Kate’s eyes leapt to the knife on the dresser. If she could only get to it before Darren, she had a chance.
Darren lifted the vase over his head and heaved. Kate ducked, and the vase crashed against the wall behind her.
“Why are you doing this?” Kate hollered.
Darren shrugged. “It’s my job?” he said.
Then he reached for the foot stool near the end of the bed and picked it up. Kate made a jump over the bed while Darren threw the foot stool. It hit her in the small of her back. She cringed and fell over.
Darren grabbed for Kate but she kicked him in the neck. He kept grabbing for her, and she kicked her legs as hard and as fast as she could. One of her heels hit him square in the eye socket and he wrenched backwards, holding his eye in pain.
Kate crawled off the bed and grabbed the knife. She turned around and swung, catching Darren in the upper arm. He let out a yelp, and Kate tried to run past him toward the sliding glass door. Darren tackled her, and they both crashed through to the back porch. Kate smacked her head on the deck hard.
She lay on the ground, dazed. Darren managed to get to his feet rather quickly. He circled around Kate, like a hyena approaching a kill.
“How long did you think you could go about this? Did you really believe we wouldn’t find you?”
“I thought you were my friend.” Kate said through gritted teeth.
Darren laughed, then crouched down next to Kate.
“The funny thing about friends Kate,” He said, grasping the back of her shirt, “Is they’re usually not who you think they are.”
With this Darren stood up and launched Kate like a discus across the yard. She landed hard, knocking the wind out of her. She thought she heard a few ribs crack.
“Kate!” Darren yelled, “Where’s the old man now?” He looked over both of his shoulders.
“No one to save you here.”
Kate stood up, in pain, holding her side. She looked at Darren. He was bleeding from the eyebrow where she had kicked him. His eyes had a crazed look in them. She had once thought he was handsome, but now he just looked ugly. He had bits of glass caught in his jacket.
Wait, Kate thought, Glass.
“Remember the old days at the office Kate?” Darren said. “Those were the days. Me, a simple IT mechanic, you, the lonely copyeditor. It could have been a brilliant romance Kate.”
She looked at the shattered bits of glass on the porch, concentrated on them hard. The started to move and rise.
“Too bad I have to kill you Kate. I would have liked to have had one last date.”
Kate lifted the glass pieces and encircled Darren with them, surrounding him in a whirling cyclone of glass shards.
“What are you doing Kate?” Darren said with fear in his voice.
“Tell me where my sister is!” Kate yelled.
“You know I can’t do that Kate.” Darren said.
Kate moved one of the glass pieces a little closer. It cut Darren’s shoulder.
“Where is she?” Kate yelled.
“You don’t want to do this.”
For a moment, Darren and Kate locked eyes.
Then Kate pushed Darren back with all of her might, letting the glass pieces fall beside him. He flew through the house, smashing through the walls on his way out the other side.
Kate jumped onto the porch and walked through the hole in her house to where Darren had landed on the other side. He was laying on his side in a pile of debris, coughing. His clothes had new blood stains and as Kate approached him, she saw him cough up blood. He turned over and looked up at her.
“Tell me where my sister is.”
“No.”
She punched him.
“Tell me where my sister is.”
“No.” He said more emphatically.
She punched him again and grabbed his collar with one hand.
“Tell me where my sister is or I do this.”
With her free hand she put her fingers together as if she were about to snap.
Darren’s eyes got wide. His eyes fixed on her hand.
“Please don’t do that.”
“If you tell me where my sister is, I won’t have to.” Kate said.
They stood like statues in that position-Kate, unyielding, Darren, unwilling to talk-for what seemed like eternity. Then Kate shook Darren and yelled.
“Last chance!”
“I can’t tell you. You have to believe me. If I tell you then He gets involved, and we really, really don’t want that.”
Kate paused, considering his words. She stood over Darren, her heart pounding in her ears and her head racing to the beat. Her emotions matched her adrenaline as she looked down at possibly the only face that knew where her sister was.
“Please let me go.” Darren said.
