Sparrows Page 8

  “You’re one to talk, Syd,” Raoul interrupted. “You smoke those sticks like they will cure you of cancer. I don’t even use them, and I feel sick when I smell that smoke. They aren’t natural either.”

  Sydona rolled her eyes. “Maybe you’re right. But I just know that shit Omar has is way worse than weed or cigarettes, and I’m not getting involved. I’ll sell this shit all day long, but I’m not touching that.”

  Theodore let his half-lit cigarette hang on his lip while he scratched his neck hard. “I don’t think we got a choice here.”

  “We’ve always got a choice, Theo. We’re fliers. We can literally go anywhere we want!”

  Theodore shook his head. “It’s not that simple, Syd.”

  “But it really is!” Sydona squashed her cigarette out with her boot. “I been thinking of finding a house soon. You, me and Raoul. Once I turn eighteen in a few months, I’ll be able to sell my parents treasures, and we can live like fucking kings. –I wasn’t planning to do this forever, ya know…”

  Theodore looked at her sideways. He lifted his beanie, pushed his hair back and shook his head. “He’d find us.”

  “How? We can go all the way to Jamaica or Israel if we wanted. How would he even get there?” Raoul said.

  “Exactly,” Sydona said. “I got a few hundred bucks here, plus whatever you made today. We could just leave. Come on.” She smiled, trying to convince him to leave.

  Theodore stepped back from her. “I can’t, Syd. I’m really sorry.”

  Her stomach ached. “He got you hooked already, hasn’t he?”

  He scratched his head. Sydona felt tears surfacing, and her breath quickened. She glanced over at Raoul who had sad eyes. It was too late.

  “Look, let’s just leave, and once you’re not around it, you won’t even think about it anymore. We’ll get a fresh start. I could grow a garden and maybe get some chickens. Live off the land kind of thing. You won’t even remember this place anymore.”

  Theodore kept looking at the ground, ashamed to look at his friends. “That sounds really nice, but…”

  “But nothing, Theo,” Raoul interrupted. “Who are we without you?”

  “Please think about it, Theo,” said Sydona. Her voice shook. “You’re better than this shithole.”

  Theodore finally looked back up at her and gave her a sideways smile. “I’ll think about it…”

  “God, I miss you…” Sydona muttered under her breath.

  “What’s that, princess?” Willow shattered her thoughts.

  She straightened up and side-eyed Willow. “The place is just up here.” It wasn’t much farther, but there were some folks hanging around nearby. The overpass looked just as it did when she lived there for a brief time. There weren’t nearly as many people, but they looked just the same. They wore baggy, dirty clothes and slept on cardboard or sleeping bag on the sidewalks. A few were even asking for money from passersby. Some things never change.[LM156][SD157]

  The speakeasy stood at the end of the block near an overpass. Several homeless people hung around the area next to tents and makeshift homes. Her heart broke for them, having been in that situation before. As they arrived at the entrance that led down a flight of stairs, Sydona turned to the group.

  “Everyone’s walkies on?” Sydona asked as she flicked hers on and put the earpiece in as casually as possible. Willow and Lacey tested them and waited for her next instructions.

  “Lacey, can you go to the back and tell me if there is an exit?”

  “On it!” She made her way to the back of the building, watching her back with every step.

  “Jet, you come with me.”

  He nodded. “Just cover you, then?”

  “Yes.”

  “Willow, I need to you stand watch out here.”

  Willow shook her head and took a deep breath.

  Sydona leveled with her. “Do you have a problem with that?”

  “Nope.”

  “Good.” Sydona surveyed the area and called to Lacey over the radio. “Find anything?”

  “Yeah, uh, no. There’s nothing back here. Not even a window.”

  “Copy.” Sydona decided to look around one last time before she entered the building, but then she saw a familiar face.

  Her heart dropped at the shaggy, red haired man standing across the street. He recognized her too as he made his way across the street with a smile. Yellow and black tainted the smile she remembered, but the essence was the same. His young, smooth skin from before was sickly and blotchy; some areas had sore spots.

  “Syd?” he asked in a low, adult voice.

  “Theo!” Sydona exclaimed and embraced him instantly. The odor radiating off his clothes and hair burned her nose, and she pulled away quickly but still wore a smile.

  “How the heck are ya?” he asked. He pushed back his dirty red hair and scratched his full-bodied beard. If it weren’t for his eyes and red hair, Sydona never would have recognized him.

  “I’m doing good. How’ve you been?”

  Theodore shrugged and shook his head. “Still here. You know…”

  “Syd, we ain’t got time for this,” Willow muttered as she looked over her shoulder.

  She acknowledged her but turned her attention back to her old friend.

  “What happened to you?” she asked with sad eyes. His tattered appearance gave her a gut full of guilt.

  He scratched his neck fiercely with long, dirty fingernails. “You know, this and that.”

  Sydona looked at the ground in shame. “Omar still around, then?”

  “Nah, he got killed a while back. But I ain’t dealin’ no more…”

  A lump formed in the back of her throat. What had she done? She left him there. “So what are you doing?”

  He shrugged. “Whatever I gotta.”

  Sydona furrowed her brows. “I don’t know what to say…”

  “You don’t haveta say anything, Syd. You seem like you’re doin’ good for yourself. I’m happy for you.”

  His words stung, even though he was being sincere. “Thanks… It was good seeing you again, Theo.”

  “Wait, why you here, anyway?” he asked before Sydona could walk away.

  She turned back around and shook her head. She glanced back at Willow and met her narrowed, impatient eyes.

  “I can’t talk about it.”

  “Are you here for the experiments going on down there?” he asked, then his eyes brightened when he noticed the winged patch on Sydona’s jacket. “Are you with the Sparrows?”

  Her mouth twitched upwards. “You know of them?”

  “Yeah! Some people who looked like you guys came by here a couple days ago. I’m the one who let them know about it. [158][LM159]Must be why you’re back. You’re gonna stop them, right?”

  “I’ll certainly try,” Sydona replied with a smile. Absorbing the conditions around them, how Theodore looked, and the guilt that still ate her up inside, she sighed.

  “We found an island,” she said at a whisper, making sure Willow didn’t overhear.

  He stepped closer to hear her better. His body odor was overwhelming, but she stood still. “An island?”

  “Yeah. It’s where we put the refugees from Eagle Lake. A safe place… I know I’ve tried to convince you before to leave here, but this place is real. It’s remote, it’s got beaches and sunshine. My dad is there, actually. Living out his retirement years.” She chuckled.

  Theodore smiled with wide, curious eyes. “Yeah. I might just have to do that… where is it, exactly?”

  Willow sighed heavily behind Sydona. She put her finger up, telling her to wait. She sighed again.

  “It’s um…” Sydona looked back at Willow who looked ready to explode. “Just stay around here. I’ll find you after, okay?”

  Theodore’s face changed suddenly. “Wait, Sydona. Don’t – Don’t go in there…”

  “Why not?”

  He fidgeted. “It’s dangerous…”

  Sydona relaxed. “We know, that’s
why we brought a team of trained people. We’ll be fine.”

  Theodore paused for a moment but then nodded his head a few times. He walked away with his head low.

  Her gut twisted. It was obviously dangerous, but his warning rattled in her head. She didn’t have time to ponder about it as Willow was on the verge of popping a blood vessel. She jogged back to Willow who had already started walking back to the building.

  Willow muttered under her breath, “Ya know I’ma be tellin’ Knox about that, right?”

  “I was catching up with an old friend. Leave me alone,” Sydona snapped back and took the lead. Willow said nothing in response, giving her a small boost of confidence. She wasn’t going to break, no matter what Willow did.

  “Lacey, are you still out back?” Sydona asked over the radio.

  “Yeah. You want me to come back up?” Lacey asked.

  “No. If you can, hang out back there just in case. We should cover our perimeter.”[SD160]

  “Copy that.”

  Sydona walked up to Jet. “You ready?”

  “Yep. Been waiting here this whole time while you’ve been chit-chatting. I should be asking you the same.”

  Her bottom lip took the punishment at his backhanded comment. She knew he was right. She led the way as they walked down the rickety black staircase and stood in front of the door with chipped white paint.

  Sydona had her gun full of tranquilizer darts at the ready and checked the doorknob to see if it was locked. The door was nothing out of the ordinary, unlike the doors in her test run through. It didn’t have a digital lock or secret code to get in. She dug in her pocket and took out a small lock pick. Jet covered her as she picked the lock. With a click, the door creaked opened, and they stepped inside.

  The first thing she noticed was how dark the room was, and then she noticed a velvet wall only a few feet in front of them. [SD161]They shut the door behind them and followed the hallway down, slow as snails. Her heart pounded against her chest so hard she could hear it in her own ears. There could be a giant hole or something below them, and they would have no idea. There was no air circulation either, causing her sweat glands to suffocate. Every breath felt as if she were breathing inside of an oven. [SD162][LM163]Once her eyes adjusted to the dark, she was able to see a little clearer. A dim light shone through a doorway, and she headed toward it. Cautiously, she pressed herself against the velvet wall and slowly peered around the corner.

  A single floor lamp illuminated the bar. Upturned tables and chairs were scattered around the room, and broken glass crunched under their feet. [SD164]Black and white photos from the 20’s hung in broken and crooked frames. It was as if they had stepped back in time. It wasn’t what Sydona expected; there wasn’t a single person in sight.

  Sydona listened closely for any sounds or movement, but it was eerily silent. She signaled for Jet to look around. He headed to what looked like a storage room in the back while she looked behind the bar. Her eyes widened and her stomach did a flip as she saw a woman lying on the floor behind the bar with a blanket covering her. Sydona bent down and whispered to her.

  “Hey. Hey, are you okay?”

  The yellow haired woman didn’t move a muscle. Was she dead? Sydona’s adrenaline pumped harder. She popped her head up over the bar to see if Jet had come back out yet. He was still investigating. Letting out a sigh, she crouched back down and built up the courage to reveal the potential dead body. The gun still in one hand, she peeled back the plaid blanket. She gulped and prayed the woman wasn’t dead; maybe she was just asleep or unconscious. But if that was the case, the person who did it to her might still be in the building.

  As she revealed more of the woman’s body, her skin shimmered from the lamp in a strange, plastic way. Sydona narrowed her eyes. She whipped off the rest of the blanket and noticed a note taped to her skin.

  Bring me Sydona Wilder

  No more death

  Sydona’s hands trembled as she detached the note. It was a mannequin; it was her. The note was from the doctor. It had to be. He was alive. He was looking for her.

  “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, holy fucking shit…” she breathed heavily. Her head spun[SD165]. Spots formed in the corners of her vision. Even her stomach ached with nausea.

  Raoul climbed out of her tote and inspected it for himself. Sydona crumpled the note so quickly she gave herself a papercut. Her jaw tightened, and she buried it deep in her pocket. No one could see this. At least not yet.

  “Is that a mannequin?” Raoul chuckled.

  “Yeah…” Sydona replied and cleared her throat.

  Jet then joined them behind the bar and saw the doll.

  “What the fuck is that?”

  “I think it’s a trap,” Sydona said bluntly.

  “What was the trap?” Jet asked.

  Sydona cocked her head, asking herself the same question. “I’m not sure yet…”

  “Trap?” Raoul asked. He flew over to the doll and stood on her stomach. “I think it’s just kids messing around. Playing make believe.”

  “We got a report of the NFA bringing fliers here though…”

  Jet examined the mannequin a bit more and scoffed. “She doesn’t even look real.”

  He situated himself to look around the bar, and possibly under the doll for more clues. As he grabbed the doll’s shoulders, Sydona noticed the slight glimmer of an almost invisible string wrapped around her slender neck. Her gut instantly warned her that something was wrong. Even though Theodore saw people going in and out, no one occupied the space but the doll with a note attached. The warning he gave her just before they went inside came back to her, and her heart sank.

  “No, wait!” she shouted as Jet pulled the doll up into a sitting position.

  The string triggered a sound similar to a match being struck. A small flame appeared on the bottom shelf in the back of the bar counter. Sydona’s hairs stood straight up. Within seconds of the flame being ignited, the flame dropped down into something and instantly caught fire. Glass [SD166]exploded from beneath.

  Sydona screamed, and they all jumped out from behind the bar. The mannequin's hair quickly caught fire and escalated the flames by a hundred as if it was made of something other than plastic. Then, she noticed another string along the wall, but just as she realized it was another fuse, it burst into flame.

  “What the heck is that?” Raoul panicked and flew around the room in a tizzy.

  Sydona couldn’t believe how scared she was. Her mind went in a thousand different directions on what was going on, what it was, what the next move was. Then, it hit her.

  “Dynamite.”

  In mere seconds, she grabbed Jet’s arm and pushed him into the storage room. The door would provide little to no protection against the impending explosion, but it was better than nothing.

  Just as she slammed and bolted the door, a large explosion went off. Debris fell on top of them, and the walls vibrated. Sydona’s ears rang, and she couldn’t hear a single thing for a solid minute. Though she wanted to sit back and wait to hear if anything else was going to happen, she knew if they stayed in there much longer they would be trapped. Sydona pushed boxes and broken bottles off her and slowly opened the door.

  A huge wave of dust and smoke burst through the crack, causing Sydona to cough and slam it shut.

  “Syd! Syd can you hear me? What’s going on down there?” Willow shouted through the walkie.

  Sydona heard but couldn’t answer with smoke invading her lungs.

  “We’re fucked,” Jet said from the back of the room.

  “Did you find any exits?” Sydona asked, even though it burned her throat.

  He only let out several coughs while shaking his head. Smoke leaked under the door and got worse with every passing second.

  Sydona couldn’t stand the sitting and waiting. She looked around the room and found a pile of bar towels in the very back. Grabbing several of them, she gave a couple to Jet to cover his mouth and nose. Raoul climbed back into her bag, cou
ghing like crazy. He dug his way to the bottom of her bag and wrapped his body up in a rag. The stench of moldy stale rags made her want to gag, but it was the only option they had. Sydona stood up and had one of the rags wrapped around the door handle to soften the burn. Her heart and stomach did flips as she quickly worked up the courage to open it.

  But as she twisted the knob, the door shattered open and almost crushed them in the process. Once she waved the smoke away, Willow’s face and body appeared from the smoke-filled room, and the giant woman grabbed her and Jet. They stuck low to the ground as Willow led them both outside. Sydona’s lungs craved oxygen, and she gasped desperately as she lay on the hard concrete.

  Lacey ran over to them. “Are you guys okay? What happened in there?”

  Sydona coughed and grabbed Raoul out of his bag to breathe the fresh air. He fluttered and cleared his throat of smoke.

  Willow yelled at a whisper and tried to block him from onlookers. “What are ya doin’?! He can’t be seen out here!”

  Sydona stuck up her middle finger and coughed one last time. “I’m not letting my best friend die because people can’t handle seeing a fairy.”

  But as she spoke, she glanced around the area. At least fifty people gathered around them with shocked faces. They needed to leave. But Sydona had almost no energy left.

  Lacey shouted at the crowd. “Alright! Everyone move out! Nothing to see here!” From the corner of her eye, Sydona saw Lacey take Jet in her arms, brush back his hair and wipe his face off with a wet thumb. He flashed her a small grin, and she kissed him on his charred cheek.

  Sydona turned back to Raoul. “You okay, buddy?”

  He cleared his throat and nodded his head. “We probably should go.”

  “Agreed.”

  Raoul slowly went back into her bag, and Sydona stood back up as her lungs regained their normal capacity.

  As the crowd dispersed, the Sparrows made their way back to the car but not before Sydona spotted Theodore in the crowd. He was the one who told them about the speakeasy. He may know something.