hoping I could escape the room before he was free, find Rob or my dad, and get back to Paul. I was halfway up and starting to think I might make it when a steely hand clamped onto my ankle, jerking me back.
I fell forward, hands snapping up to catch my fall and I twisted, landing hard on my butt. Kicking with all my might I managed to connect with my free leg, landing the heel of my sneaker squarely on his jaw.
There was a dull crack as his head snapped back, then he slumped backwards, falling down the stairs in slow motion. When he came to a halt and lay in silent stillness on the floor, my mouth dropped open. All I could do was stare down at him.
As if someone else was speaking, I heard myself say, "Oh, no. Is he dead?"
The words hung unanswered in the empty air. Where were Rob and my dad? Had they left me alone? I took two steps closer to the man, unsure if I should check him and leave, or go back and see if Paul was inside a box like I worried he was. As I stood in place, paralyzed with indecision, Rob miraculously appeared behind me.
He whistled under his breath. "Wow, kid. That was some blow you laid on him."
I swallowed hard. "Did I kill him?"
Rob crouched down and placed two fingers next to the angle of the man's jaw. He looked up and shook his head. "Nope. He’s still got a pulse. With the way he landed though, I wouldn’t be surprised if you broke his neck. Don't try to move him."
I shook my head, feeling numb at the idea I had injured someone. Even though he wasn’t a good person, I didn’t want to be responsible for something so awful.
My voice cracked. "Don't worry, I wasn't about to." Then I remembered what the man had said just before he’d come for me. "Paul! He said Paul only had enough air for a few minutes, a half hour, tops. I think he's here, in one of the boxes."
Rob's expression turned grim. "In that case, we shouldn’t waste time worrying about this yahoo. We need to find your friend. Can you see which box?"
"Not exactly," I said, moving toward the window, toward where I’d thought I would find him at first. "If what I saw in my dream was right, it could be one of these two stacks."
I stopped between the two large boxes where I could see the bus stop sign and Rob joined me, looking from one to the other.
"They're big enough for a person. But what could be inside the boxes to have a limited air supply? Cardboard wouldn’t be an issue. Unless..." Rob trailed off, taking a pocket knife out to cut along the side of the first box.
I didn’t know what he was thinking but held my breath anyway. When pillows tumbled out, it escaped in a rush of disappointment. Rob pushed them aside. There was another box below that
one, but it moved easily, so he pushed it aside and turned to the other stack.
This box was larger. When he pushed, it didn’t move, and a smile of satisfaction grew on his face. He thrust his gun into my hand. "Here, take this."
I accepted it gingerly, holding it with the barrel pointed down. He must have seen the uncertainty on my face or read my mind, because he let out a short bark of laughter.
"It'll be fine. Just point and shoot if anyone attacks while I’m busy. Watch the door and the stairs. Make sure our friend at the bottom over there doesn't get up and none of his friends come for him."
I raised the gun, doing my best to imitate the stance I'd internalized from every cop show and movie I’d seen since childhood. I hoped it looked more natural than it felt. I’d never held a gun before but even though the sensation was weird, it also felt right somehow.
It was the same sensation I got when I found things, like something had clicked inside. If making it out of this room was in the cards for me, I knew this was the moment my destiny changed.
Chapter 11
Just as I had my revelation, footsteps sounded at the top of the stairs. I jerked the gun up, every muscle in my body becoming taut as I waited for the possible attacker to arrive. I hadn't seen any other men in the dream, but it was possible there were others in the building as well.
I kept my finger close to the trigger but not directly on top of it, a fact which I was extremely grateful for when the face of the man came into view.
"Dad! God, I’m happy to see you."
He smiled from the stairs, taking in the scene with a smooth, clinical detachment I'd never seen before. At home, he'd always been chill, so much so that my mom accused him of being completely absentminded and lacking motivation when it came to doing things for anniversaries or birthdays, hers in particular.
Kingdom of Villains and Vengeance Page 14
