Page 38 of A Man for the Holidays

I reach into my pocket and pull out my phone and dial Paige’s number, then place the phone on speaker as I try and catch up to Quinn.

“Spencer, what is it? Did you find Quinn?”

“Yes. Paige, I need your help, meet me at the mall.”

“What? Spencer, what are you––”

“He’s going back, Paige. He’s changing back into a statue. You have to help me save him.”

“What?”

“Please,” I plea.

“Okay, I’ll meet you there.’

“Hurry,” I tell her and end the call.

I follow Quinn down a deserted alley, as snow begins to fall onto the sidewalk, but right now, all I can focus on is catching up to Quinn. He continues walking straight ahead, ignoring my calls as I scream out his name. I chase him through another alley, but the thick snowfall makes it difficult for me to see anything. I pull out my phone again and check the time, it’s ten minutes to midnight. Sliding it back into my pocket, I call out Quinn’s name again, but he continues to ignore me. Several car horns sound in front of me, and when I finally manage to make out the headlights in front of me, I see Quinn’s silhouette as he crosses the street into the shopping mall parking lot. I hear my phone ring and pull it out of my pocket then put it on speaker as I answer the call.

“Paige? Where are you?”

“I’m stuck. The road is covered in snow, I have no way of getting through it.”

“Where are you?” I ask.

“On the other side of Central Park.”

“Get out and run,” I tell her.

“What? Are you insane?”

“Paige, please. We’re running out of time.”

She lets out a loud curse through the phone, then I hear the muffled sounds of a car door opening and closing. I disconnect the call and focus on trying not to get myself killed as I cross the busy street and run into the parking lot of the mall. The snow continues to fall as I notice Quinn in the distance underneath a streetlamp as he makes his way to the side street which leads to the back entrance of the mall. I run through the parking lot as fast as I can and make my way toward the back entrance of the store and I see Quinn up ahead as he opens the large roller door. I head in his direction and when I reach the roller door, I find his parka on the floor, then I hear a woman’s voice from behind me, scaring the absolute fuck out of me.

“Where is he?” Paige asks, out of breath.

“He’s in here,” I say.

She looks down and notices the parka. “Great, so we have a stripping man running around the shopping mall.”

“Yeah, and we’re going to have a naked mannequin if we don’t hurry up,” I tell her.

“More hurrying? You do realize––”

But her sentence is cut short, as I take off and make my way inside the roller doors and realize I’m standing inside a loading dock. There are several large trash cans on either side of the dock, and more so, a lot of mannequins that look like they have either been recycled or destroyed and have finally seen their end of days and ended up out here. I check my watch, and there’s less than five minutes until midnight.

“Hurry, Paige,” I yell, running through a pair of heavy industrial doors, and I find myself in a long corridor that leads to the back entrance of the clothing store used to take out the trash.

I look straight ahead and see Quinn drop his briefs to the ground as he keeps walking. I look over my shoulder and find Paige trailing closely behind me, and we both continue running straight ahead, until we crash through another set of doors, this time finding ourselves at the back entrance of the clothing store. I see Quinn straight ahead of me, and after pressing some numbers on a digital keypad that I can see lit up, a door opens, and he walks through it. The door starts to close slowly, and I yell out to Paige as I leap forward and then slide across the ground with my arms out in front of me holding the door ajar, just in the nick of time. I quickly get to my feet and hold the door open for Paige as she runs through it, then we run through the aisle of clothing racks, just as I hear the door to the window display close.

“Paige?” I yell, as I walk over to the door and push it open.

I let out a loud scream as I find Quinn standing on the display box, stiff as a statute, as I hear Paige crash through the door behind me.

“Oh no,” she whispers. “Spencer I––”

“Come on, help me, we have to get him out of here and find John.”

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