Troubling Visions

MADDIE

I peered out the window of the penthouse to the city below.

Hael and I had ordered takeout, and he was blowing off steam in the home gym.

I wanted to blow off some steam, too…

But I wasn’t interested in working out.

I focused on a dark square in the distance—The Skeleton Quarter.

It was calling my name.

~The perfect place for a midnight stroll…~

“Where are you going, rat?”

I winced at Hael’s voice. I was hoping that I could sneak out of the penthouse without him hearing me...fat chance.

He had reptilian senses. And I ~was~ wearing my humongous combat boots…

“Midnight stroll,” I replied, swiveling to see him in his boxers, toothbrush hanging out of his mouth.

“May I join you?” he requested.

“You look like you’re ready for bed…” I began. “And I need a minute alone.”

He nodded to me and drifted away down the hall.

I raised my eyebrows.

That was much easier than I had expected.

I took the elevator down and emerged onto the quiet street.

The night was cool and calm. This district was mostly populated with office buildings. Nothing happened here.

I headed toward the intersection and passed a few blocks before I realized where my feet were subconsciously carrying me.

The Skeleton Quarter.

I knew it wasn’t exactly the most beautiful part of town, or the safest, but it was where I wanted to go.

After the turmoil of the past few days, I knew the chaos of the streets would help me reconnect to myself.

The penthouse was beautiful, sure. But it was ~unnatural~ to me. I needed to be in the place I knew. The place I was from.

I continued under the city’s towering streetlamps like a ghost. I clung to the shadows, letting the blocks pass.

Finally, I passed the last streetlight and traveled on into the noisy darkness.

There I was.

The Skeleton Quarter.

A few blinking streetlamps offered the only illumination. I saw the occasional flicker of flame behind the dark, broken windows on the rundown buildings that dotted the streets. Junkies, I assumed.

I tapped my pocket and felt the few canisters of overhead I had brought with me.

What I told Hael was true: I wanted to clear my head. But if I passed some interested customers, then I wanted to be prepared.

And interested customers—there were.

Junkies prowled the streets like starving dogs. I just had to determine who had money to buy, and who was in more...dire straits.

A young woman appeared at my side. She must have been a few years younger than me, but as she looked at me with her wide eyes, I saw myself in them.

We had both seen the underbelly of the city—hell, the underbelly of ~humanity~—and as a result, we were hard as nails. We grew up before our time.

“Selling a few grams?” she asked.

I nodded, breaking her gaze.

Something about her made me want to look away.

Yes, we were similar, but not in every way.

I gravitated toward the Skeleton Quarter, but I got to choose when I came and went.

She didn’t. She was stuck here.

Though my mates weren’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, they gave me a way ~out~ of this godforsaken place. This girl didn’t have the same luxury.

I handed her a canister. She placed some bills in my hand before running away. When I counted them, I saw that she had shorted me.

While I would usually chase a cheating customer, I couldn’t bring myself to do it this time.

Out of the corner of my eye, I made out the man I’d seen the other day with the unnerving presence, long, silver hair, and sunglasses. And the rotten teeth.

I felt like he was watching me.

I continued on, quickening my steps.

On the deserted expanse before me, rats rushed from dumpsters to the overflowing gutters of the street.

I saw a fight breaking out as I passed an alley. The men’s grunts and blows echoed in my ears. But somehow the disturbing sounds didn’t quite penetrate.

It was like I was untouchable. Like I was just outside of reality.

My strange, dreamlike mood continued as I walked to the next corner. This was Dane and Aneurin’s usual haunt, and I was happy not to see them there.

It probably meant they had listened to my advice and weren’t using.

I was in the deepest part of the Quarter, populated by the most desperate users and dealers.

I should’ve hustled right through, but my dreamlike sensation only heightened.

I could make out the silhouettes of seedy characters crouching by the sewage drain and the empty doorways.

My vision was fading, and the dream was coming for me fast....

I crashed to the ground.

Once again, all went black.

***

~I was in a thin corridor. It was dimly lit by candles mounted to the walls.~

~My breath shook in my ears.~

~I remembered this sensation...I wasn’t in control of my body. I wasn’t ~in~ my body.~

~Just as I’d been a midwife, now I was someone else.~

~Why did this keep happening to me?!~

~There was no time to question. I was immersed in someone else’s reality.~

~Someone who was scared.~

~Someone whose breathing was ragged, whose hands covered their face as they let out an involuntary shriek.~

~It was a woman, this person I was trapped inside. She whipped her head back and forth as if choosing a direction.~

~As she turned, I saw a flash of long, red hair.~

~Was I the woman I saw the other night?~

~The woman with the baby?~

~She took off, running to the left through the twisting maze of stone.~

~She moved quickly, as if she was running for her life.~

~Suddenly, when she turned the next corner, a hulking figure blocked her path.~

~It was a man.~

~She screamed, her frenzy only magnifying as she turned on her heel and fled the way she had come, back through the thin corridor.~

~Who was this woman? Could she escape?~

~I was trapped in a nightmare.~

~Her fear was inseparable from my own.~

~Against my will, I was with her—along for this strange and twisted ride.~

~She wove through the maze once more, clearly searching for the exit, when once more she was confronted by a figure…~

~It was him again.~

~The same man.~

~She cried, turning to run away.~

~She was weeping. She staggered forward and braced herself against the wall.~

~“Go! Keep going!” I urged, though of course she didn’t hear me.~

~I wanted her to try the other direction again. She could outrun him this time…~

~But she lingered, there against the wall, distraught.~

~She fell to her knees.~

~Go!~

~She was giving up.~

~Then all at once, I understood.~

~It hadn’t been one man, but two.~

~Twins.~

~The woman was cornered. And she could never escape.~

***

I woke with a start, hauling air into my lungs with each breath.

What ~was~ that? Was the woman okay?

Who was she?

My mind raced as my heart pounded madly in my chest.

I opened my eyes to find I was on the ground. I was in the middle of a street of wet asphalt. I was wet, too. It must have rained.

In front of my face, I saw bare feet, dirtied and scraped up.

For a moment, fear paralyzed me.

~I had passed out in the Skeleton Quarter.~

I cursed myself for being so reckless. Did I have a death wish? Did I come to the Quarter asking to be the helpless victim of rapists and murderers?

~What had happened to me while I was unconscious?~

~What would happen to me now?~

I pushed myself up to a sitting position.

Even though bursts of white stars went off behind my eyes, obstructing my view, I called out: “Get the ~fuck~ away from me!”

When I could finally comprehend the scene around me, my heart dropped further.

I was surrounded. The men were practically drooling over me, all ten of them. They were dressed in tatters, covered in open or healing scrapes.

They lived here in the Quarter, that much was clear.

And they had found a special surprise in the neighborhood.

~Me.~

I gulped, struggling to my feet.

“Going so quickly?” one man asked, spitting through his missing front teeth.

“We’re only just getting started, princess.”

“I have something special for you…”

Their crude voices came all at once, overwhelming me.

I had trouble keeping my footing and stumbled to the ground again.

Finally, I stood. I checked my pockets to see if I had something, anything, that I could use to fend them off.

No.

Everything had been taken from me.

The cash, the overhead, the small can of pepper spray…

“You see, you’re in our territory, little girl,” the gap-toothed man continued, moving slowly toward me as I backed away. “Dirty Girty territory. The filthiest gang in the Quarter.”

His friend piped up: “We can let you by, but only if you give us something in return…”

I gulped.

I had no way to fight them.

In all my years on the street, I’d narrowly avoided rape and violence. Even when I was dealing, I managed to slip through the cracks.

Maybe I thought I was lucky. Or I was special.

But now, I knew it wasn’t true.

My fate was coming for me, and fast. And it wasn’t going to play nice.

I whimpered.

I tried to prepare myself for the inevitable, shut my body down so that maybe I wouldn’t have to feel anything...

Just before the nasty group pounced, I caught something in the corner of my eye.

Two huge figures sprinting down the alley, straight toward me.

Was it Dane and Aneurin? Here to save me—again?

Could anyone save me, when I had run so willingly into the pit of hell?