II
Ana was relaxing in Dijana's arms. After the initial outpouring of passion, the two of them had agreed to hold off on any passionate outbursts, at least until they left the party.
"Not now, dear," she gently cut her off.
"Why not?" Dijana protested. She was still exploring tirelessly with her fingers.
"Because you'll spoil the experience for yourself, and it's not far off."
"Oh yeah?" Dijana said coyly, but her fingers stopped their gentle caresses and withdrew from Ana's miniature panties.
Ana sighed, shivered, and finally regained control of her body.
She was trembling and breathing fast. She was utterly filled with a desire she could barely control.
She finally rose from the beanbag and offered Dijana a hand to help her up.
One young girl was moaning in the corner of the room, beneath some communist poster, while the young man beside her was passionately busy running his tongue over her neck and down toward her bared breasts.
Slowly, so as not to disturb the couple on the beanbags, the two girls left the room and collided with an enormous hulk.
Ana recognized him at once and greeted him cheerfully.
"Erik, tired of being a doorman?" she smiled at the acquaintance.
"I'm not, Ana, Nick sent me," Erik answered seriously. His face was grim.
Ana grew serious. Nick was sending Erik for her — something unforeseen was happening.
"What's going on, Erik?" she asked.
Before Erik could answer, the power went out, accompanied by terrible vibrations and falling bits of plaster.
Someone screamed in the sudden silence as darkness swallowed the until-then blinded mass of people.
Ana felt dust falling on her head, and a small piece of something struck her shoulder.
Suddenly she felt that she was floors underground, and the weight of the mountain above began to choke her.
In the total darkness, the noise raised by the people present became unimaginable.
Ana reached into her purse, searching for her phone to at least light up her surroundings a little.
She found it and, aghast, discovered that her phone gave no signs of life.
From the suddenly loud clamor of people around her, she gathered that they had come to a similar conclusion.
Panic began spreading through the room, adding weight to the general chaos slowly being born as more and more people started to panic.
Darkness and panic began to creep into her thoughts.
She'd been exposed to this once before. That night.
The night she was raped. She felt beads of sweat on her forehead and the first cramp of panic in her muscles.
She didn't like the dark, it frightened her.
Her composure scattered and left only pure panic, which kept growing.
She gripped the phone with sweaty fingers and looked blindly around her.
The claustrophobia and the press of people woke the demons of the past in her head.
Demons she kept in check only through steely willpower and years of training and schooling.
From a successful manager, in this darkness she became a frightened little girl again.
A little girl who, at this moment, knew she was in trouble and would probably be marked for life.
She felt a massive hand grab her by the shoulders and, at the same time, place a small object in her fist, in place of the dead phone.
She didn't know by feel the object thus thrust upon her, but she knew the strong grip of the hand on her shoulder and instinctively surrendered to it.
The hand of a person she trusted, one that radiated safety, a hand of trust.
The panic in her head eased and withdrew into a corner of her mind.
She felt the crowd around her ease a little and gratefully realized that Erik was using his massive body to keep the panicked people from crushing two small girls.
At that moment the auxiliary lighting came on.
Red safety lamps, tactically placed around the room, glowed with a weak but welcome light.
Though the light was dim, it gave just enough of a glow that the darkness wasn't complete, and the gathered people greeted the visibility with joy.
Ana sighed in relief; the panic was easing.
Someone loudly remarked that it was probably some special effect from the organizers and that the party would most likely continue.
An obvious but welcome delusion helped the gathered relax, and conversation spread through the room as the misinformation spread.
Most of them put away their useless phones, naively believing the devices would fix themselves with a restart or that their batteries had simply died.
"Ana, please, follow me," Erik stopped shielding them with his body and headed toward the exit a few meters away.
Ana didn't hesitate long. She followed the giant, and soon they found themselves in the open foyer where, in the room's dim light, she noticed a crowd of hefty young men in leather jackets.
They looked as if they were waiting for something.
Many of them nodded in greeting toward Erik.
It was completely obvious that he was their leader.
Erik quickly headed toward the elevator in the middle, the girls following him.
Her head still a little clouded from the earlier attack of panic, Ana hurried after Erik, relaxing more and more with time.
The rumble and the power outage hadn't sounded good, but she felt somewhat safe, because she knew many of those young men and had spent time with them in the past.
She was sure Nick had an explanation for the situation.
She approached the little group of people beside the elevator console.
"It doesn't work." Dean stood beside it while one of the security guys fumbled with the device's wires.
Only then did Ana notice how tightly she was gripping the small object in her hand, and now, in the dim light, she examined it. She recognized a stun gun, one she'd learned to use long ago at some self-defense course. Nick's sending me this? What on earth is going on? She returned her gaze to Dean.
"The elevator's not working?" she asked, needlessly.
Dean wasn't known as a talker, so he just shook his head. The guard fumbling with the cables spoke up.
"By all appearances, there isn't enough voltage for the elevator to run." He lifted his gaze and nodded toward the lamps. "And it seems we're currently on backup power." He paused a moment. "Some big mess must have happened with the electricity."
Ana looked over the lamps one by one, ran her gaze across the gathered crowd. Nick sent me a stun gun — why? She still didn't understand. Her thoughts were cut off by a familiar voice.
"Nick said we have to listen to you and help you," Erik offered a terse explanation. "He also gave me this for you," he nodded toward the object in her hand.
"Where's Nick?" Ana asked, looking around the room.
"He was over there on the staircase by that gate." Erik pointed to the massive grille of the staircase. "But he's not there now. He probably went up to sort out whatever happened," Erik concluded and crossed his arms over his big chest.
Ana thought fast. Nick organized the bikers and told them to listen to me.
So he expects me to do something here. But what?
She looked around the room and noticed that, apart from the gathered people, there was no more flow of the crowd.
The large foyer had been taken over by the men in leather jackets, and the mass of people in the surrounding rooms instinctively avoided the scowling men around her.
Suddenly she understood! Nick was asking her to organize the security and prevent conflicts.
Suddenly everything became clear. As a manager she had experience with people and knew how to manipulate them.
And if Nick was asking her to take responsibility for hundreds of trapped people in a suddenly cramped space, then the problem was far bigger than she'd imagined.
But Nick didn't know her secret. The secret she jealously guarded.
The secret she revealed to no one. Ana knew how to work with people in the office, but she dreaded a crowd in an unfamiliar space.
She dreaded all those sweaty bodies around her.
Ever since the rape she couldn't bear the pressure of a crowd.
And that was why she always surrounded herself with familiar faces that calmed her and kept the impulses of panic under control.
Only years of psychotherapy and the habits of life kept her from collapsing to the floor now like a weeping little girl.
The impulse was too strong, and her knees began to give way.
But then she felt a small hand squeeze her elbow.
Dijana was looking at her with open eyes, expecting something from her.
The sight of a familiar face steadied her buckling knees, and her reason triumphed over the demons of claustrophobia and the past.
Her brain was working feverishly. She had to stop the flow of people, localize the groups, and break up conflicts among them.
The clamor and chanting from every space full of people grew louder, and she knew there wasn't much time before the crowd would rush toward an exit that clearly no longer existed.
She imagined the horror that would begin to unfold at that moment. She fixed her gaze on Erik and Dean.
"Quick! Put people at every entrance — only the biggest and the most dangerous-looking."
Dean nodded and, with a few hulks, went to organize human barricades.
She knew that just a grim look from someone visually stronger and bigger than you was sometimes enough to drive every stupid idea out of a head.
Then Ana looked at the confused security kid who was now staring in astonishment at the small girl commanding the hefty men around her.
"You, what's your name?" Ana asked him in a commanding voice.
"Milivoj," he replied, confused.
"Okay, Milivoj, do you know the rest of the security crew?"
He smiled in confirmation and added:
"Yes, they're all my crew of friends from college."
"As I'd expect," Ana nodded. "In that case, go find your crew in the rooms and gather here with us."
"Why?" Milivoj wanted to ask more, but one look at the scowling Erik beside Ana stopped any curiosity. He quietly agreed. "Okay, I'll send them all here." He dropped the cables and headed toward one of the entrances.
Ana looked at her friend.
"Erik, make sure everyone from security is put to good use. This room is a no-entry zone. Only our people and security."
Erik nodded and turned to explain to the gathered bikers.
Only then did Ana become aware of the pale Dijana beside her. The girl was looking at her with adoration.
"Ana, you're phenomenal. And the way they listen to you. WOW!" an admiring cry escaped her.
"Never mind that now, we've got a lot of work," Ana still held her confident pose and sharp commanding voice. It was all part of the act, an act she directed and controlled. No one was to know that at the core of her soul she was terrified. Dijana calmed.
The flow has been stopped, the people are localized for now, though it won't last. Ana then looked up at the ceiling, from which a thin trickle of dust still occasionally sifted. And where is Nick, and what the hell is going on?