Chapter 54: Chapter 54

Merging with the evacuating crowd, I felt a pull on my arm and, turning, I noticed Eris grabbed on the sleeve of my jacket so that we don't get separated. In the corner of my eyes, I also saw wings protruding above the passersby. Ra'zizi was standing next to a fire alarm button, which was tucked away in a small alcove between the stores. The glass in front the button had been shattered. I looked at her and was met with a sly smile and a raised eyebrow. I hoped she hadn't started an actual fire. My grumbling and muttering curses only made her giggle and waggle her tail.

"I think it was a good idea. A little bit of playfulness doesn't hurt... Especially when you can save a bit too."

I saw her smug eyes were looking past me. Turning to the side, I noticed a piece of cloth hanging out of the side pocket of Eris's hoodie - it was unmistakably a stocking.

"I'm guessing it was your demon that did this?" I heard her say, facing away from me.

"Yeah..."

"Knew it... The way you looked at that empty space," she turned back to me, disappointed. "And we didn't even get you ready!"

While we squeezed—or rather, were slowly squeezed—out, amidst the blaring alarms and droning prerecorded keep-quiet messages, breathing became more difficult. I looked ahead, longing for the cool breeze of the massive air conditioning unit above the door to sweep over me. Finally, being almost free from the crowd, and Eris still tugging at my jacket, I noticed another familiar face.

It was that detective woman, Rellin. She wore a long coat, almost too heavy even for the recently-colder weather. Her red hair was almost competing with the red evacuation signs, even in the dim lighting. I quickly stepped to the side and attempted to squeeze myself past the people walking out, hoping to use a tall, heavy-set man in a tracksuit as a makeshift cover.

"Hey, what are you doing?!" Eris called out to me, trying to yank me back.

"I need to h-... not be seen!" I answered in a strained hush, trying to be both secretive and loud enough to be heard among the commotion. Just to be sure, I pointed at detective Rellin and then nodded repeatedly to the side.

"What? Is that your ex?" Eris asked, half jokingly.

"Just please do this!" I insisted.

"Okay, okay... weird..." she reluctantly agreed and joined me in the evasion attempt.

We turned the other way than we came from in an attempt to distance ourselves from the detective. The crowd outside was much more massive than on the inside - people stood around, looking for something, someone, or just looking on aimlessly, staring at the mall, as if hoping it would burst ablaze, entertaining their morbid curiosity.

She wasn't holding on to me anymore, but I made sure that Eris was still with me and directed us both down the pavement and past the confused outer rim of onlookers. A fire engine had already arrived, and firefighters started quickly trying to push their way to the entrance. I thought we'd have an easy time getting away, but just then I noticed that the entire street ahead of us was blocked off. Signs on the pavement and the road informed of undergoing construction work, and behind them, a gaping ditch in the middle of the street, surrounded by heaps of broken asphalt and soil, as well as an excavator and a small truck.

"Looks like we have to go back..." I announced, and we crossed the street, heading for the nearest intersection to continue marching away from the place.

"I think I forgot to tell you something," I said, turning to her.

"Yeah?" she asked with a smile.

"It's kind of important, but I didn't know how to say it."

"Oh, oh, wait don't tell me," she momentarily looked away, stretched her right hand out and put the tips of her left hand's fingers on her forehead, looking sideways at me. "You want to officially propose to me?" she asked, keeping the theatrical pose with a smirk.

I laughed and made a few steps more. "I think first I should tell you that I had... Have you ever had some issues with the law?"

"The what?" she looked at me with a puzzled face.

I looked to the side. Just then, emerging from behind the rear end of the fire engine parked obliquely on the road, I found myself about two dozen steps away from Natasha Rellin. As luck would have it, she seemed to recognize me instantly, and began power-walking towards us.

Whatever she was interested in, I wasn't.

"We need to go," I said to Eris, who seemed confused for a moment before also noticing the red-haired detective. "Now!"

"Wait, what's going on?"

We started running down the street. I bumped into a guy carrying a sandwich, knocking it out of his hand, and Eris seemed to step on the foot of some teen checking his phone.

"Stop!" I heard a female voice behind me. It continued once we made it past one block and ran across the street, just as the traffic light was changing green. "Stop!"

It was her for sure. I didn't need to turn around to check, nor would I want to. I heard a car honk behind us as I dragged Eris further, zig-zagging past a tourist and a delivery driver unloading a pizza off a moped.

"Please, Matt, I can't run this fast!" she complained, but I knew we couldn't slow down. The pedestrian light at the next interesction was almost about to change red. I doubled my pace and sprinted through, almost crashing against a tree in a tiny flowerbed on the other side. Looking back, I saw Eris on the other side of the road, trying to catch her breath. Just behind her was detective Rellin, and slightly more behind, looking equally as tired as Eris, was that chubby female police officer from the interview.

I was out of breath, and out of ideas. Looking at Eris, she seemed to be nodding in a go-ahead fashion, while the cars in front of her started moving. Without wasting any time, I turned around and started running towards the big, tiled entrance of the metro station. I heard a thump behind me and another car horn, the sound of detective Rellin swearing. Deciding to skip the escalators, I ran down the stairs, almost jumping down entire flights. Having managed to almost collide with an elderly woman, I wobbled on one leg on the last step, before awkwardly stumbling and landing on the station floor. My hands were sweating and shaking as I pulled out my wallet, fumbling while trying to find my metro card.

"Stooop!" I heard a not-so-distant voice. I pulled out my card and put it up to the reader, but it only made an offensive beep, telling me to re-scan. I felt ready to jump the barrier after the second failed scan. Finally, on the third attempt, it unlocked and let me through, just as the same voice, sounding almost out of breath, whined, "Stooop that maaaan!"

I made it past a group of businessmen, bumping off of one and into another, as I hurried towards the platform. The train was almost here, and it stopped just as I was passing a confused-looking old man. My heart was pounding so hard in my chest that I could barely hear the train brakes engage. I saw the door unlock, and was sure that if I timed my next few hops just right, I would be able to squeeze in before the first row of people start boarding right after the ones leaving right now. I put all my concentration into my legs, and counted.

One... two...

A sudden force collided with me from the side, knocking the air out of me and making me tumble to the ground. The floor of the station hit me even harder, when my knees and elbows collided with the rough concrete, and I wasn't sure I didn't break anything. I barely looked up when I felt another force, pulling me.

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"Get up!" Rellin said with a raspy, exhausted voice.

When I managed to stand back on my feet, I felt her shove me onto one of the pillars in the middle of the station walkway. The force of the impact made me wince.

"You're coming with me, you piece of shit," she announced, pressing her forearm against my neck as people all around stared in confusion.

"W-why?" I muttered as she started turning me around, grabbing on my arm and twisting my hand when I tried to resist.

"I think you know why. I have some theories about an ongoing case," she took a pause to breathe, "and I want to discuss them with you."

Some people got out of their seats and stood in the train door, while those trying to board started turning around to look on. A few took out their phones and seemed to start filming.

"But... I don't have to..." I said, feeling the cold tiles of the column pressed against my face. I then remembered the phrase. "Am I under arrest?"

This seemed to have taken Rellin a bit off guard. She hummed and cleared her throat.

"Arrest?" her tone was mocking me. "Right, how would I have forgotten? Matthew McNowdy, you are under arrest. Better?"

"For what?" I replied, turning my head to look back at her, but she only pushed me further into the column.

"Officer Rellin! Natasha!" I heard a somewhat squeaky, breathless voice coming from our side.

It was Parkland, struggling to catch her breath, and pushing past the onlookers. Unlike Rellin, she did have a uniform. To my dismay, the train conductors started trying to usher people on board, hurrying to leave.

"I got him, Meg," Natasha announced triumphantly, and when I tried to push her away and struggled to turn, she shoved me harder into the column, caught my hand and twisted it. I moaned in pain, feeling my wrist almost slip out of the joint. It was uncanny how strong this woman was.

"Oh, you really want to do this, huh?!" she asked.

"Stop it! Natasha!" the officer urged her, "We don't have a warrant for him!"

There was a pause and I heard detective Rellin clear her throat again.

"Are you... fucking kiddin' me, Meg?" Natasha said and paused. "After all that we have, after all this running... you now talk warrants?"

"It just... Doesn't seem right, Nat..." the officer seemed to have cowered a bit from her colleague. "You don't have... anything... concrete..." her voice trailed off.

"Nothing concrete, huh?" she asked and I felt her lean in and talk directly in my ear, "Guess what the hospital reports said, Matt... Can you guess whose sperm was in and all over Isabella?"

"Natasha!" Meg yelled.

There was some commotion in the crowd, and someone tried stepping up to us, but detective Rellin yelled "Police! Step aside or I'll arrest you!"

This seemed to have done the job, as the people around us were now back to crowding into the train.

Natasha then turned to Megan again "Okay, how does obstruction of justice sound?" she seemed to have turned to me and continued, "He was resisting arrest, didn't stop when I ordered him to."

I could hear detective Rellin reaching for something which made a metallic clanking sound. Realizing how dire the situation was, I tried to strafe and start running, but he pushed me into the column even harder. At that point, I began flailing my hand, trying to get her away, which just made the detective angrier, as she pulled my arm, trying to grab a hold of my wrist. We struggled, the train about ready to leave, last passengers boarding and a sound of someone running in a not so far distance mixing with my groaning.

"Nat, stop!" Megan urged. "Are you allowed to have those beyond work hou-"

"Goddamn it! Meg, I swear if you do-"

"Sorry! I'm in a hurry! Scuse me!!!"

The tapping sound of footsteps on a hard surface came very close to us and I heard Natasha suddenly gasp for air, about the same time as Megan yelped. Something dragged and turned me around, and I saw Eris, stepping over Natasha, knocked to the ground. Before I could react, she pulled me, stumbling and rotating, into the train's car, apologizing for knocking the detective over just as the door was closing. Megan rushed over to Natasha, who almost immediately tried getting up, paying no attention to her colleague.

Through the glass, I saw Ra'zizi, standing between the detective and the door. Just as she was about to leap to it, the grinning succubus put her leg in front of her foot, causing Natasha to trip fall flat on her face. The train started moving, and all I could see for a moment, is the furious detective, yelling at the hapless blonde policewoman who was helping her up on her feet.

I turned my head back and saw Eris, pressed up against me. The train was so crowded, we had to ride face-to-face. She looked deeply into my eyes, it felt like they were piercing through me. But she didn't say a word.

"You..." I began in a hushed voice, "... saved m-"

"Shut up!" she whispered sharply, and we continued the journey in silence, until the next stop.

I realized then - I still haven't touched Eris directly in any way. But I have touched Natasha multiple times during the scuffle. I felt what was deep in her mind.

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