AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He’s not a good man.
Keep your guard up.
I wish I could switch off my brain right now. Getting through this without the presence of mind to recognize my deepening dread would be the greatest gift I’ve ever received.
As I tighten my grip on him, I feel a deep bass in his chest as he shouts something at me. I assume he’s telling me to hang on again, but there’s no way for me to know.
But no matter how hopeless this whole situation seems, it actually brings me a sense of comfort to know that he came here expecting this. He must be well-trained and confident in his abilities to defend himself, which might make him the safest ally to have under the circumstances.
It’s a fucked up thing to be relieved by, but I can unpack all of that when I’m lying peacefully in a hospital bed.
He shouts again, and I open my eyes as we cross the street from the fair into the parking lot. I desperately wish I could understand what he’s saying to me, but the world around me is too fuzzy to process, and words float around me in pieces, refusing to form coherent sentences.
I lift my head from his shoulder as we approach a black sports car. I feel like I’ve seen this model before, at least around school, but my head is too fuzzy to recall it. Either way, I know for a fact that it’s more expensive than the house I grew up in.
The man tosses me into the passenger seat, rushing to the other side of the car as he fumbles with his keys.
Now that I’ve been rescued from what I had assumed to be my final moments, I feel a pounding headache forming around the circumference of my head. The pressure behind my eyes is unimaginable, and I can feel the familiar warning of impending nausea as saliva begins to pool in the base of my cheeks.
The man starts the car as quickly as possible, peeling out of the gravel parking lot as a series of minivans and old sedans begin to speed away.
“We’re not going to make it,” I mumble as my eyes begin to flutter closed again.
The ringing is beginning to fade, and I can make out the faint shadows of his words as he speaks to me.
“We’re going to be fine. Just hang on and don’t panic.”
Just as he puts his foot on the gas, another car appears out of thin air, nearly crashing into us as both drivers erupt into a fit of rage.
“Get the fuck out of my way, motherfucker!”
There’s a temporary standstill as the man in the other car freezes with alarm and trepidation. The look in his eyes tells me everything I need to know – he had a plan, and now that the plan has been interrupted, he’s frozen in shock.
“Get the fuck out of way!”
Even though I can barely hear the true depth of my savior’s bellowing, I’ve heard enough men scream that I know what it sounds like. Men with big voices are terrifying, and they know it.
I’m beginning to grow nervous about the implications of this arrangement now. I might have trusted him with my safety temporarily at the fair, surrounded by the smiling faces of well-meaning locals. Now that we’re alone in his car, exposed to his true self, I’m terrified all over again.
It would be one thing if he appeared normal from the outset, just happening to have a concealed carry license when the world erupted into turmoil.
It’s North Carolina – plenty of people have guns here. It’s practically a part of the culture.
But the gun, plus the suit, plus the evasive answers to my questions…
Even if his preparedness gave him an edge in the midst of the shooting, he was still prepared for it. What would have happened if the other person didn’t start shooting first?
It’s all so senseless to me, and any explanation I have for the events of the night begin to unravel as soon as I attempt to justify them.
The man in the other car finally reverses out of the way, and we jerk forward.
We’re out of the line of fire, at least for now.
“Where are we going? We need to get to a hospital,” I whisper, feeling my voice get caught against the dry, raw surface of my throat.
Was I screaming?
I don’t even know if I was screaming. It feels like I must have been.
