yelp sounds from the woods. River. I jump aside as a knife flies by me, cutting my arm and sticking into the ground nearby. I retrieve it, making sure my movements appear strong to hide my insobriety.
“Thanks,” I say aloud.
Instinct shifts my attention to a black outline crouching in the shadow of the garage. I take off running. Better to get this over with. He moves behind the garage and climbs up the back of it, so I follow him up to the top where he grabs my shoulders, flips me hard onto the roof. I roll and get up, but he’s already around me, grabbing me from behind. A wire cuts into my neck. I flip him over my back, using the split second his body is airborne to aim the knife for his throat as he lands. He dodges. I twist my arm, stabbing downward, and the knife makes contact with his thigh.
The exertion leaves me momentarily blind. He rolls to the edge of the roof and drops to the ground. I take a running start, leap off the roof and flip midair, landing on my feet. He’s already running to the house. Fatigue takes hold, but I push it away.
“Oh no you don’t.” I know what he wants. I’m on his heels. This has become personal. They are so insistent on making my life difficult. I am not cleaning up their mess again. This is my mess.
Reaching him at the house, I kick his legs out from under him. When we land, I poise the knife to meet his fall. It plunges deep into his lower back. Hopefully I hit a kidney. He grunts but obviously still has some fight in him. His elbow makes contact with my cheekbone, and I fall back, catching myself with my elbows on the ground. I leap up to see him scaling the side of the house, so I follow him up. When he reaches the peak in the roof, I leap for his waist. We fall together, our bodies crashing against the shingles.
He manages to get the knife to my throat, and I feel my strength waning. The fatigue has grown more difficult to deny. This is just a bad night for this. I press the knife away from my skin, but it isn’t quite enough. The tip of the knife slices my chest from collarbone to hip. I use the momentum of his downward thrust and turn the knife back on him, catching him somewhere in the leg. He rolls off me, and I pounce. His open palm slams into my freshly cut chest, but I manage to get around him and roll him over to the edge of the roof, slicing his throat open from ear to ear. He doesn’t let go of me in time, and we both plummet to the ground. I wait for the impact, but it never comes.
Chapter 11
Liv
M y eyes open to darkness. I take a slow breath. Shadows, dim images come into focus, monopolizing my concentration until suddenly my ears adjust. Something’s above me. On the roof. I sit up and look around, straining to make sense of the sounds and my surroundings.
Everything around me shudders under the impact of something crashing hard against the roof, and I jump off the bed and duck next to it. Whatever it was, it can’t be good. Violent commotion continues on the roof while I grope blindly in the dark. My fingers settle on the closet door. Somehow I know there should be a trap door in there where I can hide. My stomach roils, driving all the air from my lungs, and I double over with my hands on my knees.
Something massive scrapes down the length of the roof and slams onto the ground. I freeze, overtaken by a shifting, a twisting, like the core of my body is turning with a force of which I have no control. A prickly heat cups my head. I flatten both palms against my temples yet it won’t ease. I know this feeling, but I can’t place it. Something foreign is in my head and it’s spreading lower, into my chest, down my arms and abdomen, sweeping my stomach clean. Once it reaches my feet it’s gone, my body freed from under a weight I didn’t know was there. With the release of this pressure I’m thrust forward, like a tree branch snapping upward when a clump of melting snow finally falls.
I open the bedroom door and catch myself before walking
“Thanks,” I say aloud.
Instinct shifts my attention to a black outline crouching in the shadow of the garage. I take off running. Better to get this over with. He moves behind the garage and climbs up the back of it, so I follow him up to the top where he grabs my shoulders, flips me hard onto the roof. I roll and get up, but he’s already around me, grabbing me from behind. A wire cuts into my neck. I flip him over my back, using the split second his body is airborne to aim the knife for his throat as he lands. He dodges. I twist my arm, stabbing downward, and the knife makes contact with his thigh.
The exertion leaves me momentarily blind. He rolls to the edge of the roof and drops to the ground. I take a running start, leap off the roof and flip midair, landing on my feet. He’s already running to the house. Fatigue takes hold, but I push it away.
“Oh no you don’t.” I know what he wants. I’m on his heels. This has become personal. They are so insistent on making my life difficult. I am not cleaning up their mess again. This is my mess.
Reaching him at the house, I kick his legs out from under him. When we land, I poise the knife to meet his fall. It plunges deep into his lower back. Hopefully I hit a kidney. He grunts but obviously still has some fight in him. His elbow makes contact with my cheekbone, and I fall back, catching myself with my elbows on the ground. I leap up to see him scaling the side of the house, so I follow him up. When he reaches the peak in the roof, I leap for his waist. We fall together, our bodies crashing against the shingles.
He manages to get the knife to my throat, and I feel my strength waning. The fatigue has grown more difficult to deny. This is just a bad night for this. I press the knife away from my skin, but it isn’t quite enough. The tip of the knife slices my chest from collarbone to hip. I use the momentum of his downward thrust and turn the knife back on him, catching him somewhere in the leg. He rolls off me, and I pounce. His open palm slams into my freshly cut chest, but I manage to get around him and roll him over to the edge of the roof, slicing his throat open from ear to ear. He doesn’t let go of me in time, and we both plummet to the ground. I wait for the impact, but it never comes.
Chapter 11
Liv
M y eyes open to darkness. I take a slow breath. Shadows, dim images come into focus, monopolizing my concentration until suddenly my ears adjust. Something’s above me. On the roof. I sit up and look around, straining to make sense of the sounds and my surroundings.
Everything around me shudders under the impact of something crashing hard against the roof, and I jump off the bed and duck next to it. Whatever it was, it can’t be good. Violent commotion continues on the roof while I grope blindly in the dark. My fingers settle on the closet door. Somehow I know there should be a trap door in there where I can hide. My stomach roils, driving all the air from my lungs, and I double over with my hands on my knees.
Something massive scrapes down the length of the roof and slams onto the ground. I freeze, overtaken by a shifting, a twisting, like the core of my body is turning with a force of which I have no control. A prickly heat cups my head. I flatten both palms against my temples yet it won’t ease. I know this feeling, but I can’t place it. Something foreign is in my head and it’s spreading lower, into my chest, down my arms and abdomen, sweeping my stomach clean. Once it reaches my feet it’s gone, my body freed from under a weight I didn’t know was there. With the release of this pressure I’m thrust forward, like a tree branch snapping upward when a clump of melting snow finally falls.
I open the bedroom door and catch myself before walking
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