LUKE

 

I glance down at my watch to see that she’s been gone for a good ten minutes. I know girls can tend to get carried away when they go to the bathroom, especially if they go with other girls, but she went into that bathroom alone, and I’m starting to get worried.

I reach for my glass of water and take a long sip. It’s enough to quench my thirst, but my boots are tapping against the floor incessantly. I glance down at my watch again. It’s been another thirty seconds and I’m trying to stay calm, trying to convince myself that there’s nothing wrong, but I just can’t shake the feeling that she should be back by now.

I climb to my feet and retrieve my wallet from my back pocket, dig out a twenty-dollar bill, and slap it onto the table. My eyes search the span of the bar, looking for her as I make my way past a row of tables in front of the bathrooms. To the right is the men’s room. To the left is a long hallway that snakes around a corner that leads to the women’s bathroom. I make my way down that hall and knock once against the metal door.

There’s no response, so I knock a few times more, each time pounding my fist a little bit harder against the metal. I exhale a burst of hot air and bow my head against the door. I think about throwing it open and rushing inside. If she’s in there, or if someone else in there, I risk embarrassing myself, but at the end of the day, I’d rather be safe than sorry.

I grip my hand around the tall handle and pull the door open. It opens with ease though the door creaks loudly. It’s pitch black inside. My stomach sinks almost down to my feet. I reach to the side and flip on a light switch. The bathroom is dark and grimy, but it’s nowhere near as nasty as the men’s room just down the hall.

“Ella, are you in here?” I call out, but I already know she’s not. “Ella?”

I drop down onto my knees and crane my head to get a view under each of the stalls. There’s nobody here. I force myself back to my feet and twist to cut out of the bathroom just as a woman wearing a flowery blue dress passes me. I race back out into the bar and search furiously for her with my eyes. She’s nowhere to be seen.

One of two things have happened; she either cut out on our date even though she promised she’d return, or she was abducted. Even though it would suck like hell knowing she ducked out on me, that would certainly beat the alternative.

I throw open the front metal door of the bar and exit out onto the city street sidewalk. She’s not to be seen anywhere. Up ahead is a coagulated group of college co-eds stumbling drunkenly down the sidewalk. I push through the middle of them, ignoring their incessant cussing.

And then my heart drops in my chest when I see a man wearing a black helmet approach a street bike on the opposite side of the road. The bike is parked against the curb, and I know if I ever want to see Ella alive again, I need to stop that man before he has the chance to get away.

I race across the road, running right in front of traffic. A yellow taxicab honks his horn but manages to swerve into the opposite lane to avoid hitting me. Unfortunately, the honking of the horn alerts the biker ahead of me. He cocks his head over his shoulder and sees me before twisting and jumping onto his bike.

He twists the key in the ignition and prepares to take off, but I’m able to reach him just in time. I throw the full force of my body against him and his bike, forcing the bike to fall over onto its side and scrape against the cement. I get a quick good look at the bike and notice that it’s already scratched to hell and back.

If I didn’t know it before, I know it now. I know that this is the same man who showed up to the factory and sped away on his bike. I know that the texts I’ve been receiving, someway somehow relate back to the texts Ella’s been receiving and the letters that complement them. I’m one step closer to solving this mystery, and this son of a bitch is one step closer to waking up in a hospital.

He fidgets underneath the weight of the bike that has him pinned down and manages to slither out from underneath just in the knick of time before I can bring my fist down to meet his face. He cuts away from me and scrambles to his feet. It’s more important for me to remain in control of this situation than to do something stupid and risk losing him forever.

He readies his fists in front of him, but the slate black helmet attached to his head isn’t doing him any favors. He can’t seem to remain standing up without considerable effort. I use this to my advantage as I circle him; it’s as if I am circling my prey. I launch a jab at him with the intention of missing. He dodges out of the way, and that’s when I land the real blow, landing a solid jab against his ribcage. He buckles over and falters to his knees.

I take a measured step towards him and raise my knee to land a punt against his chin. He’s thrown backwards by the sheer force of my calculated blow. As he’s lying with his back on the ground, trying to recover, he reaches for his helmet and rips it off to reveal the face of a young man with bleach-blonde hair and a neck tattoo. I’ve never seen him before in my life, but it doesn’t matter, and even though he looks somewhat like a kid, I can’t bring myself to care.

I drop down onto my knees to straddle his chest and lift him by the collar of his shirt. “Where is she?” I seethe through gritted teeth. “You’re going to tell me where she is, or I’m going to kill you.”

He groans and shuffles his head upwards to laugh right in my face. He laughs so close to me that I can feel his spit landing against my cheeks. “You’re in so much danger, and you don’t even know it.” He drops his head backwards landing against the hard surface of the sidewalk all the while continuing to laugh. “Oh Jesus, you really are in over your head.”

I hold him still with one hand and arch my fist backwards, preparing myself to deliver a fatal blow. Anger seethes through the thin space that separates my lips, and my fist is shaking, my chest heaving. I could kill him right now if I wanted to and all he can do is laugh.

“What in the hell is so funny?”

He cocks his eyes directly at me. “You’ll see.”

I think I hear the crack against the back of my head before I feel the pain. All I know is that the darkness comes immediately after, and right before the side of my head lands against the concrete, I swear I can hear the man laugh once more…