"A story? What's the story? Is it a fairy tale? I love fairy tales!"
"This!" said Abby, her arms spread wide and doing a turn in the center of the room, indicating all the magic writing. "This place is the story! The evil rituals!"
"Oh, so you know what they were doing?"
"Well, no..." she said. "But they were doing something. Something that wasn't right. Something evil."
"Oh come on, plenty of people practice magic! It's hardly evil by its nature! That's just religious intolerance speaking!"
"I don't care," she said. "They were doing something wrong. I could tell. There was chanting and flashing, and I smelled brimstone. Brimstone!"
"If they were evil, why did you knock?" said Dane. "I could be one of them."
"Are you one of them?"
"Well, no..." said Dane.
"Just as I thought," she said. "They left and you showed up. And you're not in robes. It followed that either you weren't one of them, or you were the person to clean up after them. Each of those options are measurably less evil than the ones doing the evil ritual, don't you think? And I was stuck out there. It's cold five stories up and it's also five stories up on a ledge!"
"You should have come inside," said Dane. "Unless... is there something really interesting out there?" His head turned toward the window excitedly.
"It's a ledge, there's nothing interesting!" said Abby. "I was out there because I was spying on them. I didn't know there was a door," she said, gesturing to the now open and visible door. "I climbed from the next door apartment. I nearly broke the window to get in."
"There are enough broken windows around here, nobody would have noticed one more," said Dane.
"Yes, but there were the evil folks in robes, that's why I waited. So when I saw you, I knocked," said Abby. She felt like she had rounded back to the beginning of the conversation, which made her wonder if this guy was an idiot.
"Ah, it all makes sense now!" said Dane. "But now you're inside and everything is great! Hang around if you like and relax! But I need to get back to work."
"Work? Who are you? Why are you even here if you're not with them?"
"Dane Monday, pleased to meet you!" he said, grabbing her hand and pumping it vigorously, even if his head was turned distractedly to look around the room. "But if you don't mind, I need to figure out all this 'evil' magic."
"I'm Abby," she said, but he had already released his grip and focused his attention elsewhere, so she frowned.
Dane looked back over to the stack of discarded robes and nodded. He paced the room. Then he crouched down in the center of the room, examining a circle of black ash.
"What are you doing?" she asked, walking to him to look over his shoulder.
"Working," said Dane distractedly.
"You said that before," said Abby. "What is it you do?"
Dane picked up a small statue he found in the ash circle. Vaguely manlike, it seemed to be solid, and roughly carved.
"What do I do?" he said even more distractedly. "This. I do this."
Dane rubbed his fingers along the statue. He didn't know what material it was, but he guessed stone, resin, or a type of wood he had never seen before. The grain of it was overall rough, but in places it had been carved down to a smoothness he didn't expect. He put the statue in his satchel.
"You, what? Clean up when people do evil rituals?" said Abby.
"I investigate," he said. "I investigate things."
"What for?" she said.
"For... well, for reasons. I'm not going to go into it right now, it would take too long and I am in the middle of said investigating as we speak."
"Great, too busy for conversation," Abby said tiredly. She grabbed her camera. "Might as well start filming."
"Don't film me," said Dane.
"Why not?"
"I don't like to be filmed!" he said. "Can't a person have a preference to not appear on camera, particularly when doing their job?"
"You waived that right, because we're in a public place," she said before pausing. "Okay, maybe this isn't exactly a public place. But neither of us are supposed to be here. So I'm still going to film it all. This is for journalism."
"I'm not a big fan of journalism," he said.
"How could you not be a fan of journalism!" she started. This was a sore subject for her. "It's through the free press that we learn -"
"- hold up a minute," said Dane, raising up a finger in a pause gesture. "You said you smelled brimstone?"
"Yes," she said. "Brimstone, sulfur, rotting eggs. That smell I hated in science lab at school."
Dane sniffed a few times. It didn't smell like brimstone to him, but he had actually smelled brimstone more than a few times. This scent irritated his nose, kind of like bleach or pool cleaner. In fact it smelled like... "Oh crap," he said. "That's not good at all."
"What is it?"
Dane stood up and walked to the door. "It's time for us to go. Do you have everything? If not, grab it now! It's definitely time to go!" Without pausing for Abby's recognition, he disappeared out the door. With a sigh she trotted after the strange man.
Abby caught up with him halfway down the hall. "What are you doing? I thought you were investigating things."
"Ah, well, the time for that is over! It's no longer investigation time!" he said. "It's leaving time now!"
"Why the abrupt change?" she asked.
Dane grabbed the door to the fifth floor landing and pulled. It didn't move, causing him to cock his head. He put his other hand on the door handle and pulled. It didn't give. He leaned closer to the door and sniffed. That odor was much stronger at the stairwell.
"Not good," he said with a frown. "Not good at all."
Dane looked over to the worn emergency exit map next to the landing door, trying to discern the faded writing.
"What's wrong with the door?" said Abby. She grabbed it and found it was locked or barred or somehow stuck. Whatever the cause, it was not opening. "What the...?"
"How fast can you run, Abby?"
"Oh, pretty fast," she said. She was no athlete, but nor was she in poor shape.
"Down the hall, around the corner and on the left is apartment 5J!" said Dane. "I'll race you there!"
"Why would I race -" she started before realizing he had taken off running immediately after he finished the sentence.
With a shake of her head, Abby began running after him.
For a guy who must have had a minimum of a decade of age more than her, Abby noticed Dane could be fast when he wanted to be. She lagged behind as he turned the corner, skidding on the dusty floor before catching her footing and charging forward.
Abby had almost eliminated his lead when they reached 5J and Dane turned, using his shoulder to ram the door down and enter the apartment. He stopped in the 5J entryway, his breathing deep, but not out of breath.
"So what do we have here in 5J?" said Dane, scanning the apartment to see how much of it had fallen apart. Luckily, it was mostly intact.
Abby stepped into the apartment behind him, panting. "What are you doing?" she gasped. Dane was already forcing open the window to the fire escape.
"Come with me!" he said, stepping out onto the fire escape.
Reluctantly, Abby got out onto the fire escape with him. She didn't fancy being outside and five floors up again, but at least she had a railing to hold onto. She saw that Dane was already moving down the stairs to the next level. What was up with this guy? Why was he trying to get away from her? She lunged forward and managed to grab the back of his coat before he ran down the next flight of stairs.
"What is going on?" she said forcefully.
Dane continued moving down the steps, using her grab on his jacket to pull her along. "You're doing well!" he said. "Just a few more flights to the ladder!"
"What are you talking about?" said Abby. "Why are we running down the fire escape? What about your investigation? What is going on?"
Dane paused on the fire escape and looked at her dead
on. "Abby, how well do you handle danger?"
She furrowed her brow and shook her head in confusion. "Well enough, I guess."
"Do you freeze up or anything?" said Dane, going down the stairs but glancing back to make sure she followed.
Abby thought about danger as she went down the stairs. Old Abby shrugged, but New Abby was excited. "Not usually," said Abby, but she could count the times she was in actual danger on the fingers of her hand. In her life she had dealt with stress far more than actual life threatening danger.
They had reached the final landing. Dane was trying to yank the lever to lower the ladder to the alley before he finally answered.
"Good," he said. "What if I told you that this building was going to blow up?"
"WHAT?" she said.
"Do you remember that smell in the room?" said Dane. "It was there when I entered the room, but I don't think it was there when the people in robes were. It got stronger over time. It was most assuredly not brimstone. I'm almost positive it was potassium chlorate. Which, if you're not up on your chemistry, is a smell very often associated with explosives."
"What are you saying?" said Abby with disbelief.
"Well, y'know, just putting the pieces together," said Dane. "Abandoned condemned building, a secret ritual that nobody is supposed to see, guards that were unconcerned to see me enter the room afterward even though everything was still setup. Then shortly after, the strong smell of potassium chlorate. And then we found the stairway mysteriously locked. To me that all adds up to something bad. Someone's rigged the building to explode, Abby, and they expect us to still be in it when it goes!"
Abby's face paled, and Dane wondered if he was going to lose her. He wondered if she was going to go into shock and he'd have to carry her down. He was glad he had got her this far before she froze up. He could probably carry her, but it'd slow them down.
But people still sometimes surprised Dane. Instead of freezing up, instead of freaking out, she had just a moment of paleness and then she jumped into action. She elbowed Dane out of the way without comment and then began vigorously working the lever for the ladder that Dane had not yet had luck with. In mere seconds, the ladder was free and went crashing down to street level.
Abby turned and gave Dane a terse nod but said nothing. She furiously climbed down the ladder, only pausing to take a breath when her feet were on the pavement. Dane noticed the smell was stronger at ground level.
Abby began to run, but Dane grabbed her arm.
"Not that way!" he said. "That will take you past the building! Come on! This way! Run like your life depends on it!"
Adrenaline pumping through them, they sprinted down an alley behind the buildings. Abby resisted the urge to keep looking back to see Avalon's Hope. Dane ran slightly slower behind her, making sure to wave her forward when her attention wavered. He had been in enough explosions to know that what you think is far enough away is never far enough.
They made it about fifty feet from the building before there was an explosion. Abby paused in her run, turning back to look at the building. The explosion had sounded small and feeble. She had never heard a real explosion in her life that wasn't on TV, but this explosion seemed lackluster. For a quick second she wondered why the building was still standing. Was she worrying over nothing?
"That's not so bad -" she started to say before Dane tackled her, purposely covering her with his body.
A split second later was the second explosion. If you considered the first explosion noise, the second was like the removal of all noise. There was a crack and then Abby couldn't hear anything at all as her ear drums seized in pain. A wind seemed to whip over them, pressing them both down to the ground with great force. Then it was gone and for a moment all she knew was a strange ringing in her ears, her pulse racing, everything strange and confusing.
The first explosion had been the trigger; it was this second larger explosion that truly destroyed Avalon's Hope. It didn't simply collapse the building, such as during professional demolition. This explosion was overkill. The building was obliterated, most of its parts flung into the sky, leaving only a small stump of a building barely visible in a cloud of smoke. Adjacent buildings were struck with large pieces of Avalon's Hope, windows and walls crunching under the force of high velocity masonry. News reports would later note that pieces of Avalon's Hope were found up to ten city blocks away from the explosion.
Rocks rained down on Dane and Abby, but since he had been ready and covered her with his own body, most of the debris struck him. There was one rock that hit his back somewhat hard, giving him a bruise, but otherwise he was assailed by harmless pebbles which bounced off his coat. He realized it could have been much worse as half of a claw-footed bathtub crashed down not five feet from them, showering them with bits of white porcelain.
A moment later, Dane stood up, brushing pebbles off his coat. Both their faces were covered with ash and soot. Dane had bits of porcelain in his hair and he rubbed the bruise on his back. Abby's face was a silent mix of surprise, wonder, and shock. Her head throbbed and her ears were nothing but high pitched ringing.
Dane said something to her a few times, but all she could answer was, "What?"
He put his hand out to help her up, and she finally understood. Abby grabbed it and she slowly stood up. Despite not being struck by anything, her muscles were wobbly and her balance was shaky. Dane brushed the soot and ash off his clothes while Abby's mind tried to make sense of it all. She was failing miserably and decided to spend her time making sure she didn't fall over. In a few minutes, she could think again and she felt like she might actually be able to have a conversation. But when she opened her mouth, there was nothing she could say that felt right. She closed her mouth and just shrugged at Dane in exasperated silence.
In that same silence, they retraced their steps back to the street and the front of Avalon's Hope. The initial cloud of dust and ash had dissipated. Rubble was everywhere. The police hadn't hit the scene yet, but the air was thick with approaching sirens. Instead, the street held only a few brave and cautious onlookers who wanted to see what an obliterated building looked like. They stared in awe.
Instead of a building, there was now a smoking crater. Within that crater, a stump of maybe the basement or first floor jutted upward, a stone and metal skeleton surrounded by billowing smoke. Nothing was truly left of Avalon's Hope. Abby felt like the building hadn't as much been destroyed as it had been completely erased from existence.
And Abby had been in that building. If not for Dane's quick thinking, they would have been inside when it went off. Some part of her was thankful for his interference. But a much larger part of her was afraid - a deep down mammalian fear. She started shaking, even while she wrapped her arms around herself.
"So how do you feel about lunch?" said Dane.
One block away and exiting a building, a large man took out his phone and dialed in to Kripp. Dressed in casual clothes and not his usual suit, Frank was left behind to observe the work. He had taken up a position on a nearby rooftop with a high magnification camera. His job was confirmation. Not only of the destruction of the building and its evidence, but he was also there to watch for witnesses. He thought it would be an easy job, since nobody would be stupid enough to be in a vacant building. But he was wrong. Less than a minute before the building went up, he saw a man and a woman go jumping down the fire escape before going off in a run. Frank had almost missed them in his own move to find cover. He managed to get a single photo of them before they escaped.
He lost them after the building went up. Too much smoke, too much debris. Even with his ear plugs, Frank's ears vaguely rang. He couldn't stay and search for them either. He needed to make his own retreat. He didn't want to be photographed in the aftermath of the destruction. At least he had the single photo.
The phone picked up on the other end. “Cleanup was a success?”
“Yes,” said Frank, wiping smoke out of his eyes. “A little later than expected, perhaps due
to old equipment. Procurement wasn’t my responsibility, so old equipment is on someone else. But we have a complication: Two witnesses. I saw them going down the fire escape before everything went. They disappeared in the aftermath, but I have a picture I’ll send.”
“Who were they?” There was a pause. "It was a guy and a girl, wasn't it?"
"Yeah, a guy in his thirties. White, dark hair. The girl was red headed, maybe twenties. Don't know who they were, but they didn't seem like law enforcement. But there may be a problem."
"Oh?"
"The girl was carrying a video camera." Frank had seen that clearly through his own camera.
There was a pause on the other end of the line. "Ah. Then we look forward to the pictures."
“Understood,” said Frank, hanging up. Sirens blared as a police cruiser and fire truck went racing past him toward the crater. He started a casual walk away from the smoking wreck.
Donuts
"I can't believe the building just... blew up," said Abby, her hand shaking as she held her orange juice.
"Are you sure you don't want coffee?" said Dane, maybe a little louder than usual because their ears still rang. "Coffee will calm you down."
"Coffee has caffeine and sugar, both of which are stimulants," she said. "Coffee makes me jittery. It doesn't calm me down at all."
"It always calms me down," he said.
Though Dane had suggested lunch, it was only ten in the morning and it seemed no restaurant was serving lunch besides the fast food places, which neither of them were interested in. They did manage to find a small cafe just outside of Midtown and ordered breakfast items. Dane had been there before and rated their coffee about a 6.5 - good enough to drink regularly, but nothing particularly special. They also were stingy about the milk, giving him a pained look whenever he requested more. Abby had ordered a super healthy snack of orange juice and fruit cup. Dane's order was less healthy.
"In any case, don't worry about the building," said Dane, chomping on a powdered donut, one of six stacked on his plate. "It was condemned and nobody was in it. I call that a win!"
Manic Monday: (Dane Monday 1) Page 4
