Arianna Rose: The Awakening (Part 2) (3 page)

“That man was on fire,” Stephanie kept muttering.
  “The one
who tried to, who
tried to,” she
struggled
but was racked by sobs.

“I know,
”
Arianna
attempted
to comfort
her,
but her words were drowned out by the music of the club.

“He tried to rape me, and then he was
burning
,” she cried.
 

Consoling Stephanie would be difficult anywhere.  But with deafening music blasting all around them, it
would be nearly impossible.  Arianna tightened her grip around Stephanie.  Any other time, she would have expected Stephanie to balk at such a gesture, to stiffen and shrug her off if she did not shove her outright.  But after what had happened, Stephanie seemed to welcome it.

Nestled
against each other, Arianna shep
h
erded Stephanie to the far corner of the
nightclub where Luke and the others had set up camp.  He smiled and waved until he saw his sister’s face.  His smile collapsed to a hard line and his hand dropped to his side and balled into a fist.  He shoved past several people and was at their side immediately.

“What happened?” he demanded.

Arianna hesitated to speak, unsure of what the hell she was going to tell him.  The truth was not a possibility and for obvious reasons.  But any variation was a slippery slope to navigate as she was uncertain of just how much Stephanie remembered.  Not only had Stephanie taken the drug ecstasy, she’d also been drinking before her head had been slammed against a brick wall.  Her consciousness had been spotty during their time in the alley at best.

“These two guys tried to attack us,” Stephanie managed, her voice quivering with raw emotion.

“Attack you?  Attack you how?
” Luke said and Arianna could see his anger brimming.

“Th-th-they
tried to rape us,’ she stammered and began crying anew.

“What!” Luke exploded.

Bulldog, Beth, Mike, Carrie, Ryan and Christa looked toward
them in alarm then, seeing the
state Stephanie was in, made their way over to join Luke.

“What the fuck happened?” Bulldog asked.

Stephanie crumpled into her brother’s arms unable to say anything more.  Arianna
realized she
would be forced to speak.  She took a deep breath and steeled herself.

“We went out that exit door,” she said and gestured over her shoulder with her thumb to a pair of black doors that led to the outside.  “We went to smoke and when the doors shut, we were locked out.  While we were s
moking
,
these guys came up to us.  They started talking at first only we made it clear we didn’t want to be bothered.
They weren’t too happy about that and
they
grabbed us and tried to attack us.”

“Motherfuckers!” Mike spat.

“They still back there?” Bulldog asked and Arianna could see the muscles in his jaw flexing angrily.

“No,” Stephanie said.
“That was the weird part.  The
guy that was trying to, the guy that was on top of me burst into flames.  Arianna’s eyes turned red, like they were on fire or something and then the guy just burst into flames.”

A stunned silence befell the group.  Furtive glances were exchanged
among
everyone before they all lingered on Arianna. 
Arianna’s
mouth went dry and her
heart slammed wildly against her ribcage.  Apparently
,
Stephanie had witnessed more than she had originally thought.

“Red eyes?  Steph, what’re you talking about?”  Christa asked gently.

“Yeah, Arianna’s eyes are brown,” Carrie added.

“Don’t talk to me like I’m fucking crazy,” Stepha
nie yelled.  “I know what I saw!
”

The conviction in her voice was compelling.  Arianna would have beli
eved her, regardless of how preposterous it may have sound
ed
, if she were anyone else in the group.  After all, what Stephanie was saying was true.  Arianna had experienced it, had seen her field of vision veiled in a translucent shroud of crimson, had felt the heat radiating from them, from her entire body, before she’d lifted her hand and produced an arc of fire that burned him.  But no one could know what had happened.  Not even Stephanie.  Arianna need
ed
to convince them that it hadn’t happened.  She needed to mention the ecstasy that Stephanie had taken.

“My eyes weren’t red,” Arianna lied and hated herself for what she was about to do.  “What happened to you, to us, was so unbelievably awful,” she said and felt her eyes well with tears.  One fat teardrop spilled over and trailed down her cheek.  “I wish I’d had some magical power to have set those bastards on fire. 
I fought the
m
off the old-fashioned way: a kick to the balls and some scratching. 
But I think it was the ecstasy and drinks you had earlier that made you think you saw my eyes
glowing red.”  Arianna brushed the tear from her cheek with the back of her hand and watched as Luke held his sister at arm’s length.

“You did ecstasy again?  I thought we talked about that.  No more drugs,” he warned sternly. “Look at mom for fuck’s sake!”

“What, you’re blaming me now?” Stephanie accused heatedly.

“No, no, not at all,” Luke said apologetically.  He looked to Arianna and asked, “Are yo
u okay?  Shit, I didn’t even ask
if you were okay.”

The last thing Arianna wanted was for Luke to feel guilty about what had happened.  She was far from okay, but she had handled the situation to the best of her newfound abilities. 

“No, I’m not,” she answered honestly.  “But I think I’m better off than her,” she said referring to Stephanie.

“Enough of this hugging bullshit, let’s go find these fuckers and deal with them,” Ryan said.

“Yeah, I’m with Ryan,” Bulldog added.

“They’re probably still in the alley,” Stephanie said quickly.  “The guy that was on fire is I bet.”

“The one Arianna blazed with her eyes?” Luke hissed.

“Tell him, Arianna.  Tell him about the guy on fire!” Stephanie pleaded.

“Was the guy on fire?” Luke asked Arianna looking equal parts embarrassed and annoyed to be asking

“
There was fire,” she admitted.  “He lit a cigarette while he was, you know, on top of her.  After I got the other guy off me, and I saw that he’d hit his head and wasn’t moving, I ran over to Stephanie.  When I did, she started fighting back and hit into his arm.  It must have dropped down his shirt or something because the guy lit
up like a R
oman candle.”

Arianna could still hear his tortured screams in her mind, s
ee him flailing about to try to
extinguish the flames lapping his body.

“See! I was telling the truth, asshole!”  Stephanie shouted at Luke and interrupted Arianna’s recollection.

“How badly was he burned?  Did he get away?” Mike asked.

“I don’t see how,” Arianna answered truthfully.  “Whatever wa
s on his shirt, maybe cologne or
gasoline or something, burned so damn fast.  He was covered in flames.  I didn’t stick around to see what would happen.  I just grabbed Steph and ran.”

Stephanie began sobbing again, gasping and trying to catch her breath, the memory of it all too painful for her to bear.

“Holy shit!” Christa said.

“Shou
ld we call the cops or something?
,” Carrie asked
.

“Yeah, this is all too crazy.  These guys should be locked up, if they’re alive,” Christa said.

“
No.  No
cops,” Luke said determinedly.  “If those scumbags are alive, I want a piece of them for trying to rape my sister and my girlfriend.”

Arianna supposed she should be happy that Luke had announced to his friends that she was his girlfriend; it was the first time he’d said it, yet
she
did not feel even the slightest bit of happiness.  In fact, she felt troubled by it.  Apart from the circumstances that had instigated his announcement, she was upset by it.  She wasn’t sure why exactly, but felt shame at his admittance, at his want to defend her against her attackers.
  Guilt gave way to anxiety and anxiety clawed its way into her lungs, making it hard for her to breathe.  She attempted a deep breath, desperate to not let her nerves get the better of her and make her sick all over the nightclub floor.  Not that she doubted that the floor had seen its fair share of vomit on it in the past.  She just didn’t want to be among those who had actually done the vomiting.

“You okay Arianna,” Carrie asked and took hold of her arm.  “You don’t look so good.”

“I’m all right,” Arianna said but remained unconvinced.

“Then what are we waiting for?” Bulldog asked.  “Let’s go pound on those fuckers!”

Bile rose in the back of her throat, along with the beer she’d drank earlier.

“No!” she heard herself say and surprised everyone.  “We can’t.”

“Why the hell not?  These guys tried to rape you two,” Luke argued.

“The guy that was on fire is
probably dead,” Arianna blurted out. 

Deep within her, a
n
innate instinct portended that
one of
the men
lived,
that
one
had survived her counterattack,
but barely. 
Still, she needed to dissuade them from going into that alleyway.  Too many questions would be asked, questions she could not answer.  Lying was not her strong suit.  She was terrible at it, in fact. 
But she needed to convince them to leave.

“Let’s make sure then,” Luke said.

“And if the cops happen to find the nine of us hovering around a couple of dead bodies what do you think they’ll assume?” she asked.  No one offered any thoughts, so she continued.  “They’ll assume we, at the very least, saw something.  Then they might ask why Stephanie looks like she does, why she has that fresh cut on her throat.  Do you see where I’m going with this?”

“They’ll think something happened and we retaliated by killing them,” Ryan said.

“I don’t want to spend any time in county lockup,” Bulldog said as if he’d been there before.

“Neither do I,” Mike added.  “My brother’s been there overnight and he said it’s no joke.”

Luke looked directly into Arianna’s eyes and he
ld her gaze as if trying to silently express a profound truth to her.  His silver eyes had hardened to steel, unreadable to her in the shadowy nightclub.  But she sensed
significance
in his weighty watch.

“I just want to get out of her
e
,” Stephanie finally said.  “Please, can we go?”

Luke did not lower his eyes to his sister
as Arianna would have thought
.  He did not acknowledge her request either.  Not right away.  He continued to stare at Arianna.  Whatever he sought to convey wordlessly, whatever psychic message he seemed intent on sending to her, was not reaching her.  She shifted her weight from one leg to the next uncomfortably, waiting for him to speak, to yell, anything.  Heat crept up her neck and touched her cheeks.  She was suddenly thankful for the darkness of the club and the loud music as well.  Had the music not been playing, she feared Luke and the rest of their group would hear the mad pounding of her heart. 
She wondered whether he suspected her of lying, whether a part of him believed his sister’s claim about her eyes glowing red.  Of course, he would have been correct in doing so; Stephanie had told the truth, as preposterous as it had sounded.  Regardless of his motivation, Arianna was unnerved.

“Luke!” Stephanie said again.  “Take me home,
now
.”

Stephanie’s words had broken the spell and Luke released her from his gaze.  Arianna breathed a silent sigh of relief.

“Fine, let’s go,” Luke said.

“So that’s it?” Bulldog asked.  “No one’s catching a beating tonight?”

“Nope, not tonight, Bulldog,” Luke said and offered a thin smile.

Luke led them through the club to the main entrance.  Arianna, Bulldog, Beth, Mike, Carrie, Ryan and Christa filed b
ehind him.  Stepping out into the cool, quiet night air, Arianna felt the crushing squeeze anxiety had placed on her lungs begin to subside.  Once they’d reached the parking area, everyone began to disperse.  She was left alone with Luke and Stephanie. 

“I’m going to take Stephanie home first then drive you home if you don’t mind,” he said to Arianna.

Arianna felt her heart make a leap from her chest to her throat.  “Uh, okay, if that’s what you want,” she fumbled.  “Seems like a big production to go to your house then my house then back home, don’t you think?”