Night Moves

by Kristen Strassel

  The room started spinning again. I held on to the doorknob for dear life. My knees felt weak. How long before more people caught on? And did something about it?

  Please, don’t let me pass out here. I closed my eyes and counted to ten. “Why are you telling me this now, Catelyn?”

  She smiled, but it wasn’t friendly. Catelyn didn’t look like someone who was used to having the upper hand, on anyone. I could tell she was relishing the moment. “I think the two of us could work out a little agreement. I mean, we both have a way we want things to happen.”

  “What do you want?”

  “We want to get closer to the band. Your friend doesn’t like to help us. She doesn’t really care about her reputation, but I can tell you do. So I think you can help us.”

  “Fine,” I sighed. I just wanted this night to be over and at this point I didn’t care what I had to do to make it end. “Follow me. Just come into the room when I do. I’m not staying at the party, so once you’re in, you’re on your own.”

  “Thank you so much!” one of Catelyn’s nameless friends gushed. “You’re the best.”

  Catelyn shot her a look, shrugged at the girl, then smiled at me.

  We walked down the hallway in silence. The girls followed me like a subservient harem. I had to look straight ahead; the carpet still made me dizzy. I didn’t think I had any more lunch to lose, and I sure as hell didn’t want to find out.

  A few people near the door looked at me funny when I arrived with Catelyn’s crew, but I blew past them in an effort to find Ryder. The room was thick with bodies now, humidity and smoke clung to the ceiling tiles. I had a hard time seeing over the crowd, and the smell of the bodies and spent booze nauseated me all over again. I pushed my way all the way through the deck, which probably had enough people on it to make it collapse. But no Ryder.

  “Do you know where he went?” I asked Josiah. His eyes looked red and teary behind his glasses, his skin rosier than I’d ever seen it. He looked like he’d entered another dimension, and I had a few guesses of how he got there.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” His words slurred. I didn’t say anything else to him before I turned away. I climbed up on the mattress to look over the top of the room, not realizing group sex was well underway on the bed.

  “Hey, pretty, you want to join in?” one of them asked.

  “No thank you.” I put my hand on a stranger’s shoulder for leverage and left the room. Eventually Ryder would come back to our room. I didn’t have the energy to search for him. Chances were I didn’t want to know what he was doing, anyway.

  Thankfully, I had the room key in my pocket. It shocked me that I hadn’t lost it over the course of the evening. Our room gave me all the dark and quiet I needed. I stripped off my clothes, dropping them on my way to the bed, and crawled in between the cool sheets, happy to find Ryder there. I rested my head on his chest.

  “Hey,” he said, quietly. “Where have you been?”

  “I got sick.” Vomiting was so pathetic. I felt small telling him about it.

  “I know.” His hand made its way out of the blankets to stroke my hair. He knew just what I needed. “I figured you’d come back here. But when you weren’t here, I worried.”

  “I’m sorry.” I nearly cried. The fact he worried about me instead of just going on with the party was almost too much to process.

  “I would have come looking for you, but we would have never found each other. So I stayed here, knowing you’d come back.” He kissed my hair.

  For a minute, I worried about how bad I must smell, after getting drunk sick. But it obviously didn’t matter. And I was too tired to do anything about it. Ryder was happy to see me and wanted to make me feel better.

  It was more than I could have asked for as I drifted into oblivion.

  I didn’t move at first. I just figured the pounding was in my head. My brain would have done anything to escape my skull. Between all the alcohol, the hot tub, and getting sick, I didn’t think there was any moisture left in my body. I pushed my head harder into Ryder’s chest, hoping the noise would go away.

  “Someone’s at the door,” he murmured. He heard it too. Maybe it was real.

  “I don’t care.” I grabbed a pillow and put it over my head.

  Ryder laughed. “They’ve been out there for fifteen minutes. They’re not going away.”

  “Let Josiah get it.”

  “I don’t think he’s here, babe.”

  “You’re going to make me answer the door, huh?” I asked. Ryder nodded, smiling. I rolled my eyes and pulled back the covers. At least one of us felt normal. I didn’t cover him back up when I got out of bed. The least he could do was sit up and grab the blanket.

  I scrambled for clothes. They were all over the room. I managed to find a T-shirt and a pair of shorts, not even knowing if they belonged to me.

  Before opening the door, I looked through the peephole. Catelyn. How did she know which room we were in? Right, she was a band stalker. I could only open the door a crack, I couldn’t let too much light in.

  “What’s up?” I sounded annoyed, and I’m not sure that bothered me. It took everything I had not to say what the hell do you want?

  “Have you seen Rachel?” Catelyn looked anxious.

  “I don’t know who Rachel is.”

  “Yes you do. My friend with the brown hair and the blonde streak in the front.” She must have been the one who thanked me last night for bringing them to the party.

  “Not since I left you guys last night.” I felt kind of bad now, snapping at her. Catelyn was legitimately worried about her friend. “If I hear anything, I’ll let you know?” I didn’t know what else to say. I started to shut the door.

  “Okay. I wrote a note since you didn’t answer right away. My cell number is on it. Please let me know if you hear anything.” She pushed her arm through the small opening, holding a scribbled-on bar napkin.

  “I will.” I meant it. As weird as the girls were, I didn’t want anything bad to happen to them.

  I sunk back into bed. I didn’t say anything to Ryder, I figured he heard the whole exchange.

  “What’s she looking for?” he asked. I guess I was wrong.

  “Her friend, Rachel. She’s the one with the blonde streak in her hair? I haven’t ever really paid that much attention to them.”

  “Fuck.” Ryder sighed. “Josiah never came back, either.”

  “Do you think he did something?”

  “I hope not. If he did, I’m sure it was stupid. Jesus, these guys. When are they going to get this shit under control?” Ryder’s muscles tensed around me.

  “I thought Josiah was the good one.”

  “Babe, we’re vampires. None of us are the good ones.”

  I pulled the blankets back up over us, hoping it would control my shivers. Did I lead someone else into trouble? No, this wasn’t my fault. Those girls were begging for trouble. So much they were willing to bribe me over it. They got what they deserved, whatever happened. They needed to learn how to deal with the consequences.

  What was wrong with me? No one deserved to get hurt because they wanted to have a little fun. But it just kept happening all around me. Jamie and Angela, Erin, Amy in the cargo hold, and now we could add poor Rachel to the list. When was it going to be my turn?

  I couldn’t stay still. My mind raced back to Erin, getting degraded by Drake, then leading those girls straight into temptation.

  I took the best shower of my life, trying to shut my brain off. After that, I got dressed and headed to the lobby.

  The sea of blue shirts and black hats made my heart stop in my chest. Of course the police would be here. Again. I made a bee line out the front door and scanned the parking lot for Erin’s car. Gone. Damn it.

  I had nowhere to go, and the bus wouldn’t be bringing the traveling circus to St. Louis until early the next morning. I walked around the hotel looking for a side door. I concentrated on the little frozen clouds my heavy breaths crea
ted in front of my face.

  Ryder still lay in bed, looking half awake. Sure, he couldn’t leave the room for fear of incineration, but did he really have to do nothing all day?

  There you go, Melanie. Already judging. That is what got you into this mess in the first place. Just let him be.

  “Can I use your computer?” I asked him. He nodded and motioned to the desk. I cracked it open, cursing that it was a Mac.

  Time to face the music. I logged into my Facebook account. No one ever emailed anymore, so if they were looking for me, this was one stop shopping to find out.

  I had over a hundred notifications. Hopefully they were all just obnoxious game invites. I clicked on the ominous lit up world and sucked in my breath.

  No one wanted me to play any games. They were all looking for me. Legitimately worried.

  Melanie! Please answer me if you can see this! Just want to know you’re OK. I love you.

  Heard you stopped showing up for work and they found your car in Pennsylvania. Please let us know you’re all right. Everyone is worried.

  Melanie, do you know about Jamie? What happened?

  It went on and on. Hot tears streamed down my cheeks and I tried to hold in my sobs, but the more I read, the harder it got. I closed the laptop, pushing it aside so I could put my head down and cry. Loudly. My whole body shook.

  All of these people loved me. Not one of them thought I was a murderer. I’d let every single one of them down.

  Ryder picked me up out of the chair and brought me back to bed without saying a word. I couldn’t stop crying, soaking his bare chest with my tears. My eyes burned when they couldn’t produce anymore tears. I just lay there, gasping for air.

  “They found my car. They’re looking for me.” My words came in breathy bursts. “My friends think something bad happened to me. But Catelyn knew they’d be looking for me. And there’s a ton of cops—”

  “Shh.” Ryder massaged my scalp. If I hadn’t been so hysterical, he probably could have made me purr. “They’re not looking for you.”

  “But Catelyn!” I started to sound hysterical. “Catelyn knows. She knew who I was. She knew what happened. What if she says something?”

  “She won’t.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I’ll make sure of it.” Ryder’s voice had no emotion.

  I picked my head up. It was an effort with the physical and emotional hangover, it weighed more than my whole body did right now. I turned to look into Ryder’s eyes. They were stormy. I couldn’t read him. Of course I knew he was upset, but I wasn’t exactly sure what about.

  “I don’t want anything to happen to anyone else, Ryder,” I pleaded. “Don’t hurt her.”

  “I won’t.” His eyes didn’t lighten. “But I plan on getting my point across.”

  I put my head back on his chest without even blinking. I stared straight ahead, willing myself to be transported into a time where none of these problems existed. When my biggest problem was dealing with traffic and asshole bosses. Meeting deadlines I didn’t care about. Listening to Jamie bitch I didn’t give him enough sex. Me bitching that Jamie didn’t do anything all day.

  Not being a murderer surrounded by murderers.

  How did Erin deal with this? Maybe that’s why she did those ridiculous modeling jobs; to escape to a place where these things didn’t exist. But she could leave any time she wanted. She wasn’t running from anything. As far as I knew.

  Since I threw my phone out the bathroom window of the bus, presumably somewhere in the middle of Pennsylvania, I couldn’t get in touch with Erin. I needed her right now. Shit, Erin probably needed me, too. Even though I was back on the bus, sort of paying attention to the movie the guys were watching, I felt alone.

  Ryder hadn’t been out of my sight since we talked about his plan to handle Catelyn, so God only knew what she was saying to whom. I wanted to get to her before he had a chance to. Did she understand what the objects of her obsession really were? Did she and her friends have any idea what they were dealing with? This wasn’t some romanticized novel. These were monsters masquerading as normal people.

  If she didn’t know, would she think I’d done something to Rachel in retaliation for her bribing me to get into the party? It seemed petty, but being in such close contact with criminals—being a criminal--made you automatically think the worst. I should know, since I was trapped on a metal capsule with four of them speeding towards Missouri.

  No matter what anyone did or said at this point, I was powerless to stop them. Ryder’s hand ran up my thigh, startling me. He laughed as I jumped. I smiled back at him, but I was sure he could tell I was faking.

  “Do you like the movie?” he asked, quietly.

  It was some B horror movie. Campy and predictable, thankfully, since I had the attention span of a flea right now. “I’ve seen it a million times.”

  “Sorry to bore you.” He genuinely looked disappointed.

  Immediately, I felt like an ass. Melanie, I said to myself, you need to snap out of this. You can’t change the past. You can only change the future. Stop dragging everyone else down because your life didn’t turn out how you wanted it to. No one on this bus got what they wanted.

  But did I get what I wanted? How many times had I laid on my bed, fantasizing about Ryder Maddox? And now I had him.

  “No, you’re not.” I kissed him and squeezed his hand. “I’m sorry I’m acting like this. The thing with that girl just freaks me out.”

  “What girl?” Adam asked.

  “Her name is Rachel. She’s one of Catelyn’s friends.”

  “Who’s Catelyn, lovie? Is she hot?” Thomas chimed in.

  These guys didn’t seem to know anything about it. That was weird. I left the girls at the party and I knew their mission was to meet Soul Divider. I practically fed them to the band with a spoon, and those girls still fucked it up.

  “You know, the girls who go to every single show. There are three of them.” All of them shook their heads. “They were at the party.”

  “If they weren’t involved in that four-way on the bed, I didn’t see anything.” Josiah smirked. My mouth fell open. Those things still shocked me. My rock and roll ethics were rusty.

  “Well, Rachel’s missing. The last I knew, she was at the party.”

  “Fuck.” Adam sighed. “That’s who the fucking cops were talking about today.”

  “So, you guys don’t know anything?”

  “No.” Josiah said. “None of us knew who she is – was?”

  I gave him a look. He shrugged.

  I had to wonder why the police never came to question me or Ryder.

  “Ryder, you know who Catelyn is, don’t you?”

  “Not really, babe. It’s sea of faces every night.”

  Then what the hell happened to this girl? I guess she could have taken off with anyone. But those girls seemed like such a package deal. I know when Erin and I used to go out rock star hunting, we never lost sight of each other. I wished I could say that right now. Anyway, even though I didn’t know those girls, it seemed out of character for one of them to take off without saying anything to the others.

  Catelyn must have known more than she was letting on to.

  “Anyone want to kill zombies?” Thomas asked hopefully.

  “I do!” I piped in, my enthusiasm surprising even me. Not only did it seem like the perfect stress reliever, but it gave me something else to concentrate on besides a bunch of girls I didn’t even know who had somehow managed to drag me into their trouble. Adam handed me the pistol controller and I shot away at the big screen TV, again defeating Thomas. The rest of the guys chided him as Josiah took his controller. I took him down easily, too. Too bad I didn’t figure out how good I was at this years ago. It would have saved Jamie and me countless arguments.

  After I sent Josiah and Adam’s zombie hunters on their way, it was Ryder’s turn to take me on. I slid off his lap, so both of his arms could be free to play. Holding his controller in one hand,
he gave me a competitive look out of the corner of his eye and smiled before our game began.

  I jumped out to an early lead, Ryder was already down to his last life. My heart raced, playing against him. It meant something different with him than it did with the other guys.

  I felt Ryder’s left hand slide down below the waistband of my jeans, running his fingers along the outline of my thong. My zombie hunter succumbed to the enemy.

  “Hey! That’s cheating!” I protested. The other guys looked puzzled as Ryder laughed.

  “Somebody can’t take a little competition.” Ryder teased, his hand making its way down the front of my pants. I squirmed as his fingers parted my legs. Again, my hunter met with an unfortunate end.

  I braced myself, trying to make myself focus on the game. I shot wildly, trying to keep up with the assault Ryder gave to the zombies. We completed the level, and now the zombies were coming fast and furious.

  His finger found its way inside me.

  I gasped as my hunter had his brains eaten by a zombie. I lost. The crowd went wild, a new champion claimed the zombie killing throne in the back of the tour bus.

  Ryder’s hand slipped out of my pants and he kissed my cheek. I was too flabbergasted to move.

  “That wasn’t fair.”

  “The beginner’s luck can only last so long, lovie. That’s why it’s called beginner’s luck,” Thomas said with a wink.

  “Whatever.” Everyone found my defeat funny. No one noticed that I’d slipped my hand down the front of Ryder’s pants. He jumped as I reached my goal. “All that zombie hunting wore me out. I’m going to go lay down.” I took my hand back and looked longingly at Ryder before I left the tiny living area.

  He followed me back to the bunk. My invitation needed no words.

  I shimmied out of my clothes without waiting for Ryder to settle, and then pushed him against the side of the bus while I freed him from his T- shirt and running pants. I lowered my mouth to finish the job I’d started after my zombie apocalypse defeat. His hand kneaded the back of my neck and he groaned as my mouth and throat filled with him.