The cab lurched forward and then slowed almost immediately. They had been stuck in traffic for almost twenty minutes and Eve was beginning to feel anxious. Up ahead, all she could see was the red glare of what could have been a thousand tail lights and the deafening sound of horns rang out on every side of her.
“Is there no other way around?” she asked the cab driver who just shrugged and shook his head.
She looked over her shoulder and at the line of cars mounting up behind them and knew that they were going nowhere fast. Whatever had happened up ahead, the traffic wasn’t moving and she was most certainly going to be late. She pulled out her cell and checked the GPS. With relief she realized that she was within walking distance if she braved it and went off the main road. She tapped the driver on the shoulder before thrusting twenty dollars into his palm.
She climbed out and slammed the door behind her before she trotted over to the sidewalk and looked down at her phone again. There was a network of side streets which went off the main street and it looked like if she took one of them she would come out in the middle of the industrial estate and right near the warehouse.
She looked around her and noted how busy it was… the lines of beeping cars, the crowds on the sidewalks and the buzz all around made her feel as if she would be safe stepping off the beaten track. She sucked in a big lungful of air as if she was about to go underwater, looked down at the map on her cellphone and darted off down a side street.
It was pitch black down there and she knew that she was being silly risking her safety by disappearing down a darkened alley in a part of the city she didn’t know, and one which was infamous for its crime rates, but she couldn’t miss out on this event. She knew that Cassandra could easily leave her and go inside to join her colleagues, she was already almost thirty minutes late.
Her heels clipped along the wet tarmac beneath her feet and she tried not to look into the dark corners of the alley as she weaved in and out of trash cans and heard the odd scuttle of what was no doubt rats in the drains. As she raced onwards she checked her cell again and could see that she was getting closer, she only had two more turns to take and she should be coming out directly opposite the warehouse. The alleys were becoming smaller and more remote, the buildings either side of her were growing taller and loomed up above her head, their windows smashed in and dark. She pulled her coat tightly around her and sucked in her breath again, almost too afraid to breathe in case she brought any more attention to herself should there be a homeless person, or worse, lurking in one of the shadowed corners.
Just when she could see the light up ahead and she began to feel as if she was home free she suddenly heard a loud crash to the left of her from another small alley and she stopped in her tracks before she hid back behind the wall, out of sight.
She peered down into the darkness and to her surprise and fright saw that there was a group of men standing down there, illuminated by the headlights of several motorcycles. She stopped still, she didn’t dare move. She could see that the men were clad in leather and chains and the group was surrounding one man in particular… and he looked afraid.
Eve ducked further into the shadows and peered around the corner, watching them. She didn’t dare run past the walkway for fear of them seeing her, and she didn’t dare turn back because she had already come too far. She looked ahead and could see the light of the main street up ahead. She knew the warehouse was there and she could hear the dull thump of music running deep along the ground. She was so close she could almost reach out and touch it, but she was stuck there… in the wet, dark alley, with a group of men clearly up to no good.
She swallowed hard and peered around the corner again. Tensions were high and one of the larger men with a long beard beat his clenched fist into his palm and circled the man in the center with a ferocious look on his face.
What is going on? Eve thought as she held her breath, too scared to make a sound.
“You fucked up,” a gruff voice echoed down the alley towards her and she peered around the corner to get a look at what was happening.
The larger bearded man was standing with a gang of what had to be bikers behind him, waiting to pounce if he needed help. He was smiling, clearly enjoying every second of being in control and he laughed as he swung a large baseball bat from one hand to the other.
“You fucked up and now I’m going to take great pleasure in teaching you a lesson,” he said. “This is a message to your club and we’ll make sure that none of them ever forget it.”
Eve gasped as she watched him swing the bat high above his head and brought it crashing down onto the head of the man in the center of the circle. He pummeled him over and over and Eve watched with horror as blood spurted out of his mouth and sprayed across the ground. The other men roared with cheers and upturned one of the bikes before they pulled out bats of their own and began to smash that up as well. The whole group was in an uproar of testosterone and violence and Eve’s eyes were wide with fright at the scene unfolding in front of her.
She wanted to scream, but her instincts just told her to run. Without missing a beat she kicked off her heels and scooped them up in her hands before she ran as fast as she could towards the end of the alley, leaving the horrific scene behind her.
As she burst out of the darkness and arrived in front of the warehouse, her hands were shaking. Cars circled her and limos pulled up as glittering people stepped out and photographer’s lights flashed.
Eve was bewildered. Had she really just seen it all? Or had the glass of wine she had sipped before she left her apartment gone to her head? She rubbed her eyes and breathed in deeply before she made her way into the crowd in a daze, just trying to make sure that she blended in and wasn’t drawing any attention to herself. She slipped her shoes back on to her dirty feet with her shaking hands.
“Eve?” Cassandra called over the crowd as she staggered towards her.
“Cass,” she whispered.
“What the hell are you doing? Why weren’t you wearing your shoes?” Cassandra pouted with a confused look on her face.
Eve shook her head. She didn’t even know where to begin.
“Go on in without me,” she said as she began to approach a cab that was pulling up to drop off other partygoers. “I’m sorry, I just…” she didn’t know what to say. All she knew was that she had to get the hell out of there.
As she slid onto the back seat of the taxi the image continued to replay in her mind over and over. The man’s face being hit with the bat. The blood and the sound of laughter.
Her skin prickled.
What the hell had she walked into?