3

Fire. Smoke. Screams. 

Cassie sat up from her bed panting as her heart raced in her chest. The same nightmare haunted her dreams once again but it was more intense than ever before.

She fell back on her pillows with a tired sigh before reaching for her sleeping pills on her bedside table. Without it, she was sure she wouldn’t sleep tonight.

The moment she picked up the bottle, she knew it was empty. She checked for her anxiety meds and those were empty too.

Cassie felt her heart pounding in her chest, the fear from the dream creeping up on her. She could almost feel the smoke choking her.

Cassie didn’t know when she ran out of her room but before she realized it, she was in front of Alex’s door knocking and calling his name when she didn’t get a response she knew he wasn’t home.

Alex was a light sleeper just the sound of her leaving her room would’ve woken him up. Cassie checked the cabinets and drawers but found nothing. 

Cassie rushed back to her room, grabbed her phone, put on the wig and rushed out of the apartment. Her heart was still racing and breathing was getting hard, Cassie forced herself to hold on until she reached a little 24-hour drug store. Once she stepped in, she rushed to the shelf, grabbed her usual meds and went to the counter. 

A plump middle aged woman sat reading a magazine and chewing gum, she didn’t raise her head as she said. “Prescription.”

Cassie’s mind went blank. She was in such a rush that she forgot it. “I didn’t bring it with me, but these are my usual meds. I need to take them urgently.”

The woman still didn’t raise her head. “Prescription.”

“Please, let me take them first. I can go get it for you afterwards.” Cassie clutched her chest as she tried to reason with the woman. Her heart was beating so fast she was starting to get dizzy.

All her attention was focused on the woman that she didn’t realize someone had walked in.

Helix walked into the store and headed straight to where the cigarettes were kept. He couldn’t hear Cassie’s words clearly but he heard the cashier’s unchanged answer as he browsed through the shelves before picking everything he wanted and heading to the counter.

He watched indifferently as Cassie clutched her chest and bent over unable to speak. The cashier finally looked up. Helix dropped his things on the counter and glanced at the meds in front of the woman, one of them was exactly like his.

Sleeping pills. He was familiar with the other one as well.

Before the cashier spoke, Helix took out a prescription from his wallet and handed it to her then joined his things with Cassie’s.

The cashier glanced at him but said nothing as she rang him up. He gave her his card, black. Her hand trembled as swiped it and returned it to him.

“Here.” Helix said as he took out Cassie’s meds and turned to hand it to her but she’d squatted on the floor and curled herself into a ball. She didn’t move like she didn’t hear a word he said.

Helix leaned down to drop them on the floor in front of her and was about to get up when he heard the words she was whispering. 

“Fire. There’s fire everywhere.”

Helix paused and his eyes were sharp as he stared down at her. That voice was so familiar and those words.

Helix reached out to touch her when the door of the drugstore opened with a large bang and a group of men with bats and rods trooped in and among them was the bald man from earlier.

He pointed at Helix and spoke to the man leading the group. “That’s him, boss.”

The boss glared at Helix. “Hey! Why don’t you come out with us let’s have a little chat.” 

Helix ignored him and placed his hands on Cassie’s shoulder shaking her lightly but she didn’t respond.

The boss on the other hand was furious that Helix ignored him. He glanced at Cassie’s crouched figure and smirked. “What? Are you reluctant to leave that woman? Don’t worry and come out while I’m still asking nicely. I’ll have my boys play nicely with her.”

The men around him laughed suggestively.

Helix paused, his jaw tightened and his eyes turned cold. This woman was a stranger, maybe it was because her voice sounded like her, like Andie but he couldn’t stop the anger that was coursing through him.

He straightened up and glanced at the scared cashier who was hiding behind the counter. “Take care of her.” His eyes were so cold that the woman trembled as she nodded in response, unable to speak.

Helix turned and walked towards the men who unconsciously made a path for him. He walked out of the store leisurely like he’d come for a stroll with one hand carrying the shopping bag and the other in his pocket. “Let’s go have that chat.” His voice was frighteningly cold and the aura around him was fierce and dangerous.

The boss who came to his senses gritted his teeth and shouted at his men. “Go after him!”

The men rushed out and the store once again returned to calm. The cashier remembering Helix’s words walked out from behind the counter to help Cassie who was still disoriented.

It wasn’t until she took her meds that Cassie stopped shaking and her foggy mind cleared up. The cashier bagged the remaining meds and handed it to her.

Cassie looked at it blankly and then took money to pay for it. The cashier put it in her hand and said. “Someone helped you pay for it.”

Cassie was stunned. “Who?”

“A man.” Remembering Helix’s cold eyes the cashier couldn’t help adding. “A really dangerous man.”

A dangerous man who helped her get the meds? Cassie couldn’t make sense of it. She clutched the meds in her hands and asked, “Where is he?”

                                      *****

A muffled scream rang out in the quiet night as Helix stepped on the hands of one of the men sprawled out on the floor as he walked to lean against the wall.

He lit a cigarette and said to the other person on the other end of the phone. “I’m two alleys down, come with the car. Don’t make me wait.” He hung up without waiting for a response.

The driver on the other end of the phone looked down at his phone with a pained expression. “Come on, Boss. You gotta give me more than that. Two alleys down in which direction? Left, right, back, forward. This damn place is full of alleys!”

He really wanted to call back and ask but he didn’t dare so he could only start the car and start searching one by one as quickly as possible.

“Go back and tell your boss.” Helix met the bruised eye of the little boss of this group. “The real one. Tell him to sit tight and wait for me, I’ll come over and have a nice long chat with him soon. Scram.”

The man said nothing and hurriedly got up to leave ignoring the pain all over his body. He kicked his men on the floor as he passed. “Get up already!”

Those who were awake slowly got up and picked up those who were knocked out as they hurriedly left the scene.

Helix kept his eyes ahead as he exhaled slowly, rings of smoke curled up from his lips adding a layer of haze to his solemn figure. His mind had already wandered to the girl from the drugstore, apart from her voice that was a little familiar and those words she said, nothing else resembled Andie.

From her clothes which Andie wouldn’t be caught dead wearing to the color of nail polish she wore, a tacky loud purple the exact shade Andie hated and that horrendous hair. It was black and stiff nothing like Andie’s curly blonde. They were nothing alike yet he couldn’t shake her out of his mind.

A beam of light lit up the dark alley pulling Helix from his thoughts. He pushed off the wall and put out the cigarette as the low-key black limo came to a stop in front of him. 

The driver got out of the car and opened the door for him bowing respectfully. “Boss!”

Helix gave him a light glance and got in. He leaned back lazily against the chair and closed his eyes. “Straight to the hotel. Step on it.” He ordered once the driver got in.

“Yes, boss!”

As the car slowly drove away, Helix opened his eyes and looked out the window. A small slender figure appeared in his line of sight, he saw those clothes and the black hair and knew it was the woman from the store. He was just about to look away when the headlights of the car illuminated the person’s face and he saw her features clearly.

His eyes shrank as he sat upright and his breathing halted. He could never mistake that face even if he went blind. It was his principessa. His Andie.

He was still dazed staring blankly out the window until the car zoomed off before he shouted, “Stop the car!”

“Boss?” The driver looked up confused at the order.

“Stop the fucking car!” Helix yelled. His mind was focused on the figure they’d driven passed.

The driver hurriedly stepped on the brakes and without even wait for the car to come to a complete halt, Helix opened the car door and took off running the way they’d come.

The driver got out of the car as well, shocked and scared as he’d never seen the boss like this. He hurriedly chased after Helix as he called Trent to report what just happened.

Helix ran back to where he’d seen Cassie but she was long gone lost in the many winding alleys. He ran a hand through his hair feeling a mix of emotions. He was angry he’d lost her but also happy and excited he’d found her after five years of searching.

His phone buzzed in his pocket and the second he answered, Trent’s hurried voice came from the other end. “What happened?”

Helix let out a sigh. “I found her, Trent. I found Andie. She’s really here.”

“What?!” It was two voices that spoke this time. Trent and Caleb.

“Are you sure, Helix?” Trent asked.

“Yeah. Are you sure you aren’t high and seeing things?” Caleb added.

Helix was rarely good tempered and ignored his nonsense. “I saw her with my own eyes.”

“So what do you want to do now?” 

“If that’s really her then who did André say he found?” 

Trent and Caleb asked at the same time.

Helix closed his eyes and opened them once again, the excitement was gone from his eyes. They’d returned to their calm and sharp state. The driver who finally caught up secretly let out a sigh of relief. This was the boss he knew.

“We’ll continue with the original plan. No changes. As for André it seems someone is pulling his strings.” His voice turned icy. “Find him and the person he wanted to bring to us. Break his legs and put him in Warehouse 1, I’ll deal with him personally.”

The driver shivered and hurriedly followed behind Helix who started walking in the direction of the car.

He was sure it was going to be stormy and sleepless night for many. As for the one the boss said he’d deal with personally, the person better pray he dies before the boss catches him.