?Crap. Ow, ow, ow!?
Splash.
What just happened?
Where am I?
What is that smell?
Oh gross, what is all over my jeans?
Let?s go back to those first questions. Where in the world am I?
Her jeans had torn through in the knees. Not the stylish, intentionally distressed sort of tearing that was so fashionable these days but rather straight through the denim to scrape away even the top couple of layers of skin. Cassie got to her feet, her scuffed hands finding purchase on the edge of a grimy dumpster to pull herself up. Converse squished through muck and melting snow as she turned a slow circle, trying to orient herself. The door she had tripped through was nowhere to be found, brick walls rising high on either side of her. A sliver of clouded night sky diffused silvery moonlight and cast a pallid glow over the alley she was occupying.
?Aiden?? Her voice echoed, bouncing from wall to wall until it died unanswered.
He was right behind me, wasn?t he?
~*~
Aiden picked me up from Ivanna Cone at nine-thirty, maybe a little after. I wasn?t supposed to close but Jess begged me to stay for her. She said she had a big test to study for but I know she was just going over to her boyfriend?s for the night. Definitely no studying going on there unless it?s anatomy. Thankfully I?m pretty quick at closing so it?s just a matter of running the deposit by the bank and that?s that. Aiden got a little sidetracked though. He swore it would only take a couple minutes, that he had to stop and meet up with someone. The bank?s way across town, so I guess it was okay. It was an area that I wasn?t really familiar with. The sort of place that my dad would throttle me for walking alone in even with pepper spray.
He left me in the car. Five minutes tops, he swore. Five became ten, ten became thirty. I sent him a text somewhere around the twenty minute mark to see if things were okay but he didn?t answer. Ugh. I didn?t want to go in. There was something that just felt intrinsically off about the place, you know? Like a bad energy. But I got out of the car and locked it. In a neighborhood like this, I couldn?t leave my backpack, not with the deposit in it, so I took that with me too. Maybe I?ve seen too many horror movies or something, but this definitely felt like a bad idea?
~*~
?Aiden? Aiden, where are you?? Cassie called again, her chest tightening with rising panic. Her backpack was still on her shoulders, the heavy weight slowing her trudge toward the mouth of the alley. One hand steadied her with a drag against the wall, raking over brick as if it might reveal some secret entryway that she may have stumbled from without realizing it. Its facade was unbroken. With a resigned slump of her shoulders, she emerged from the alley and looked for the car or for Aiden. Maybe he had gotten ahead of her. His red Mitsubishi Lancer was nowhere to be found, nor was Aiden, and to be honest she didn?t recognize the street upon which she had spilled out from the alleyway. Worse, the overwhelming scent of brine and dead fish hit her hard enough to make her stomach turn.
Wait. The ocean?
Beyond the row of buildings opposite of her, she could hear the steady slap of water against wood. It wasn?t possible though, was it? They had been hours from the ocean. Maybe she was imagining things. Her fingers touched to a warm trickle along her hairline, just above her left temple. They came away wet and red. She must have bumped her head when she took that tumble.
That explains it. I?ve got a concussion.
Cassidy swallowed down the bile that tickled the back of her throat. She so didn?t do well with blood even if it was her own. Adjusting one strap of her backpack, she then checked her pockets for her phone. The groan was instantaneous once she pulled it out. Spiderwebbed cracks covered the entirety of the screen, distorting the display into a rainbow of colors that refracted moonlight into technicolor sparkles.
?Crap.?
Splash.
What just happened?
Where am I?
What is that smell?
Oh gross, what is all over my jeans?
Let?s go back to those first questions. Where in the world am I?
Her jeans had torn through in the knees. Not the stylish, intentionally distressed sort of tearing that was so fashionable these days but rather straight through the denim to scrape away even the top couple of layers of skin. Cassie got to her feet, her scuffed hands finding purchase on the edge of a grimy dumpster to pull herself up. Converse squished through muck and melting snow as she turned a slow circle, trying to orient herself. The door she had tripped through was nowhere to be found, brick walls rising high on either side of her. A sliver of clouded night sky diffused silvery moonlight and cast a pallid glow over the alley she was occupying.
?Aiden?? Her voice echoed, bouncing from wall to wall until it died unanswered.
He was right behind me, wasn?t he?
~*~
Aiden picked me up from Ivanna Cone at nine-thirty, maybe a little after. I wasn?t supposed to close but Jess begged me to stay for her. She said she had a big test to study for but I know she was just going over to her boyfriend?s for the night. Definitely no studying going on there unless it?s anatomy. Thankfully I?m pretty quick at closing so it?s just a matter of running the deposit by the bank and that?s that. Aiden got a little sidetracked though. He swore it would only take a couple minutes, that he had to stop and meet up with someone. The bank?s way across town, so I guess it was okay. It was an area that I wasn?t really familiar with. The sort of place that my dad would throttle me for walking alone in even with pepper spray.
He left me in the car. Five minutes tops, he swore. Five became ten, ten became thirty. I sent him a text somewhere around the twenty minute mark to see if things were okay but he didn?t answer. Ugh. I didn?t want to go in. There was something that just felt intrinsically off about the place, you know? Like a bad energy. But I got out of the car and locked it. In a neighborhood like this, I couldn?t leave my backpack, not with the deposit in it, so I took that with me too. Maybe I?ve seen too many horror movies or something, but this definitely felt like a bad idea?
~*~
?Aiden? Aiden, where are you?? Cassie called again, her chest tightening with rising panic. Her backpack was still on her shoulders, the heavy weight slowing her trudge toward the mouth of the alley. One hand steadied her with a drag against the wall, raking over brick as if it might reveal some secret entryway that she may have stumbled from without realizing it. Its facade was unbroken. With a resigned slump of her shoulders, she emerged from the alley and looked for the car or for Aiden. Maybe he had gotten ahead of her. His red Mitsubishi Lancer was nowhere to be found, nor was Aiden, and to be honest she didn?t recognize the street upon which she had spilled out from the alleyway. Worse, the overwhelming scent of brine and dead fish hit her hard enough to make her stomach turn.
Wait. The ocean?
Beyond the row of buildings opposite of her, she could hear the steady slap of water against wood. It wasn?t possible though, was it? They had been hours from the ocean. Maybe she was imagining things. Her fingers touched to a warm trickle along her hairline, just above her left temple. They came away wet and red. She must have bumped her head when she took that tumble.
That explains it. I?ve got a concussion.
Cassidy swallowed down the bile that tickled the back of her throat. She so didn?t do well with blood even if it was her own. Adjusting one strap of her backpack, she then checked her pockets for her phone. The groan was instantaneous once she pulled it out. Spiderwebbed cracks covered the entirety of the screen, distorting the display into a rainbow of colors that refracted moonlight into technicolor sparkles.
?Crap.?