Rise of Rain - Sequel to Tower Falling

Chapter Eight

Sorry for the long wait! Here's a long chapter for you! Love y'all!

Chapter Eight

~Andie~ 

China. How the hell did we end up in China?

Danny was thinking the same thing. "Wait, what are you saying? How is this possible?" None of us had an answer for him. 

Someone was laughing. There was a man seated in front of us, his back toward us, with a menu up to cover his face. In one motion, he dropped the menu and toward around. "I believe in your particular parlance, the word is 'magic.'"

Lula's voice dropped into a whisper and she elbowed Merritt. "That guy looks exactly like you. He looks exactly like you. Are you seeing this right now?" She wasn't wrong; the man facing us looked like a carbon copy of Merritt, aside from his head of curly hair and the large grin on his face, which did not at all match Merritt's bald head and scowl. 

"Chase," he said, a bitter edge to his voice.

"Must confess, it's like what I heard about meeting the Rolling Stones," Chase said, a cheeky smile on his face. "They're a lot shorter in person."

Merritt exhaled through his nose and looked down at me. "Remember I told you about the guy who screwed me out of everything?" I nodded, as did Danny and Jack. Lula only looked confused. "This is my twin brother, Chase." 

Danny was quick to advance on Chase. "Wait, did you do this?" Immediately, every person in the restaurant got to their feet. Someone grabbed me from behind, twisting my arms behind my back; I shrieked in surprise. The rest of the Horsemen were grabbed in the same manner. Guns were being pointed at us from every direction. 

Chase was laughing again. "As you can see, my boss don't mess around."

Lula tried waving her arms as she spoke, but the man restraining her made it noticeably difficult. "I do not understand what is going on right now. At all." She wasn't the only one - not that I'd admit that to her.

"Okay, let me break it down for you," Chase said, still seated across from us. He was the only person in the restaurant not on his feet. "You jumped off a rooftop in New York and you landed in Macau, a.k.a. the Vegas of China, and presto-change-o." He was laughing - again. "Don't you just love it? The 'greatest magicians in the world' are the object of someone else's magic trick. Isn't that poetic?" He paused. Silence. "No? You know what, I'm not gonna let you guys yuck my yam. Shoo-shoo. Or mu-shu. Whatever." 

As soon as Chase waved his hand, the men holding onto us started to shove us none-so-gently toward the exit, forcing us along. Chase shouted after us, "Oh, and you know what they say, 'What happens in Macau...' Well, I don't know the rest of it, 'cause it's in Chinese."

The dude was crazy. And I thought Merritt was weird.

We were pushed out of the restaurant and onto a busy street, being herded toward a line of black SUVs. The door opened to the vehicle in the middle, and one by one we were shoved inside. I wound up squished in the back row of seats with Danny on my left and Merritt on my right, while Jack and Lula sat in the row of seats just ahead of us. A few moments passed before Chase slid into the front seat, and then the line of cars was moving and we were driving off in some unknown direction.

And Chase just wouldn't stop talking. He was almost chattier than Lula. As he wasn't the one driving, he was free to be turned around in his seat, looking at us as he told stories. Also, he was the kind of person to unironically wear sunglasses at night. Why? I had no idea. "It's all about blind spots," he was saying. "When you're staring straight at something, and not see it. Why?" He paused. "Blind spots."