Dreams of Purple

CHAPTER 1: SHE WAS A BOOSTER

The rain poured down on me like a hot shower. The wet drops brought a slight relief to the heat that had beat down on the city during the day, but it wasn't much; not to mention that as much as I had prayed for rain over the past few weeks, tonight was not the night I wanted it to finally break.

I stood on the sidewalk, clinging to a light post like I had it in a headlock so that the ocean of moving bodies wouldn't sweep me up and carry me away with the current. My eyes were fixed on the sidewalk opposite me, and I was focused in on one person in particular.

Monique Helsiner moved with the flow on her side of the street, bumping and shoving past people as she made her way east. She had a distinguished green jacket and little black dress on with fishnets that showed rips and tears below the knees. She was a fish out of water.

To anyone else, she might have just looked like the rest of the gutter scum that moved towards their dead ends and rat holes, but to me see looked like an upper-class that decided to go slumming for the night. She was a fake, even if no one else noticed.

Through the rain it was hard to get a fix on her with my left eye. If it hadn't been for the almost fulsome jacket, I'd have probably lost her in the never ending crowd.

I used my left eye to zoom in while I let my right eye pan out and take in my surroundings.

Despite the bad luck of the hot rain, I did have one thing going in my favor. There had been a car accident a little ways west of where we were, so all of the vehicles in the street were at a stand still. There were still a few motorbikes and what not weaving in and out of the traffic, but I could avoid them easy enough.

Had Monique been walking this exact strip only an hour ago, there would have been no way for me to cross and follow her. My whole stake out would have been for not, and it might have been another week before she would make this kind of move again.

Lucky me.

I start to move to the other side of the street, lest the drivers start getting impatient and ramming into each other to get around the accident.

The sounds of horns honking, people shouting profanities, and the general hum of the crowd made me nervous that I might not hear a motorcyclist roaring towards me, but I couldn't take my eyes off Monique. She was the only thing that mattered at this moment in time.

Just as I made it to the other side of the street, the rain stopped, and Monique headed into a dive called The Purple Diamond.

She could have picked any one of the thirty or forty bars that lined this particular strip, but she picked the one with the loudest music and the rowdiest crowd. I knew right away that I wouldn't be able to get any audio, but I could at least get some video and some quality images.

It didn't take me long to get to the door, as the people behind me shoved me forward. I had to brace myself with my left foot to avoid missing the club's entrance all together, and reached out with my right hand to grab the metal frame around the tunnel that lead to the entrance.