An Unwelcome Visitor

A low murmur escaped Reva’s lips.

She stared into the darkness of the open elevator, afraid to move. Were they gone? Were they really gone?

Had they fallen to their deaths, splattered against the basement floor?

She listened. Silence. A heavy silence.

Then Reva gasped as Pres and Diane stepped back out into the aisle.

They didn’t fall. I imagined it, she realized.

I wished it.

The employee elevators must have been fixed.

“Let’s not panic and act stupid,” Diane scolded Pres. “The girls didn’t have time to take the elevator down. We were right behind them.”

Pres pushed his black hair off his forehead with an angry toss of his head. “Then where are they?” he asked, his face bright red, his dark eyes darting nervously in all directions. “Still on this floor?”

“Yeah,” she replied.

“Hey—where’d you guys go?” Danny called from several aisles away.

“Over here, Danny,” Pres called back. “Keep looking. They’re here somewhere.”

“Spread out,” Diane urged, hurrying back toward the toy department.

Reva kept her eyes locked on Pres. He lingered for a few seconds, his eyes searching the aisle along the back wall. The elevator door slid shut behind him. He glanced up at the floor indicator as the arrow moved back toward the first floor. Then, cursing under his breath, an angry scowl on his face, he trotted off after Diane.

Reva and Pam stepped away from their hiding place. “It didn’t work,” Pam whispered glumly.

Reva chewed her bottom lip. “Who told those idiots to fix the elevator? Couldn’t they leave it broken?” she fumed.

“Now what?” Pam asked, her voice trembling. She raised her hand and gently touched the purple welt on her cheek.

“I—I don’t know,” Reva stammered, frozen in fright.

“They went back to the toy department,” Pam said, turning her glance down the long center aisle. “So maybe we do have time to take the elevator down.” She stepped forward and pressed the button.

“Maybe,” Reva replied tensely. She raised her eyes to the floor indicator above the two elevators. “It went all the way back to one.”

Pam jammed her finger on the button again. And again.

“That won’t make it come any faster,” Reva whispered. She turned back toward the toy department. “Shh. I hear them. Oh, no! I think they’re coming back!”

Pam frantically pushed the black elevator button. “Hurry. Hurry. Oh, please—hurry!”

They both watched the arrow above the elevators move slowly up. Two... three...

“It’s Pres and Diane!” Pam cried. “They’re going to catch us!”

Four... five!

The elevator door on the left started to slide open.

Reva glanced behind them. Pres and Diane were running down the center aisle toward them.

“Hurry!” Reva cried, pushing Pam toward the opening elevator door.

Pam stumbled forward. Then stopped.

“Oh!” Reva cried out as a man in the elevator stepped toward them, blocking the door, blocking their escape.

She recognized him at once. She recognized the blue sunglasses, the black trench coat.

The man who had followed her at the mall.

He raised his black-gloved hand and pointed a small dark pistol at Reva.

Дата добавления: 2015-07-20