Desolation

“What the hell?” the blond girl says, narrowing her eyes. “Why is there a chick in the closet?”

“I don’t know,” the brunette whines. “But I don’t think this is where we’re meant to meet PJ.”

“No, he said a closet. This must be it. Maybe she’s part of it.”

Jesus.

“I’m not,” I say, pushing to my feet quickly. “Excuse me, I was in the wrong place.”

I step past them, and the place is absolutely packed. Surely they wouldn’t have left me in a closet, unguarded, where someone could just open the door. I glance to my left and see Harold being yelled at by Max. He isn’t far from the closet, only a few feet, in fact. My guess is he was called away. A split second. He turns and when he sees me, he moves quickly.

So do I.

I charge through the crowd, even though Harold roars at someone to stop me. My heart pounds as I push through the sweaty, drunken crowd cheering at the two fighters in the ring. I trip, I get stuck, but I manage to move faster than Harold. When I reach the stairs, I run up them so fast I stumble over the top one. I scurry out, pushing to my feet.

“Hey!”

I jerk around to see the three men that captured me to begin with. I don’t wait to see what they’re doing. I run towards the door and out into the club. I thank my lucky stars that it’s packed, because I quickly slip between people. I’m small and people instantly move when they glance at me. I charge towards the front doors. I reach them with ease and shove through, running outside into the night.

I look to my left, then to my right. To my left there’s a mass of people lining up to go in. Hundreds of them. To my right is a massive parking lot, with the lights of cars everywhere. Straight ahead is the road. I don’t know which is my best way, but I take the right. I run into the parking lot and right down to the left-hand corner, finding a low car. I make a split second decision to slide underneath it when I hear yelling from the front of the club.

“Split up. She can’t have gone far.”

I push farther underneath the car, scraping my knees and my elbows as I slide in as far as I can possibly go. I hold my breath and close my eyes, my heart pounding so hard it hurts. I hear shouting, see flashlights being waved around, and then the sound of booted feet as they run up and down the parking lot. As they get closer, I start to panic. If they’re checking under the cars, I’m screwed.

“She didn’t come this way,” I hear what sounds like Harold yell. “She ran over that fuckin’ road.”

“You didn’t see that,” someone else yells. “She could be in here.”

“She isn’t!”

“She’s probably under one of these cars.”

My heart stutters to an abrupt halt and I begin to panic, wondering what I can do to get out before they see me.

“Even she’s not that stupid. She’s not in here. Let’s go.”

I breathe a sigh of relief as they run off towards the road. I lie still as I listen, and after about half an hour, I can no longer hear anything. I risk sliding back out, and peek over the top of the car. There are still people wandering around the entrance, but otherwise it seems they’ve gone. I can’t risk just walking out there. I take in my surroundings. There’s a fence surrounding the parking lot, and over the other side it looks like there are trees. If I could get over it . . .

I can’t.

My hands are bound. There’s no way I can climb that fence.

“My car is there.”

The sound of a woman’s voice jerks me back to reality, and I turn to see two young girls walking towards their cars. It’s a risk, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take. I step out and try not to act terrified, like I am. They stop when they see me, and their eyes instantly go to my cuffs.

“Hi,” I say in the best casual voice I can find. “I know this looks weird, but my boyfriend and I . . . we were . . . you don’t need to know what we were doing. Anyway, he got angry at me and seriously left me here like this. Do either of you have a phone I could borrow to call a friend?”

“Your boyfriend left you cuffed outside a club?” the red-haired girl asks, scrunching her face.

“I never claimed he was a good boyfriend.”

“No, he sounds like a jerk. Here, you can use my phone.”

She pulls out her phone and hands it to me. I let my eyes dart around the parking lot before entering Santana’s number, which is the only number I know by heart.

“Hello?” she answers, her voice low and broken.

“Tana,” I say, trying to keep my voice steady. “It’s me.”

“Pippa!” she screeches. “Oh God, Pippa where are you?”

“Listen, I can’t talk long this isn’t my phone. I’m at the House Of Obsidian. Tell Maddox.”

I can’t say much more because the girls are watching me with narrowed eyes as it is.

“Is it dangerous, Pip?”

“I don’t know, there’s a lot of people here. Please, come and get me.”

Then I hang up, not wanting to say any more. I hand the phone back to the girl. “Thanks.”

She nods, and they disappear to their car. When they drive out, I find another small gap and sit down beside a sleek silver car and wait. I hope to God I didn’t just walk them all into a massive trap. If that happens, I’m putting them at further risk of something bad happening.

I’m so deep in thought I don’t see the couple that appears from the darkness. I hear a giggle, and then lift my eyes to see Max and a young blond woman. She’s got her hands on him and he’s leaning against a massive black truck, arms crossed over his chest. I scoot backwards, praying he won’t see me. I can’t move or else he will. Instead, I watch.