The Revenge by Tijan

He frowned, stepping close so Fitz and the others couldn’t hear. “I thought you wanted to talk or something?”

I moved so I could speak in his ear. “I do, but right now I want to dance. Let’s dance!” I squeezed his hand, and pulling back, studying me, he gave a tight nod.

We finished our drinks and ordered another round right away. Once we got those in hand, we tossed them back and headed down. Matt led the way.

Fitz followed, standing at the edge of the crowd. I expected him or the others to pull us back, to not let us mingle with the regular crowd, but they held off. One stayed at the walkway leading to our booth. The other positioned himself at the other side of the dance floor. All three kept us in their line of sight.

Once we got onto the floor, something came over me.

I’d never felt it before.

It was cliché. It was campy. It was phenomenal.

It was exactly what I needed.

The bass picked up. The tempo vibrated through the floors. The DJ hit the right notes, and the energy swept through everyone. The entire dance floor grew more frenzied, and Matt pushed us until we were in the middle. Once there, I didn’t stop to think.

I closed my eyes. I lifted my arms, and I began to sway to the music.

It hit me.

A moment built up.

Feeling unalive, vacant, dormant.

Then, suddenly, I wasn’t empty.

Something trickled back in, and I was desperate for more.

Hungry. Starving.

I wanted to feel more, and I couldn’t get enough of it.

Right fucking now.

The music. The darkness. The anonymity. Being there and knowing there wasn’t a set of twenty eyes watching me, reporting on me. And that feeling—I craved it.

I grew frenzied for that feeling, and then there was a shift in the music. A sudden interruption. The bass was going boom, boom, boom. Pause. The break, and the music came back, but at a different pace, and suddenly it was boom, boom, boom!

And everyone went nuts.

Boom!

I moved. I gyrated. I circled.

Boom!

My head was back. Arms above me.

Boom!

I was losing track of time.

I was dancing.

I was sweating.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The lights were flashing above, and I could see them through my closed eyelids.

And then, I was back there again in Aspen.

Boom!

The door crashed open. Matt was running inside.

“Bailey! Get down!”

Boom!

I jerked, my arms dropped back to my side.

A body over mine, knocking me to the floor.

Boom!

Screaming. Shrieking. Someone wailing.

“Bailey!”

Hands were on me. I was being shaken.

Boom!

Tears were cascading down my face. I felt them. I tasted them.

I was being shaken again, and my eyelids jerked open. Matt’s face was in front of mine, tight with panic, and he was yelling over the music. “Bailey!”

His hands pulled me to his chest, he wrapped them gently around me.

He crushed me to him after that, his hand smoothing down my hair and back. “Jesus.” He panted next to my ear, swaying back and forth, as if rocking a child to sleep in his arms. “Jesus.” He pulled back, but his arms only loosened a little bit. He inspected my face, taking me in from forehead to chin before shaking his own head. He moved back. “You scared the crap out of me.”

I thumped him lightly on the chest, moving to his ear. “What did I do?”

“You started trembling. Mid-dance. And you looked like you were having a seizure standing up.”

Christ. I gulped.

I yelled into his ear over the music, “Let’s go back to the booth.”

He nodded, stepping back. His hand took mine, holding it tight, and he wound through until we got to the outskirts. Fitz took over, leading us past the other guard. Once upstairs, Matt went to the bar and got us both drinks before sitting next to me in the booth. He handed mine over. “Here. This might calm your nerves.”

He leaned in, elbows resting on his knees. “What happened out there?”

I didn’t want to talk about it, but … “I get flashbacks.”

His face shuddered, his eyes suddenly looking hollow. He jerked backward, his hand tightening around his glass. “Maybe you should try counseling again?”

I gave him a look. I hated going the first time we tried that. “Let me think about it.”

I was still trembling, but watching Matt, I leaned over. “You have them, too?”

He didn’t answer right away. His shoulders lifted up, held, and he let out the breath as he took another long drag from his drink. His eyes found mine, and they weren’t void anymore. They were stormy.

I flinched.

His mouth flattened, and he grimaced. “Let’s talk about why you wanted to come here and not Naveah.”

It was like he threw a bucket of ice water over me, and swallowing over a knot, I glanced over. Fitz went to the booth’s door. The other two guards were on the edge toward the dance floor, the one remained at the bottom of our pathway.

We were good to talk.

I pulled my phone out and showed him Hoda’s text messages.

He read them, his jaw getting firmer and firmer until he scrolled to the end. He clicked on something, and then hit another button before almost shoving the phone back to me.

I took it, already looking. “What’d you do?”