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Chapter 21: A Broken Door

Nikola stood in a long hallway, which extended out farther than she could see in either direction. When she tried to focus on an end, the muted lighting and ivory colored walls melded together with distance, making the ends indistinct, as if misty or hidden in fog. Nikola looked back and forth, from one end to another, and didn't know which way to turn. She knew she had to get somewhere, it was important, but she didn't know in which direction that somewhere resided.

Before she had a chance to decide, a dark figure appeared in the distance, breaking up the ivory mist with its presence. It appeared to be a woman's figure, dressed completely in black. The woman's skirts reached the floor, and she seemed to be draped in reams of black fabric, like a huge cape. She stood watching Nikola, her presence filling that end of the hallway. The sight of her terrified Nikola. She knew that the woman wished her harm and turned to run in the opposite direction.

She ran away from the figure, down the endless hall. As she ran, she noticed other hallways leading off this one, as well as irregularly spaced doors. The doors were closed and painted the same ivory color as the walls, blending into the walls until she was upon them, when they would suddenly appear beside her. She glanced backwards to see her progress with respect to the woman, and saw that the distance between them was closing. It didn't seem possible, the woman appeared to be standing still and Nikola was running as fast as she could. She was just suddenly much closer, as if by magic.

Nikola turned down an adjoining hallway in an attempt to lose her. When she saw the figure appear again, she ran blindly, turning every corner she could, alternating directions at random. She felt as if she was in an endless maze of hallways and doorways. She lost track of how many corners she had turned and in which direction. Although she felt like she should have hit an end to this already, she could just as easily be running in circles. Her legs were getting tired and she wanted to stop, but the woman was always behind her. Nikola could only succeed in losing her for a few seconds at a time, and then she would appear again.

She continued to run and run, in desperation, for what seemed like hours. Finally, she made one turn too many, and she found herself face to face with another figure in black, a man this time. A large man: although he was still far away, he blotted out the end of the hallway. It didn't take her long to recognize him as the bully. She turned around to get away from him, but found the woman behind her. They trapped her between them with no way out. All of her the escape routes disappeared. The maze with all its corners and offshoots vanished, leaving her in the long straight hallway once again.

Her pursuers approached slowly, but steadily, without actually moving their legs. Her head turned rapidly from one to the other, and found each closer than the last time she looked. She was trapped, scared, and frustrated. She started to scream.

She just screamed out of terror, not expecting to be rescued, but just to release the tension. Her head swung from side to side, watching the distances between her and her pursuers diminish quickly. And then, with her back to the wall, she heard a voice behind her. At first, she didn't think it possible, but she was definitely being called from behind the wall. "Nikola! Nikola!" The wall spoke to her. She knew that there must be another way out through there. There had to be.

She struggled to see. Finally, she began to understand what the voice was saying. Realizing that she was asleep for the first time, she struggled to wake up. Her pursuers seemed to realize it too and hastened their approach.

"Wake up!" It came from the wall, and from inside her own head. "Wake up, wake up!"

She opened her eyes. It took her a few moments to realize that she was in her bedroom, in the apartment in New York. The hallway was gone. The man and woman in black were gone. Greg was sitting on the side of her bed with his hands firmly grasping her naked shoulders. He was shaking her gently when she began to realize what had happened. She looked up at him and smiled weakly. Tears of relief sprung to her eyes. She sat up and put her arms around him, vaguely aware that her covers were sliding down to her waist and exposing her breasts, but too shaken to care. She found comfort and safety against his strong shoulders and muscular arms. He held her and gently stroked her back, smoothing out the shudders of her sobs. An overwhelming sense of relief washed over her.

After a few moments she dried her tears and looked up at him, without disengaging herself from his arms. "Greg, thank you," she whispered, "I was having a terrible nightmare."

"It sounded bad. Your screams were blood-curdling. I was outside and..."

"How did you get in here?"

"When I was outside, waiting for you to answer the door, I heard the screams, and I thought you were being attacked or something, so I broke in."

"Broke in?"

"I think you might have to get the lock fixed."

"But what were you doing here in the first place?"

"Didn't you invite me to go to a party tonight?"

"But that's on Saturday."

"It is Saturday. Seven o'clock Saturday night."

"Really? But it can't be that late." She pulled away from him, and glanced over to the illuminated digital clock on her night table that confirmed what he was saying. "Oh my God, what happened?" She shook her head, to clear out the sleep and the nightmare. More lucid now, she was embarrassed when she became aware of what she must look like sitting there half exposed. She pulled the blankets up around her. She felt her face flush hot with blood, and was glad that it was too dark for him to see her blush. She was at a loss for what to do next. A part of her cherished the intimacy of what had just happened between them, but another part of her wasn't ready for this yet. In too many ways, he was still a stranger. Sure that her embarrassment and confusion were written all over her face, she gestured him out of the room.

"Let me get dressed. Thanks for waking me up."

"I'll be in the living room."

She dressed quickly, thinking about Greg. Her mood changed from the strong attraction to something more like fear. While she had appreciated waking up from the nightmare into his arms, the oddity of having him suddenly appear in her bedroom was beginning to hit her. She couldn't tell if he really cared, or was just taking advantage of the situation. Even if he had heard me scream through the door, could he really think I was being attacked? What did he expect to find? By the time she joined Greg, her defenses were up and her attraction buried. The first thing she saw when she entered the main room was that her front door was wide open. She walked over to it to survey the damage.

"You did quite a job on this," she said, gently touching the now useless lock dangling off to one side. Wood splinters from the door frame hung off it. The whole door looked ridiculously flimsy all of a sudden. It occurred to Nikola that if Greg could break down a locked door that easily, then burglars could too, as well as whoever sent that horrible note.

"Well, I thought you were in real danger. You certainly were screaming that way..."

"So you decided to be the gallant knight, rescuing the damsel in distress?" Nikola hid her fear in sarcasm.

"Something like that."

"Quite the violent rescue."

"Look, I thought you were being raped or murdered. After that note you got, I figured anything could happen. I was just trying to help, it's not like I broke down the door to be malicious or to take advantage of you. I'll pay to get it fixed - hand me the phone book," Greg said sharply.

"I didn't mean to belittle your gallant gesture, I'm just not used to you American macho men," Nikola regretted the statement as soon as it came out.

Greg looked the other way, staring at her latest painting.

"Please forgive me," Nikola said in a much softer tone, as she approached him from behind and put a hand on his back. "I do appreciate it. I've been scared myself since the note. I was just a little shocked by the sight of the door, that's all."

"Don't worry about that. I'm sure we can get someone in today to fix it. Hand me your phone book."

Nikola pulled the huge Manhattan yellow pages out of a drawer in the kitchen and handed it to Greg. "Why don't we order some food first?" she suggested. "I'm starved." She couldn't remember the last time she ate, but her stomach was informing her that it was much too long ago.

"Chinese okay?"

"Sure, that would be fine."

Greg ordered the food, and then started calling locksmiths. When Nikola looked over his shoulder, she noticed quite a number of them listed that promised 24 hour, 7 day service, so she was very hopeful about getting one to come over the same evening. However, it was not nearly as easy as it looked.

Greg called one after another for the next two and a half hours with no success. By that time, they had received and finished most of the Chinese food, and were quite late for the party. Nikola was getting restless.

"I'm sorry," Greg said, "I can't find anyone who will come here tonight. It'll have to wait until tomorrow. But listen, I'll stay here tonight. I'll sleep on your couch. Anyone coming in here will have to go through me first."

The comment startled Nikola. It seemed practical, and yet... But it would have to do. She didn't want to be all alone with an unlocked door; although it did occur to Nikola that if he had wanted to insure staying the night, he couldn't have planned it better. "Okay, I guess that'll have to do."

"Do you still want to go to the party?"

"Of course. I have to. Martha would never forgive me if I didn't show up. These parties are a big part of the business. You should know that."

"Oh, I didn't realize it was one of those parties."

"What did you think it was?"

"An artists party. Somewhere where we could have fun and get to know each other better."

"Sorry, this is mostly business. A lot of potential clients will be there. I'm surprised you didn't hear about it yourself."

"I must have forgotten. There are so many of these things... Let me just see if I can tape some of this door together, so at least it will appear locked from the outside."

"Make it look good, anyone could come up here."

Greg did his best to put the lock back together while Nikola changed her clothes. By the time they were ready to leave, they were already over an hour late for the party, and Nikola's nerves were on edge. On top of her concerns about what she would find at the party, she didn't like the idea of leaving her apartment unlocked, especially with her paintings inside. She knew she didn't have any choice, so she tried to push her worries to the back of her mind, but the thoughts never completely died down, just rattled her nerves less obviously.

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