Total pages in book: 210
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
He’s definitely not happy. “Now you’re just fuckin’ with me.”
“And you’re not listening.” I get up, take off his jacket, drop it into the chair, and walk across the room.
“Where ya going?”
I don’t say anything. I’m so angry. Also scared. And… sad. And… many, many, many other emotions. Confused, and frustrated, and…
He’s behind me, grabbing my arm, and pulling me away from the door. “Just stop. Sit down.”
But I don’t. I yank my arm out of his grip, grab the handle of the door, and pull. I’m kind of expecting it to be locked again, because I’m convinced that he was the one who locked it last night in the first place so I had to stay over. But I’m wrong. It opens right up and all the strange voices that were mostly silent a moment ago come rushing at me.
No one is directly in front of the door, but when I step out and look to my right, there is a small crowd gathered by a large, open stairwell. They are laughing and talking. And when I look to my left, I see that man who peeked into Tyse’s quarters at me. The one he pushed away from the door.
This man grins at me, his eyes flashing. Then he takes a good, long look at me, lingering on my breasts, which are mostly visible because this dress wasn’t made for an up-city Maiden, it was made for a down-city tavern whore.
And that man down the hall is looking at me like he would like to pay me coin to spend an hour in his room.
I turn away and head for the stairs. I don’t know much about anything around here, but I do know that down is my answer.
A few people remark about my dress as I push my way through the crowd and enter the open, twisting stairwell that descends in a wide spiral. We are ten stories up, so that’s a long way down. After a few floors I pause and look over the railing, straight down into some kind of lobby far below.
“Clara Birch!” The sound of someone calling my name in this unfamiliar place takes me by surprise. I look up and find Tyse on the tenth floor above me, also hanging over the railing. “Just stop. Wait right there. I’m coming down.”
All of these words come out as a command. Like I am someone who takes orders from him. Which just makes me angry. But what makes me even angrier is that he has called the attention of everyone on the stairwell within hearing distance. These people must number in the hundreds, surely. People on the stairs, crowds gathering on the balconies—all the way up and down. And all of them, on every level within earshot, stop what they are doing to look at me.
I glance back up at Tyse, find him shaking his head at me and warning me with a pointing finger, and then restart my escape with more earnest intentions. Feet flying down the stairs, weaving in between slow crowds in front of me and another horde coming up at me, gasping for breath because all of the emotions I possess seem to be building up inside of me at once and I’m trying not to cry.
“Clara Birch!” He yells it again. “Stop! Someone stop her!”
“Oh!” This comes out of my mouth as I grab the railing and look up, pointing. “He’s trying to hurt me! Someone stop him!”
Then I continue my descent as he yells obscenities at me. People have stopped on the steps, confused, trying to sort out what is happening. But in my experience, people only want to know what’s happening if it’s something they can passively watch and don’t have to get involved in. Something they can gossip about later. As soon as you start asking them to actually do something, they tend to pretend they can’t hear you.
And we have both asked for help.
What to do now?
Even if this Tyse is some well-known, well-respected figure in this place, I’m a woman. Scantily clad, at that. And I’m running away from him.
They’re not gonna stop me.
They’re not gonna stop him, either. He really does look like a man you do not want to piss off. But I don’t care. I’ve got a lead. And that’s what I concentrate on. Getting down these stairs as fast as I can and escaping.
The lobby is suddenly in view. Ground level. A daytime view outside. Hundreds of people, and something that might be a little indoor market that comes off as very down-city.
Then I am out of steps. And confused. Because Tyse said he found me below ground and there are no more steps. I look both left and right, trying to find a way forward in the few seconds I have before he catches up with me, but there are no options but left or right or out of the building.