I crawl into a sitting position and lean against the front counter.
“Who were those guys?” says Candy.
“It’s complicated. Now, we have to get out of here.”
“How? You can’t walk, we don’t have a car, and those cop cars are blocking yours.”
I hobble to the window and look out. She’s right.
There’s only one way I can get them out of here.
I say, “Where’s Kasabian?”
“Probably hiding in his room,” says Alessa. “I’ll get him.”
I hobble back to the counter. I have to lean on it, but I can stay upright this time.
Candy comes over and sets her hand on my back.
“We have to get you to a doctor.”
“No doctors. I don’t have time. I can fix this. We just need to get somewhere safe first.”
“Where?”
I look at her through the darkness in the store. She’s so beautiful it’s like a punch in the heart. I can just make out her true face through the Chihiro glamour. She looks great and I want to tell her that, but I look away, trying to think of an exit out of here that doesn’t involve shadows.
Alessa comes back with Kasabian. He takes one look at me and says, “This is exactly what I was talking about. Everywhere you go, it’s a disaster.”
“Wait. You know this guy?” says Candy.
Kasabian looks at me, then back to her.
“No. I’ve never seen him before.”
Candy pulls me over to the window, where light from a street lamp shines in.
First she frowns. Then she stares. Then her mouth opens a fraction of an inch.
From the moment I got shot, I’ve been worried that the glamour wouldn’t hold. I just hoped that being in the dark for a while, I’d figure out how to get everyone clear without them seeing my face.
“Stark?” she whispers.
“Hi, Candy. Sorry about all the blood.”
She grabs me in the kind of hug that under other circumstances I’d cherish. But with a bullet in my side all I can say is, “This hurts kind of a lot.”
She eases up but won’t let go of me.
“Where have you been all this time?”
“Dead. But I’m better now. Sort of.”
Alessa comes over too.
“I saw you die. I saw them take your body away,” she says.
I can hear sirens in the distance. A lot of them.