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I can figure out everything else when I'm safe.
"Aw, I thought this would be a happy reunion, Alize. Yet you're running from me?" His voice is tinged with mock concern. It makes my skin crawl. "You don't want to know how I've been?"
I'm backing away from him, my eyes searching for the closest exit. I might not be able to outrun him, but this garden is like a maze. I just need to lose him long enough to get cell service so I can call Alexander.
"I know what you did," I say. "I know that you sent me to SFU to die. So excuse me if I want nothing to do with the man who tried to kill me."
His facade cracks.
His smile falls, and he balls his fist. He looks more like the unhinged killer I know he is, the kind of person who would manipulate someone's trust the way he did mine.
"Oh, foolish girl." He shakes his head with a tsk. "I guess this means you won't come willingly?"
My breath catches. I turn my head. I'm closer to the other exit now. Just a few more steps and I can make a run for it. Pain strikes through my foot with each step, but I need to do this if I want to survive.
"I'm not going anywhere with you."
"That's too bad," Laurent says.
He lunges at me, and I turn and run. He's taller, faster, stronger. It's a losing battle, but I'm determined to survive. I jump from the raised platform to the stone pathway below, swallowing the scream that the pain elicits.
I have to keep going.
Sweat beads on my forehead, and my whole body wails. Laurent's footsteps are gaining on me, but I keep pushing myself. When his hands grab my shoulders, I hit him across the face with all the strength I can muster.
"Let me go!" I scream, digging my fingernails into his cheeks. I rake them with all the strength I can find, hoping it’s enough to make him let me go.
To buy me a little time.
Alexander, please. Where are you?
Laurent looks like an enraged animal.
A thin layer of sweat has the hair by his temples sticking to his forehead as he glares at me. Flared nostrils. Heaving breaths. His lips curled back into a grimace.
He's in pain from my attack, but he's angry too.
Red starts to bead in the tracks left by my fingernails.
There's the smell of liquor on his ragged breath, and a growl emanates from deep in his chest. His grip on my bare shoulders feels like sandpaper.
"You're more trouble than you’re worth," he hisses. "But it's nothing personal, Alize. I hope you can understand that."
We struggle for a few seconds as he tries to bring me back on to the raised concrete platform. I dig my heels into the ground, hoping it's enough to stall him for a few more seconds.
The next thing I feel is him tossing me–hard.
It's like I'm being thrown in slow motion. Laurent's eyes are black pits, watching me with satisfaction as I fall. My shoulder hits something hard, and for a split second the world goes black.
I’ve never felt pain like that before.
My thoughts feel jumbled. I move my hand languidly to touch the place where it hurts the most, and it comes away wet. There's so much blood.
Then Laurent is on me, his hands closing around my neck.
Is this how my life ends?
All I can think about is Alexander.
