Forty-Three
I hoped she wasn’t afraid of me now, but I just had to get out while I was so on edge. If I hurt her, I’d never forgive myself. She deserved so much more than me, but I’d come to realise I was more of an asshole than I expected, because I wouldn’t let her go now. She was mine.
I passed by the guys in the bar, and ignored the few who called out to me, leading to a few snarky comments about being kicked out by ‘the missus’ and stuff like that. I kept moving, because I’d end up punching someone, and that was so far out of character for me that it was freaking me out. I didn’t lose my temper like I’d just done, and like I had with Micro recently, but then I’d never been in the situation where my past was starting to overshadow my future, and my club and old lady were at risk. It was enough to send the calmest guy into panic territory.
There was only one thing that’d calm me down right now, so I headed for the spray bay. I figured I might as well check on the respray for Micro. If my earlier work was dry enough, I could focus on getting the design mapped out, and start spraying it. It was exactly what I needed to distract me enough to let all of this shit drift away. I could lose hours in the spray bay, because designing was my thing. It had always worked in the past, calming me, and freeing my mind so I could get past the shit eating at me.
I started mixing the paint, prepping it for the spray gun, while I checked over the rest of the old design. It was fine, it was just this deep gouge in the side, almost like something had been dragged across it, like a crowbar or something pointed. I guess it could have happened as it scraped by another vehicle.
I was masked up and goggled, and ready to spray when something hit the back of my skull hard enough to make me see stars. I crashed onto the bench, and knocked everything flying as I slid onto the ground, and darkness started closing in on me. I tried to fight it, tried to turn to see who attacked me, but as I rolled my head, all I saw was a dark figure with no face. My eyes fluttered shut, and I disappeared into blackness.
Elise
H as had been gone hours, and so it was after two in the morning that I was woken by the most chilling sound I could imagine for a woman alone in the dark. An alarm. A siren of some kind.
I sat up in bed, tugging the covers closer. The emergency light near the door was lit up, and when I reached for the lamp beside me, nothing happened when I flicked the switch. It was then that I realised what the alarm was. The fire alarm. Oh god!
I leapt out of bed, grabbing some clothes and throwing them on, as I looked around me in a panic. I had no idea what I was supposed to do. Could I smell smoke? Was there actually a fire? Was it a trick to get me out of my room?
The sheer stupidity of that thought hit me then, because it was hardly a discreet way of getting to me, was it? I unlocked my room and stepped out, expecting smoke and people, and yet all I heard was crashing against doors. What the hell? Were they unable to get out?
I grabbed the handle of the door closest to my room, and tugged at it, hearing yelling from the other side. My brother was yelling to stand back, so I backed up towards the stairs, and that’s when something hit me. Strong arms caught me, and then everything went black.