Velocity City

Chapter Two

The lights were dim and gave the park a creepy look. People walking around made her nervous. Hailey covered her pale face with her grey sweater and kept walking through the crowd of freebooters and blood-dripping freaks. She clenched her backpack straps and walked faster. She knew someone was following her. After two minutes of zig-zagging around people, she finally made it to her safe spot. The abandoned, haunted house. On the outside, it looked dark, dirty, old, and it's an eyesore; but on the inside, it was all futuristic.

    Rows of blue and red lights illuminated the tracks. After the blue and red tracks were the center of the building. Drones and little toy airplanes flew around the big room, and strands of purple and blue lights hung from the ceiling. Hailey walked over the tracks and examined the room. Then suddenly, her phone rang. She walked to her bed that was covered in books and drone parts and sat down with her phone close to her ear. “Hi mom; what’s the matter?”

    Her mother spoke with fear in her voice. It was hard to tell what she had said. Hailey knew something wasn’t right. “Mom, what’s going on?” Nothing but breathing came from the phone. Once the breathing stopped, the room went dark. It was too quiet for it to be normal. Hailey got up from her bed and slowly walked over to the fuse box that was located across the room. The box was in her reach, but someone grabbed her from behind and yanked her into the darkness.

    The Ferris wheel was brightly lit with yellow and white light bulbs around the rim. Jandel walked closer and closer to it. With every step, anger built up in his body. As a result, he clenched his fists, walked faster, and his veins showed on his arms. He lifted his sleeves and ran to the Ferris wheel. Once he got to the operation booth, he realized that someone was behind him. Jandel swung his elbow into that person’s stomach and turned around with all of his attention on the person. “What the hell are you doing?” Jandel realized exactly who it was; it wasn’t the one who he’d fight. The person got to his feet and gasped. “Come on, Jandel. Seriously?” It was Jandel’s friend, Mark. “Dude, you know not to sneak up on me.”

    Mark raised his head and tilted his head to the side like a confused puppy. “Are you waiting for him to show up?” Jandel nodded. “Well, I know where he is…” Mark gestured to the top of the Ferris wheel. There was a little cart with dangling feet. Jandel looked up and sighed. “He’s doing it again, isn’t he?” Mark nodded and reached for his bag. “You’re going to need this.” Mark held a pistol. “Make sure you get the head. Just like last time.” Jandel grabbed the pistol and shoved it in his pocket. “I got it.”

    “How in the world do I get up there?” Jandel knew that the Ferris wheel never worked. You’d think the control booth would help, but the controls are old, dusty, dirty, and banged up bad. The only way up was to climb it. The big Ferris wheel was made of steel and Jandel thought he would be fine climbing it. Until the first bar, he grabbed it then it snapped off. Little did he know that the bar that snapped off was the bar for the expired control booth. Why would a control booth need a bar?

Anyway, Jandel examined the contraption and began climbing the bar right in front of the control booth. The night air made his eyes watery. Making it hard to see where he was. After climbing the rusty bars, he realized that the cart was right above him. He could hear someone singing. “Yep, that’s him all right.” He whispered. Jandel slowly and quietly climbed behind the cart and noticed a man in a dark sweater. “So, you finally showed up?” The man stood up and revealed his face. He was a white man with a scar across his face. It was never stitched up, so the man’s face was showing all the facial muscles and nerves. “Damn dude, you desperately need a facelift.” Jandel gagged and laughed. “You think this is funny?”     The man grabbed his pocket knife from his pocket and pointed it at Jandel’s chest. “I’m going to slice you in half if you keep laughing.” Jandel kept giggling and slapped the knife out of the man’s hand. “Look, I’m in a good mood now. I’ll leave you alone.” Jandel turned around and climbed down. “Where do you think you’re going?” The man yanked Jandel back onto the cart. “You’re not going anywhere until you apologize.” Jandel made a “hmmm” sound and sighed. “Mickey, for christ's sake, SHUT UP! You out of all people need to chill out.”

Mickey slammed Jandel onto the cart’s ground. “You know what you did!” Quickly, Mickey grabbed the knife off the ground and attempted to stab Jandel’s arm. Suddenly, a crack of lightning puts both guys into shock. After staring at the cloudy night sky, rain poured down. While Mickey was busy staring at nothing, Jandel reached for the pistol and shot Mickey’s foot. “What the hell kid?” Jandel jumped up to his feet and struck his face. Blood and some facial muscles poured out of his face. “YOU ABSOLUTE IDIOT!!!!” Mickey shoved his muscles back into his face. Then, Jandel realized that Mickey was dizzy and not in total control of his body. Jandel found the chance to finally end it all. Once Mickey was at the edge of the cart and rested. “You think you’ve won, kid? Once I’m finished, more men will come after you. You will sleep with one eye open. You will never be safe again.” Jandel slowly approached Mickey. “No matter what you or you goons do to me, I’ll eventually find a way to finally be happy.” Jandel lifted Mickey’s heavy body and tossed it over the cart. “I’ll find a way”