Waiting by Erin Dennington ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 69 Stella, Bill in tow, found Marty and Davis crouched on the floor, arms flung over their heads, holding as still as statues. They almost looked comical, like gargoyles caught in a laughing fit, for they were definitely on the verge of hysteria. "Are either of you bitten?" she asked and was pleased when they both answered no. "Good," she said, directing Bill to sit down next to them. "That's a good sign. I think I know what's going on." She heard the confusion and fear in their voices, amidst the whining drone all around, but ordered them to remain where they were. Hesitating, she turned back and, leaning over, gave Bill a brief kiss. "Just wanted to make double sure that all of the poison inside of you is gone," she said. She caught a glimpse of a smile on his face in the dim light provided from a nearby emergency exit. She left them sitting on the ground with the reassurance that she would be soon. She then hurried across the room, sliding one foot in front of her and then sliding the other foot, in a gross parody of a blind person suddenly finding himself or herself lost in only partially familiar terrority. She groped in the darkness, running her hands along furniture, walls, feeling the pressure of time rushing in on her. She was sure that Christina was not far away and hoped that she was ok. All the while, she mentally cursed the darkness and the surrounding circumstances, pushing to the back of her mind all the questions she had about why she was the only unaffected one. Not wanting to scare Christina, she called her name, but when she received no reply, she quickened her pace and promptly fell face first onto a chair cushion. "Shit!" she yelled, but softly, not wanting to cause a ruckus. "Stupid chair!" Pushing herself up, she felt clothing brush by her fingertips and she reached, trying to clutch a piece of it, but it slipped through her fingers. Blindly sweeping her hand around in front of her, she again sought for the fabric. She let out a cry when her hand found nothing. "CHRISTINA!" she yelled, giving up on not trying to scare her. Again, there was no sound, so she jumped across the fallen chair and rammed a hand against the wall, using her free hand to sweep the immediate area in front of herself. She continued walking, knowing that she had passed the area in which she had last seen Christina, but unable to give up so easily. By the time she had circled the waiting room and found the three men, she knew that Christina was no longer inside the room. Frustrated, she threw herself down into a nearby chair and, feeling a tear slide down her cheek, tried to think about what she should do. Closing her eyes, she tried to focus her mind, make it leave her again, but it wouldn't happen. Bill must have sensed her frustration, since he got up off the floor and began rubbing her shoulders. "It's ok," he whispered. "She has to be here somewhere. She wouldn't just leave us like that." The massage worked wonders. Bill's expert hands smoothed away the tension in her muscles, worked out the knots that had bunched up. He moved closer and placed his lips against her neck, breathing on it softly as he kissed her. She squirmed a little but then gave into the sensations, letting Bill relax her. Stella knew that Bill was older than her, but a few years did not matter very much to her and she could tell that it didn't seem to matter to him, either. Abruptly her mind leapt free and floated to the ceiling of the room. Pleased, she began searching again, using her extended senses to probe the entire office in her search for Christina. She sensed the three men as areas of consciousness, almost like a warm feeling, as she floated over them. Using that knowledge, she reached her mind's tendrils out in every direction, searching for more signs of human consciousness, but found only the four of them. Floating out into the hallway, she extended her reach to the elevator and stairways, and was relieved to find a body, hurrying away. She couldn't understand why Christina would hurry away and was more than a little angry at the desertion. The angry thoughts drove her back into her body and she came to, only to find Bill staring at her, holding her by the shoulders, asking her if she was ok. She could not answer him for a few minutes; it was if she had forgotten how to speak, as if the English language had escaped her capabilities. She stared at Bill, knowing that he was asking her something, and knowing that he fully expected a reply from her. But it was if the words coming out of his mouth were not human, it was if he was speaking to her from far away. When a several moments had passed, she began to understand him and she blurted out, "Yes, I'm fine! I'm fine!" and then Bill stopped speaking, staring at her in shock. From the look on his face, she figured that even more of her had changed, and was therefore not surprised when he told her that her entire body was now glowing. She almost giggled, because it sounded so comic bookish, but she barely managed to hold the laugh in. She wasn't glowing in the dark like a night light, but her skin was capturing the small amount of light that was in the room and reflecting off of her. Normal human skin reflects the light in a small way, so her "change" was merely her skin reflecting the emergency lights more so than it was for anyone else in the room. Stella wondered just how much of her skin was glowing now, but from the look on Bill's face, she could pretty much guess. She frowned when a thought suddenly popped into her head. "Christina!" she said, bolting off of the chair. "We need to get her!" Bill pulled back from her, startled, as she ran to the door and tried to pull it open. "It's locked or something," he called after her. Marty and Davis slowly stood up next to Bill, looking around at the room in wonder and fear. The insects had disappeared again. They stared at Stella who, ignoring Bill, kept tugging on the door. When it still would not open, she pounded it in anger and almost cried from the frustration. The guys cautiously approached her, knowing that she must have sensed something that they were not able to sense, and afraid of just what she would tell them. By now they had seen that Christina was no longer in the room, for, in walking over to the door, they had covered pretty much all of the room. Finally Davis spoke. "Stella?" he asked, gently. "Do you know where Christina is?" She shook her head, the tears finally beginning to fall. "I don't know where she is now, but a few minutes ago, she was being carried down the emergency stairs by someone. I don't know who it is. I don't know where they are going. But we need to get out of here as soon as we can; I think he's going to do something to her." "He?" Marty asked. "I think it's Matthew," she said, "but I can't be sure. It was definitely a male, though, because of the emotions I could sense coming from him." Letting her hand trail down the door, she slid to the floor, huddling there, trying to think what to do. Bill crouched down next to her and, reaching a tentative hand out to brush her hair away from her forehead, told her that it would be ok. "It's not ok," she said, pushing his hand away. "She's in great danger and so are we! We need to get out of here and find her!" Spurred by the desperation, fear, and anger evident in her voice, the men all tried to break down the door. They took turns hitting, kicking, and punching the door, until, breathing hard, they prepared to launch themselves at the door at the same time. Marty held up a hand to make the others stop for a moment, and then, cupping his hands together, he peered out through the small window next to the door. "It appears to be held shut with some kind of tape," he said. "We can break it down, but it will take awhile. Is there another exit out of here?" Davis thought for a moment and then said, "No, if he got to this door like this, then he obviously got to the other doors, too. We are stuck here until we take this door down. There's nothing else we can do besides break it, so let's do it." He picked up a chair and, taking their cues from him, Marty and Bill also picked up a chair, and used them to batter the door, which slowly began to groan and give way. Stella stepped close and began pulling the chunks of wood out of the way, tossing them over her shoulder onto the floor, and the others soon joined her. They soon had the door cleared and it was only then that they realized they really didn't know where to go beyond heading down the stairs. It was almost comical how the thought occurred to them all and she was the one to suggest that they quickly decide where and what they were going to do next. They held a quick meeting to discuss their options and decided that the best bet so far would be to head back to the place where they'd all met: Christina's accident scene. With that in mind, they ran for the stairs, Stella and Bill quickly taking the lead, and made Davis' second trip down 15 flights of stairs in one day. At the bottom, they didn't even stop to shut the door before pelting outside and over to the upturned car. 23:03 - 11.23.02 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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