Fever Dream Red

49

I was expecting someone to move, but everybody stood in frightful delight, waiting for what would happen next.

Would Nick end Chloe's life right in front of our eyes?

I hoped against hope that that wouldn't happen. You could never be sure with Nick. He was unpredictable at the best of times.

"You made a very stupid mistake." Nick told Doug and Alfie, his gaze not altering from them even when Chloe started whimpering like a dying animal. The sound of it made shivers roll down my spine.

"But you made a bigger one coming back."

Nick goes to pull the trigger and is only stopped when he finds himself at the hands of one.

A woman holds it. Her hair is sleeked back into a perfect ponytail and her makeup is done to perfection. Her perfectly manicured nails hold the key to Nick's death.

Inez was at last there to save Chloe like a bloody angel.

"Drop the gun." She said steadily, her finger not wavering.

Nick dropped it suddenly, turned around and gave Inez a look of pure hatred.

I wondered where his men were, and whether they would burst in and proceed to suddenly shoot Inez to death for threatening their hero.

I hoped not. It would be an awful shame.

"Where's Danny?" Inez asked, sour seeping onto her tongue and out into her words.

I had half tried to forget about Danny. I told myself he was free like I was. I told myself that we would probably bump into each other.

I didn't believe myself. I knew that something was wrong with it.

Inez had figured it out.

"He escaped." Nick responded with a similiar sense of bitterness. "I told you that."
"You were and are lying." Inez growled, her tone growing in anger and her voice growing in volume. "Take me to him."

Nick looked at the gun and looked at her, and smirked.

"Oh please." He laughed, "You couldn't kill me."
"Wanna bet?"
"You don't have it in you."
Inez raised her eyebrows. "You really do want to play your life away, don't you?"

Just like that, Inez shifted the gun's gaze and shot Nick in the arm.

The noise shocked us, but less so now. We had become immune to the noise. It was like the ticking of a clock that you forgot about half the time.

Nick's face writhed in pain, and Skye smirked down at him.

"Oh how the turntables." Skye muttered, giggling to themselves.

I had to try my hardest to retain my seriousness.

"I'll ask again: Where is he?"

Just then, Nick's men appeared in the doorway, arriving after being alerted by Nick's screams.

They probably wondered what had been going on under their noses.

Nick was stood bleeding out on the polished marble floor, whilst Inez stood over him in her heels, pointing the gun now straight at his head.

All of their guns drew on Inez at the moment, but Nick motioned them down frantically.

"Show her." Nick just about gargled out. "Show her where he is."

The men showed clear hesitation, looking at each other in clear confusion, but they did was Nick said.

They beckoned Inez with them, and for once she showed clear hesitation. After all, it would be incredible easy for them to simply shoot her down. Maybe Danny was in some sort of torture chamber and Inez would be joining him.

But I thought that was unlikely. Nick had clearly wished that Inez be taken alive. I doubted that they would go against their leader's wishes.

Inez in turn beckons me over.

"Come." I get up on wobbly knees, stuttering around Nick's broken body to where she was stood.

As soon as I am in her aura a sense of calm descended onto me. I knew I was home. I had missed her calmness and precision and welcomed it back into my life.

As we set off walking, Inez took my hand in hers, contrastingly comfortable. My hands were dirty and sweaty from the car and the world. Hers were soft and fresh and clearly moisturised.

I really needed to moisturise my hands.

I knew it was too good to be true though. This was the calm before the storm. Inez would not be happy with me for leaving. She shouldn't have been.

"I missed you." Inez looked at my deep eyes as I looked into hers, and the trainwreck of guilt hit me then.
"I did too." I told her, meaning every syllable.

We walked a little further, Inez swinging our hands to and fro, and for a while I feel like an innocent little child.

I would give anything to go back to my childhood. There was nothing to worry about. Anxiety and worry weren't alive. The only things that were were excitement and happiness. Sadness arrived sometimes, but it was always washed away with hugs and ice creams from those older than you.

As I got older, the more those things started to vanish. I missed them more than anything in this world.

"You shouldn't have left like that." Inez sadly admitted to me, as if she was sharing a deep secret.

I felt like I wanted to cry.

The bratty teenager in my knew this was unfair. I had had no other chance to escape. I didn't want to live the rest of my life in fear and boredom. Was that too much to ask?

The sad little girl in me knew that I had done wrong. She was dreading the consequences and wishing she was a better person with a better mind. But she wasn't.

I smiled at her, maybe crying and maybe not. I smiled through the pain because it didn't matter. I was with her now, and we were going to find Danny.

I would see them both again. I would never have to miss their faces and wonder what they were doing. I could just see them instead.

"I know. I'm sorry." I told her solemnly.