Fatal Attraction (Dark Desires 4)

“Let me in, it’s the police.” A woman is yelling from outside the front door. I slowly get up and move towards it with Ada behind me. I don’t think someone would pretend to be the police to get us out, but now I’ve become paranoid.

Slowly I open the door and peer out to find Officer O’Neal looking back at me. She was probably the last person I wanted to come and help us.

“So, you had someone shooting at you. You just seem to get yourself into a lot of trouble don’t you Charlie?” I didn’t appreciate her condescending tone.

“It’s my fault. He’s my ex-boyfriend,” Ada says coming out from behind me. “Jimmy Daly, he was here and tried to shoot us when we came out.

“You’re Springfield, Ada, right?” Detective O’Neal says in a nice tone of voice I certainly hadn’t heard from her.

“Yes.” She says a little surprised.

“I know your dad, we go way back. Do you want to file a restraining order, honey?”

“Yes, I do. I want to file it against him and my dad. He’s the one who put him up to that.”

“I’m sure that’s not true,” the detective says. “Your dad doesn’t want you or your, boyfriend?” She says it like a question, “to get hurt.”

Ada argues with the cop for a long time. She tells her a lot of what her dad said and the cop actually tries to tell her she’s misreading what he was saying. I’m angry all over again listening to the full conversation she had with her dad and the things Jimmy said.

“I think you should do something about him. There’s no telling what he might do to me or my father.”

“Mr. Springfield is a reasonable man,” O’Neal says. “I’ll file the order against Jimmy. We’ll go pick him up since I see he assaulted you not too long ago at the bar. If you have any more trouble, call me. I’ll give you my card.”

After she drives away Ada turns to me. “She wasn’t that helpful, was she?”

“Better than she was the night this place got vandalized,” I say not thinking.

“Wait, what. When did that happen?”

I have to go through the situation with George and what happened to elaborate on the song a little bit. She listens intently and shakes her head like I thought she would. It’s at least clear to me now why the cop was such a bitch to me. She’s clearly in league with the men my dad fired.

“Tomorrow we have to rehearse at the recording building. I don’t feel safe here at night anymore.” Ada says.

I have to agree with her.

Chapter Twenty: Ada

Thursday has come up a lot faster than I thought it would. I’ve never seen so many people in one place. The whole lawn is covered in bodies. We’re actually here on the third day of the festival so they aren’t very clean bodies. I’m thankful I don’t have to go out into the crowd and can remain safe on the stage.

The stage is small. It will probably fit just the two of us and our equipment. Now I have to worry about possibly falling off the front of the stage. I really don’t think I can do this.

A man sits near the stage in a full headdress and face paint smoking a pipe that is as long as he is tall.

“Charlie,” I say my voice coming out much quieter than I intended.

“You’ve got this Ada. We sing four songs and we’re done. You just need to pretend they aren’t there.”

“How did we even get this gig?” I ask Thomas who is loving the scene. Lila is standing with him looking disgusted.

“Someone canceled. You’re placeholders. Who cares, you got a gig!” Thomas says.

“You’re so much more than a placeholder,” Lila says encouragingly.

The act that was on in front of us just seemed to do a lot of screaming. The crowd responded to that because all they were doing was screaming. There were topless girls with their breasts painted in bright colors. There were men covered in mud dancing in strange circles. There were people swatting at things in the sky around their heads. I couldn’t see anything near them. It was not my scene.

A guy in a half alligator and half angle costume came up to me and I froze. He stood so close I could smell the cologne he’d piled on to cover up the stench. It didn’t cover it.

“I’m the scaly fairy, want to buy some molly?”