1. Stella #2
Urging my body forward, I began running until I was at the edge of the building.
There was no time to think. I threw myself off the side with nothing but hope and audacity, eating air until I hit the next roof over, feet reverberating with the impact.
My body tucked and rolled on instinct, propelling myself farther, faster.
I had to move or they would for sure catch me.
I could hear them now, their voices and footsteps getting closer.
Lights pulsated in my vision, and I wobbled with each step.
It would only be a matter of moments before they found me.
I scrambled as quickly as my broken body would allow me.
Every muscle and nerve ending screaming with protest with each sloppy movement.
Black crept in on the edges of my vision as shouts followed me like my own shadow.
Polaris’s lights flashed, beckoning me closer as my legs shook with adrenaline.
I only had to make it a few more buildings over and I’d be in the clear.
With immense effort, I hoisted my leg over a short red brick wall and dropped down onto the next building.
The flat garden topped roof gave me enough coverage that I could crouch down without being seen.
Whoever lived here was bougie as fuck but had excellent taste.
Flowers and plush patio chairs and tables filled nearly every corner.
There were several strung up, soft fairy lights that looked like shimmering white halos with my impending migraine.
I couldn’t slow down and appreciate the decor though, because my eyesight was quickly fading.
The aura made it difficult to see already, obscuring half my vision with a rainbow of colors that was darkening by the second.
From the little I could make out—it appeared that the only way off this roof was to climb up the patio wall that was covered in foliage.
“They’re down there!” I heard someone yell, just as I was fitting my boot onto the ivy filled lattice. Shit.
When I attempted to duck, my boot got stuck in the diamond shaped hole and brought the whole structure down on top of me in a heap of broken wood and vines. If I got a splinter in my ass from this, I was going to be royally pissed.
Another round of bullets buzzed passed me, but I was already moving.
Slipping out of the mess and spinning with practiced moves I’d done dozens of times before.
My training was paying off. If I got out of here alive, I’d have to thank Janus for all their help.
That crotchety old crone knew what the fuck they were doing, I’ll give them that, even if they were an annoying old turd most of the time and ridiculously overpriced.
Off to the side, a slim, black pole attached to the building caught in my periphery that I hadn’t seen earlier. It looked like it could stand to hold my weight, but I couldn’t sit and deliberate about it.
Not hesitating for even a second, I wrapped my legs around it and slid. It was too slick from the rain and my thighs and hands struggled to maintain my grip as I fell. My feet hit the ground hard with a shock that slammed up into my bones and my knees nearly buckled.
The migraine was even worse now. It felt like someone was splitting my head open with a crowbar, and it made me want to throw up.
I was so close. All I needed to do was make it a few more steps and I would be free.
It took all the strength I had to keep pumping my legs before I disappeared around the corner, enveloped by the familiar rancid scent of cigarette smoke and stale boos that permeated the alley of Polaris.
My vision began to pulsate and spin, making every excruciating step feel like I was trudging through sludge.
Maybe I have a concussion, I thought as I stumbled to the back door entrance to the club. You could almost miss it if you didn’t know what you were looking for, but this place was like my second home. I was inside before the men even had time to realize where I’d gone.
“The hell happened to you?” My aunt, and owner of the club, asked seeing me wobbling into the changing room like a baby deer learning how to walk. The pain was intense, drenching me from head to toe in its vice-like grip.
“Do you know where my pills are?” I asked, not answering her question, fingers fumbling along the array of shit I housed in my work issued locker.
“Top shelf. Behind the tampons.”
My hand grazed the shelf and found the open box of tampons. I pushed it aside and sighed with relief, feeling the familiar bottle in my hand.
“Thanks. You’re a lifesaver,” I said around the pill I’d popped into my mouth. My aunt handed me a bottle of water, looking at me with her signature worried expression. One that I think made itself permanent the moment she became Andromeda’s and my guardian. She called us her wrinkle makers.
After I swallowed the chalky white pill down, I collapsed on the plush red couch that was strewn with sequined bustiers and thongs so small you could floss with them, but I wouldn’t recommend testing that out.
“They’re getting worse, Stell,” my aunt said, concern lacing each syllable.
“I know,” I said, eyes shut tight and my arm flung over them to block out the lights.
“Oh fuck, is that… are you bleeding?”
“Oh right,” I murmured. The pain in my head had stolen my focus from my gaping wound. “It’s just a scratch. I’m fine,” I protested, but she was already grabbing at me, pulling my clothes off like I was still a little kid.
“Just a scratch, my ass. This looks like… you know what, I’m not even going to say it.” My vision began to darken and the sounds of her rummaging around in the room, cursing occasionally and murmuring about how I would be the death of her reached me as I waited, cold and head swimming.
Though I was in pain, I smiled, grateful for her doting. That was until she poured hydrogen peroxide all over my side and I sat up gasping hearing it sizzle against my sliced skin.
“Holy fuck! Warn me next time,” I exclaimed, pulling myself away from her.
“Hold still, I have to clean the area before I can bandage it up,” she chastised, pushing me down.
I was too weak and too injured to argue.
Even though it was on the tip of my tongue to tell her that you weren’t supposed to use that to clean wounds.
It would open up a line of questioning I didn’t have the energy to answer.
After a moment of her patting the area with a towel, she said, “So, you want to tell me or am I going to find out by reading the news tomorrow?”
Involving her would only put her in danger, and I’d already lost too many in my life to risk it. “Let’s just say, if anyone asks, I was working here all night.”
I peered up at her through clenched lashes, feeling the effects of my meds starting to take, and my vision slowly started to restore.
While I was still in massive pain, the light sensitivity had eased some.
Looking at my aunt, I could see the toll the last few months had taken on her.
She loved my sister and I like we were her own, and now that Andi had gone missing, it opened up old wounds and created fresh new hellish ones that we both were feeling.
She looked more tired than usual, and there was a streak of gray woven in her copper-colored hair that hadn’t been there before.
Her brow was furrowed as she tended to me and the soft wrinkles that lined her face seemed deeper somehow.
Like the stress of it all had aged her a decade in only a few months’ time.
“I’m going to find her, Dee,” I promised, whispering it with a solemn certainty that I felt all the way down to my bones. I had to find her. She was my other half, and life didn’t make sense without her.
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Aunt Dee Dee said, securing the bandage in place with an expression I couldn’t quite place.
The air was full of unsaid words. Andi’s disappearance was a weight both of us were forced to carry.
One that felt unbearable at times, even with my aunt there to shoulder the load.
She might have been my mother’s stepsister, but she’d taken Andi and I in at the impressionable age of thirteen without even a question.
Adopting us as her own and becoming a secondary mother to us in her own right.
Helping us to navigate the monumental loss of our parents while still owning and operating the best-known club in the city.
We were all each other had left in terms of family, but I refused to believe that Andi was gone for good.
I would have felt it. Being a twin, I’d always been able to feel her in some way, and that hadn’t changed since she went missing.
That thin, frail tether between us gave me a sliver of hope that she was still out there, waiting for me to find her.
I knew going after Andi was a risk, but there was no one else that was stupid enough to go against the Underwoods.
But me? I wasn’t stupid. I was enraged, and maybe a little reckless, but that had been my winning combination my whole life, and I knew just how to use it to my advantage.
I’d trained just for the occasion to take them down after what they’d done to our family.
But now that they’d taken Andi on top of everything?
I was more than willing to rain all my rage upon their heads.
I sunk deeper into the couch cushions letting the velvety feel envelope my aching body as the distant thump of loud club music began to fade to the background.
The meds were fully kicking in now, pulling me into unconsciousness.
I’d bring Andi home again if it was the last thing I did.