Page 9 of Locke

Well, this bitch did.

I fixed my hair up and dawdled some more, knowing I’d been gone for a solid thirty minutes from Eric. Yikes. I’d been in here so long, I was alone now, the line had come and gone. I had to go back. And yet—

I began to pace, biting at my lip, telling myself that I did want to explore things further with Eric, but, you know, it was getting late, and I was growing tired, and you know, Sylvia was getting some for the both of us. I probably wouldn’t see her for a couple days. That was a couple days of quiet bliss in our apartment. I pulled out my phone and looked up that cheap nacho recipe I’d been wanting to try—

Suddenly, the light went out.

I tensed in surprise, looking up from my phone.

I was about to call out when I realized the music in the club had gone out too. The vibrations that had been pulsing around me were absent.

Maybe there was a power outage.

I used my phone as a flashlight, feeling unnerved by how quiet the bathroom was with just me in it. My stomach clenched as I strode to the door—

A loud bang sounded out. I froze mid-step, my heart leaping out of my chest as screams erupted. If it was loud in here, it must have been deafening out there.

BANG!

There it went again.

The familiar sound of a gunshot.

I could hear shouts, and yet I stood there, the sound of that gun making me nearly faint as it continued to go off. My knees buckled and I dropped down to the ground. In just under a second, I felt a wave of old emotions run over me like a violent shake. My head went light with dizziness—

The screams sounded distant now, like everyone was getting the hell out of here. Should I get out and navigate in the dark? I couldn’t use the flashlight, otherwise whoever was shooting might aim at me. No, no, stay, Kali.

I suddenly felt trapped. In quick succession, more gunfire rang out, sounding so close I could taste them. Shit. I turned the flashlight off from my phone, worried I’d be caught out in here with it on. Then I quickly jumped to my feet and shakily stumbled into the nearest bathroom stall. I turned to close it when the bathroom door burst open. I jumped again, terror seizing me, causing the phone to fall from my hand. It crashed on the floor, the sound muted in the midst of the shouts erupting.

A man was screaming in a foreign language. Terrified, my body collapsed onto the toilet. I raised my feet off the ground and pushed the stall door as far away from me. All the while holding my breath as the man continued screaming feet from me. There was agony in his voice, and then anger. I think he fired more rounds, and then the gun made a clicking sound. It was empty.

As if responding back, a shot sounded. Just one bullet. The man bellowed in pain. I heard his body fall to the ground—

Another shot burst through the air.

Now he was groaning, his body sliding across the floor in a screeching whine.

It was still all black, I couldn’t even see in front of me, and yet the man was suddenly sobbing aloud, uttering weak pleas like he could see who was coming for him. He was so close, I could smell him, the thick odour of booze and blood. He knocked my phone further away from my stall as he attempted to get away, those pleas sounding gurgled now.

Oh, God.

I was hardly breathing, squeezing my eyes shut now as my body broke out in tremors. I closed my hand in a tight fist, telling myself not to scream. To just wait. To not move. To blend into the darkness because whatever was happening had nothing to do with me.

One more gunshot ripped through the air, immediately silencing him.

Fuckfuckfuck.

My heart pulsed in my ears as I continued to hold my breath, straining for any sound. But there was nothing. I blinked rapidly, the darkness stretching on and on, and all the while the club felt so still, like the people had left and it was just me sitting here, in the ladies’ room, completely alone with a dead man feet from me.

On reflex, I pressed a hand against my hip, expecting to feel a pocket. Horror hit me when I realized that no, I was not wearing my tights, I was in a tight bloody dress, and my phone—my damn phone was on the floor somewhere, probably soaked in the blood of a man who was no longer whimpering.

I was stuck.

It took a few moments before I could draw a breath in. I hadn’t heard a thing in what felt like so long, I knew I needed to get up, to get out, but my legs weren’t moving. I was still frozen in place, concentrating hard on the sounds around me—

Pings ripped through the air suddenly, the sound familiar. I pressed a hand against my mouth, quaking because it was my phone that was buzzing on the floor, and it sounded so loud, and yet—and yet it had nothing on the footsteps that followed. Footsteps that moved slowly, signalling someone else’s presence.

The person walked past my stall, their heavy steps slow and calculated. When it stopped abruptly, I knew they had found my phone. Fuck.

---