A Name By Any Other Name

Part I - Chapter II : Emergency

When she finally made it, after crossing the surprisingly vast parking lot, she slowed down to check each window. Her car moved at a snail's pace, adjacent to the storefront, as she looked through the passenger windows to see whatever she could. Any witness would think the driver had a screw loose, seeing the vehicle painstakingly drive like that in the middle of the night- the driver moving her head in multiple directions looking for something that probably didn't exist. 

After making it to the front doors themselves,  Ann peered at glass that was scattered across the sidewalk in small but vulgar pieces. She brought the car to a sudden halt and then looked up to see a window smashed in.

"Holy-"

Deciding not to be foolish, she immediately reached to pick up her phone to call 911. As she typed in her password and went into her calling app, there was no one to be found anywhere and the only evidence was the disorderly glass. She looked around for any signs of people, but she supposed that the break-in was a sign that somebody was here. Ann looked back down at her phone and started dialing. As soon as she pressed the number 9, another crash rattled her eardrums, triggering a scream as her phone flew out of her hands. This one, however, was much closer.

Glass spewed everywhere as the passenger window, the one facing the store entrance, was broken into. The metal baseball bat plunged into the insides of the car, jagged glass traveling at dangerous speeds.  Ann screamed as a gloved hand reached inside the large, sharp hole. She frantically searched for her phone and in the few seconds she was looking, Ann started to hyperventilate as her hands grazed every surface of the area near her to find it.

As the hand started to fumble around for the lock, the person's arm got caught on one of the stray glass pieces still attached to the window frame and they quickly recoiled their arm, doing more damage as the glass sliced every part of the skin that it touched as the arm retreated.

Ann started breathing heavily and pushed hair out of her face and sweat off her forehead as she finally found the phone lying upside down in front of the passenger seat. She quickly undid her seatbelt and reached across the divide for the phone at the bottom. She flung half her body in that direction in an effort to reach it sooner.

The shadow of the figure loomed over Ann and just as she grabbed her phone, the bleeding hand grabbed her arm and she heard a wince from the attacker as he did so. She wanted to scream as she tried to twist her arm out from the assailant but she didn't have time to do so.

Ann pushed her arm towards him and as she did, the guy's arm got caught on more glass and he let go in pain.

Phone now in hand, she dialed the double 1's and heard it ring. Her arm was covered in drops of the attacker's blood as well as her own. When she forced the man's arm to slam into more glass, it scattered onto Ann's too. Tiny shards scraped her skin causing tiny blisters everywhere. The pain instantly hit her and she held back tears as the phone continued to ring.

She closed her eyes for two seconds and focused on her heavy breathing. At that moment she remembered her dad.

Tears streamed down her face as rough pieces of wood were sticking to her scraped leg. Similar drops of blood covered it while she was calling out to her dad.

"Daddy! Dad! Where'd you go?"

Swift footsteps came up behind her and immediately held her from behind.

"Ann! Ann, sweetie, it's ok -I'm right here." Her dad carefully held the bottom of her leg as he brushed off the excess woodchips and used his thin jacket to wipe off streaming blood.

Young Ann was still crying and sniffling and wiping away the sweat from her cheeks.

"Dad, it hurts." she said as the pain continued to take hold of her.