Try To Change Me

Chapter 14

Ebony arrived at the theatre doorway with a sigh of relief. she had long overtaken Austen and dropped his hand, mostly because he had no idea where the stage was. She tried the handle and growled when it was locked.

"No!" she hissed.

Austen nudged her gently out of the way and tried himself.

"Oh, it's still locked?" ebony muttered, "how surprising. I thought everything opened wide for the great Austen."

He swung his head to stare at her, amused, and she blushed.

"Not what I meant."

Backing up several steps, Austen gestured for her to move. "Unless you want a foot to the stomach."

Ebony shook her head. "Don't even bother. They lock it from the inside with a beam across..."

Ignoring her, Austen put all his weight behind a foot and stamped on the door. It gave with a loud crack just as Phitz, Carrissa and Finnegan darted around the corner.

"Impossible," ebony breathed, pushing the doors easily apart.

Phitz gave her a strange look. "What are we waiting for?" he asked, already pushing past.

Ebony ducked behind the door, looking at the beam. It was broken jaggedly, with huge splinters sticking out all over the place. She caught austen's arm as he passed.

"That's impossible, Austen," she hissed, eyeing the door, " there is no way we should be on here right now."

He frowned at her. "Well, let's focus on not dying now, and come back to the impossible later."

Unable to argue with that logic, ebony nodded and pulled away. Ms smith and Mr Irving staggered through the doors, supporting a drooping Hazmat between them. To ebony, it almost looked like mr Irving was carrying the brunt of Haz's weight but the injured man was holding ms smith closer. Then Her eyes were drawn to his thigh and she gasped.

"What happened?" she demanded.

Eyes unfocused, Hazmat grinned. "I got shot!"

"Ebony," mr Irving urged, "where's this escape hatch of yours?"

She nodded and darted away, leading them up backstage behind the curtains. Austen above one half of the beam off the rests and drew the doors closed behind them. He pushed the other half across to lock it and shrugged. It was light: What was ebony's problem?

Up on the stage in question, ebony was shifting a table aside to gain access to a trapdoor.

"Down?" Carrissa asked, looking at her nails, "my complexion doesn't handle dirty, forgotten and unloved." She glared at ebony. "Is this your mothership?"

Ebony just ignored her: for once, Carrissa wasn't her biggest problem. She went to grab the handle but Phitz beat her to it, dragging it open with significantly more ease than ebony would have been able to.

She knelt down, fumbling around for the light switch on the roof. As it flickered on, she swung around to drop feet first into the storeroom. Phitz snorted, nodding softly.

"Maybe you're not a klutz after all."

Ebony grabbed the ladder and wheeled it to the trapdoor, flinching away as Phitz and Austen dropped down anyway. Carrissa and Finnegan clambered down followed quickly by ms Smith. As Ebony quested around for the window, they heard mr irving's strained voice.

"Put your butt on the step and then drag it down one at a time. Think 'dog with worms' you idiot."

Hazmat appeared gradually as he followed the other man's orders until he reached the bottom and ms smith helped him to his feet. When he was leaning on her, mr Irving scampered down, shutting the trapdoor firmly behind him.

"An escape hatch, ebony?" he asked quietly, smoothing his jeans.

Ebony pointed to the wall behind her, nudging Phitz into fetching the stairs as Carrissa snorted. "Is it legal for you to be shirtless in a basement with us, coach?"

"Not now, Carrissa," he snapped.

Ebony struggled up the steps, and opened the window, letting out a sigh. "Thank God! I was..."

She shrieked and tumbled backwards as a face appeared in front of her. The suit raised his sleeve and said, "Sanders, I've found them."

Anything further he would have said was cut off by a gunshot, and all heads in the storeroom jerked to stare at mr Irving. He lowered his arm as the man collapsed, blood trickling over the sill and his chest coming the window. Salena had tears tricking down her cheeks and ebony's hand was clamped to her mouth and she tried to control her breathing. Everybody except hazmat was looking particularly pale.

Mr Irving put the gun back in his waistband. "Austen, move him and get out." Nobody moved. "Quickly now."

Ms smith comforted a sobbing Salena as Phitz helped ebony stand. Hazmat staggered to mr Irving, gripping his upper arm tightly.

"Who are you?" he hissed, grinding his teeth. Pain flickered briefly through his eyes as mr Irving watched.

"Nobody," he responded as he hunched to check the thigh wound. It was still seeping blood, but not enough for mr Irving to worry about the femoral artery. Still, the leg below the blood soaked shirt was going purple and he needed to see a doctor.

"Woah, gramps!" Hazmat groaned as his eyes lost focus and then zeroed in on mr Irving's eyes. "Keep your hands to yourself."

"Shut up."

Austen was fully out the window and helping Finnegan to pull Carrissa out. Phitz was keeping watch behind them, and ebony was crawling through a bush. A twig whipped across her cheek and she sneered, reaching for the wood.

"I hate today, I hate today, I hate today."