Veranthis

CHAPTER 4

Pain shot through Aliyah's body, making her go blind for a minute. The shattering of all the things around her was deafening. Splinters hit her from everywhere, luckily she managed to roll away from the the wall before bricks collapsed over her. She was still reeling over the thing she saw, but she pushed it aside to focus on staying alive.

After the ringing stopped, she saw the man shrieking with a mad smile on his face. He then looked straight at her, staring at her as if she is some sort of food. She quickly got up, dragging David along with her. He seemed dazed but he was conscious. That cannot be told for most of the officers in the room who had been near the walls. In the corner of her eyes she saw the kids too lying on the ground, but they were breathing. She heaved a sigh of relief.

The man let out a high pitched scream which scared her more than the look on his face. He moved swiftly towards her, navigating the bodies and the rubble. David pulled her back, into the interrogation room in which her mom was lying on the floor, still tied to her chair. But the walls in this room was intact and only the table lay broken. They backed up swiftly till they hit the wall. Aliyah's heart raced, it thumped painfully on her chest.

The man stopped a few feet in front of her. Licking his lips he put his right hand in front of him and closed it into a fist slowly as if it took effort. She closed her eyes tightly and David tightened the grip on her hands.

But nothing happened.

She opened her eyes slowly to see the mad man staring at her, surprised. His mouth hung open to reveal his three brown teeth. He stared back and forth between his hands and her. In the corner of her eyes, she saw her mother get up. She was rummaging through one of their bags, quietly.

Aliyah turned her attention back to the mad man who started mumbling. "I don't know why?... why? No."  He then looked murderously at her and snarled. "Doesn't matter."

He then crossed the distance between them quickly. David tried to pull her aside but it was no use. With a fling of the man's arms, David's hand lost its grip and he fell on the ground, few feet away. She could only watch in horror when the man closed his long fingers in her neck and started pressing it tight. She clawed his arms, strongly at first, but her strength weakened when the man continued to press with an almost hungry look on his face. Her lungs seared and before long, red spots seemed to be dancing before her eyes. She felt herself leaning back on the wall, choking.

And suddenly it stopped. The man's grip left her neck. She doubled down and took a deep breath through her mouth which burnt her lungs. Her heart beat was still fast but she could feel the pain ebbing away. When at last she was able to see properly, she looked up to see her mother looking at the man, her face showing utter horror, tears streaming down her cheeks. Aliyah looked down at her hands. She was holding a silver dagger.

"Mom!" she said as Mary hurried and caught her before she fell. She coughed for what felt like a hundred times. Straightening again she hugged her tightly. Her mother was sobbing and she fought hard to control her own tears. They broke off to help David get up. He was a little tipsy, but luckily he wasn't hurt.

"What just happened?" He asked as they carried the kids between them outside of the station. "The man.. he flung his arms and I... I was -" 

"We know, David. We were there." Aliyah didn't want him to lose any energy. A more dangerous task awaited. As suspected, a large crowd gathered outside of the police station and some even dared to enter. They had to go over to the back and jump the wall to get out. Doing that with two unconscious ten year olds proved to be a very difficult task. At last they crossed the wall and took off jogging, her mother still carrying the bag, the dagger in it.