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The door opened. Erica spoke. “What’s going on? Who are you?”
“Sorry to disturb you,” Mr. Morris spoke, his voice grumbly like he was getting over a cold. “I’m Fredrick Morris. This is Mr. Hendricks. He’s the principal at...”
He was here? My heart raced. I debated going to Jessica, but froze, terrified to leave them alone or even reveal I was here.
Did they see me in the car?
“I know who he is,” Erica said. “Why are you here?”
“We’ve been sent to look for Sang Sorenson,” he continued. “We’re here to get her to go home.”
“You’re not taking her anywhere.” Nathan’s voice was loud enough to shake the walls. He disappeared from my view. “She’s staying with us.”
“I don’t know if you realize how much trouble you’re in,” Mr. Hendricks’s voice rose, demanding. “She hasn’t been home for weeks. Her parents have been looking for her. She needs to come with us.”
“If she needs to go home, I’ll take her,” Erica said.
“We’re here to make sure she—”
“No.” Erica’s voice rose now and there was creak like she was holding on to the door and possibly closing it. “She’ll stay with me. I’ll take her.”
“If you don’t let her come with us, we’ll have to call the police,” Mr. Morris said.
“Do it,” Nathan threatened.
“Call them,” Erica said. “In fact, I think I should. Nathan, go get my phone. We’ll straighten this out, but by my life, you’re not taking that girl out of here without me.”
“We don’t have time for this,” Mr. Hendricks said.
There was a scuffling at the door. I didn’t dare look out. With my heart in my throat, I stepped back, heading for Jessica’s room.
She was at her door, listening. She backed up when I opened it. “What’s going on?”
I kept my fingers to my lips, urging her to stay quiet. I closed the door behind me. We didn’t have much time if they were trying to barge in. “Where’s your phone?” I whispered, locking her door behind me.
She ran for her bed, dumped out the blankets and a phone plopped onto the floor. She scooped it up. “Who do I call?”
“Kota,” I said. “Call him. Tell him to...”
There was shouting in the living room. Nathan’s. Erica’s. Possibly Mr. Morris as well. Something large and wooden broke. The dog barked and then he yelped. Suddenly it was if he was outside, unable to get in and barking madly at the door.
They were in.
Erica cried out. “Nathan! Don’t you hurt him...”
“We didn’t want to do this,” Mr. Morris said.
“She’s probably in one of those rooms,” Mr. Hendricks said, sounding winded. “Go find her.”
I waved to Jessica and we retreated to her closet. She stepped in, I joined her. We sunk down together between shoes and coats in our way.
The glow of the phone illuminated her face, and she spoke into it in whispers. “Someone’s here,” she said, her voice shaking. “Sang’s here. They did something to Nathan.” She paused just as the door to her bedroom rattled hard. “They’re coming for us.”
I swallowed hard, reaching over to quiet her. Was there a chance he’d bypass this room and check the others? Maybe we could run...
The closet door flew open. Mr. Morris stood over us. He grabbed me by the shoulder, hauling me up. “Got her,” he said.
I kicked.
I screamed, but my voice cracked at the high pitch.
Jessica joined me, throwing herself at him and took bites at his calves.
Morris reeled back, kicking out at Jessica to get her away while holding on to me. “Get off of me!”
“Sang Sorenson!” Mr. Hendricks called out from the living room. “You’ve got three seconds to get out here before I make sure your boyfriend—”
There was a loud wail as Mr. Hendricks cried out. There was a struggle on their side, too.
Mr. Morris dragged me, and I fought him where I could. Jessica kept lunging at his legs and reached for my arm, tugging me. “Let go of her!”
Mr. Morris shoved us both hard. Jessica fell to the floor. Morris held on to my arm, lifting. I was folded over, in the wrong position to flip him.
The lights around us suddenly went out. Completely. The dark was overwhelming.
Morris loosened his hold on me, and it allowed me to straighten out a bit, enough to get a hold of his ears behind me.
I grasped him, lunged forward.
He flew over me.
Once he crashed down, I stepped on his chest to fly over him. Down the hall. If I could get out, get away, they’d follow me instead of continuing whatever they were doing. If I could make it to the woods...it’d buy time.
I only hoped he’d leave Jessica alone and come for me.
Morris groaned, getting up behind me.
There wasn’t much light coming in front the windows, but I knew the house enough and followed Max’s barking toward the front door, the closest exit.
It opened before I could get there.
Max rushed in, snarling. He bypassed me completely and lunged himself at Morris behind me.
A hand grabbed me by the wrist, tugging me in the dark toward the opening. In my panic to get out, I let it guide me out to the porch and down the steps.
Out in the cold night air, the male figure that guided me was unfamiliar. Tall. Short hair. That’s all I knew.
Because I didn’t know him, I stopped, yanking myself away.
He didn’t reach back for me. “Go,” he said. “Go home. I’ll help your friends.” He left me in the yard, going back in the door and disappearing into the shadows.
My heart raced, now alone in the yard. Who was that?
There were two cars parked outside. One was Mr. Morris’s. The other I didn’t recognize.
I didn’t want to leave them, but once they realized I wasn’t there, and this new person was coming for them, if they managed to escape at all, they could find me out here.
I bolted down the road. I ran until my
lungs burned, and I still ran.
I headed toward the lights of the diner. I made it to the lot just as two cars took the curb onto Sunnyvale at a high speed. One was a silver BMW.
The other was a police car, with sirens blaring overhead, chasing it.
Lose Control
Nathan
After Erica lunged at Mr. Hendricks’s waist, reaching for the pistol he’d pointed at their heads moments ago, Nathan swept a leg out, knocking him over.
And then the lights went out.
Hendricks flipped over, a boot connecting with Nathan’s knee.
Nathan flipped backward to get away from another kick and then landed hard on Hendricks’ chest, putting every ounce of weight on his body. He was strong, but at the pressure Nathan kept on him, he’d snap in two if he tried to get up.
Erica was scrambling around. Nathan wasn’t sure if she was looking for the gun or something else.
There was scuffling at the door. It opened and Max came inside. There were voices, one of them Sang’s.
Sang!
He did a push up off of Hendricks’s back so he could stand up, but the moment he did, Hendricks rolled over and connected again with a boot, this time at his thigh close to his groin.
Nathan flew backward, unable to ignore the pain this time, but adrenaline keeping him upright. He twisted, trying to scrape his way across the floor. The man was as strong as an ox.
Sang needed to get out. It was too dark in the area to see who left and who was still inside.
Erica broke away, heading to the foyer. “Good Max, hold him.”
Before Nathan could see what was happening, Hendricks was upright, taking another swing at Nathan. It was badly aimed, barely popping him in the shoulder.
Another body, dark, lunged at Hendricks. It gave Nathan a chance to get himself upright, hovering over the two bodies struggling on the carpet next to the broken coffee table.
The man pushed Hendricks’s face into the carpet. “Get his legs!”
Who was he?
Nathan threw himself at Hendricks’s legs, crushing them with his weight. Hendricks struggled, cursing, his body contorting as he tried to escape but the two of them managed to keep him down.
“Take the restraints in my back pocket,” the man said.
