The Death Curse

Chapter 15: Behind the Door

I raced through the streets, though I only vaguely remembered where the rental store was located. Whenever I went the wrong way, Vivian shouted directions from behind me, which meant I did a lot of backtracking but I couldn't slow myself down enough to allow her to take the lead.

Sweat dripped down the side of my face and my breath came out in hard pants. Still, fear pushed my legs faster. I tried to hold onto hope that Rhys was sticking to the "round them up and call the police" plan but something in my gut told me he wanted to face them head-on, to service justice himself. And I needed to stop him before he did something that stupid. There was no way I was letting Rhys die after I dragged him into this. I couldn't do much but I could at least die for him instead.

Vivian yelled for me to turn right. I took a few stuttered steps to change my trajectory and then was back to sprinting speed. It was already a couple of hours past midnight and the streets were mostly empty. The only things I had to dodge were the ghosts and shadows that lingered on the sidewalk.

Ahead of me, I saw the light of a twenty-four-hour convenience store and I skidded to a halt in front of it. I rested my hands on my knees as I tried to catch my breath.

"What are you doing?" Vivian came to a stop next to me. "We're almost there. It's just one street over."

"I know," I panted. "But I don't have a phone and I need to call the police." I wanted to kick myself for not picking up a new phone the day before.

"Good idea, but can you hurry up?" Vivian waved her hands anxiously.

I was still breathing hard but I opened the door to the small convenience store and marched up to the counter. "Can I use your phone?"

The man glanced at me for less than half of a second before his attention returned to a small tv on a high shelf behind the counter that was playing some reality show about people who lived near swamps in the South. "What?" he droned.

"I need to use your phone? I need to call the pol--,"

Before finish my sentence, he grabbed an old cordless house phone from its charging stand and held it out to me, never taking his eyes off the tv.

"Thanks," I muttered as I punched in nine one one.

"Nine one one. What's your--"

I cut her off. "My friend is in trouble. He's at a DVD rental shop that is actually a front for a drug ring. Please come as soon as possible. They might kill him."

"Give them the location," Vivian reminded me.

I barked the names of the cross streets into the receiver, ended the call, and dropped the phone on the counter.

As soon as I pushed the door open, I was back running at full speed. I turned at the end of the block and then slowed after I took the final corner. I stopped directly in front of the rental shop. It was clearly closed. The neon sign that read Good Vibes DVD Rental, a name I wasn't going to forget again, was turned off and the windows were dark.

But that didn't stop someone from cutting through the rolling grate with something like a blow torch and smashing the window. If there was an alarm system, it wasn't going off. And there was no one in the storefront so they were either in the back room or they had already left.

I anxiously ran my hands through my hair as I stared at the large opening in the broken glass.

"Are you going inside?" Vivian asked from behind my shoulder.

I groaned. "God, if he isn't already dead, I'm going to kill him," I grumbled under my breath as I stepped through the window, careful to avoid the sharp edges of the pieces of glass still stuck to the frame. "And if he's dead then I'll find a way to kill his ghost."