Magus: A Supernatural LitRPG Saga (Apocosmos Book 2) Dimitrios Gkirgkiris (good english books to read .txt) 📖

I took off my noise-canceling headphones and quickly realized that it was much quieter than any demonstration I'd ever come across--not that I stayed too long whenever there were any. I preferred making my statements with action rather than pointless shouting, thank you. The only shouts I could hear now though, were those of policemen warning people to stay back between bursts of loud mechanical whirring.

There was no way I'd be able to find her with all this noise and people. I put on my headphones, the noise dampening around me, and called her. The phone rang a few times before I heard her voice.

"Hey, this is Rhiannon. Leave your message and my future self will get back to you."

Great, I guess I'll start searching.

I took off my headphones again and put them in my bag. Standing on my toes, I tried to see above the crowds and look toward where I was supposed to meet her. But all I could see were more people and the lights of emergency vehicles.

I walked toward the epicenter of what was happening and, as much as I hated talking to strangers, I tapped the shoulder of a tall guy to get a fast answer.

"Sorry, what happened here?"

"Some guy drove his car into that building right there."

His words made my stomach drop.

That was where Rhiannon's favorite Italian place was. She was waiting for me there. I ran, frantically calling her phone as I pushed people left and right before reaching the perimeter the police had set up.

"No passing after this point please," a police officer said, as I called her name again.

"My girlfriend is waiting for me there," I said, and then I heard the worst laughter I'd ever heard in my life.

It was Joaquin Phoenix's laughter from the Joker movie. Rhiannon had set it as her ringtone because she knew how much it creeped me out. The laughter was coming from behind the red tape. Behind the police cars.

No!

I pushed the officer aside and ran between the cars, the police officers, and firefighters. The loud whirring echoed again, devouring the joker's laugh. Someone tried to push me back but I deflected his hand to the side.

Two steps later, I was met with the sparks from the saw a firefighter was using on an amorphous bulk of metal that used to be a car, and was now halfway inside the pastry shop. There was smoke coming out of the car and the glass from the window was spread out all over what looked like a hundred cannoli on the pavement and the white and black tiles of the shop.

And blood. So much blood.

The whirring stopped and I heard the last of the joker's laugh before my call went to voicemail again. The sparks that had been obstructing her face until now were also gone.

Her body had been smashed between the car and the concrete wall of the shop, and her head hung limp on her shoulder in an unnatural position. Her eyes were half-closed and unmoving.

"NO!" I screamed but before I could take another step forward, I was brought down by the force of two people jumping on me.

"What the hell is this guy doing here?" I heard a man say.

"Riri!"

I screamed. I shoved and pushed away the people taking me away from her.

"Sir, we need you to stay calm," said another male voice. "We're doing everything we can."

"Clear!" the saw-wielding firefighter said.

I momentarily stopped trying to escape their grasp as I saw a group of paramedics running with a stretcher and a car backing up between the officers.

"I need to see her," I said, my voice sounding distant to my ears. "Take me to her."

"Sir, you can't ride in the same car but we'll escort you," said the officer to my left and squeezed my shoulder.

I got into the back of a police car and was told to wait there as we would be following the ambulance. The next minutes seemed like an eternity. I was trying to calm my breathing, but it felt like I had forgotten how to do it. I had to push myself to take each breath.

Every time the image of her twisted neck came to mind, I tried telling myself she would soon be out of that awful pile of metal and being carried to intensive care.

She was waiting for me. She was there because...

"Wear your seatbelt, son." A police officer got into the car and put the keys in the ignition, followed by a second one on the other side.

"Is she going to be okay?" I asked, holding onto the metal grid separating the back compartment from them.

"We have no information yet, sir," said the second officer.

I only noticed how tense my shoulders were when I tried to reach for the seatbelt. I took a deep breath but was forced to exhale when my body hit the back of my seat because of the car's sudden acceleration. The officer turned on the siren and before I knew it, we were at the hospital.

I walked into the building and was sent from one nurse to another.

The rest of the day was a blur.

A doctor eventually approached me, his lips pressed together tightly. He said she was already dead when they'd brought her in.

I think I fell on my knees. I think I cried and shouted. I broke my hand when I punched the ground.

They wrapped up my hand and sent me home without even letting me see her. She wasn't in a presentable state, they said.

I just wanted to see her.

Louie was barking when I got back home. It was way past midnight and the poor guy should have had his walk six hours before. I turned the key in our door and he immediately jumped out, briefly standing on his hind legs to lick my fingers and then walking between my legs to greet Rhiannon. He stood still, looking at the dimly lit corridor, ready