Page 116 of Gone Before Goodbye

The music’s volume lowers a bit, the frantic beat decelerating as the DJ transitions the crowd into a slow song. The patrons quiet like particles when you turn down the flame. Everyone remains packed together, but now instead of rapid, frenetic movement, the bodies gently sway back and forth.

When Oleg and Maggie reach a bit of a clearing, Maggie frees her arm with a sudden tug. Oleg Ragoravich spins toward her. She again sees the fear in his eyes before he lowers the mask back into place. He puts his hands on Maggie’s shoulders. She shrugs them off, but her first thought comes from her physician lizard brain: She needs to examine her patient and make sure he’s okay. She needs to make sure the surgery took hold, especially the experimental 3D-printed scaffolding in his nose.

“How are you feeling?” she asks. “I should take a look—”

“I warned you,” he says, and his voice chokes up. “I told you not to believe a word Nadia says.”

“What’s going on?” Maggie asks. “Why are you here?”

“You need to help me.”

“Help you how?”

“They’re trying to kill me.”

“Who? What happened? Why did you run?”

His head is on a swivel now. “You don’t understand.”

“Yeah, I know,” Maggie says, trying to keep the sarcasm out of her voice. “That’s why I am asking. Why did you run?”

“You have to get me out of here.”

“And take you where, Oleg?”

“Maggie, listen to me. You can’t trust anyone.”

“That I know.”

“It’s all a lie. All of it.”

“What’s a lie? Why did you run away?”

“I’m—”

And that is when several things happen seemingly all at once.

The music picks up the pace again. It grows louder—louder and more aggressive than ever. The room goes dark, and the flicker strobes turn everything into time-warping, dreamlike bursts of light. A group in Venetian masks swarm around them, separating her from Ragoravich, their dancing fevered and fast. Maggie loses sight of Ragoravich for a moment. She reaches out and finds his hand.

Her grip tightens. He holds on too.

She is staring into Ragoravich’s eyes when she sees them go wide.

Too wide.

His grip on her hand slackens. Maggie tries to hang on to him, to grasp his hand even tighter. She tries to pull him back toward her, but she’s losing him.

His hand slips away.

“Oleg!”

But her cry is lost in the music. The masked crowd moves between them, pushing them apart. Ragoravich is tumbling away from her, almost out of sight.

“Oleg!”

She desperately tries to get back to him. There are too many masked people in the way now. Maggie shoves them hard, throwing punches even, anything to find Oleg.

There.