The Brink | Day - 5 | 1359 - Words, 25189 Total

Chapter 6 Cont.
They pushed past the various bikers that were milling around the damaged motorcycles and Tesar opened the driver’s door.

“Fuck, there’s glass everywhere,” he said as he began sweeping the pieces off the seat and onto the ground outside.

“Just put the sweater down and sit on that,” Praza said as he climbed into the passenger seat and closed the door.

After a few more brushes of the seat Tesar nodded in agreement and tossed the sweater on the seat to cover the remaining glass pieces. He climbed into the car and gently sat on the seat until he felt like there wouldn’t be any surprise pokes. Soon they were speeding through the city as Tesar made turn after turn to find the least traffic.

The cool wind blew through the broken windows as Tesar drove, “this is some bullshit,” he mumbled.

They could see the building as they got closer and soon were making the turn around the corner onto the building’s block. Praza pointed to the building entrance, “look, there’s their car,” he said as the valet pulled the car away from the building.

Tesar pulled to the curb and parked the car, leaving it running he opened the door to get out and turned to Praza, “I’m going to go try’n find them, stay with the car.”

He pulled the sweater with him as he climbed out of the car. Praza got out of the passenger side and stood by the driver side and said, “don’t take any shit from them.” He swept at the remaining glass shards on the seat and picked a few with his fingers as Tesar stalked off to the building’s entrance.

The doors slid open and Tesar saw the couple just walking into the elevator. He hurried for the elevator but the doors closed before he could reach it. He looked up to the floor number changing above and watched it stop on five. He looked to the end of the hall and saw the fire escape stairwell and began to jog towards it. He pushed the door open and after a quick glance up he grit his teeth and began pounding up the stairs two and three at a time. He reached the fifth level and opened the door to see the elevator doors just shutting but they were not the ones in the hallway.

Up each level he had to look in the door and each time it was not them. He was winded and slowing as he reached floor twenty. The doors were getting heavier as he continued but he kept climbing the stairwell with determination. The twenty first floor he opened the door and came face to face with a woman who had been reaching for the handle on the door.

“Excuse me,” Tesar breathed out heavily in English. He glanced over the woman’s shoulder down the hallway and did not see the couple so he let go of the door and resumed his climb.

The next floors went slower and each was without the couple until he reached the twenty eighth. He grabbed the door handle and pulled the door open to see the woman walking into an apartment as the elevator doors began to close. He stood there breathing large gulps of air as the sweat ran down his forehead and down his cheeks. He wiped his face on the sweater then shoved it in his back pocket and slid through the door into the hallway. He walked quickly to the door where he had seen the woman enter and reached his hand out for the door knob. He began to turn it but it resisted as locked.

He let go of the doorknob then reached inside his inner front shirt pocket and pulled a nested set of lock picks and popped them apart with one hand. He quickly found the pair he needed and slid the tools into the lock. He could see in the crack of the door that the dead bolt was not set so he worked as fast as he could. He felt the lock tumblers catch and with a twist of his wrists the lock opened. The sound of the deadbolt engaging made him stop and he looked in the crack of the door to see it now closed.

“Damn it,” he mumbled softly as he turned the doorknob with one hand while the other dropped the pick set back into his pocket.

He pushed on the door as he turned the knob but found it held tight. He let go and stepped back, his eyes narrowing as he glared at the locked door. The crack below was just large enough for him to see the shadow of someone standing at the door. His jaw tightened as he lowered his head then took two strong steps and threw his shoulder at the door. The crash of the impact reverberated down the hallway and he stepped back for another. He threw his shoulder at the door as hard as he could then again in quick succession but the door stayed strong.

Tesar glanced down the hallway then threw himself at the door and heard it cracking. Two more hits and the center of the door began to splinter vertically. He eyed it quickly then threw his shoulder once more and the door cracked more and bowed with the impact. He stepped back and heard the ting of the elevator arriving to the floor and he looked back to the door. With a shake of his head he turned and walked quickly down the hallway to the stairwell and pushed it open as the elevator doors opened.

The floors quickly went by as he pounded down the stairs skipping multiple at a time. The sweat again ran as he made it to the bottom floor and he leaned against the wall with his hand and dropped his head in exhaustion. He took deep breaths and let his heart rate slow before reaching for the door and slowly opened it. He looked out to see the security enter the elevator and as the doors closed he walked out into the hall and headed straight for the exit.

Praza was waiting on the other side of the street and Tesar walked quickly across and climbed into the passenger seat and said, “go, get out of here.”

Praza shifted into drive and pulled out into the street as a police car pulled up to the front door of the building.

“What’d you do?” he asked as he drove, glancing over at Tesar.

Tesar sat breathing hard with a straight face for a number of breaths before he broke out into a huge roar of laughter. Praza looked over at him, his brow furrowed and eyes narrowed in suspicion.

“What’d you do?” he repeated slowly.

Tesar continued to laugh and chuckle as he tried to speak, “I scared the shit out of em.”

“What now?” Praza’s voice rose as he asked.

Tesar wiped his face with his sleeve, “holy shit I’m beat. That was a bitch of a climb up those stairs.”

Praza shook his head, “come on, out with it.”

Tesar’s laughter trailed off to a chuckle, “I just saw them go in the elevator so I went up the stairwell but they are on the twenty eighth floor. Fuck that was a climb. Found their apartment and picked the door but they must have seen me cuz the deadbolt locked. I damn near broke the door down but the elevator stopped at the floor so I had to bolt.”

Praza continued shaking his head as he listened and continued to drive. After a long pause he asked, “feel better?” then continued, “doesn’t pay for the windows.”

Continued