Page 47 of The Flame

When Roman dropped me off, I shrugged out of my thick winter coat and tossed it into the rear seat. I couldn’t wear it indoors and I couldn’t leave it hanging in the staff lounge. There was one last lingering kiss, and then I was on my own until ten minutes past seven this evening.

14

Iwas tucked into a dark corner of the janitor’s closet, which was actually a small room. The space was crammed with shelves of cleaning materials and buckets and mops, so it was relatively easy to make myself invisible.

The janitor had already been in here once, and he’d turned the light on. Thankfully the naked bulb was low wattage and he’d seemed to know exactly where and what he wanted. I doubt he’d even glanced beyond the first shelf. He definitely hadn’t seen my foot sticking out, and the moment the door closed behind him, I’d cramped myself into an even tighter ball.

This was the easiest part, and the hardest. Trapped. Waiting. If someone realized I’d never left the center for the evening, there’d be a search and they would find me. I was cornered by walls and a door, trapped by that single point of entry.

When an endless amount of time passed without incident, the tension unwound from my muscles. I dared to stretch out, but remained alert to the sound of the door opening so I could scrunch myself back into a ball.

So far, everything was on plan.

Earlier, I’d walked out with Belinda and then, as an afterthought, I’d remembered. “Axel asked me to stop by before I leave. He wants to talk about something.”

“That boy always has something to talk about,” Belinda said with a smile. We’d just swiped our cards and were passing through the door to reception. “Should I wait, my dear?”

I caught the door before it could close on me, shaking my head. “I don’t know how long it’ll take.”

The guard stood across the room, near the exit doors. He didn’t have his back to us, but he seemed bored, his gaze sweeping continually without hitching on anything in particular.

“You won’t want to miss the shuttle,” Belinda warned.

“If I do, I’ll take the next one.”

“Very well.” She slid her security card through the hatch on the wall, the deposit box where we returned our cards at the end of our shift. “If I don’t see you at the shuttle stop, I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Enjoy your evening.” I smiled at her, holding onto the door as I glanced between her, the guard, and the man at reception, who had his head down and his nose in a book.

I slipped back inside, allowing the door to swing closed behind me. If anyone went looking, my exit had been scanned and registered. If they looked harder, they’d discover that I’d never returned my security card for the evening, but that couldn’t be helped. I needed it, but they wouldn’t have a reason to check the deposit box unless the guard actively took note of the fact that I’d gone back inside and never came out again.

Now that an hour had passed and no one had raised the alarm, it was safe to say he hadn’t.

Moving slowly, carefully in the pitch blackness, I stood and stepped out from behind the fortress of heavy duty equipment stashed in the corner and picked a path toward the sliver of light shining in from beneath the door. There I bent low, holding my wrist to the light so I could check the time on my watch.

One hour down.

Another hour and a half to go.

I crept back into my corner to wait, nerves pinching my gut. There was fear, too, of course there was, but when had I ever let that stop me? Roman called me reckless. If I had to call my steely resolve anything, I’d call it Fear, a different kind of fear, fear of failing Daniel, fear of disappearing into a net of safety, fear of doing nothing.

I rested my head against the wall, shut down those thoughts, and my mind drifted in the utter darkness.

Maybe times have moved on,Daniel had said.Maybe there was another way.

It was another time, another way of thinking, another kind of life, Roman had said.Citizens had more rights and no one questioned it, not even the elected government.

Those are the thoughts that swirled inside my head, again and again, swirling everything I’d ever known, every thought and belief and hope together into a blended landscape of gray. My mind felt like a murky canvas without definition, not a blank slate, but a place where new writings could stand out stronger and brighter than what had come before.

Every now and then I moved to the door, to the light, to check the time. Five minutes before seven, I decided to go for it. Roman would be in place. The shift change would have settled.

I’d already prepped the tranquilizer gun with the first dart. I tucked the other three darts into the back pocket of my jeans for quick access, then I slung my purse across my chest and put my ear to the door. I couldn’t hear anything above my pounding heart.

Adjusting my grip on the gun, finger positioned on the trigger, I pushed the door open. Fluorescent light bathed the corridor, making it easy to see—easy tobeseen. But Axel hadn’t exaggerated. The place was like a graveyard once the shift changed over to night. There was a constant, droning sound I’dnever noticed during the day. It wasn’t loud, more like a white noise filling the air, making its presence known.

Focus.

My gaze scanned up and down the corridor. I didn’t see a soul. I wasn’t alone, though. A nurse could step out of one of the wards at any time. Not wasting another second, I darted left, the gun aimed chest level as Roman had shown me.

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