The Dragon's Daughter

Chapter 4

  Friday (Walmart Interior Continued)

WARNING: This chapter contains a fight scene. 

Jess needed my phone to call the police, rescue, the fire department, or possibly all three. So, I'd left it in her hands, leaving me with no way to reach Sy. I groaned in frustration. Hoping I had enough luck to find him as quickly as possible. And that nothing had happened to him.

When I hit the registers again and saw the billowing smoke from the rear of the store, I just stopped for a minute and started yelling "Sy!" blindly. Where would he even be? I waited a beat. Maybe two. My heart was full-on hammering now.

Moron. Moron me for not remembering him in my escape. Moron him for not escaping sooner. Didn't he realize this place was dangerous? "Moron, moron, moron, moron," I muttered to myself as I dashed past the grocery aisles. Nope. Not there.

"Raina!" I looked up, following the sound of the voice, less stunned this time... but still unsettled to see a floating human.

"Jesus," I yelped.

"No. Jeremiah," he corrected with a laugh.

Dear Lord. He was without a doubt, high as a kite right now in addition to being....well high as a kite. Oh no. I did not just think that.

"No time now, Jer. Looking for my friend, Sy!" I managed to say. I was still scanning aisles as Jeremiah floated along, a few feet behind me.

"Girl, this place is crazy. I'll help you look." His voice insistent.

"Yeah," I blinked, still flustered. "Thanks!" I managed. I wasn't sure he heard me, so I turned back to him, and he was gone again.

I was still panicking, having just reached the toy aisle with no sign of my friend, but having seen some more nonsense along the way.

A man was having a loud argument with his wife. That wasn't the odd part.

There was three of her. Then four. And now five. The poor man was getting backed into a corner of the aisle. I would have thought maybe the women were triplets until I saw them multiply. There was a brief shimmer and then another version of her jumped out. This was some crazy hallucination. And I wanted OUT OF THIS HELL HOLE! Maybe not as bad as the guy with five wives, but whatever.

"Sy!" I was still screaming for my friend every few aisles. Nervously, I called out to him again and again. Was it even safe to draw attention to myself? What if somebody saw me as a scary hallucination and tried to come after me?

"Raina! Raaaaiiiinnnnaaaa!" Sy bellowing came as music to my ears. Thank God.

"Sy! Sy! I'm over here," I called in a rushed voice.

Finally, he emerged from around a corner, looking like he'd just fought his way out of a mosh pit. His spikey hair was messed up, and there was a cut right near the hairline. Some of the blood had run down his face.

My eyes bulged. "Holy hell, Sy."

"Looks worse than it is." He wiped his forearm over his face, taking the blood on his arm and the shoulder of his short sleeve black tee. By the looks of it, he'd already done this a few times. His forearm and shirt were bloody. I saw the tendons bulge beneath the red smear. My eyes bugged out even more at the mess that was my friend.

"What the hell happened?" I demanded.

"I..." He looked at me and made some random hand gestures, then a shrug.