Jeff,
finds himself in Atlanta Magic
Town
Chapter 18 of Magic Town ...
Sunday, 12:48 PM: Unwanted Visitors
Shonna left Jeff in
Antonio’s office with the instructions to shoot
at anything that comes through that door! Antonio starts to come to, but he
doesn’t name the shooter! But Antonio says a word clearly, “Inside.” What inside? Soon Jeff hears sounds in
the hallway, voices though the door, a whisper, so faint, “I won’t let that
happen again.” What? What won’t he let
happen again? Suddenly the door knob starts to turn! Jeff stands up, gun
straight-armed at the door! As the door slowly opens …
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- Chris Lamela
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Magic Town, Chapter 18
Sunday,
12:48 PM: Unwanted Visitors
Jeff looked around, turned a chair to face directly toward the door sitting as he was told. He raised the gun pulling back the trigger with his right thumb.
“Good god, what the hell am I
doing here?”
Jeff blinked, sweat pouring down his face,
into his eyes. He wiped his forehead with his left arm, staring at the door. He
could feel his right arm trembling as he held the gun so tight his fingers were
turning white. Okay, now, relax, he told himself. Just like at target practice,
remember? You didn’t win your ribbons by holding your gun like a girl! Relax!
He let loose of his grip on the gun, his right arm still trembling.
He sat there for what felt like an hour, a quick glance at his watch
said three minutes.
Looking around the room whenever he dared to take his eyes off the door
he saw the drawer that Antonio pulled the extortion records from had been ripped
out of the end table, laying on the floor near a corner of the room. Jeff said
softly, “They were looking for records!”
Suddenly, there was a cough that nearly made Jeff pull the trigger. He
looked down, Antonio was moving. While still watching the door he kneeled down
whispering, “Antonio.” He wiped sweat from his eyes with the back of his left
hand. “Antonio!”
He glanced down to see Antonio’s eyes fluttering, barely opening. Jeff
could see the white of Antonio’s eyes. “Antonio, can you hear me!”
Antonio gasped, coughed, struggling to raise his head, to focus on Jeff.
In a weak voice Jeff could barely hear, “You.” Cough. Jeff saw the weakest
smile. “You. Body armor,” with a weak chuckle.
“Yes! Antonio, it’s me, it’s me!” Jeff whispered desperately as he watched
the door intently, just a quick glimpse down. “Who did this?” Glance down.
“Antonio, who did this to you?”
There was a gurgle, a cough. Jeff leaned down as close as he could, his
eyes on the door. Weak cough.
Jeff whispered, “Antonio, who?”
“Inside,” Antonio coughed, “inside,” with a gasp his head flopped to the
side, eyes rolling up, closed.
“Oh, Jesus, Antonio!” Jeff implored in a fierce whisper reaching down, shaking
the still figure on the floor, “Antonio!” No answer.
Jeff listened, carefully, carefully, hardly breathing. He looked down seeing
Antonio’s chest barely rising and falling. He sat back in the chair, gun
pointed to the door.
Jeff glanced at his watch, two more minutes had passed.
What a day.
Wipe sweat from eyes.
Total silence.
But wait!
Some kind of sounds.
A voice!
A whisper!
No.
Yes!
Yes, a voice, very soft, the softest hissing murmur.
Coming from the left, down the outer hallway from the back of the
building.
The floor creaked!
Just outside the door!
Jeff craned his neck to listen, sweat pouring down his face, soppy
armpits.
The door knob!
A slight jiggle.
Raise the gun.
Whisper, he could barely hear.
So soft.
Man’s voice.
He leaned toward the door, hearing the words, a whisper, so faint, “I
won’t let that happen again.”
What again? Jeff thought,
tightening his grip on the gun, panicked.
He’s talking to someone, is there
more than one?
Jiggle of door knob, someone holding it.
He leaned forward watching the knob.
Grip tightening.
The knob began to turn.
The knob stopped turning.
The door began to open.
Slowly.
So slowly.
Opening.
Barely perceptible.
Opening.
Jeff stood up arm stiff pulling the trigger straight at the door, PAP! PAP! PAP! PAP! PAP! chips of wood
flying around the room from the door that seemed to explode with holes in front
of him, the door pulled shut again. W-E-E-E-E-E-E-E! his ears stung with the
sound of a high-pitched siren! He cupped his hands to his ears, ringing so loud
his sight was going gray, he heard muted scream, loud voices, frantic shuffling
outside, yelling something, moans fading down the hall toward the back door. He
shook his head to stop the ringing in his ears, punched his wrists against his
ears, it didn’t subside. The room was filled with acrid gray smoke from the gun
shots, Jeff coughed.
In a rush of anger he yanked open the door gun forward turned left slipping
on the wet floor looking down seeing a pool of blood smeared with footprints
steadied himself against the wall running down the hall reaching the end turned
left expecting to see the back door open on the right instead he saw the secret
tunnel stairs door still swinging hearing echoes of steps on the wooden stairs now
shouting voices with words he couldn’t understand coming up the stairs echoing
projected up from the long tunnel.
He ran to the door peering down the stairs realizing that was really
stupid to go down, he stood still, hold breath to listen, couldn’t hold his
breath with his panting, so out of breath. He looked down the stairs, the light
was on, he saw a trail of blood down the stairs, disappearing to the right. He
turned looking back to the hallway he’d just come down seeing bloody hand
prints along the wall, smeared like someone was trying to lean against the wall
while running.
Slowly he backed away from the stairs, afraid, backing past the back
parking lot door, slowly backward down the hallway his head swinging both
directions not sure where danger lay.
As he reached Antonio’s room he peaked around the corner, saw Antonio
still laying unconscious. He walked into the room turning again quickly facing
the door. He heard foot steps coming down the hall from the front of the
building, he raised the gun toward the open door.
“Jeff?”
PAP! Jeff pulled the trigger in
reflex, the bullet lodging into the wall in front of the door, his ears
instantly ringing again W-E-E-E-E-E-E-E!
“JEFF! STOP! IT'S ME SHONNA! NANCY
Jeff replied weakly, “Shonna? Nancy.” flopping into the chair.
Shonna peered around the right side of the doorway holding her gun,
looking around the room, turned to look at the hall, down to the bloody floor, came
through the door, pushing it wide open with her left hand as she inspected the
door. “Holy shit! Five shots!” She turned to look at the wall, “How many times
did you shoot?” Jeff held up six fingers. “Jesus! Somebody took three shots!”
She looked down at the blood pooled outside the door, her eyes following
the bloody trail down the hallway toward the back of the building, raising her
eyes to see the bloody hand marks along the wall.
She walked up to Jeff slowly kneeling down in front of him, “Are you
okay?” he nodded weakly. “Wow, you really made a mess out there!” She pulled up
a chair putting her arm around him, pulling him to her. “I am so sorry, I shouldn’t
have left you here. But I didn’t know what else to do. There’s a huge mess
downstairs, some kind of botched robbery.” She looked around the room sighing.
“God, what a mess.”
Jeff started to catch his breath reaching his arm over her shoulder so
they were linked together arm over arm. “I shot
somebody. I actually shot somebody.”
She leaned over, kissed his cheek. “No you didn’t shoot somebody. You
shot bad people.”
“Bad people?”
“Yeah, it’s bad when you shoot somebody, but bad people aren’t
somebodies.”
They heard voices in the hall, Shonna raised her gun at the door yelling,
“CODE!”
A man’s timid face peeked around the corner, “I’d do four knocks, Shonna,
but someone seems to have destroyed the door.”
There was a weak laugh all around as the room slowly filled with men all
wearing body armor, holding all sorts of armaments, their movements into the
room pushing the gun smoke into the hallway.
Soon a gurney appeared, in a second Antonio was gone.
Shonna leaned over, kissed Jeff on the cheek starting to get up. Jeff
pulled her back down. “One more minute.” He put his head against her breasts
closing his eyes. “Please.”
In a few minutes another gurney appeared in the room. Shonna looked
around realizing this might be too much for Jeff. She stood up pulling him to a
stand. “Hell of a day, huh?” He nodded, finally putting the gun back into the
stinky coat pocket. “We gotta let these guys do their work, come on.” Jeff stood
with a vacant face. Exhausted. “You okay?” He gave a half-nod. “Look, I really
hate to do this, but I’ve got to take some time to get a close look here and
downstairs, I need for you to wait for me in the bar, okay?” Without waiting
for a response, she pointed to one of the men saying something Jeff couldn’t
hear, the man stepped forward tugging Jeff by the elbow. Without a word he followed
the man out the door, right, down the hall.
Soon he was sitting in a chair in the empty bar. The janitors were gone.
He guessed they probably fled the building when they heard the gun shots.
Numb.
The man stood to Jeff’s left. Jeff glanced up at him with a gun in his
right hand next to Jeff’s left shoulder. He was being guarded.
Jeff started to look at his watch, his eyes couldn’t focus. It seemed
like hours before he saw Shonna’s face, kneeling down in front of him, looking
up into his face, “I really hate to do this to you, but we gotta go.”
Jeff sat quietly with his eyes closed, heading back as the Mustang made
the journey back up I-85 toward Roswell. He wanted to sleep somehow––he knew it
was hopeless.
“Did Antonio say anything?” Jeff kept his eyes closed, silent. “Jeff,
this is important. Did Antonio say anything?”
Jeff opened his eyes straightening up, a bit wobbly, looking around him
bewildered. “I think he thanked me for suggesting body armor.”
“I don’t remember you suggesting it. No, I guess you did talk about it,
huh?”
He felt better at the sound of her voice, “You mean by the supposed
miraculous survival of my murder yesterday?”
“You know what I mean. Somehow that made him put it on.”
They were quiet until the first freeway split. The Sunday afternoon
traffic was very light. “Anything else?”
Jeff frowned looking ahead though the windshield. “Yeah, he said inside. Twice.”
“You’re sure? Inside?”
“I’m sure, that’s exactly what he said. That’s all he said before he
passed out again.”
“Jesus,” Shonna shook her head. “I was afraid this might happen when
there are so many players and there is so much money. That means we got an
insider passing information, or maybe even did the shooting.” She sighed.
“Inside.”
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