Dear Reader,
Find Part 3 here.
Darryl ran through the alley, trying not to jostle Magda too much and trying not to slip on the slick pavement. Her eyes were fluttering, but all he could see in the low ambient light was white. Her pupils seemed to have disappeared. Her mouth was moving rapidly with no sound.
For a moment, Darryl thought the coterie had caught up with him. He almost dropped Magda as the blood seemed to freeze in his veins. Slipping into a dark doorway, he strained to listen for running footsteps over the deafening sound of his own blood rushing in his ears. Nothing. Yet.
Gripping Magda tighter to his chest, he darted past several closed shops and rounded a corner at the end of the alley to enter an odd parking area behind several buildings downtown. He never thought they would try to take her tonight, so he hadn’t been especially careful in where and how he parked after leaving the office earlier. He cursed himself for being such an idiot. The van was so far down the row. Would he get to it in time? Sprinting toward it, he tried to wake Magda,
“Hey! Hey, Magda! Magda! Wake up, girl. Please!”
Magda’s back arched and her face contorted in pain, but she didn’t come out of the trance. Her hands clawed at the air and at Darryl’s jacket. Alarmed, Darryl tried to still her movements to steady her.
The van was just ahead and he must somehow get into the back of it without dropping her. Trying to conceal himself behind sparsely parked vehicles slows him down and frustrated him. He glanced back toward the alley leading to the parking lot, checking for pursuers. No one. Yet.
Finally, he reached the van. Pressing the key fob in his pocket, the back door unlocked. He put Magda over his shoulder and pulls open the door. Magda’s body twitches.
“Hold on. Hold on, Magda. Wait for me!”
Grunting with the effort not to drop her as he climbed into the van, Darryl stretched Magda out on two utility blankets fashioned into a makeshift pallet. Magda’s brow wrinkled. Her head moved from side to side. Her fingers clawed at her neck and sounds started coming from her.
“Don’t let them do it, Magda! Resist them!”
Sounds from outside the van caught Darryl’s attention and he shifted over to the window. Two or three figures exited the alley and were, by all appearances, looking for them. Ducking quickly, Darryl crawls back over to Magda. She muttered something unclear and faint. Darryl shook his head and whispered fiercely to her while grabbing ropes and nylon to secure her.
“No! Don’t say the words! Do you hear me? I’ve been trying to protect you for months! Don’t make me fail now!”
Running footsteps.
Magda lurched and clawed at her neck with both hands. Darryl was frightened. He had to get her home…to where it all began. The voices of the men looking for them were so close. Darryl lay down beside Magda and pulled her toward him. Putting a hand over her mouth, he closed his eyes and whispers, not knowing if she could hear him.
“Shhh. Please. Shhh. Just for a little while.”
Magda’s body went limp and Darryl’s anxiety rushed through the roof. He didn’t know if she had succumbed to her trance, or if she heard him somewhere deep inside her mind. But they had to stay still until their pursuers go away. If they go away.
The voices were mumbling and moving farther off, but Darryl didn’t move an inch for another minute. His gun was too far out of his reach. Stupid. He had made plenty of stupid mistakes today, the first being his outright flirtation with Magda at the office. She was never supposed to know who he was. It’s just that he felt so sorry for her. She was always alone.
Dull pain in his right arm and hip let him know that it’s been a while since he had heard anyone. Magda was still limp. Her eyelids fluttered a little, but her mouth is still. Darryl slowly untangled himself from his position and carefully looked out of the van window. The lone security light on the building to the right cast a faint light around the parking lot. The water droplets glistened on the windows obscured his range of vision a little, but no one seemed to be in the area. He switched windows and scanned the area a few more times. No movement. No people.
He returned to Magda and worked at securing her with straps and rope to keep her from flinging about the back of the van on the drive back to her house. This had to stop tonight.
Darryl crawled slowly and carefully to the front of the van to climb into the driver’s seat. He sat for a moment, not trusting that the coterie to let them go so easily. Then he shrugged. He wouldn’t know until he made a move. He started the van and winced at the sudden roar. Leaning over, he opened the glove compartment to remove his gun, placing it on the seat beside him.
It was time to go.
Wasting no time, he peeled out of the parking lot at breakneck speed and drove with his precious cargo out into the night.
End Part 4
Copyright Nathina Knight 2019. All Rights Reserved.
Find Part 5 here..
Est. 1980 