“So, it should be down this alley, and then we’ll see and elevator, take that all the way to the top and then...secret rooftop party!” Marley said, pulling Dakota out of the cab and out into the street.

 

Dakota looked around at her surroundings. It was dark, there were few cars on the road and a lot of trash on the streets, but almost no people. It seemed too quiet and out of the way for a “rager on the roof.” “Are you sure this is the right spot?” Dakota asked. “This place is kind of skeevy, and shouldn't there be more people around?”

 

“It’s a secret rooftop party, Dakota. Obviously, no one is going to be standing around waving a directional sign.”

 

“I don’t know. This doesn’t feel right...” Dakota said, looking around her.

 

“Is it maybe because we’re near Scarred Angels and you’re worried that you’re going to run into a certain somebody?” Marley asked as she led the way down a back alley lined with locked dumpsters.

 

“No, it’s because we have no idea what’s waiting for us up there. You got a text from a guy you used to buy weed from telling you there was a party here. I mean, it could be anything.”

 

“Oh come on, Dakota. You said the same thing when we went to that private beach in Nantucket and how much fun did we have that day?”

 

It was true; Marley always knew where the best parties were – parties without a guest list, where people showed up and had fun until the police told them all to go home. Since she had known Marley, Dakota had been to secret beach parties, lake parties, garage parties and even if they hadn’t been all that was promised, they almost always had a good time. So she followed Marley down the alley, trusting the vague instructions they had been given.

 

They found the service elevator and keyed in the code Marley had been given. The elevator was slow and noisy as it made its way down to them, and when it arrived there was still no one else around and so the two women boarded it alone. Once inside Dakota and Marley closed the gate and the door and hit the button for the roof, and they slowly began to climb up.

 

Dakota was waiting for the sound of thumping club music, of people talking and laughing. She waited for the smell of weed, beer, and liquor that were the marks of any good party. But all she heard was the clank of the elevator and the only smell was the lingering odor of gasoline. She looked over at Marley and was surprised to see a look of concern on her face.

 

“It is kind of quiet,” Marley admitted.

 

“It’s too quiet,” Dakota agreed as her heart began to pound. The large elevator suddenly felt very small as Dakota began to gasp for breath, and she had trouble swallowing. “I want to get out of this elevator. I’m feeling kind of claustrophobic,” Dakota said.

 

“Oh, babe. I’m so sorry,” Marley said, coming over to Dakota and gently rubbing her arm. “Maybe this was a bad idea, but look we’re almost there. If it sucks we can turn right around. I promise.”

 

The elevator moved inch by inch up the building, painfully slow. It shuddered and jerked between floors, and metal squealed against metal as they kept going up. Finally they watched as the numbers climbed as high as they could possibly go and then the R button lit up. As the elevator stopped the girls both pried and pulled on the gates, desperate to get out and, finally, as the doors opened onto the roof, the girls saw nothing.

 

“There’s no one here,” Dakota said, taking a step outside of the elevator. The roof was empty. It was a parking lot during the day, but there were no cars there now. Streetlights were lit illuminating the white lines painted on the pavement, but there was no one there. No partygoers, no DJ’s, no club kids. There was nothing.

 

“Dakota, come back inside. You were right, something is wrong. We shouldn’t be here,” Marley said, reaching out and grabbing Dakota, pulling her back in the elevator. Once inside they closed the doors and hit the button for the first floor, and then nothing happened. The elevator didn’t move.

 

“Shit,” Marley said and there was a note of panic in her voice.

 

“It’s fine, Marley. We’ll just take the stairs,” Dakota said, pulling the doors open again. But still no one was there. “You must have gotten some bad intel. Maybe they got shut down before they even started.”

 

“Yeah, maybe,” Marley said, stepping out onto the roof. “The stairs are over there. Let’s get out here. This place is giving me the creeps.”

 

Their shoes were impossibly loud on the hard cement. The sound of heels clicking echoed in the silence around them making both girls wince at the noise. They hurried to the door, and pushed on the bar, but it wouldn’t budge.

 

“It’s locked?” Marley asked. “Why would it be locked?”

 

“It’s locked and the elevator doesn’t work. We’re stuck up here,” Dakota said, pushing on the door a few more times, hoping something would give. “What do we do now?”

 

“Maybe there’s a fire escape we can take down?” Marley offered. “Or maybe we could call someone...”

 

“Yes, I can see the headlines now: Heiress trapped on roof, needs police rescue” Dakota said, throwing her hands up. “Let’s try and see if there’s a fire escape.” They walked around the edge of the roof. There was no fire escape, but there was the ramp that cars used to get in and out. But the ramp led deeper into the structure and, worse, it was dark down in the building, the thin lights only illuminating a small section beneath the lamps themselves.

 

“I guess this is the only way out,” Marley said, looking down into the darkness.

 

“Flashlight app,” Dakota said, pulling on her phone and shining the light on the ground in front of her as Marley did the same. “We are not afraid of the dark. We are two adult women who can handle this.”

 

“Yes,” Marley agreed, taking Dakota’s hand in hers and together they walked down the ramp, into the darkness. They walked for a few feet and heard nothing, and like all dark and scary places, once they were inside of it, it wasn’t so bad. There were a few cars, and even better, bright red exit signs to guide their path. And then they heard it, footsteps, soft footsteps walking on the ramp behind them.

 

“Someone else is up here!” Dakota whispered, grabbing Marley and pulling her down behind a cement partition.

 

“Maybe it’s someone else who came for the party.”

 

“Marley, there is no party. No one is here.”

 

“Well, someone else is here. What are we going to do? Let’s call the cops.”

 

“And tell them what? That we’re trespassing and then it got scary?!”

 

“Fine, then let’s call Adam.”

 

“No,” Dakota said.

 

“Dakota please. Someone else is here. This is officially scary. I think someone lured us here. Please just call him, Scarred Angels isn’t far away.”

 

Dakota opened her mouth to say something, she was going to protest more, say they didn’t need him. And then, the clear sound of a bullet leaving a gun filled the air around them. The sound was so loud and jarring that it destroyed the silence and the two women jumped and then held each other, both frozen still as their baser fight or flight instincts kicked in.

 

“Oh my God, it is a trap,” Marley whispered, her voice so quiet even Dakota who was less than a foot away, could barely hear her. “They have a gun. They’re trying to kill us.”