“Shit,” I said, fishing it out of the seat pocket and fumbling in the contained space. It was from Maximus.
“Max!’ I cried out into the phone.
“Perry, what’s wrong?” Strange to say, but it felt good to hear that familiar drawl of his.
“It’s Dex, he’s in trouble” I said, now totally aware that not only was the guy next to me staring at me but the person on the aisle too. And the flight attendant was back.
She pointed to the phone, her lips pinched together. “Miss please, you must –”
I actually shushed her and went back to listening to Maximus who was saying, “You said Michael has him, are you sure? How is that possible?”
“Yes, I’m sure,” I said quickly. “We’re on a plane to New York, me and Ada. Please, you’ve got to help us. I know you’re busy and all but I’m really f**king worried and I feel like this is much bigger than it seems.”
“Miss,” the attendant snapped.
“This is a matter of life or death!” I snapped right back, glaring at her. Every head on the plane turned to look at me. I heard Ada groan in the background, obviously embarrassed. I sounded like a crazy person but for once I knew I wasn’t.
“Then it won’t make a difference if you’re removed from the plane or not,” she said. “Please shut down your phone or that’s exactly what will happen.”
I sighed, knowing it was a losing battle. “I’ll call you when we land,” I told him before I hung up.
I sat back in my seat in a huff as I put the phone in airplane mode. There had to be nothing worse than being out of contact for five hours when you were in the middle of telling someone something important. Actually, the only thing was worse was having to sit there and wait five hours until you could do anything to try and save the man you loved.
That and have elbows jabbed into your boobs every five seconds.
CHAPTER TWO
We got to New York late, as was expected when you were on standby and flying from West to East. Luckily, NYC was the city that never sleeps and we were still running on time from three hours earlier. The minute Ada and I stepped off the plane and into JFK, we were jumping from nerves. After being accosted by several wannabe ra**sts that were pretending to be cab drivers, we got into a legit taxi and headed to the Big Apple, Ada practically hanging her head out the window in awe.
It was odd to finally see the landmarks of the city up close and personal for the first time. Though I found myself marveling at the fact that I was there, I wasn’t enjoying any of it. How could I? I’d always imagined I’d see New York, but with Dex by my side – not going after Dex because I believed he was in danger.
Oh Dex, where are you? I thought as I rested my head against the window and watched the landscape slid past into a mess of twinkling lights. How could everything have changed so fast?
“Where are we going, by the way?” Ada asked, turning to face me, half of her hidden in the passing shadows.
Before we left Portland, I quickly found a hotel for us to stay at for a few nights. It seemed clean and safe (and, like all other hotels in the city, expensive), which is all I needed at a time like this, but even though I gave the cabbie an address, I had no idea where in New York it was.
“I don’t know,” I said.
I caught the cabbie eying me in the rearview mirror. “Uptown, Westside,” he said in his thick accent.
Normally I would have pretended to know where that was, just to save face, but I didn’t have it in me. Instead, Ada leaned forward in her seat and started talking the cabbie’s face off, seemingly delighted by our first “real” New Yorker. It should have annoyed me that she was acting like Dex’s life wasn’t at stake, but it didn’t. She was keeping me calm and sane, which in turn was keeping me focused.
The thing was, there was no game plan. Once off the plane, I had called Maximus but once again it went to voicemail. I had a few voicemails of my own but they were from my parents. I’d checked, just in case they were from Dex or Max, but the minute I heard my mother’s shrill voice, I erased it. I knew I had to deal with it, but I just couldn’t, not until I had a plan.
Now that I was in Manhattan, I was feeling rather stupid and unprepared. I had acted on impulse and impulse had brought me here with no plan at all and because of that, I had no idea whatsoever how we were going to find Dex.
On the plus side, I knew we were in the right place. Whether Dex was here or not, I knew we were where we were supposed to be. I could feel it, deep inside my bones, like there was some truth at the center of my marrow. Underneath the flashy lights and the slick streets and the throngs of people passing in the warm night, there was an undertone to the city that reeked of madness.
I’m sure it had nothing to do with New York itself. It was because I was here and so was something else. Something malicious and sinister, something black and oozing and hateful that clung to the legs of passerbys and on the side of the buildings and permeated the air. I couldn’t quite see it but I could sense it and whether it was a trick of the eye or the glare of the window, I could catch glimpses of this evil sticking in patches around me.
Ada didn’t seem to notice at all. She was all wrapped up in the glitz and glamor, as any girl her age should be. But it didn’t stay that way for long.
It turned out our hotel was located just off Broadway and a bit north of all the shows. If memory served me correctly, this was the neighbourhood that Jerry Seinfeld had lived in. The hotel was smaller and more posh than I had imagined, then again I was used to staying in motels with Dex, so what did I know?
After checking-in, Ada and I got into the empty elevator. The hotel was quiet at this time of night. Our room was on the ninth floor and though it wasn’t the speediest elevator, it started to slow down around floor five.
Then it slowly came to a stop on floor six.
Ada and I exchanged a glance. All the fine hairs at the back of my neck stood up and it wasn’t because I was afraid of an elevator malfunction.
Something was on the other side of the elevator doors. Something I didn’t want to see.
I swallowed hard and tried to calm my heart which started jumping about in my chest. My mouth was suddenly dry and I opened it, wanting to say something to Ada but not sure what to say. I wanted to warn her.
But about what?
The elevator doors groaned and slowly began to open, one two-inch crack at a time. At first I saw someone passing on the other side, a tall shadow, the white gleam of an all-seeing eye as it looked right at me, but as the doors opened wider, there was nothing there but the empty hallway.