Falling

Twenty Two (Danger)

Black and silky, a cooling airy whisper, like slippery fingers glides against my face. I feel Mary's body shiver through the hand that's grasping mine. My clammy fingers twist into her's.

Clanking strings of beads leave a clue that Toby has run into Poppa Legba's silent room.

"Let's get go'n," Mary says.

Her words warble and mix with the macabre sensation that's playing inside my head.

The little light, emanating from my phone, gives off enough of a glow to see merely footsteps ahead. The little flicker of light is drawn into ebony breath, respiring us into its dark lungs.

My feet embrace the shadows that splay out from our bodies like some ghostly version of giant's legs.

I see Mary reach out with her right hand. Her fingers slide against the slippery wall...trying to steady her shaking body.

Suddenly, I hear Mary explode in a flurry of breathy syllables. "I has it!"

She pulls my hand, placing it on a round knob...cold and slimy.

It twists in my hand.

"Locked!"

"Not any more!" Toby whispers.

I turn with a jump and flash my cell phone light into his face.

He winces and throws a hand up to block his eyes. His arm points at my face, keys dangle from a silver ring twinkling at the end of his fingers.

"Don't just be stand'n there. Open it up!"

Mary's words break out of a whisper and bang against Toby's prideful grin.

The key grates into place and Toby twists and pushes.

The door flies open and we stumble into an open space. A small, yellow light glares down at us from the ceiling, blaring against our intrusion.

A whoosh of cool air assaults my face. I rock back against the wall.

"Who's there?"

I reach out with my right hand, trying to block oncoming forms.

There's a rush of scuffling feet and arms swinging around my shoulders.

"Sam...Sam!" Salty tears bounce off my cheeks and dribble onto my lips.

"Lyla?"

The glow of my phone splashes against white eyes, like egg shells.

"Your eyes...What's...What's wrong with them?" They're solid white.

The tips of Sam's fingers caress my face. What's this?

My skin tingles.

Light?

It moves into my head. A small bubble of light that expands and bathes my brain with a feeling of pure joy.

I'm falling forward, into his embrace. I'm surrounded, inside, by a glow. The florescence blooms, like a budding flower. Opening! I'm lost, falling into what I've tried to deny all along. Love!

"What! What in mercy's sakes has they done to you?"

My eyes is flipping around like jump'n frogs, try'n to take it all in! Lyla's fall'n on him like she's been took back to the deepest love she's ever known. An' me, all shake'n like a palm tree in a whirlwind

I takes a long look into those milky-white eyes.

"We has to get ya out a here.

An' fast!" I places a soft hand on the top of his head.

Sam reaches up an' be  take'n my fingers in his. What's this...This feel'n...My fingers is a tingle'n an' some-thin, like a flick of electricity is astir'n my arm and hum'n a sweet whisper into my brain.

Those white eyes rolls up, bleached eggshells.

"It'll be alright, Mary. You'll see," Sam says. His words roll'n out like ocean waves.

Mary suddenly releases my hand and I hear her feet scuffle a step or two away. She must have felt the power. "It's coming back, thanks to Squito. I couldn't of asked for a better friend."

I don't knows what's Sam be send'n out, but it be powerful. Then I sees Toby step'n across the room and move'n towards a shadow silently resting in the far corner. 

"Who are you?" I be swing'n my eyes over to the other guy, sit'n against the other wall.

"Squito is what people be call'n me."

His eyes be have'n a calm'n sense...An'...An' a flicker of light. "Okay...If'n you be Sam's friend... git ya over here...an' let's get this bunch a move'n!"

"Squito! Where's Squito?"

"Right besides ya, Sam!"

"Take Lyla's other hand and let's invest in a moment for recharging."

After a moment a silence I opens the door an' takes a look down the hall...both ways. "All's clear...least for right now!" I says to Sam.

Lyla be flip'n on her cell phone light an' hand'n it to me.

"Okay, Toby. Would you be willing to go down that way and see if there's a back door out of this place?"

"Sure. I be back in two shakes of a dog's tail."

The blackness be so thick...it's like the little flicker-in light has to be cut'n through it like some kind a knife.

Then, I sees it. A door. Gots itself a lock on it the size of a dinner plate. An' that smell. It be attack'n my nose like-en a whole pile of rotten eggs. The force of it be a push'n me back, like nasty soap bubbles. I be turn'n back an' git'n as far from this place as my feet be take'n me!

The sound of Toby's sandals slapping against the floor announce his retreat down the hall. We follow close behind him.

"Well?"

"You can be have'n your phone back! An' we don't want to be go'n down that way!"

"What'd you see?" I hear Lyla says.

"A mean lock...An' the smell of hell itself!"

"Yeah! There be only one way out...straight ta the front." Squito says

"Right ya be. We can mingle in with the crowd an' disappear like ghosts!" Toby adds.

Light and the hazy odor fuming off of sweating bodies soon meets our eyes and tangles with elbows and shoulders. We wiggle and scoot toward the blazing light of the Market's front entrance.

We step through the large rectangular opening that should be spewing bodies onto the waiting street.

The sight that meets us is scrambling bodies, leaving screams behind like the wake of a speeding boat! We stop-- dead still. 

Our brains are fumbling to process the chaotic scramble and a company of men standing.

Guns drawn!

And pointing at us!

A gasp escapes my wheezing lungs.

"Hang on, Lyla!" Sam whispers in my ear. His fingers twine into mine.