Chapter Eight
“Okay, so I know we agreed that this wasn’t a date, but I can’t eat all this popcorn by myself. You have to help me.”
“It does smell pretty amazing,” she said, helping herself to a handful of popcorn. “Thanks.”
“You look nice,” Jake said. “Cool hoodie.”
“Oh.” Dani stared down at her chest. The hummingbird wings stilled and guilt settled into her gut. Maybe wearing Tommy’s old hoodie wasn’t the best idea, but it was her comfort article of clothes. Wearing it out in public helped her feel just a little more at ease. “Thanks. It’s my favorite.”
Dani crunched on the popcorn and closed her eyes. She knew that she deserved this night out. She needed to get back out into the real world and try to feel some semblance of normalcy again. She took in a deep breath and opened her eyes.
“Jake, I have to ask you a question,” she said.
“Oooh. This sounds serious.” Jake tossed a piece of popcorn in his mouth. “Shoot.”
“Did you send me a page last night?”
Dani studied his expression in the low light.
She was still learning how to read people, and couldn’t really tell if he was being sincere with her or not.
Too many times in her life she had been fooled by insincere friends, but at that moment, Jake seemed to be telling the truth.
The 187 page she had received the night before rattled her, but not enough to stop her from going out.
She had received random weird codes on her pager from time to time long before all of this happened.
Kids liked to prank each other and use all sorts of number combinations when they were bored to reach out to their friends.
Dani wasn’t going to let a stupid prank stop her.
She had to live again. Life had to go on.
Jake frowned and shook his head. “No. I only paged you before we met up tonight. Why?”
“Oh, no reason. I just got a weird, random page last night. I don’t get a lot of pages these days, so I thought maybe it was you.”
“Nope. It wasn’t me.” Jake’s frown disappeared as he wiggled his eyebrows. “I’ll page you more if you want me to, though.”
“Sure.” Dani hid a smile behind a handful of popcorn. Maybe letting Jake into her life wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all.
“So, this is supposed to be a pretty cool movie,” Jake said between slurps of soda. “Have you seen the previews yet?
“Yeah. It looks pretty great.”
“Thanks again for coming with me. None of my friends are into scary movies.”
“Really?” Dani said. “I love all kinds of movies.”
“Oh yeah?”
“I was actually planning on going to college to study film after graduation.”
“Awesome.” Jake nodded. “Why didn’t you go?”
“I’d rather not talk about it,” she said. “It’s too late to go now.”
“It’s never too late.”
Dani sighed. “It feels like it is.”
“You know, I took a gap year after high school to train and compete, but I got hurt. Now I’m going to community college. I figure I can still go back to fighting some day when I’m ready.”
“That’s a good point,” she said. “Oh, I think it’s starting.”
The house lights lowered and the projector came to life. THE FOLLOWING PREVIEW HAS BEEN APPROVED FOR ALL AUDIENCES flashed on screen backlit in bright green. Dani felt a cool cup of condensation graze across the back of her hand.
Jake jostled the ice in his soda and whispered, “Want a sip?”
“Sure.” Dani accepted the cup from him, took the plastic straw between her lips and swallowed the sweet, carbonated soda.
The realization that his lips, his tongue, his saliva, had also touched the straw didn’t repulse her.
She pushed down another wave of guilt and handed him back the sweaty wax paper cup. “Thanks.”
Jake's forearm brushed against hers as she settled in her seat and tried to pay attention to the previews. Movie theaters also used to be her safe place; a cool dark room where magic came to life on the big screen. Now as she surveyed the space, Dani took note of her exits and everyone in the theater. She made sure to get there early and pick a spot at the very back of the auditorium with the best view and the easiest escape route. There were very few people in the theater; another young couple and a single man in the front row. Still, as the opening credits of Urban Legends flashed on the screen, Dani didn’t feel at ease.
About halfway through the film, Jake shook the ice in his cup and leaned over the armrest. The reassuring scent of soap and clean laundry filled her nostrils as he whispered in her ear. “Drank too much soda. I’ll be right back.”
“Okay.” She sat back in her seat, scooting her legs out of the way so he could pass.
Jake exited the theater and a moment later, the lone man in the front row rose from his seat.
Dani held her breath and watched as the man walked up the row, his features obscured by the hood of his jacket.
He was a large man, over six feet tall, and his gait was slow and uneven.
Dani’s pulse picked up as she tried to push the large man out of her thoughts and focus on the film again.
Five minutes turned into ten as Dani continued to watch the movie alone.
She checked the time on her Indiglo watch and her anxiety rose with every passing tick of the illuminated hands.
Dread seeped into her chest as the teenagers on the big screen screamed and neither Jake nor the lone man returned to their seats.
The fine hairs on the back of her neck stood at attention and her instincts kicked in as a sick feeling edged into her gut. Something was wrong.
Dani stood and shoved her hands into the kangaroo front pocket of her hoodie where she kept her trusty switchblade and mace.
She wrapped her right hand around the mace and her left around the switchblade as she exited the theater and stepped into the fluorescent light of the hallway.
The booming blasts and screech of tires from an action movie raged on from the next theater as she scanned the neon space print carpeted floors toward where the bathrooms were.
In this wing of the Galaxy 8 there were only two single unisex bathrooms, and a thin yellow beam of light at the base of the doors indicated that they were both occupied.
Jake surely had to be in one of them. She stood back and said a silent prayer before knocking on the door to the right.
“Hello?” Dani said, rapping on the door. “Jake? Are you okay?”
Dani strained to listen through the door.
She could just barely hear a gurgling sound, like water overflowing from the toilet.
She gasped and stepped back as pink-tinged water eked out from inside the bathroom, seeping into the movie theater carpet at her feet.
Instincts guided her hand to the knob, and without thinking, she pulled the door open.
A silent scream stuck in her throat. Jake’s body lay slumped over the toilet, his head buried up to his wounded neck in the bloody bowl.
A vision of Tommy behind the wheel of his car, colorless and bathed in blood, flashed before her eyes, and fear gripped her limbs.
Before she had a chance to react, the other bathroom door opened to her left.
Someone stepped out into the hallway, reeking of drugstore cologne, ozone, and testosterone.
A flash of glowing teeth against tan skin.
White blond hair.
Piercing, dark eyes.
Matt Vickers smiled at her as though he had just seen the sun. “Dani!”
“Fuck!” Dani automatically plunged her hand into her hoodie pocket and pulled out the can of mace.
She positioned the can at his eye level, mashed her finger on the nozzle and emptied the entire bottle in his face.
He stumbled backward into the bathroom door and let out a yowl like an injured animal, clawing at his eyes.
Her martial arts training was now like a reflex as she lifted her knee and delivered a swift front kick to his torso.
Matt groaned, his arms flailing as he landed on the neon space print carpet with a heavy thud.
She turned and sprinted down the empty hallway of the Galaxy 8 theaters. A universe of carpeted neon planets and stars were a blur beneath her feet as she pumped her arms and ran. Her legs were made of lead, her heart ticking like a bomb as she ran and ran and didn’t look back.