AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I need to do something I’ve never even tried before.
I carefully step away from the door as he continues to scream at me, his ramblings becoming less coherent as his rage becomes lethal. There had to have been something else that he took, but there’s no time to theorize. I need to get out of here before he beats me to death.
His gun safe is never locked, and I find the handgun he’d shown off to me the first time I ever hung out with him. I was so stupid, so easily enamored by danger, that I’d led myself into the very place that could become my grave.
The gun is loaded, and I flip the safety off. That’s the extent of my gun knowledge, and even feeling the weight of it in my hands puts a pool of dread in my stomach.
“Serena! Open the goddamn door!” He’s using his full voice now. I don’t have much time before he tears the door off its hinges and attacks me.
I know better than to try to hit him through the door. I’m not James Bond. But what I can do is scare him off just enough to get myself out of the apartment.
I aim the gun to the left of the door frame, firing once on purpose and a second time by accident.
“What the fuck! Don’t be an idiot! Put that shit down!” he shouts, clearly startled.
Now that I’ve thrown him off his equilibrium, I have to take my chance. I quickly unlock the door, checking it with my right shoulder and pointing the gun directly at him as he stares right through me.
I know that stare. He’s so far gone that no level of reasoning will reach him. Whatever he wants, he’s going to get no matter who stands in his way.
He grabs my wrist, slamming it into the wall and forcing my grip open. The gun falls to the floor, and I realize that all of my options are out. Running is the only thing I can do, and I can’t even feel my legs.
My wrist feels as though there’s a lightning storm of pain erupting in my bones, but I jerk it away from him, freeing myself from him and sprinting in the opposite direction down the stairs.
“Fuck!” I scream in anger and pain.
For a split second, our eyes meet in a way that exposes just how deranged he truly is. The depth in his eyes is completely gone, and he doesn’t even reach for the gun at all. He wants to hurt me with his bare hands. He sees the gun as a coward’s way out, and now that I’m disarmed, he’ll chase me down and kill me.
I sprint down the hallway, completely unable to process anything beyond getting out of the apartment alive. If I can just get out to the sidewalk, then he would at least have the sense not to murder me out in broad daylight. That’s all I can hope for at this moment in time.
No plans, no future, just survival.
I trip over an extension cord he had been running from the living room to the spare bedroom, and I almost trip down the stairs. I catch myself on the wall, giving him time to run through ten feet of space that’s keeping us apart.
Jumping down the rest of the stairs isn’t an option. If I break my ankle by landing wrong, it’ll be over.
When I reach the base of the stairs, he grabs me by my hair and jerks my head, causing me to fly backward into the steps. I lose my breath, picking my body up and kicking him in the jaw on pure adrenaline. That’s not something I learned anywhere. It just seemed like the only right thing to do.
He screams, grabbing his jaw as he releases me.
I spring to my feet and sprint towards the front door.
I’m almost out.
Just as I reach the first step on the patio, he storms through the screen door behind me, barreling down the back lawn after me until he reaches me, snatching the back of my shirt and throwing me to the ground into the sidewalk.
The friction of the old concrete scorches my hands far worse than the carpet burns I’m used to, embedding fragments of rock into my palms and forearms as I slide across it. The pain is almost manageable, but it’s quickly accompanied by a sharp stabbing in my side – Cody’s foot kicking against my ribs.
My hope dies like a match in the ocean as he goes into a truly blind rage, beating me as hard and fast as he can with no consideration of what will happen to me. I knew that he had too much pride to let me escape in one piece, but I would never have expected him to beat me like this in public.
I curl myself into a ball, my mind working hard to shut down in order to block out the worst of the beating. I can’t think at all, but I know that if I could, I’d be worried about the organ damage I’m sustaining from his relentless kicking.
Just as he’s about to climb on top of me to start punching me in the face, I hear an angry male voice in the distance.
Then I hear three pops.
ChapterTwo
AVEL
