Passing Through #6
“Told you that you should have let me go,” the man said from his holding cell, but Nolan was already gone. Then the man looked at the woman sitting on the cot opposite him. “What are you in for?”
“Botched eye surgery,” Dolores said.
Nolan rushed to his car and sped down chaotic streets. Everywhere he looked, there were issues, fights, fires. Emergency vehicles sped past in various directions. Nolan watched calls scroll by on his laptop but ignored them all. Nell needed his help.
Nell was frantic on the call, saying something about stealing a phone out of someone’s back pocket, but she was struggling to work the phone.
She called him first and said she would hang up and try 911.
Nothing Nell said made sense and he avoided telling her dialing the emergency line would be pointless.
He blasted his sirens until a block away.
He did not wish to alert anyone inside to his presence.
But they might have heard him drive up onto the front lawn, tearing grass without an afterthought.
Nell needed help and her driveway was full.
There were multiple cars there. What was going on?
Wasn’t it baby shower night? Nolan drew his weapon and stormed into her two-story home.
Signs of both a bridal shower and a struggle filled the living room. Bloody smears covered the floor. He heard a thump overhead. Voices sounded from somewhere in the large home, but he could not identify where or who they belonged to.
He climbed the stairs, gun pointed. Nolan knew the place well, was friends with Nell. She was his go to in the office for talking about hot guys. Her baby daddy was one, a cop from Boston she met at a convention. He was married, so she was doing the single mom thing.
The thump seemed to have come from the bedroom, but he also heard movement in the kitchen, but that was down a corridor and off to the right, so he went up first. He did not call out because he did not wish to alert any intruders to his presence. Stealth was required until he located her.
There were two bedrooms at the top of the stairs. A small bedroom, a separate bathroom, then the master bedroom which anchored the hallway. The door was open in the master bedroom through which he glimpsed the feet of someone on a bed kicking against bonds. Nell!
Nolan cleared the two rooms on the way before rushing into the master bedroom.
Nell was nude and tied to the bed with duct tape.
The tape over her mouth was loosened, allowing her to talk and make the emergency call.
One hand was also free but the cell phone she had used to call Nolan had fallen to the floor alongside the bed. She was lucky she got a call through.
“Thank God!” Nell yelled. “Where are the others? I didn’t hear shots? Did you kill them? They’ve gone crazy.”
“Who, Nell? What’s going on?”
He struggled to untie her. The tape refused to cooperate.
He bit at the tape that secured one foot to a bedpost. It caused a rip that he exploited, tearing it away.
Nell nearly kicked him out of instinct when her foot came loose.
He dodged, ignoring the gynecological view of the fully nude woman on the bed.
Blood covered her still tethered foot (responsible for the smudges downstairs?). Nell noticed his concern.
“It’s not my blood. I kicked Felicia in the nose.”
“Felicia? Your best friend, Felicia?”
“Yeah, cracked the bitch’s nose. If you didn’t encounter them, then they are around here somewhere.”
Behind him, footsteps sounded in the hall.
Heavy. Nolan looked over his shoulder and could not fully understand.
Felicia stood in the doorway. Felicia was a large woman, three hundred pounds at least, and well known as one of the town superstars for the annual chili cookoffs.
Normally gregarious and full of joy, the woman wore a scowl bordering on homicidal.
She waved the chef’s knife in her hand like a scolding finger.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk, Nolan. We cannot have you release her.”
We referred to two other heads barely viewable over Felicia’s shoulder.
Felicia was Nell’s best friend from high school.
The other two were likely friends as well.
All assembled for a pre-baby shower before the bigger party that would include her family and work friends.
Felicia blocked the entire doorway. There would be no getting past her without force, but Nolan was hesitant to draw his weapon, as nothing made sense.
“We’re Nell’s best friends and have collectively decided we are going to deliver this baby tonight. What better way to celebrate our friend’s pregnancy than by ending it? Poor thing carrying around so much weight.”
Kettle calling a kettle a kettle, Nolan thought and finally unclipped the weapon strap. He would figure out later what was going on, but for now, he needed to protect his friend. Before he could unholster the gun, Felicia charged, knife raised over her head.
Nolan froze. Nell screamed. Then something snapped violently.
Felicia’s ankle. She fell face first as her other leg gave out, face-planting with a loud ‘schnick.’ The woman landed on the upturned blade which stabbed through the bottom of her jaw.
The tip made a blood-covered appearance through her right eye.
She twitched and gurgled as blood coated the floor.
“What did you do to Felicia?” Kristen yelled
He identified the two women once he could see them. Kristen and Julia, both mothers and friends of Nell. They charged knives raised high. Nolan pulled his gun, but Kristen slipped in the pooling blood and fell, laying still, trying to breathe after having the wind knocked out of her.
Julia came on next, mindful of the blood.
Nolan braced himself against the bed and kicked her.
Julia flew backward against the wall and crumpled to the ground.
She growled, but the fight had mostly gone out of her.
Nolan approached Kristen and kicked her face, knocking her unconscious.
He took the unconscious woman’s blade and cut Nell free.
“You back-stabbing bitch!” Nell yelled and charged Julia.
Julia dropped the knife and looked up apologetically to her friend, but Nell was not having it.
Nell kicked Julia’s face causing the woman’s head to bounce against the wall and back.
Though bloodied at the nose and lip, Julia remained conscious.
Nell kicked again. Repeat. Nell’s bare foot did not provide the extra oomph that Nolan’s work boot did.
Julia laughed through the blood pooling in her mouth. She spit a red, pink spittle as she raged at her friend. “Think you’re the shit having a baby? Anyone can have a baby. Look at me! Look at me! I’m the number one greatest mom. I have a stupid ass coffee mug that says so! Look at me!”
Nolan corralled Nell and led her down the stairs. Nell led the way outside to the driveway. She was still completely nude and did not care what the neighbors saw. Nolan dialed the sheriff on the way but got no answer.
“We need to get you to the hospital,” Nolan said.
“I can drive myself,” she said, getting into her car and peeling out without so much as a thank you.
Nolan turned to the house and wondered where to begin.
He dialed emergency services for an ambulance but got only a busy signal for his troubles.
He had enough. Nolan decided it was time for a change.
He was nothing but a dam holding back a flood of crazy, and structural failure was imminent. There was nothing more he could do.
He got in his car, turned off the laptop pinging emergencies, and drove toward his house to collect his things. The town could screw itself. Life in the woods sounded pretty good.
***
Higgins loved everything he was hearing. All around him, people dealt with issues and sleights with fisticuffs. None bothered asking for his help. Higgins continued toward his destination, the business that made the call which brought him to the mall in the first place.
He approached the movie theater premiering a hot new movie starring a hot new starlet and a famous actor.
Higgins planned to watch it eventually but figured no time like the present.
Signs on the doors of the business said they were closed.
A male teen worker about nineteen waited at the doors and unlocked it when Higgins appeared.
The officer stepped inside and noticed a second female worker of the same age staring towards a closed viewing room door. Higgins approached her. Voices cried out inside.
“What happened to your face?” the male asked. “Should I see the other guy?”
“I am the other guy,” Higgins said.
The kid furrowed his brow, confused. Higgins approached the stunned young woman. She pointed to the closed theater door. The sounds inside were clear.
“You left the movie playing?” Higgins asked.
“Yes. Do you want us to stop it?”
Higgins shook his head. “And the other theaters?”
“Empty. We evacuated and called it in,” the other kid said.
“Adults only?” Higgins asked.
“Yeah, rated R. We card. And we know everyone in town,” the guy said.
“I used to babysit for the Langdon’s. They are both in there. And not with each other,” the girl said.
“Look. This may take some time with the amount of people involved. I suggest you all lock up and go home. Unless you want to go in with me?” Higgins asked.
The two could not escape fast enough. They raced for the door.
Higgins watched them lock the business from the outside.
Higgins opened the door to screening room three and stepped inside.
The voices from the seats drowned out the screen’s soundtrack.
Up on the big screen, the starlet engaged in simulated sex while down in the theater the entire audience engaged in actual sex.