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“What do you feel like driving today?” he asked, keeping the painful expression on his face.
“I’m going to a motor vehicle agency, so nothing too fancy. Anything you have is fine.”
He pulled his phone out of his pocket and texted something. A few seconds later, a Porsche Carrera pulled up with a phantom driver.
Thiswas a non-fancy car?
I didn’t move for a few seconds.
“What’s wrong? Do you not like silver? I could call up a black one,” Hank said.
“No, it’s great. But are you sure? It might get dinged in the parking lot.”
“Don’t worry about that. You deserve it.” He reached out and then awkwardly patted my back, as if he’d never initiated physical contact with someone before.
“Thanks, Hank,” I said, and then patted him back. I was as stiff as he was, like the awkwardness was catching. “I’m just going to…” I motioned to the car, knowing I had to get out of here before this escalated into hugging or something equally disastrous.
“Take care now,” he said, waving to me like he was my well-wishing grandpa or something.
I stripped the gears in my rush to get out of there.
The agency parking lot was packed, and I was getting a sneaking suspicion that my getting this job had nothing to do with Cookie being double-booked. There weren’t any conflicting appointments. This place was a hellhole. It might take hours to find this Callie person. Still, itwasfor a house.
People were spilling out the back door, and I had to weave my way in. This building had three floors. Might as well start on the highest and work my way down until I found my target, and then hope instinct kicked in to tell me what exactly to do. So far, there was nothing.
The seats in the waiting area were full and the lines long. I barely avoided getting my feet trampled by a herd of teenagers passing by.
No one caught my eye. This was technically my job. Cookie said I’d know what to do, so I’d probably spot the target, right? Just to be safe, checking some nametags would be safe. I was new to this tinkering business.
I tried to move closer to the front of one of the lines, ignoring all the warning glares from people who thought I was trying to cut.
“Just grabbing a tissue,” I said, trying to keep the mob happy, because after waiting an hour or two, these people were primed for violence.
The worker glanced at me, looking as unhappy as her customer. Her nametag said “Diana.” Nope. Not her. What if it wasn’t a worker?
I weaved around the room, trying to locate my job, hoping something would hit me when I was close. That was when I felt it.
My lungs seized. My heart beat double time and my limbs felt like mush. It was coming again. No. It was already here.
How? Cookie had said people brushed against Chaos once a decade at most.
There wasn’t enough time to get out. I had to move. I had to hide. I spun around but couldn’t find a closet. I ran and squatted under the nearest desk. The workers looked at me.
“You can’t be behind here. You need to leave,” a young female employee said.
“Run,” I yelled at her. “Run,” I screamed at the others joining her.
They started to laugh at me, the insane girl huddled under their desk. But it only lasted a second before the noises started and their expressions changed.
It sounded like a tornado touching down on the building. I cowered under the metal desk, covering my head with my knees to my chest as hell let loose around me.
The wind whipped through the building, things flying all around, and I squeezed my eyes shut. It was howling like a rabid animal through the building, tearing up everything around me as I stayed crouched, waiting to be ripped apart. I was going to die. This was it. I was dead.
Tears rolled down my face as pure terror shot through me. I’d never get to meet Gram, help my mother, get back to my life…
Things flew into the desk as that horrible feeling sucked all the joy out of me. The building shook, parts of the floor caving in. I stayed balled up in a corner, the desk somehow staying in place.
At first I thought I was imagining the wind and howling dying down. Then it weakened to the point that there was no mistaking it. That horrible, dreadful feeling began to fade with it.
