Random of Random

The Need To Run {Excerpt}

The doorbell rang throughout the nearly empty house, making Jenine jump. She craned her neck forward to look out the window, hoping to see who was at the door from the kitchen. “Mom! Somebody’s at the door!” Jenine called out and went back to mixing the ingredients for cookies. She smiled as she did this, thinking of how Nate would react. He loved her cookies so she made them for him at random, just because. 

Jenine’s mother walked fast from wherever she was in the house. “Don’t answer the door,” she said frantically. Jenine raised a brow and stopped mixing the dough. Since when was answering the door something to be frantic about? Jenine put down the barely mixed cookie dough and moved around the kitchen counter to move to the window. Who was at the door that had her mother in a panic?

Outside the window it was a nice day, the sun was high and Jenine could hear the birds chirping through the screen door to the patio. Jenine looked towards the door and saw three men. They were all dressed in business attire, suites and ties, and a shiny black car was in the driveway. They reminded Jenine of agents from Men in Black because of their attire and the black sunglass each of them wore.

The doorbell rang again, and Jenine moved away from the window to go towards the doorway of the kitchen. “Mom! Door!” The clatter from upstairs sounded just as frantic as her mother’s voice had been before. Jenine started to walk towards the door, her goal to open the door for the three business men. They were probably just salesmen anyway.

Before Jenine could take more than a couple steps, a warm hand slid over her mouth and an arm snaked around her waist. Spooked, Jenine screamed into the hand and tried to claw at it, get it away from her and get herself away from whoever’s hold she was in. “Jenny, calm down,” a male voice whispered in her ear and she did indeed relax. Her heart was still hammering, but she knew she was in no danger.

Nathan turned her around and held a finger to his lips, his hand still over her mouth. Jenine nodded, even though she was confused. Why did she need to be quiet? Why was Nate here early? Why was mom frantic? Everything right that moment was confusing.

Jenine felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to see her mother. When had she come down stairs? Melody looked frantic and calm at the same time. “Jen, baby, I need you to go with Nathan. He’s going to take you somewhere safe, okay? I’ll catch up as soon as I can.” Melody leaned forward and kissed her daughter’s forehead for a long moment before she nodded to Nate. She handed him something that looked ancient and moved to answer the door as Nathan shoved the thing in his pocket.

Nathan pulled Jenine back a couple steps, toward the screen door of the patio that was now open. He held a finger to his lips again as they walked slowly and quietly. Jenine looked back towards her mother.

The door was open, casting a light over her. “Give us the girl,” A deep voice said at the door, it belonged to one of the men, surely, but she couldn’t see to tell which.

“I’m sorry. You just missed her. She left with her friend a couple minutes ago.” Melody sounded calm, apologetic. But Jenine knew her mother. She knew the tells of panic on her face; the twitching of her hand, the tapping of her foot, the slight crack in her voice.

“Don’t play this, Melody,” a different voice said and it sounded lulling in an odd way. Jenine saw her mother relax slightly at the sound and Jenine was calmed by it just was well.

Suddenly, there was a clatter and a grunt as Jenine tripped over her own feet, hitting her hip against the counter as she fell and knocking the bowl of batter to the floor accidentally. “Crap,” Jenine groaned, but then realized she was supposed to be quiet. 

Wide eyed, she looked at Nathan, then back at her mother. Melody was looking at her too, and she wasn’t watching the three men that had surged into the house. Melody noticed only when one of the men shoved her. In an instant Melody was throwing punches and kicking, fighting like some kind of martial arts master. Jenine watched, transfixed, as her mother took on three men simultaneously. “Nate! Get her out of here!”

Jenine snapped out of her zone when Nathan yanked her hand and started to pull her into a run towards the patio door. They ran through just as the sounds of growling and ripping fabric started to sound in the house. Jenine stumbled forward after Nathan, trying to keep up with his pace. “Jenny, come one! Run faster!”

Jenine tried to do as her friend was telling her to, but she kept looking back. The house was filled with sounds of things breaking and dogs growling, but she didn’t own a dog and she hadn’t seen one with the men. Suddenly a large black hound lunged out of the house after them. Jenine screamed. If she needed something to encourage her to run, that black monster was it.

She sprinted with Nathan through the length of their back yard until they got to the fence. Nathan took no time picking her up as if she were nothing and putting her close to the top of the wood fence dividing her yard from the neighbors. Jenine clambered over it quickly and fell with a squeal onto the ground. 

She quickly stood and backed away from the fence as she waited for Nathan to follow. She saw his hands grip the top and then his head popped up, but he didn’t come over. A snarl from the other side of the fence sounded and Nathan let out a yell as his grip on the fence failed. “Nathan!” Jenine screeched and surged forward, putting her hands on the fence that was her visual barrier. She heard Nate grunt several times and there were snarls and wines from most likely the black beast before the noise between the two stopped.

Jenine listened for any sign that her friend was okay, but all she heard were the continued yips and snarls from inside the house. Was her mother okay in there? Where had these beasts come from, anyway? Jenine heard a grunt and saw hands peak up over the fence. Nathan’s face popped over and Jenine let out a sigh of relief when he crawled over the fence and dropped wobblingly beside her. 

Jenine didn’t think, she just acted as she slung his arm around her shoulder and lead him through the neighbor’s yard. Her body was on auto pilot towards his car, which she could now see parked in the street, and this left her brain to wander. Was Mom okay? What was that huge hound and where had it come from? What was going on? Why hadn’t the neighbors checked to see what the fuss was about? Did I have the oven on? All of this came rushing through her head in a jumbled mess as she pulled a limping, bloodied Nathan to his car.

She lead him to the passenger side and helped him in hastily before making her way to the drivers side. When she was in and buckled, because safety first, she stared at the gear stick and became extremely thankful that her mother forced her to learn to drive a manual. She shifted the car into first, pounded the gas and released the clutch, jerking forward and making the car groan as it tried to go faster than the gear. 

Jenine shifted the car all the way to fifth and she was speeding, about 20 mph over the limit, but she didn’t care. There was a huge black hound in her back yard that had come out of no where, her mother was taking on three men on her own and by the sounds of it maybe even another hound, and her friend was wounded. Yeah, Jenine could care less about being twenty over the limit. 

When Jenine was a good ways away from her own home, she pulled over on the side of the road and pulled out her phone, which was in her pocket because she had been about to call Nathan just before the knocking on the door had started. “What are you doing?” Nathan asked as he watched her. They had been silent until that point, Jenine driven by adrenaline to get the hell out of there and Nathan trying not to move and hurt himself.

“I’m calling 9-1-1. There are people in my house hurting my mother and that thing attacked you!” Jenine put the phone to her ear and waited anxiously. 

“No, Jenine-” Nathan started but the other line had gone from a dial to a voice.

“Bridge County Sheriff’s Department,” A man answered the phone calmly.

“I need help. There are people in my house. My mom’s there and there’s this huge black dog-” Nathan snatched the phone out of Jenine’s hand and put it to his ear.

“I’m so sorry. I told them not to let her watch that movie. Everything’s fine...Yes, sir. Nathan Bennet. I’m 17. Yes, sir. I’m sorry.” Nathan pulled the phone from his ear and killed the power.

“What the hell? Nathan, my mom is back there!” Jenine lunged to get the phone back. Nathan caught her hand with speed he shouldn’t have with how wounded he was. Jenine looked at the hand then at its owner. “Nate?”

“Jen, you need to trust me when I say that there is nothing we can do for Malory right now. If we go back to help her, you will be put in danger. And if we call someone, like the cops, they will die.”