Heart

Twenty-Four

The impact knocked the breath out of me, and we went rolling. Novak squeezed my arms tightly until they felt like they were going to snap in half. The glass pieces and rubble scraped through my clothes and bit into my skin, making me wince. We rolled until we both slammed into the wall across the hall.

“Kara!” Alan yelled.

Novak, in a complete fit of fury, clapped his large hands around my neck and squeezed, making my eyes pop wide in fear. He yanked me up and then slammed me back down repeatedly, each impact sounding with a thud. I couldn’t get any oxygen!

His face was shrouded in shadows, so I couldn’t see anything really other than his silhouette. But I did see Alan land a clean blow to the side of his head, causing him to jerk to the right, his forehead bumping against the wall. Novak’s hands loosened enough for my airways to open, filling me with relief.

“Get off her, you piece of trash,” Alan’s voice growled close by. His hands grabbed fistfuls of Novak’s shirt, yanking backwards, but the detective smiled meanly and the diminishing sunlight glinted off a piece of metal. A knife.

My throat was still recovering, so I couldn’t yell out a warning.

Novak launched himself at Alan, but I couldn’t tell what was going on with the knife. I could only see--barely--that they were wrestling on the floor, hands clasped and jerking as one tried to over throw the other.

I scrambled to my knees and sort of crawled over to them, still gasping for air. With shaking hands, I took out the kitchen knife from my hoodie and raised it above Novak’s back. I hesitated though, not sure if I could actually go through with it.

Alan suddenly got the upper hand and tossed Novak off of him. Unfortunately, he flew straight into me again, causing us both to go rolling across the floor once more. I didn’t realize my knife had embedded itself somewhere in the detective until he started yelling out in agony. I gasped, shocked, when we finally stopped. A fist came flying out of nowhere and hit me square in the jaw, making my head jerk around dangerously on my neck.

“You wretch!”  Novak roared, yanking the knife out. I only knew that because the sunlight made a tiny outline around the blade--before it came down through the air.

The pain was a total shock that made my jaw rip open in an agonized scream. My back arched when he yanked it back out. I didn’t know where it even stabbed me, all of my nerve endings were on fire!

“Kara!”  I heard Alan bellow, his voice sounding both broken and outraged. “No!”

He leaped forward and rammed Novak in the side, plowing him into the wall. I couldn’t move, really, but I still saw the detective swing the knife wildly, catching Alan in a few places. My heart twisted for each wound until it was in one big knot that ached in my chest. My friend was in such a rage that he didn’t seem to notice, and even though he was fighting viscously, Novak managed to shove him off. Alan went rolling down the staircase, bouncing halfway down before stopping himself; he glared up at Novak with murder in his eyes, teeth bared in a growl. I wished I could move, I would take Gabriella and run for it, dragging Alan behind me.

But I hadn’t gathered myself yet, so I just lay there, staring up at the dark ceiling with a demented kidnapping detective beside me. When Novak turned his attention to me again, I managed to force myself to roll over onto my stomach, the glass tinkling as it fell off my back. I wished I knew where I had been stabbed . . .

Novak slapped his hand on my shoulder and tried to drag me back--probably to toss me down the staircase like he had Alan.

“Gabriella, run!” I yelled.