Chapter 13 #3
“Hmm.” He swirled his bottle as if thinking. “I don’t believe you.”
I opened my mouth, offended. “It’s true!”
“Guess, you’ll have to prove it.”
“I’d be happy to beat your ass and prove you wrong.”
“Mm, I think I’d like that too.”
I made a noise of disgust, and he laughed, unlatching himself from the couch. “Alright, moving on.”
We returned to the hallway, passing by a few empty rooms. So far this side of the building appeared dingier than the other, with parts of the walls exposed to show piping and wires.
A couple yellow lights above flickered, which added to the eeriness of the place.
There was a storage space with a desk and set of tools, showing someone was working on fixing this side too.
As we went to turn the corner down another hallway, a dark shadow bolted past my feet, making me yelp.
“Marshmallow,” Leslie cooed, crouching. The orange and gray tabby appeared again, trotting over to Leslie and rubbing against his hand. “Good boy.”
“You have a cat?” I said, surprised.
“Kind of. He’s really just a stray that lives here, along with his siblings, Ratman and Starfire.
” He rose and slipped into a small doorless closet, turning on the light.
There was a bowl of food and water on the ground.
On one of the shelves, he put down his beer and grabbed a can of cat food, opening it and dumping it into the food bowl.
Immediately, Marshmallow ran to it and started chowing down.
“Ratman, huh?” I said as he stroked Marshmallow’s back.
“The best rat catcher this side of the city. Keeps this place relatively clean of them. You’ll probably see him around, mostly in the yard.”
Suddenly another cat appeared, bounding down the hall, meowing at us in greeting. This one was silver-gray with deep green eyes. It meowed at me as it rubbed against my leg.
“Starfire?” I guessed.
“You got it.”
I bent and brushed a hand along her spine and she arched her back in response. “Aw, good, kitty.”
“They stick to this side mostly,” Leslie said, opening another can for Starfire.
“Don’t care much for all the noise and people.
” He dropped the food down and Starfire went for it immediately like her brother.
“This way.” He grabbed his beer and slipped by the cats, moving down the hallway to the right.
I patted Starfire one last time before following him.
He showed me a few more spare rooms, all kind of creepy as they sat dark and empty.
“This place is like Silent Hill,” I muttered. “Or something out of Walking Dead.”
“I know, I love it. Dom told you it used to be a factory, right? Before the last owners tried to turn it into an apartment complex.”
“He mentioned it.”
Leslie paused at a set of double doors. “This is the most haunted room in the place.”
“You believe in that sort of stuff?” I said, standing beside him.
“Sometimes.”
“Sometimes?”
“I want to believe,” he said. “Had a few creepy experiences as a kid.”
“That…weren’t being experimented on in the basement of a warehouse?” I hoped I didn’t sound insensitive but thankfully Leslie snickered.
“Yeah, besides that. Swore I saw a creepy old lady back behind my foster parents’ house once. She stood behind a tree and had no eyes. I watched her put up a bent finger to her lips then she disappeared.”
That gave me a chill. “Ugh, no thank you.”
Lez grinned as he threw open one side of the double doors. Pitch black greeted us beyond. It appeared heavy, almost oppressive. I peered into the dark, trying to see but couldn’t make out a single thing.
“What’s in there?” I asked.
“Nothing. At least that I know of.”
I shook my head. “I swear if you’re trying to scare me…”
“Is it working?”
I gave him an annoyed look before glancing back at the dark. I stared into it, taking a careful step closer. “No light?”
“Doesn’t work in here.”
“Do not say it’s the only room that it doesn’t work.”
He laughed low, and I admit I liked the sound. I leaned forward, about to ask if he had his phone to use as a flashlight when I froze.
There was something moving in the dark. It was small but it was there. My eyes widened, trying to see. “Lez, something is moving in there.”
“Oh, yeah?” At the corner of my eye, I saw him put down his beer and take out his phone. He moved closer as he opened his screen and tapped on the icon for flashlight.
As the white light washed over the wide room, something shot out of the dark towards us. I shrieked, jumping back into Lez and nearly spilling my beer as a rat bolted past our feet and disappeared down the hall.
I covered my face in my hand. “Oh, my god.”
Lez laughed again as he gripped my arm to steady me. “Damn, big guy. Ratman’s gonna be eating well tonight.”
Heart pounding, I realized I had my back planted against his chest and quickly separated from him. “You’re lucky I don’t punch you right now.”
He closed the door to the room with a tight click before stashing away his phone. “It was funny though, you gotta admit.”
“No. It wasn’t.”
“Your expression says otherwise, sweetheart.”
I gave him a dirty look.
“Alright. I’ll make it up to you. Come on.” He picked up his beer and started to walk down the passage.
I didn’t move, crossing my arms. When he saw I wasn’t following, he looked around in surprise, his giddy expression falling. He came over. “Bad scare, huh? I’m sorry. Won’t happen again.”
I glared at him for a second with a mean look, then dropped it. “Just kidding.” I smirked, patting him on the shoulder and slipping past him.
“You little brat,” I heard him mutter and it was my turn to snicker. He took my hand again and I didn’t protest as we made our way down to a room at the far end. It was another set of double doors and this time Lez didn’t hesitate to open them as we approached.
Stumbling inside, I searched the dark as Lez flipped on the lights.
I had to blink a few times from the brightness.
As my sight adjusted, the first thing I noticed was the back wall down the far end of a large room.
A good chunk of a tall wooden fence rested against the wall at a slight angle.
The planks were set tightly side by side.
Painted on the front of the fence was a bullseye.
I stared at it confused at first, until Lez’s hand came into view holding a knife.
“I know you haven’t been practicing like you should. But I’m not about to have all that training go to waste.”
“That was like one time,” I said, remembering the “lessons” he had given me back at the church.
But I couldn’t help the little smile that crept on my face.
I exchanged my beer for the knife, letting Leslie set our drinks on a nearby table as I positioned myself, ready to throw the knife.
As I brought my hand up, Leslie came behind me.
“Stand a little more like this,” he said. His hands dropped to my waist, moving me slightly. I could feel the heat coming off him at my back. I tensed a little, heart fluttering, but I ignored the reaction as I focused on trying to aim at the bullseye. I brought my hand back and swung.
The knife made it to the fence but bounced off at the bottom.
“Try again,” Leslie said, producing another blade from his person and handing it to me. He maneuvered me again. When I positioned myself to throw, he moved my arm back a little more. This time the knife landed just outside the circumference of the circle, making a shallow hole.
“See, you’re getting there.”
“I didn’t even make it inside the circle,” I remarked.
“Yeah, but you actually got the sharp end to stick, that’s a start.” He got closer, and I could smell the slightest scent of whatever soap he used mingled with the smell of smoke on his shirt. “May I?”
I looked over my shoulder at him and nodded. He took out another knife, placing it in my hand, then he grabbed my wrist and wrapped his arm across me, pressing himself behind me, his face near mine.
A clear, vivid memory shot through me like lightning. It was that night at the church with Leslie holding me almost the same way, only I was crying…and I was fighting…
“This is how it has to happen, there’s no other way. Don’t make this more difficult than it has to be.”
Those were the words he’d whispered in my ear. The night he took Eve.
I nearly froze as he brought my hand back with his own. I moved with him as he used my arm to swing, letting the blade fly.
The knife hit the target just below the center, stuck deep in the wood.
“See? You got this,” he whispered in my ear.
A shudder passed through me and I gently pulled away. Without looking at him, I went over to the table and grabbed my drink, taking a generous swig. Lez didn’t seem to notice my reaction as he walked over to the fence and pulled out the knives.
He offered them to me again and I took them without hesitation. I positioned myself like he had shown me, and I threw with all my strength one at a time. Two of them bounced, one of them stuck, a foot above the bullseye.
Leslie whistled. “You learn fast.”
“I was just lucky,” I countered.
“Don’t sell yourself short.” He pulled the knives out and offered them but this time I shook my head. I watched instead as he centered himself then threw each one, hitting the mark each time, making it look easy.
“Cheater.”
“I’ve been throwing knives since I was out of the warehouse, it’s called skill.
” He winked at me as he went to pull the knives out.
He stashed them away as he returned. “Granted I can thank the staff of Project Redbird for giving me the ability to see a flea from like twenty feet away so there’s that too. ”
“That’s crazy.”
“That’s the military industrial complex.” He grabbed his beer and drank, setting it down with a thud.
I studied him for a moment then asked, “If it had worked out…do you think you and Dom would have…I don’t know…been elite soldiers or something?”
He planted his palms on the table, looking at his drink. “If it had worked…probably,” he said.
“Did you…ever think about joining the military?”