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Scene #53
“Move it along, miss. You're next.” Madison Banks blinked at
the kindly older man waving her toward a long white bus filled with
passengers. Obviously the driver, he wore a gray suit, an illegible
nametag and a uniform cap with a polished visor. His expectant
look urged her to hasten toward the bus. She took an automatic
step forward before checking herself. “Miss? Is there a
problem?” Yeah. Where the hell am I? Maddie opened her mouth
before she realized she had no idea what to ask. Her location was
the tip of the iceberg, because as she stared around her, she
realized she had no earthly idea of how she'd gotten here, where
“here” was, or why everything suddenly appeared in black and white.
“I, I, that is, where--” “She's with me.” “Oh,
right Samuel. Well, then the rest of us had best be off.” The
older man tipped his hat at her, shuffled to the bus and boarded.
Within minutes, he drove away, rounding the corner of a block in a
city she'd never before seen. “What now, Madison? The
team's waiting.” “Everyone seems to be waiting for me today,”
she murmured, bemused that this man, Samuel, seemed to know her.
She imagined he would have been a platinum blond if she could have
seen him in color. He had Nordic features, a dark turtleneck
tucked into dress slacks, and flat black oxfords graced his feet.
Samuel carried a clipboard under one arm and looked totally at home
in this black and white world. “Madison?” he prodded.
Her name sounded rusty on his tongue. Everyone called her Maddie.
Her parents, her sisters, Robert. She rubbed absently at her
engagement ring, wondering if he'd called the caterer like she'd
asked. Frowning, Maddie lifted her gray hand only to see her
finger bare. “My ring.” As she stared, her concern faded.
“My hand...” “Is in front of your face, obscuring the fact
that the team is now running behind and threatening to put you on
watch all night.” He nodded to the disgruntled group to their
immediate right. Damn, Maddie didn't want to pull another
all-nighter. “I'm good.” She walked with Samuel toward six
individuals who should have been strangers, but weren't. How do I
know them? What the hell do I know about “all-nighters”? The
four men and two women looked at her expectantly. “Can we
carry on, princess?” a large, brutish looking man asked. He stood
at least two heads taller than her and looked like one of America's
Most Wanted. A blunt nose, square jaw and piercing blue eyes dared
her to object. Maddie studied him from head to toe,
confused that the rest of him remained in shades of gray except for
his brilliant irises. Weird with a capital “W.” “Sod off,
Riley. She had a hiccup. It happens.” A curvy blonde shook her
head. “Don't mind him. He's just upset the twins are at it again.”
The blonde scowled at him. Unlike Riley, her eyes were a flat
black. The rest of the group mumbled their opinions, except
for a giant with ham handed fists by his sides. He took a subtle
step back. Like Riley, his eyes glowed an unearthly blue. He
looked disturbingly familiar. She rubbed her throat,
wondering. “Let's go.” Samuel checked his clipboard, then
tucked it under one arm and led the group into a dilapidated
building. “You all know why we're here.” Dear Lord, please
let him explain. Riley hadn't stopped glaring at her. She
couldn't seem to remember anyone else's name, let alone the reason
they'd gathered. Maddie glanced again at the ring finger on her
left hand, aware it bothered her. So empty, so damned gray...
“He killed another one tonight. Dollmaker isn't going away,
not without some help.” “Dollmaker?” She knew that name.
The suspect had butchered seven women and bludgeoned six young
children to death. He was in all the papers, all over the news and
the media had sensationalized his kills. “Red, keep up, will
you?” Riley sighed. “Sam, I don't think she should be here.”
“We've had this conversation before, Riley. Everyone who's
supposed to be here is here.” Samuel's gaze darted to the
giant—Michael--then settled on Maddie. “If I could please have your
attention? And no more interruptions.” The blonde who'd stuck
up for her earlier nudged her side with a grin but kept quiet.
Lynn, her name was Lynn. “Dollmaker seems to be on some kind
of timeline, and we all know that's a bad thing here.” The others
nodded, their expressions grim. “He's killed Mrs. Ovaeda, Hector,
and the green man. That's three more deaths than we can tolerate.
And now he's picked up a following. The twins, apparently, have
decided to start a little ‘collection' of their own.” “How do
we find them?” Michael asked in a low voice. Either he smoked a
ton of cigarettes or he'd suffered trauma to his vocal cords.
Maddie tried to focus on Samuel's answer but her mind
wandered. Gray hands. Why am I in black and white? What happened
to my vision that allows me to see Michael's and Riley's eyes in
color, but nothing else? The interior of the shadowed building had
as much gray as her team, but less character. It was the emptiest,
cleanest warehouse she'd entered in the past ten years. And that
was saying something. “Madison.” Samuel slapped a hand on
his clipboard. “You're not paying attention.” “I'm not
taking her in.” Riley crossed powerful arms over his chest. The
short sleeved t-shirt and snug jeans he wore attested to the fact
that he worked out. But his demeanor and the blatant chip on his
shoulder dissuaded her from the assumption he might be law
enforcement. Something about him didn't fit the mold. “She
can come with me,” offered another. This guy was shorter and
leaner than the other men, but just as dangerous. The things he
could do with a knife...
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