sidewalk and had to double back a few paces, instantly losing any gain I had picked up. Making the quick turn and whipping back around the corner of the building, I leaped across the curb and fell in behind her, still several paces to the rear.
My heart was racing so fast it felt like a single drawn-out thump inside my chest. I was wheezing air in and out of my tortured lungs as fast as I possibly could, but the oxygen apparently still wasn’t making it to my brain because the lightheadedness I had felt a moment before was now becoming dizziness.
Over the sound of the blood rushing in my ears, I thought I heard music trilling nearby. Some portion of my tipsy brain still managed to recognize the tune and forwarded a message to the appropriate quadrant telling me that it was my cell phone. I ignored this new bit of information and kept running. I couldn’t tell what Annalise was going to do next because she was merely following a straight line at the fastest pace she could muster. I tried to stay focused on her and anticipate her moves, but she had fooled me once already, so I wasn’t sure how confident I was in making another guess. The problem was that I think she was well aware of her edge because at the last minute she feinted left then veered suddenly right onto Toulouse.
However, at the same instant she was making the turn, a man was coming around the corner from the opposite direction. She slammed headlong into him, causing him to stumble back against the wall of the building as she tripped and rolled to the ground. I tried to yell to the man to hold her there, but I couldn’t catch enough breath to form the words.
He was already helping her scramble up to her feet a second later when I made it to them. I reached out to grab her, and she quickly twisted away, once again screaming “RAPE” as loud as she could manage while doing so.
The man immediately grabbed my arm and shouted, “HEY!”
I tried to wrench away from him, but he had his fist twisted into the cloth of my jacket. Annalise didn’t wait around to see what was about to ensue; she immediately turned and bolted down the street into the French Quarter.
I pulled hard, trying to break free of the man, but he appeared to be dead set on protecting her from me, shouting once again, “HEY! Whaddaya think you’re doin’?!” Then, with a sudden look of surprise in his face he added, “GAWD!”
What the final exclamation was all about I didn’t know, but I decided his apparent shock might work to my advantage. I seized on the fact that he was pulling against me and that I could use the opposing force as additional leverage. Yanking back, I then suddenly pitched forward and launched myself into him. Taken completely by surprise, he slammed backwards against the wall. He was by no means incapacitated, but it jarred him enough that I was able to twist and pull free of his grasp. I started away before he could make another grab for me, but I still sucked in a quick breath and wheezed it back out at him as, “Cops…Call cops…”
Huffing hard, I ran in the direction Annalise had taken, but by now she was completely out of sight. Fortunately, I didn’t hear any footsteps behind me, so when I reached the first cross street, I slowed before glancing first left then right, but I saw no sign of her. I thought about flipping a mental coin and heading one direction or the other, but something didn’t feel right about the tactic. Instead, I picked up my pace and decided to jog farther along Toulouse, heading deeper into The Quarter.
Going ahead and crossing Burgundy Street, I entered the second block. It actually made sense that she would have continued along this path as it would afford the easiest way to disappear. The sidewalks were littered with debris that had been removed from hurricane-damaged buildings. There were even several refrigerators and other appliances blocking the walkways, many of them inscribed in indelible marker with what appeared to be derogatory statements about FEMA and the executive branch of the federal government. With delivery trucks and other vehicles on the road as well, it made for a maze in which hiding places were beyond plentiful.
If the inanimate objects weren’t enough, the farther in I traveled, the more activity I encountered. There were people going about their daily routines, which now included a large amount of rehab. The majority of them were intent on their jobs hauling trash out of buildings, and paid me little to no attention, although I did get an odd glance or two. I guess they weren’t used to seeing people jog through The Quarter.
My somewhat slower pace was actually allowing me to catch my breath, but the dizziness remained, and it was starting to make me nauseous. My throttled-back jog also wasn’t doing anything positive for my anxiety. As long as Annalise had been within my line of sight, I had felt like there was a chance to catch her. Now, I was beginning to wonder if I was simply wasting my time. Even if I was, I couldn’t give up quite yet. But, I also knew that running full out down the street wouldn’t allow me to see her if she was hiding just around a corner.
In a way, this all should have been funny, but I definitely wasn’t laughing. It had barely been one day since I had told Ben that Annalise was his problem and not mine. I suppose when I said that, I had simply been spouting empty words because when it came right down to it, she was just as much my problem as anyone else’s. Maybe even more. While Miranda was definitely at the root of this evil, I knew all along I was dealing with both of them, and it was a no-win situation. I had to find Miranda to find Annalise, but I had to find Annalise before I could do anything about Miranda.
I stopped in the middle of Dauphine as I crossed, glancing quickly up and down, but still saw no sign of my wife’s doppelganger. Continuing on across, I began running into more people, some of them possibly tourists from the way they were acting. However, instead of ignoring me as most of the workers had, the odd looks became far more frequent, and some of the individuals even made it a point to step out of my way.
The dizziness had grown worse, and I could no longer maintain a jog. Now, I was merely plodding along while sending my barely focused gaze to search both sides of the street, not that it was doing any good. My head was pounding as the world tilted and spun, and I wasn’t sure any longer if I would even be able to pick her out of the crowd if I was staring directly into her face.
An older couple darted out of my path as I began to stagger, their own faces stretching into horrified masks right before my eyes. I turned to look at them then stumbled and fell against the wall of the building next to me. I knew Bourbon Street couldn’t be much farther, but when I looked up, the signature light post at the corner seemed as though it was a mile away.
I slumped against the bricks as pedestrians continued going out of their way to walk around me, even stepping out into the street to do so. I hung my head and closed my eyes, trying to breath deeply and force the nausea to pass, but I wasn’t having much luck. When my eyes fluttered open, I noticed a small splotch on the sidewalk. For no other reason than to try focusing my eyes, I stared at it. The edges of the blot began to sharpen, and a moment of clarity overtook my vision. In that second I noticed a droplet of red as it fell and struck the blotch with a wet splat. Directing my gaze toward the source, I noticed a ragged flap of flesh peeled back from the top of my wrist and a swath of the same crimson flowing across the back of my hand.
I felt myself sinking as fatigue overwhelmed me, and I slid downward against the wall. Voices were echoing in my ears, and I struggled to understand them with little success. I tried to push myself back up to my feet but couldn’t seem to make my legs work.
I rolled my head back and saw lights flashing. My mouth watered as a fresh round of nausea attacked my stomach. I could feel my lips moving as I tried desperately to ask for help but found myself unable to make the word come out.
Everything began to spin and go dark.
Trilling music began playing softly. I knew it was my cell phone demanding my attention once again, but I couldn’t make my hand move to retrieve it. It continued stepping up in volume but was suddenly drowned out by the sound of a car stopping nearby.
The last thing I remember hearing was a rush of radio static followed by a voice echoing in my ears as it said, “I got ‘im. Corner a Too-Loose an’ Bourbon. Better send da’ paramedics.”
CHAPTER 15:
“Apparently kitten has claws,” Velvet said, giving me a once over as she walked in.
“Isn’t that some kind of makeup or something?” I grunted. “I think my wife has some of it.”
“I believe it might be a shade of nail polish,” she replied. “But, I was actually talking about your face.”
I had to lift my head slightly to see her because at present I was lying back on a table in a treatment room of
