So now what?
Tick, tick, tick. How much longer would he be gone?
“Please, Mickey? Just listen to me, okay? There’s no time. You have to go. If he hurts you, if something happens to you, I’ll never be able to live with myself.”
I ran back over to her and took her face in my hands. Ashley looked at me with those beautiful, imploring eyes. “I won’t leave you,” I said to her. “Do you hear me? No matter. I won’t leave you with that monster.”
Tick, tick, tick.
Wait. The plastic cuff was too strong to break. The padlock was too strong to break.
But what about a wooden chair?
“Brace yourself,” I said.
“What?”
I kicked the leg of the chair. Nothing. I kicked it again. The leg started giving way. I kicked it again. The leg cracked. She was still trapped, but now maybe there was some wiggle room. If only we could move fast enough…
That was when I saw the door start to open.
Game over.
I knew what would happen now. Buddy Ray would see me. He would be armed with the knife. He would call behind him. Max and the other bouncers would join him as reinforcements.
We had no chance.
If you stopped and calculated the odds, there was no way to survive this.
So I didn’t stop or calculate. Instead I put my head down and charged the door.
I saw no other choice. I ran with as much speed as I could. I had never played American football, but Dad and I watched whenever we could figure out how to get a game on satellite. Dad loved the Jets, which, he said, taught him the meaning of disappointment. So right now, I channeled my inner linebacker blitzing the quarterback. I didn’t know if I would make it in time. I doubted I would. But I gave it everything I had.
Buddy Ray entered the room. He turned, saw me, and said, “What the…?”
But that was all he said.
I crashed into him at full speed. I locked my arms around him, digging my head into his chest. We fell backward into the blue room. I raised my head a little, so now the top of my skull was under his chin. When we landed, my head pounded up into him. I could actually feel his teeth rattle and give way.
My head was still reeling from Derrick’s earlier attacks. Now the pain from my own blow was so great, I worried that I might pass out. But it had been worth it. Blood was leaking out of Buddy Ray’s mouth. The adrenaline helped push me through it. I made a fist and smashed into his mouth. The teeth that were already loosened gave way.
I pulled back for another punch, but I never got the chance to land it. Max, the bouncer who had been so close to me before, tackled me. He threw a knee into my rib cage. Flashes of light filled my head. It felt as though someone had just stabbed me in the lung. He reared back for another knee, the finisher, but suddenly I saw someone whack my attacker with what I later learned was the leg of a chair.
Ashley!
Max dropped off me as though he were a tree that had been chopped down. You almost wanted to shout, “Timber!” but there was no time. I rolled to my side and tried to get up, but my head was having none of it. I stood too quickly, the pain driving me back to my knees. Ashley tried to help me. I stumbled back.
“Lean on me!” Ashley shouted.
I didn’t want to. I wanted her to get out, just get through that fire door, but I knew that she wouldn’t listen. So I leaned on her. We took one step toward the door and then I felt a pain in my lower leg unlike anything I had ever felt before.
Buddy Ray was biting me!
I screamed and pulled away, leaving some of my skin behind. Another bouncer rounded the corner. Then another. A third came in. Max got to his feet.
The men quickly surrounded us in a circle. Ashley moved closer to me. I put a protective arm around her. Like that would do any good.
Buddy Ray staggered to his feet. He smiled at me through the blood and cracked teeth. “You,” he said to me, “are going to wish you were dead.”
I cringed as though I had given up. But I hadn’t. With my head down, I whispered in Ashley’s ear, “Follow me.”
Adrenaline is a funny thing. I’ve read where mothers can lift cars off their children because of it. I don’t know if that’s true. But I know that it kept the pain away. I know that maybe it gave me a little extra strength, maybe another inch on my vertical leap. Whatever.
I ran at Buddy Ray.
He thought that I was going to attack him again, try to tackle him to the ground, so he moved to the side.
That was what I wanted.
I ran right by him. Ashley was right on my back. Yes, this wouldn’t last long. The other men were already closing in. But I didn’t need much time. Just two more steps.
Just to the fire door.
I banged it open with my back, grabbing Ashley with my free arm and flinging her through it. I fell back too, trying to push the door closed, but by now the other men were there. They were trying to get out. I pushed, but I couldn’t hold it. No way.
And then Ema joined me. And Rachel. And Candy.
Other girls too. They pushed on the door, ten of them, maybe fifteen. They pushed on that door and held it firm and there was no way that anyone else was going to follow us out.
“Run!” Candy shouted at us. “We got this!”
“We all run,” I said. “You too.”
But Candy just looked at me and shook her head. “It doesn’t work that way, Mickey.”
“What?”
“You can’t save us all.”
There was a strange truth in that. I wondered about Juan, about how he chose to save Ashley and not Candy, but there was no time for that. We had to move.
In the distance I heard police cars. The commotion must have gotten their attention. They’d be here any second. A few girls scattered. I met Rachel’s eye. She was with Ashley. I looked for Ema, but I didn’t see her.
“We all run,” I shouted again to the girls. “All of us at the same time.”
And then a voice-a voice with that horrible little lisp, a voice that chilled me like no other-said, “Oh, I don’t think so.”
Everything stopped then. Nobody moved. It was as if the very buildings-this very alley-were suddenly holding their breath. I broke through the paralysis. I let go of the door and swiveled my head to the left.
Buddy Ray had a knife on Ema.
My heart leaped to my throat. The sirens were getting closer.
“Let her go,” I said.
Buddy Ray just smiled at me. If the cracked teeth or blood was bothering him, he didn’t show it. The smile had nothing behind it. No mirth, no joy, no soul. It was the scariest smile I had ever seen.
“The cops are on their way,” I said. “They’ll go easier on you if you let her go.”
Buddy Ray laughed. “Who said I wanted it easier?”
I didn’t know what to say. I was too far away to make a move. He put the knife on Ema’s neck. Ema closed her eyes. Tears ran down her cheek. “Please…,” she said.
“You took something that belonged to me,” Buddy Ray said, looking directly at me. “Now I’m going to take something that belongs to you.”
“Don’t,” I said, my voice sounding so weak, so defeated. “If you want to get back at someone, get back at me.” I raised my hands and walked toward him. “Take me instead.”
I risked another step. I was still at least ten yards away. We locked eyes, Buddy Ray and me, and when I saw them, when I really took a good hard look into his eyes, my heart crumbled to dust.
Ema was doomed.
There was no reasoning here. There was no action I could take. It didn’t matter that the cops were bearing down on him. For a moment, there was only him and me-and I had no doubt what he’d do next.
He was going to kill Ema.
He was going to kill her just to see my face when he did it. I couldn’t talk him out of it. I couldn’t reach him in time. I was here, on the edge of victory, and so he would take Ema away from me.
It was like Buddy Ray knew it all already. I had lost my father. I was losing my mother. And now, when I finally found a real friend, I would lose her too.