do you mean you have to go back?” asked Jason incredulously.
Nicola stared back at him.
“This will have to do,” said TJ pulling into the darkened entrance to a supermarket. He sped across the car park to the far side and then skidded to a stop, engine idling. He turned to Jason, his face set with menace.
“Get out the car Jason. And take your mad woman with you.”
“Shit man, okay.”
Jason scrabbled for the door handle feeling bits of glass brushing against his fingers. He popped the door open and rolled out of the car just managing to land on his feet. He held his hand out for Nicola, seeing the dark red marks around her neck already beginning to turn to blue-black bruising.
Gripping his pudgy fingers, she began to pull herself out of the car. Flecks of glass fell away from her clothes as she stood unsteadily next to him.
Pushing the door shut he shouted out. “Great, thanks TJ.”
“Don’t push it Jason, I’ll be seeing you about this.”
With that the car revved viscously, spun round in a squeal of tires and then was gone, speeding across the deserted car park before braking sharply and disappearing around the corner and back out onto the main road. They stood side by side in the emptiness, the engine noise gradually fading away.
In the silence that followed Jason shifted uncomfortably on his feet as he cast sidelong glances at Nicola who just stood and stared at the shadowed supermarket. She could feel her neck throbbing, the sensation of the man’s fingers choking her still fresh. She knew they were something more than police; she had wanted to shy away from the sensation she had experienced when looking at the man with the ponytail.
It had seemed like he was not really there, a shadow of a person, and within that shadow had been darkness and beyond that something more sinister. It was that which frightened her the most, for the intent had been clear. Her heart began to race as the realization hit her. He had wanted to kill her. She felt her legs trembling. Paul was right, Falk was right. As much as she wanted to deny it, to pretend normality was what was real, that magic did not exist, her brain could no longer accept that. Something had definitely happened to her. Her mind was changed, perceptions altered, and now something was trying to kill her.
It hit her then. Jason had saved her.
She turned to him.
“Thanks,” she said, her voice sounding distant to her, her gratitude overwhelming, “I think you just saved my life.”
Jason gulped, wondering just how intense this evening was going to get. A sense of pride welled up in him, for he had never had something like that said to him in his life.
“It was nothing,” he mumbled. “Hey, are you okay?”
She nodded, feeling numb.
“I’m sorry about your friend’s car.”
“Oh, don’t worry about him,” he said quickly. “He’s a bit fiery. We know someone who’ll fix it. Anyway, just who were those guys?”
“I wish I knew,” replied Nicola quietly.
“They were not like any police I’ve seen before,” Jason continued. “Normally they arrest you. Not try to choke you to death.”
“I don’t think they were police,” said Nicola.
He turned to her.
“You know a lot more, don’t you?”
“Jason,” said Nicola staring at him, a strange look in her eyes.
“Yes.”
“Something weird is happening to me.”
“I gathered that,” he said, as he wondered just what else could happen on this night.
“I met someone a couple of days ago. His name is Paul. He told me things, things you would not believe, things I did not believe, until now.”
She shifted her weight from foot to foot feeling suddenly chilled in the cool night air. Something was prickling at the edge of her awareness.
“He…” she began but did not know how to continue. She swallowed fighting back sudden tears. “Something happened to him too. I thought he was gone but back in the square, just when we got in the car I heard his voice. He called my name.”
Jason did not know how he could feel so suddenly jealous of someone he had not even met.
“Okay,” he said guardedly.
She looked at him earnestly. “That’s why I have to go back now. To find him. I have to know it’s true.”
“Are you serious?” he said incredulously. “We just got you out of there. What if those creeps are still hanging around?”
“They will find me anyway,” she replied with certainty, knowing now that it was true.
“Not if we hide,