The Clairvoyant

Twenty-third | 51 days, 21st hour

“You don’t really have to wait for me.”

Cain holds my hand tightly in place as he kills the ignition. Leaving the clinking keys there, he squeezes it tightly with both hands, then looks at me with this troubled expression on his face moments later.

“You should have definitely come with someone else,” He mutters.

“Audrey’s here,” I point out, jerking my head to the building.

“She’s a girl,” Cain retorts, frowning. “Both of you.”

He lets a hand free then I reach over to his cheeks and caress it softly. “Don’t be such a worry wart.” I giggle, my fingers tracing to his pinkish lips. “I’m sure Chace and Tristan are already inside – Blake wouldn’t have invited me alone.”

“What is going on up there?” Cain softly interrogates me, taking my hand and giving a kiss on the tips. “If you don’t come down in an hour, I’m calling the police whether or not you like it. You understand?”

I flinch, now pulling away. “No… you can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“I’d be caught up in it too.”

Cain resisted the urge to bite his lips. A habit I noticed him doing whenever he felt troubled. I soft chuckle escapes my lips as I lean forward and give him a peck on the lips. “Don’t worry,” I whisper near his ear. “I’m not dying.”

He blushes a bit, then turns back to the steering wheel where he lets his head lie down.

“You better not.”

I open the door, but Cain quickly pulls me back in and crushes his lips against mine. His hand is supporting the side of my head, his lips warm over mine. It’s a quick and urgent kind of kiss, but he pulls away, frowning at me.

Take care. He sends to me, hazel eyes never leaving my gaze.

Giving him a kind smile, I reply: I will.

Then all of a sudden he’s troubled over something, and I can tell just from looking at his expression. He holds my hand tightly again, this time as if professing something. That’s when I realize what he’s wishing to tell me.

I…

I put both hands over my face, shaking my head as I let out a laugh. “Dude, I’m not dying.” I chortle as Cain stays silent in front of me. “Tell me what I think you want to tell me when I’m done with all this stuff.”

“When I’m done with all this stuff, you’re going on a date with me.” He urges.

I vibrate a laugh out of my mouth. “I promise.”

Pinky? His slender finger shots out to my face his pinky raised to a half curve.

I hold onto it, locking it. “Pinky promise,” I laugh.

Then I’m leaving, my foot steadily taking my up to where I’d been before. There’s a crowd going on up there, I can hear them shouting. From the left side, I can see Eau Claire’s headlights shining brightly, and on the other is the deserted rundown building I’m sure I was inside just a few days ago.

Blake’s hideout is located in a meadow, somewhere on the outskirts of Eau Claire. It’s not that big, but not that small either – but it definitely fits the description of a haunted house more than a gangster’s hideout.

Just as I reach the top, I swing the door open carefully and take a peek inside.

I see Chace and Tristan, sitting at one corner, looking like they were troubled at the situation. A few of Blake’s men sees me, whistles to Chace and Tristan who usher me to take a seat just near them: the sofa where I’d once been tied on.

“What’s going on?”

Chace’s chin jerks to the middle of the room where a crowd had begun circling around. Then all of a sudden, a girl jumped out – or more like she was thrown to the other side of the room. She hit a few people, they toppled backwards.

She didn’t get up.

“What are they doing?” I ask, now on alert. “They’re hurting her!”

“It’s a fight,” Someone from beside me stated the obvious. “They’re betting.”

“She isn’t some cage-“ Then the girl caught my breath.

I knew her.

“Audrey?” I shout, peeling off from the sofa but just until someone catches my wrist. I twist around and see Tristan holding tightly onto me, his gold hair shaking side to side as he silently tells me, “It’s not a good idea.”

I point at the brawl. “We can’t leave her there!”

“It’s a bet,” Another of Blake’s men says.

“What bet?”

“If Audrey loses, she has to let go of Colton.”

I fling my eyes around Audrey’s opponent. Indeed. It’s Colton. “And if she wins?”

“He stays.”

“He stays?”

Chace sighs heavily, pulling me down beside him. “Just until a while ago, I realized Colton has a flight back to New York in a few days. And if he loses, he’s not going on the flight and will eventually stay here.”

Then all of a sudden Colton fell down, Audrey on top of him. Audrey’s giving him punches, his hand stopping most of them, the other hitting him scare against the face and on the chest.

He heaved her off him, they tumbled across the floor, then Audrey was on top again.

Colton pushed her off mightily, and she flung down onto the ground. He didn’t hesitate to pick her off the floor, and just when I thought he would hit her, Audrey was suddenly punching him and down came Colton.

And he stayed that way.

But as Audrey began walking away, her back to Colton, all of a sudden she’s dropping to her knees, falling flat on her face. I look back at Colton who’s sitting up, his lips cut and blood seeping out from his mouth.

He got on his feet, Audrey stayed down.

And then the crowd cheered as the winner was already obvious.

Colton just won.

Chace and Tristan got to their feet, ran to Audrey and helped her up. I followed a few steps behind, and as I neared her, I saw Blake just behind Colton, talking to him.

He saw me, then Colton did too – then they both nodded.

“I’ll give Audrey another chance to let me stay,” Colton’s voice is hoarse, but he’s keeping it steady. “If you defeat Blake here and now, then I’ll stay for her sake. But if you lose, then I’m leaving.”

I look back at Chace and Tristan who both give me shrugs. “What about these two?”

“I think they’ve had their break enough,” Blake began, whipping his knuckles into a crack. “Either way, if you think about, the whole reason we started this fight was because we wanted to fight one another. Are you stronger now?”

I didn’t hesitate to throw my jacket at Tristan.

“Heck a lot stronger.”

No bell. No start. I just went in and gave him a punch. I hear the crowd roar into screams as we randomly began the fight. Blake ducked it, just barely above his shoulder, then went in a kneeled me on my gut.

I caved into a ‘c’, then toppled downward where the crowd boo’d and hissed.

“Get up!” I hear someone shout, and I can’t tell who but I do.

I feel a pair of cloth being thrown behind me as Blake walks threateningly near. Stepping backward, I see it’s a black leather glove, and so I drop down and pick it, wear it, just in time as Blake comes down to give me another punch.

It’s a punch aimed directly for my head, so I roll to the side, barely missing it by a few inches.

Spinning my legs into action, I kick his ankle and he jerks to the side, surprised at the hit I’d done.

Jumping up, I turn my fists to his chest, and make another punch just until his hand catches it. Then with the free one, I make a landing on his cheek.

But just as I thought he would fall, he suddenly kicks me on the side with his leg, and I stagger to the side, clutching it tightly. He reels a kick on the back of my knee, and I fall forward, a bit surprised he’s actually not hesitating.

I’m kneeling on the crowd, clutching my side.

“Is that all you got?”

Something catches the edges of my eye. “Not even a bit,” A say almost breathless and make a run to the east.

I grab the baseball in my hand, the bat in the other. I swing it up in the air, then as it comes down, I hit it.

There’s a crack sound, another ping, then all of a sudden the guys are ducking down.

Including Blake.

He pushes himself up, the bat still I my hand. He runs to me, grabs the bat and holds the roots of my hair with his free hand.

“Fist fight, El,” He whispers in my ear, his voice hard and unrecognizable to me at the moment.

Then I punch him on the stomach, but he slaps me in return.

Jerking backward, I bring a hand to my cheek, surprised.

And then I see the small amount of blood trickling down.

“b***h, that’s going pay!” I scream, running to him and tackling him down onto the hard concrete. I punch him respectively on the head, shoulder, chest – but he only blocked out the shoulder part so he’s toppling over me.

“Girly fist fights are weak,” He chuckles, bright white teeth grinning at me.

“Oh yeah?” I counter, suddenly reeling in my knee to his shin. He makes an off sound, falling to the side of my head with one elbow raising him up as I use my own elbow to punch him on the side, knocking him down.

I made a fatal hit, a low blow actually, and I thought I’d actually won.

The crowd is silent.

Everyone is silent.

Then all of a sudden Blake’s grabbing my ankle and pulling me down, my head colliding on impact with the ground. Instantly I feel the vision blot in darkness. He holds my hair tightly near his lips which are now bleeding too though.

Then slowly he whispers, “Have you heard of the fight I had with my predecessor?”

I try to punch him off, but he’s keeping both my hands down with just one hand, and my thighs are just around his waist, keeping me locked down. “Don’t you know that if you win this fight, you’ll be the new leader?”

Looking away from him, I faintly see the people looking at us.

“Are you ready to become a leader?”

I grit my teeth. No.

“That’s right,” I didn’t realize I said that out loud. “You aren’t.”

He threw me off guard, throwing me to the side that I almost knock my skull against it. The crowd cheer as Blake raises his arms with triumph, then he’s pulling me up as I lurch towards him. I crash into his chest; he holds me tightly.

“You’d be a good second in command,” He chuckles, tapping my cheeks.

“I lost.”

He gives me a small smile. “You would have won,” he says softly so the crowd won’t hear. “But you have a family who worries. A family who cares about your well-being, and well, being a leader doesn’t really come without bruises.”

Then he pushes me forward, a pair of strong arms catches me.

“I’d love to tend to your wounds,” Blake hollers from behind me, my eyes going darker by the second. It must be the head injury, or something in the skull that’s making me feel drowsy. “But lover boy here doesn’t look like he’ll let me.”

Stella, hang in there, I’ll call in ambulance.

I can hear his frantic thoughts pulling me awake. I hear voices about something like letting me rest on the sofa for now, just like Audrey. But Cain says something about head injury, and a lot of bleeding more than necessary.

Then in a few seconds, my world’s blank.