Page 52 of Destroyed

“Help me pick her up,” Andre says, motioning to the girl.

“Why are we leaving Sasha in that room, Andre?” I ask him as I grab under the girl’s other arm. He pulls his phone out and opens the door as the lights in the hall flicker off again.

“We have thirty seconds to make it to the end of the hall before these lights go on again. Do you trust me, brother?” he asks as we make our way quickly down the hall.

“Yes,” I say, not needing a minute to think about it. He swipes a keycard on another door, bringing us into a low-lit hallway.

“I’ll explain everything once we are out of here. I will need you to keep your mouth shut and follow my lead when we walk through these other doors, okay?”

I nod at him in annoyance as we round a few more corners before coming up on a single door. “Ready?” he asks.

“Yes,” I grunt out. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be ready for, but I’m not in any position to argue. All I can hope is that whatever Andre is up to doesn’t put my sister in even more danger. We walk through the door, and a red light immediately hits us. It looks like we are back in the main lobby. We don’t make it five feet before we are stopped by a few guys in security uniforms.

“What are you doing with a diamond out here? Those are supposed to stay in their case.”

Andre stumbles a little, and I glance at him in confusion. It’s when he starts speaking that understanding dawns on me. He slurs his words as he lets go of the girl, leaning her against me. Grabbing the guy on his shoulder, he gets close to him and whispers.

“We wereee juuust lookinggg forrr some fuuuun guys.”

The guy rips Andre’s hand from his shoulder in disgust. “How the fuck did you get her out here?” he asks while the other guy pulls out some sort of radio.

Fuck. We are not getting out of here alive.

Andre smiles really big and pushes himself between both guards, wrapping his arms around their shoulders.

“Itss okayyy guys. Weee can sharee.”

The first guard moves quickly away from Andre and grabs the girl from my arms. I stumble in surprise, which works in my favor because the second guard rolls his eyes while mutteringabout “drunk idiots” as he lifts the radio monitor closer to his mouth. Before he can click it on, another man in a cloak backs up into him, sloshing half his drink onto the guard’s arm.

“What the fuck?” the guard screams as the man turns around to face us. He’s got a drink in each hand and a lit cigarette hanging from his lips. I have to stop the smile from appearing on my face when I see Satan himself, AKA Jamison, with a smug look on his face. The guard pushes the poor girl, who is still drugged, towards the other guard before slapping one of the drinks out of Jamison’s hand. It splatters across the floor and curtains behind us.

“There is no smoking in the main lobby,” the guard seethes out.

I see Jamison's stern glare as he stares down the guard. “That was costly liquor you wasted,” he says before removing the cigarette from his mouth and dropping it to the floor at the guard's feet.

Suddenly, a hand grabs my arm, yanking me backward into the crowd forming. The last thing I see is the guard's wide eyes as his leg catches fire, along with the curtains and tablecloths beside him. The lobby erupts in chaos, and we take the opportunity to flee out the front doors. The crisp night air assaults me. I want to breathe it in, but I’m also fully aware that we just left Sasha, my sister, in that burning building.

“We have to go back,” I yell at Andre as I turn back toward the doors. He grabs both of my arms, shaking me.

“I told you to fucking trust me,” he spits out. “Get in the fucking car Xavier.”

I’m so distraught I don’t even realize our ride has pulled up. Andre shoves me in the back before sliding in. He speaks to the driver before sitting back in his seat and pulling out his phone. I glare at him, and after a few minutes, he looks up.

“What the fuck is going on?”

He sighs before unbuttoning a few buttons at the top of his shirt. An anxious habit he has had since college. He never could keep the top buttons on for more than a few hours. I always knew precisely when he was anxious or stressed out.

“We are about to pull up. I need you to not be mad at me or anyone else.”

“What?” I ask, confused, as we pull over on the side of the street. We both exit the vehicle, and the driver takes off.

Andre motions me to follow him across the street into a parking garage. We take the stairs up to the second floor, and at this point, I’m so done with Andre’s silence I might fucking explode. I don’t have a chance to start screaming at him because as we turn the corner, I come face to face with three men leaning up against a blacked-out SUV. All three are wearing the same clothes as Andre and me. All three have the same skeleton face paint as us.

There stand Antonio and his two cousins.

Andre doesn’t get the chance to say anything as I turn towards him and punch him directly in the face.

“You fucking asshole,” I yell, prepared to go after him again. Antonio steps between us, stopping me.

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