Get Out Your Damn Umbrellas

Chapter 13

Emerging slowly from the darkness, Phil opened his eyes and squinted up at the bright fluorescent lights on the ceiling. The cold concrete floor beneath him made him shiver. As the world slowly came back into focus, he saw Officer Delaney hovering over him.

"Phil, are you alright?" Delaney asked, her face was lined with worry.

A rush of guilt overtook him as Phil suddenly remembered what happened before he passed out. "Oh God, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"Don't worry about that, okay?" Delaney whispered. "Trust me, it wasn't your fault."

Phil tilted his head to the side and saw the overturned table. "Did I break anything?"

"No, you didn't. It's all fine, really," she assured him. Then she took a deep breath and voiced an apology of her own. "I'm sorry. We shouldn't have put you through that."

"You were just doing your job." Phil murmured. His limbs felt weak and shaky, but he managed to raise his arms to press his hands over his eyes. "Anyways, Dan was right. One of their voices sounded familiar."

"Are you able to give us a name?"

Sighing defeatedly, Phil shook his head. "I can't figure out who it was. This wasn't for nothing, though. I know that I'll recognize it immediately if I hear that voice again. I'm not going to be able to forget it."

"Okay," Delaney said gently. "It's alright. Just try to lie still and rest for a bit. You're probably still in shock."

As soon as she said this, Phil rushed to stand up, "No, I've gotta go. I shouldn't have left him. Oh God, I shouldn't have left him."

"Phil, wait!"

Stumbling a bit, Phil ignored the sound of Officer Delaney calling him back and ran for the door. There was no time to wait. He had to get home.

The cab ride back to the apartment was hell. Phil had his whole body pressed against the door, ready to jump out and run inside as soon as he reached the complex. Images of what he just witnessed burned in his mind and made his insides feel cold. His frazzled mind urged the car to go faster, to get him back to Dan as fast as possible.

At one point the cabbie grew concerned. "Do you need a window rolled down, mate?"

"Um, yeah," Phil muttered. "Thanks." The cabbie could probably tell he was on the verge of throwing up, but Phil knew that it wasn't his travel sickness that was making him feel sick.

The cabbie rolled down the window and glanced back at him. "You gonna get that?"

"Huh?"

"Your phone's gone off about three times now."

Apparently, Phil had been so out of it that he hadn't heard his phone ringing until the cabbie mentioned it. He dug the device out of his pocket, and in one wild split second of hope he thought it might actually be Dan calling. When he looked at the screen, however, he saw Louise's name. He was in no fit state to talk to anybody else right now, and so he pressed the ignore button.

Barely five minutes later, as Phil was paying the cab fare, his phone rang again.

"Must be important," the cab driver commented. The man handed Phil back his change and then drove off the second Phil stepped out onto the pavement.

An unsettling sense of foreboding gripped Phil as he stared down at his phone and saw Louise calling for the fifth time. His hands shaking, Phil finally pressed answer and held the phone up to his ear. "Hey, Louise, sorry for not picking up sooner, but I don't think right now's a good time-"