Epic Escape (13 page)

Chase put a warm hand on either side of her face, tilted her head, and kissed her.

C
hase kissed slowly, as if they weren’t in an alley, as if they weren’t in danger, as if touching his lips to hers was the only thing he ever wanted to do.

He tasted like bright sunlight wrapped in a dream. Sensation waved through her, from her mouth to her toes. Her knees gave way and she leaned into him, her arms around his neck, her body melting.

Chase pressed back, and she felt the solid strength of the wall against her back.

Worry dissolved. Thoughts disappeared. Tingles deepened. Heaven. A perfect moment.

“You guys okay?”

Megan heard Veronica ask the question but ignored her.

Chase didn’t. He stepped back but kept a hand on Megan’s waist. “Yeah, how did you--”

“We ran after you. Luckily you didn’t drive very far,” Veronica said.

“Do you ever drive a car you
don’t
wreck?” Riley asked.

Just then, a man walked into the alley, turned toward the foursome and opened his raincoat.

Riley clenched a fist, and Veronica grabbed his arm. When Veronica’s fingers touched him, Riley relaxed. He still seemed alert, but less ready to take the man down.

Earlier today, Megan would’ve said nothing could calm Riley after he got angry. Things were changing.

“Shades?” the man in the raincoat asked. Numerous pairs of sunglasses hung from the coat’s lining. “Good deal?”

“Piss off. We have our own.” Riley pulled the 3-D glasses from his back pocket and popped them on.

The raincoat man walked off.

Megan gazed into Chase’s teal eyes and he kissed her again. Warm, amazing, intense.

“Oh, wow, hey,” Riley said.

Megan and Chase ignored him.

Riley tapped on Chase’s shoulder, standing a foot from them. “See them?”

Chase lifted his head. “Now? Really?”

Riley’s head swiveled left and right, intent on the alleyway. “Do you see them?”

“See what?”

“The exits.” His voice became serious. “I see movie theater doors.”

“Where?” Veronica sounded confused.

Megan peered around Chase’s shoulder and down the alleyway. All she saw were solid brick walls. Riley was losing it. Which shouldn’t have been surprising. It would have been more surprising if one of them hadn’t lost it by now.

“You don’t see them?” Riley removed the glasses and looked around. “They’re gone.” He shoved them back on, his voice urgent. “The glasses. I see them with the glasses. Where are yours?”

Megan rubbed her temple. “My purse. They’re in my purse, in the horror cabin.”

Riley jammed his fist in the air. “We’ll go back, get them, and get out.”

Veronica stared at him. “That doesn’t make sense.”

“I’m in.”

Veronica said, “We should find another way. You got hurt at that cabin.”

Chase shook his head. “We can’t keep bouncing around.”

“I do want my purse back.”

No one said anything to that.

Riley touched Veronica’s arm and nodded. Veronica frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. “Ack, okay. How do we find the woods?”

“I’ll point them out then we each take a door and meet back here.”

Chase took Megan’s hand. “No, I want to stay together.”

The other three stared at him in response to the un-Chase-like words.

Chase shrugged and pulled Megan closer. “Which way?”

Riley moved with purpose, and he led them to the back of the alley. “They’re along this wall.”

Veronica touched his arm as if to hold him back. “Okay, but don’t go through, just peer in.”

Riley pushed against a door only he could see. The sound of a waltz wafted into the alley. He walked over a foot and made a motion. “It’s an office.”

Megan let out an involuntary shudder.

Riley moved over a foot. “It’s another entry to that cafeteria thing.” Riley moved down and made another motion with his hand. Creaking tree branches and other forest noises filtered into the alleyway. “Here.”

“Let’s go.”

T
hey landed back where they’d first arrived. The trees encircled the small grassy area, dense unchanged except for the early sunrise filtering through the branches.

Chase spotted his glasses right away and scooped them up. “Here’s one pair.” He handed them to Megan. “Where’s your purse?”

Megan breathed in the open air and the smells of the forest. Her words were reluctant. “On the snake.”

Chase started forward. The rising sun illuminated the woods, revealing flowers and lush green bushes, beauty emerging from darkness.

Riley ran ahead. “The cabin, over here.” Butterflies floated around the cabin door. Riley darted through them, and returned with Megan’s purse.

He tossed it and she clutched the purse to her chest for a moment before withdrawing the glasses. She handed them to Veronica and Chase, hopping up and down, fingers crossed while they put them on. “Please, please be the glasses. Show us home.”

Because she was the only one who hadn’t slid the plastic frames over her face, Megan spotted the man first: dark clothing, awkward stance, a bow and quiver of arrows strapped to his back. He moved directly behind Riley, and the knife in his hand sliced downwards.

She screamed.

T
he scream built in her throat, emerging as a garbled warning. “Riley!”

Riley dropped, dodging the knife. Chase grabbed the attacker and drug him away a foot before he threw him off with a grunt. Riley dove for the attacker, and they both fell, hitting the ground with a solid thud. The knife dropped to the dirt and skidded to the left, slicing the blades of grass in its path. The attacker lurched after it.

Veronica screamed, and attacker altered his goal, grabbing for her. She went down, landing with a thump of cracked twigs. He reached for her neck. Megan, the only one on her feet, kicked at his arm. His fist flew back and hit her stomach, knocking her down. She landed hard, gasping for breath.

Veronica struggled and screamed again. Riley kicked the attacker. His foot connected with the quiver between the guy’s shoulder blades and the attacker’s body twisted into an impossible yoga position.

“Run.”

Veronica rolled free. Chase yanked her out of the way. Megan snagged the glasses, and they ran a mad dash into the trees and brush. Ignoring the jab of limbs against her arms and legs, she ran all out: feet pounding, side cramping, gasping for breath. A whoosh of wind brushed her arm, and her purse jerked from her grasp. She bent to retrieve it. The attacker appeared in the corner of her vision.

“Leave it!” Chase said, and grabbed her arm, and she ran faster than she ever imagined she could run.

“Put your glasses on!” Veronica yelled back. An arrow swooshed by her head, so close, Veronica’s bob stirred. The descending arrow sheared off the branch of a live oak before impaling the trunk.

More arrows flew by as they ran, Megan fumbled with the hard frames, jabbing the sides of her temple as she shoved them on. Chase did the same without breaking his stride.

She stumbled, but couldn’t gasp out enough breath to ask him to slow. The wind strengthened and flower petals swirled, the fragrance of roses surrounded them, the petals blurred her vision, making her lose sight of Chase. His fingers slipped from her arm. Megan reached for him, but the roses swept him out of her reach.

Her head slammed against the padded cushion headrest of the movie theater seat. The smell of popcorn and industrial air conditioning replaced the smell of the woods. Lights flashed on the screen, and a shot of the forest filled the canvas, nymphs dancing a jig around a unicorn.

Chase popped out of his seat. “Let’s go.”

“Are we home?” Veronica sounded more shaky than elated.

Megan swallowed, heart pounding and pushed on the theater seat. “Feels like home.” She didn’t trust the familiarity of the upholstered armrests. Her gaze darted around the auditorium, searching for anything out of place.

In the corner, two people stood arguing. Well, one of them stood. His stepmom had one hand on her hip and shook her ever-present lip gloss at the kneeling usher.

The usher had a white bottle of what looked like bleach and was going at the floor with a yellow sponge as if his life depended on sterilizing the surface.

Chase froze, no longer focused on the exit.
Why was Nancy here? Had Dad realized he was gone?
He looked around for his Dad. Had they missed him? Surprised pleasure warred with doubt.

The on-screen sound lulled in one of those quiet movie down beats, and the usher’s words came clearly across the auditorium. “I can only make the conditions right to open the portal, I can’t pull him through.” The usher’s tone held practical reason edged with anxiety. One gloved hand patted the walkie-talkie clipped to his belt, and then his cell phone. “I opened the curtain, the balcony’s clear.” His chin dropped and he searched the floor, seeing something out of view. He sank to his knees and rubbed at the spot with a sponge.

Nancy waved her arms in the air, anger and frustration evident in her voice. “Haven’t I made this clear to you? He controls some of the money. Get him back now.” The film rolled to a finish on the screen behind her, and music filled the auditorium as the credits rolled.

“Nancy?”

Nancy turned to him. “Chase?” Distaste and relief flitted over her features, and she rushed forward. “We’ve been so worried.”

Chase jerked back a step, feeling the rounded metal of the balcony rail behind him. “You did this?”

“Did what?”

He didn’t miss the calculation in her eyes, he’d seen the glint often enough when used on Dad, too often to fall for it. He felt more than saw Riley and the girls move to his side. Tension filled his body, adrenaline coursing. They needed to get out, get away.

Nancy opened her lip gloss and slicked on another coat. “Believe me.”

Chase ran at her and Nancy screamed, “Fillmore.”

A pressure, a wall of pressure stopped him in his tracks and shoved him back to the rail. The rounded metal pressed into his legs forcing him back. He grabbed hold of the cold metal, his arms tensing, straining to stop the force from shoving him over the balcony.

Megan ran to him.

Riley darted to the row of seats.

Veronica shouted, “Stay away from the seats, they could send you back.”

Chase couldn’t resist the pressure and was sitting atop the rail now, his legs wound into the metal, his arms locked. Megan had looped her arms around his waist, trying to keep him from falling. “Let go,” he said, terrified she’d be pulled over too.

Riley grabbed a bag of popcorn and threw it at Nancy. Yellow and white puffed corn flew in the air around her, covering her, falling to the carpet.

“Stop that,” Fillmore said.

The pressure eased, and Chase struggled forward.

Riley’s gaze shifted from the spill to the wild-eyed usher. He stared the usher dead in the eyes and dumped a large soda on the floor.

The force lessened again. Megan’s hands pulled him forward instead of just holding him in place. Chase’s feet hit the floor, and he fought like a swimmer fights a wave. Swimming forward only to have another wave rise up and push him back.

Veronica recognized Riley’s talent for getting under someone’s skin, because she too started throwing trash around the theater. Red Twizzlers winged through the air, popcorn crunched under her feet. Liquid spread as sugary soda splashed the painted concrete floor. One large cup, the size of her forearm, bobbed into Nancy’s hand, knocking her lip gloss tube free. The tube rolled down the carpeted aisle. Nancy’s eyes showed her panic and she scrambled after the makeup.

If she wanted it, they needed it.

Megan let go of him, and dove for the tube.

“Don’t touch that,” Nancy screamed. Just having the tube out of her hands made her appear different. Less threatening somehow, less powerful. Evidently there was something more than gloss in the tube, something mixed up in all this sick mess. Chase fought the pressure gluing him to the rail, feeling the surge of progress.

Veronica screamed, “Grab it, Megan.”

The usher wailed, “Stop it,” his focus on Riley. Behind them, the seats shimmered, turning translucent, insubstantial. Riley dove away, grabbing Veronica by the arm, running toward the rail.

Megan landed at the bottom of the aisle, like a runner diving for home, her hands outstretched, snagging the small tube. Nancy jumped on her, her frame skinny, but taller, meaner. Nancy used her nails, trying to claw Megan’s hands from the tube. Megan screamed and curled her hands inward, hugging the gloss her body.

Chase pulled against the force, but he couldn’t move to help. Locked in place. Useless.