Come to that,”he flashed her a beautiful neon-bright grin again, ”we could scream our heads off and no one would hear.”
”That doesn't fill me with confidence, Leon.”Her voice fell to a whisper. ”What if there's a bunch of crack addicts in here?”
”Yeah, they're having a violent offenders convention, can't you hear the music and happy laughter?”
”Hardy ha-ha, Leon, you big dope.”Kay wanted him to walk with his arm protectively around her, only he'd laugh like a loon if she even suggested it. She could even imagine his incredulous, ”You gone crazy, girl?”Then a booming laugh.”'Cause you walk, talk and look crazy!”
Instead he scanned the walls, looking for posters, no doubt hoping to see them covering the building like wall57 paper. Here there was zilch. They'd come in via a door that had artistes entrance painted next to it. Here there were signs saying this way and no admittance and security and janitor. That's all. There were also wall brackets where fire extinguishers had once hung. But no posters blazing out tonite! one nite only! buddy holly and the crickets. Not even one lonesome flyer for Barry Manilow.
Sweeping the lights through the darkened building, they ventured deeper.
Kay glimpsed doors leading to artists' dressing rooms. She marveled at how clean the place was after all these years of abandonment. The drab green walls were unmarked. No graffiti. No sign of drunks appropriating the joint as a shelter. No urine splash marks on walls. No spider webs.
No junk strewn on the concrete floor. Eager now, they surged down the tunnel-like corridor that (according to signs) connected with the backstage area. The place had only been stripped clean of furniture, not trashed. The air didn't even smell stale. It was as if a through draft continually refreshed the atmosphere of the Luxor.
Kay's heart beat faster. This place excited her. She felt the old buzz come back to tingle through her blood to her fingertips. It was especially exciting to be here alone with Leon. His athletic body loped along the corridor with the grace of a panther. The shadow he cast revealed itself as a giant form that ran alongside him. She followed him through a wide pair of doors into the backstage area, then onto the stage itself. The boards creaked with mousy squeaks beneath her feet.
She was treading in the footsteps of musical giants.
In the middle of the stage stood a simple wooden table, perhaps from one of the back offices. Someone had brought it so far, then couldn't be bothered to heft the thing any farther.
”Wow, what a place,”Leon breathed, while shining the flashlight around the cavernous interior of the auditorium.
Kay shone her flashlight onto the dance floor. In the darkness it appeared as a vast plain stretching far away to entrance doors that must lead to the box office and lobby beyond. The dance floor itself was featureless save for a single armchair dead center. She held the light on it for a moment. It was a comfortable club armchair, the kind you might have in an ordinary domestic living room. Why someone had gone to the trouble to position it there, facing the stage, as if ready for some phantom show to start, God alone knew.
Leon whistled. ”Some place. I wonder why they don't reopen? It would make a great club.”
”Too far from town.”Her voice sounded small in the vastness. ”There's nothing here. All the factories have closed down.”
”You stay here. I'll check the lobby If there're any posters they'll be there.”
”Leon-”She wanted to add, Don't leave me alone here. But that would have sounded girly Instead, she added, ”If you need a hand, give me a shout.”
Still running, he turned back. ”Sure.”A second later he vanished through the doors. There was no glass in them so she couldn't even see the flashlight anymore. Come to think of it, she couldn't hear his footsteps. The doors are soundproofed, she reassured herself. They'd have to be to stop the people in the box office from being deafened by the music that once rocked these walls all those years ago.
Now there were no deafening guitar riffs, no bass, no drums to pound the air. A silence settled, the kind she'd never experienced before. All her life she'd lived in the shadow of an overpass that carried an eight-lane highway. Motor noise had seeped into the very molecules of her body. Now this kind of silence… Whoooo… this was something else. Sweeping the beam searchlightstyle, she scanned the void above her head, picking out the lighting gantry, and even the twinkling remnants of foil Christmas decorations from decades ago. In her imagination she could conjure the ghosts of men and women dancing out there on the floor. They danced around that solitary armchair to a fusion of funk, jazz, blues, soul, Motown, psychedelic free form, grunge,speed metal. She smiled to herself. How easy the images came to mind. This was the place to daydream, she told herself.
A cool draft came from somewhere… that was strange, really, as outside, the Chicago night air was unseasonably warm, blowing from the cornfields of the south, not the Great Lakes to the north. This cool, refreshing current of air carried the scent of lush grass, woodland and the tang of fast-flowing rivers. The music she'd imagined receded into silence. Now she stood by the table onstage and sensed the weight of the Luxor's years pressing down on her. Shadows slid with all the relentless advance of floodwaters. Two minutes ago her flashlight could penetrate every corner to fill them with dazzling radiance. Now the bulb had weakened. The light yellowed. Shadows ran fearlessly from the walls.
When she shone the light above her head it could no longer reach the ceiling. Instead she might as well have been trying to shine a light on the dark side of the moon. Above her lay black void. In that darkness she sensed movement. She detected a whispery rustle. Bat wings? Kay hated bats. She remembered when she used to take a shortcut through a cemetery at night to reach the 7-Eleven, the bats used to flit amongst the graveyard. Little scraps of darkness. Like the souls of dead children trying desperately to find a way home. They'd dart in at her face within inches, so close their slipstream felt like cold breath in her face.
Now they were here in the building with her, circling somewhere just beyond the light. Her heart beat harder. Blood pulsed in her neck. She became acutely conscious of the tides of red flowing through her body.
Where was Leon? What had happened to him? She recalled his joke about a psychopath lying in wait here. She shuddered. Points of moisture formed on her upper lip. Oh God, I want out of here.
***
Darkness reached out to her. She felt it breathing down her neck.
Why did Leon leave me alone? Perhaps he's returned to the car for a joke? Maybe he sat there chuckling, waiting for her to run screaming from the building. Maybe he'd gotten bored and driven home. That's a long walk for a girl. All alone. A lot of hungry predators out there.
Not hungry for food but another kind of nourishment a girl could offer.
Kay's breasts goosed over, pushing her nipples against the fabric of her T-shirt. She crossed one forearm protectively across her chest so her right hand rested on her left shoulder.
Oh God! There is someone in here. I can hear them. They're watching me.
Suddenly she saw herself: A slender girl standing on the stage, glancing with frightened eyes at every creak and rustle, imagining them to be footsteps… or the sound of a knife blade slipping from a sheath. Now she knew someone would speak to her. Only too well she knew what the gloating voice would demand. Maybe a door would bang open and Leon's head would come tumbling across the dance floor toward her, spitting blood, trailing strands of glistening muscle.
The door to the foyer banged. A rolling shape bounced through.
”Kay!”
She screamed.
”Kay? What are you playing at?”
”Idiot!”She sighed deeply; her knees weakened so much she had to lean back against the table. ”You frightened me, Leon! Don't you ever-”
”Hey, Kay I damn well got it.”
”A poster?”
”A beautiful one.”He brandished a cardboard cylinder like a sword over his head. ”I had to go through about ninety of t
hese tube things in a storeroom back there. They were all empty except this one.”
Infected by his excitement, she forgot to be angry with him. His return had dispelled the mind ghosts. ”Who is it?”
”Flaming Torch. There's even the year they played. 1990.”
”Cool.”
”I'll say, girl.”He vaulted up onto the stage. ”Soon as I get home I'll run it through the scanner, slam it up on eBay, then watch them bids roll in. It's got to be worth a hundred bucks at least.” He flashed the neon grin at her. ”I'll cut you in. Fifty-fifty." ”No.”
”No?”
”No.”She sensed a weird expression on her face, one she'd never worn before. It was a smile, only a different kind of smile. Not the tomboy grin. ”Leon. I want you.”
”Kay?”
She pounced. For a second he froze solid in total surprise. Her mouth went to his as if she'd been born to it. Simultaneously, her hands snaked around his back to hug him close. His chest crushed against her breasts. Inside of her everything exploded. Lights detonated. Flames ignited. Her skin burned like it was on fire. She kissed him with such ferocity he staggered back against the table.
He's going to push me back. He's going to hate this. He'll have nothing to do with me ever again. The cold blue fear of rejection appalled Kay.
Even imagining the rejection plunged her into bleak despair. But even as she thought of fleeing she felt his arms envelop her. His muscular lips worked against hers. His tongue filled her mouth. She couldn't breathe; his grip felt like it would break her back. But, oh God, she loved it.
She freed his T-shirt from his jeans so she could rub his back.
”Please, yes please. Please…”she panted.
In seconds he peeled her out of her clothes, picked her up and sat her on the table. Her mind whirled. She'd never had sex before. She'd allowed some fun groping by boys in cars and in alleyways but always slapped their hands away with a joke, telling them it wasn't serious; that they shouldn't get too intense. But for the first time ever she longed to feel a man inside her. With a furious energy she dragged open his jeans so she could grip his penis with her hand. Already it had hardened like steel. A pulse beat inside it. Her fingers searched its contours, ridges, the round, bulbous head. Leon panted. Groans and gasps of surprise spurted through his lips. He was on the crazy passion ride, too.
”Leon, this is what I want. Believe me. Don't worry! don't worry This is what I want. What I-ohhh!”| Somehow she'd thought the moment was still an impossible distance away That a long process would lead to him eventually bringing the penis tip to the outside of her vagina. But with the rapidity of a lightning flash, he'd slipped inside her.
Eyes wide, gasping, heart thumping against her ribs, she gaped in surprise at Leon's face as he pressed his lips together in concentration. His cock slid deep inside of her. She could have believed that bulbous head would bump against her thumping heart.
Her first time. Jeez! She'd always worried about it hurting. Leon filled her like he would burst her. Only there was no hurt. Her vagina didn't sting. There was no sense of skin tearing. There was only a blissful sense of melting release. As if this should have happened long ago. Now it had happened.
Fantastically, Leon's cock was inside her. His pelvis rotated against her pubic hair. A machinelike rhythm that stirred her nerves and shook her bones. This was the most wonderful thing that had happened to her.
This opened a doorway to her soul. Breathing deeply, she closed her eyes to savor that sensation of another being merging with her. The intimacy was breathtaking.
As he quickened the rhythm she opened her eyes, to gaze above Leon's glistening forehead. The flashlights illuminated the lighting gantry above the stage.
There, a stranger stared down.
As he leaned forward to see better, Kay saw the state of his face. Her speechless surprise turned to pure shock. Then she screamed.
***
Kay ran, still tugging up her jeans. Behind her Leon managed to fasten his belt while carrying both flashlights; they lit the corridor with light beams that skittered crazily along the walls, ceiling, floor. In ten seconds Kay had reached the door at the back of the building to slip through the gap beneath the panel. She felt a tack snag a triangular rent in the denim of her pants. She didn't care. She wanted out of the Luxor. She needed out. All too clearly she remembered the face that had stared down as they made love on the table. The head was shockingly misshapen. Its eyes bulged like two pulpy balls from the head, while the mouth seemed to be formed from flaps of red skin, arranged like the petals of a rose. The figure had leaned forward, resting its belly against the lighting gantry guardrail, its two arms resting on the horizontal bar, only the arms were impossibly long. They were thin as rods and ap64 peared to taper into points rather than terminate in hands. Those monstrous eyes had looked deep into hers as if it recognized her. Dear God… Kay brushed the knees of her jeans with hands that fluttered like wings. She was shaking all over. Great shuddering tremors ran down her back.
Leon scrambled through. ”Kay?”
And was it wearing clothes?
She remembered a lot of dark gray skin that glistened like the underbelly of a slug. A suggestion of mucus oozing through pores the size of wormholes. But clothes? Yes, there'd been dark clothes, only so worn they hung in fraying loops like bandages ”Kay?”… something like a loosely wrapped Egyptian mummy And those eyes that bulged from the face. Tumor eyes, she thought, sick to her stomach.
Tumor eyes that each held a fierce black pupil that…
”Kay. Come on, snap out of it.”
She blinked. Leon stood with his hand on her shoulder, gently shaking her; his face was so full of gentle concern for her that it made her give a gulping sob.
”Hey, don't worry, girl,”he whispered. ”We're fine now.”
”Leon.”A tremor in her voice yielded words in a stutter. ”D-did you see w-what was in there? Oh, Christ, did you see its face!”
”Yeah, some guy who jerks off while watching couples make out… the freak.”
”Freak?”She shook her head, trying to figure out what she'd seen on the gantry. ”Leon. It wasn't human”
”Hey come on, Kay!”He hugged her. ”It was just a weirdo in a mask. He was trying to put a scare in you.”
”No… You didn't see him properly His face was all-”
”Shh… hey It was just some jerk. Forget it.”He held her, making gentle cooing noises. Then he kissed her forehead. ”Take the keys and lock yourself in the car.”
”What for?”Then she realized. ”No, Leon; no way.”
”I left the poster behind on the stage, didn't I?”
”Leon, don't go back in there, please.”
”I'll be thirty seconds.”
”Leon, that thing was… if you'd seen it, you wouldn't go anywhere near it.”
”If I see him I'll stuff that mask so far up his ass he'll choke on it.”
”Leon, don't.”She grabbed his T-shirt to stop him. ”Come back to the car!”
”Thirty seconds. Tops.”
”Forget the poster.”
”But that's throwing away good money, girl. And who was kickboxing champion in the county league?”
”Please-”
”Here, take the flashlight.”He grinned. ”Start counting. Bet you a Steak and Shake I'm back at the car with that poster before you reach thirty.”
”I'm staying here then,”she said, defiant. ”I'm not waiting in the car'' ”OK. Start the count.”
It was an old game they'd played since junior high. They'd time each other climbing trees or racing through the old service duct that ran in complete darkness under the tumbledown power plant near home. They'd synchronize the pace of the count to make it fair, so one wouldn't count faster than the other.
Leon started as he hunkered down to climb through the busted door panel again. ”One… two… three… four… count with me, girl. Five… six…”
She forced a smile to hide her fear.
”Seven… eight… nine…”
Counting under his breath, he climbed through on all fours into the Luxor. Keeping a safe five-yard distance from the door, she crouched to watch him go, her light revealing his muscular legs as he stood up and loped away along the corridor. Within seconds he'd vanished. She shuddered. What if Leon came face-to-face with the figure with those pulpy eyes? Hell, girl. Leon's a kick-boxer; he can take care of himself. But what if…
She counted louder to stop herself from thinking about what might throw itself on him in the dark. ”Fifteen… sixteen… seventeen…”
The man-if he really was a man-might have a knife. My God, if he's got a gun… Crushing down images of Leon falling in a hail of bullets, she counted, ”Eighteen… nineteen…”
***
”Twenty… twenty-one… twenty-two…”Leon murmured as he loped along the corridor. The flashlight blasted shadows away to reveal closed doors to dressing rooms, stock rooms and an assortment of back offices of the dance hall. If that freak showed his face then Leon would do more than kick his fucking ass. He'd break the guy's arms.
Leon had been on the brink of shooting his load into Kay when the pervert showed himself. ”Twenty-three… twenty-four…”Still, there was the car. He knew quiet parking lots where he and Kay could finish what they started. ”Twenty-five…” Lord, she was hot. Beautiful breasts. Small, but peach-firm. ”Twenty-six…”He jogged through the backstage area. Here, the ceiling hovered high above his head, while drapes that were thirty feet long hung down over the walls.
”Twenty-seven… twenty-eight…” He paused before he entered the stage. A cool breeze blew. Suddenly the hot midnight air had been replaced by air that was damp and smelled of woodland in late fall.
Mushroom smells, the tang of fallen leaves. That sharp scent of dew formed by melting frost.
Mystified, Leon shook his head but didn't miss a beat on the count.