CHAPTER 15: ATONEMENT
“So what do we do now?” Leila asked.
“You tell me,” I said. “Angel’s got the amulet now. We can’t wait around for her to loan it to Jayne again; how often are the little ‘passing out men’ meetings again?”
“The ‘Draws.’ That’s what we call-“
“Whatever. How often?” I asked.
“Once a month.”
I sighed. “Well, in a couple hours, it’s going to be daylight. Something tells me Angel isn’t going to shrug it off when she finds an empty fishbowl, a strand of hair, and one of her hooker shoes next to the air vent. And good old Jayne… I’m gonna go out on a limb and say she isn’t going to help us. So that leaves Nicole. Do you trust her?”
Leila nodded. “She wants out just as much as I do. But…”
“But what?”
“She’s afraid of Angel. Terrified. If it comes down to it, and she has to give us up to protect herself… I’m not sure how she’ll react,” Leila said.
I shrugged. “She’s our best chance. Our only chance, it seems.”
“So… what do you want to do? Walk up the stairs?” She pointed out of the vent to the steps on the other side of the hallway. Each step would be like scaling the Great Wall of China. “I’m a good climber, but my guess is we won’t make it halfway up those steps before Angel wakes up.”
“We hitch a ride. I’ve been doing it all night,” I said.
“I’m not hanging on to anybody’s underwear,” Leila scowled. “Besides, everyone is sleeping by now. We don’t have time. We’re not going to make it.”
For the first time tonight, I was out of ideas.
“You go,” she said.
“What?”
“Can you climb these air ducts? To the next floor?” She asked.
“I… maybe. There’s enough gunk to hang onto, sure. Barring a rat or a spider making me breakfast. I don’t know. It would still take hours. We don’t have-“
“I’m going back,” she said. I stared at her in disbelief. “Look, if she finds me missing, I’m dead anyways, we both are. You need to get to Nicole’s room. It’s the last door on the left. And tell her everything you’ve told me. Tell her you know about Kyle, she’ll believe you. I’ll go back to Angel’s room. Push her shoe back to where it was, climb back into my bowl, knock the hair we used loose, whatever. If I am there when Angel wakes up, it’ll buy us at least a little time. She tends to sleep in after a kill. Besides, she doesn’t know you’re in the house yet.”
“And when she wakes up and decides how to kill you?” I asked.
“She believes in retribution. I’ll convince her that Jayne should be the one to do it, since I wronged her. She’ll give Jayne the amulet so Jayne can do… what Jayne does… to me. You will need to have Nicole’s help by then, or I am dead. She’ll know what to do.” She turned and headed back to Angel’s room via the air duct.
“Why?” I called after her. She stopped and turned around. Her eyes quivered.
“Don’t you know why I chose you? To help us? Kyle’s photo was in an entire folder of evidence that I was going to give to you. When things went wrong, I ended up using it to bait you, and I am sorry for that. I couldn’t go to the police. They already knew about Angel. They know about her in lots of towns. They won’t touch her. They know what she’ll do to them, the entire police force if she’s cornered. I chose you because you fix things. That’s what you do. You were going to fix this. You would have helped me and Nicole and Kyle disappear, until we figured out a way to fight back.”
“You didn’t answer the question,” I said. “Why are you going back there?”
“I’m going because I owe you one. All you wanted to do was help me and my brother. You didn’t hesitate to do it. And I betrayed you, nearly damning you to a miserable death crushed by Jayne and her freaky legs. And you still pulled me out of a glass prison and helped me escape. I’m doing this… because I don’t want to be a killer anymore… so please. Please, go. And hurry. I’m counting on you.” She pointed towards the direction of the miniature city of captive men. “They’re all counting on you. Now go.”
After a moment, I did.
