After just a few hours, I couldn’t take it anymore. The fight with Brick had been cut short, leaving me with emotions I didn’t want. Now, Ethan’s father snored loudly from his room, emanating too many emotions even in his sleep. I needed a break.
I tossed back the covers and scooted out of bed. My runners were side by side in Ethan’s closet. He’d put them there while I’d showered. I laced them up and eased open his bedroom door. With soft steps, I crept past Ethan on the couch and gently opened the front door.
The encroaching sun had lightened the sky outside from black to not quite black. I shut the door behind me and breathed in the air. It wasn’t fresh. In fact, it stank like rotten garbage and exhaust. But it was free of heavy emotion, and I breathed easy. The pavement called to me, and I jogged from the yard.
An hour later, I returned out of breath and bruised. I thought I might have even had a black eye. The idea just made my grin bigger. Jogging in Ethan’s neighborhood was great.
The front door opened as I stretched and cooled down.
“Good run?” Ethan asked.
“The best. I may have convinced a few wannabe thugs to go to school today.”
He laughed and offered me his coffee, which I took gratefully.
“So, what will the unemployed do today?”
“What are you going to do?” I asked, instead of answering. I hadn’t given my lack of employment any thought. All night, my mind had kept replaying the scene from Ethan’s place… the hit to my face, the cage bending inward, the teeth snapping at me.
“I have to go clean up,” he said, and I knew he meant the bar.
“No.” The word came out panicked, and I took a breath to calm myself. “You can’t go back there. Not yet.”
“What choice do I have? One of us needs a job.”
He said it to tease me, but I didn’t laugh. He didn’t know; he didn’t understand.
“I need to show you something.”
I went into the house and grabbed the letter I’d shoved into my bag. When I turned, he was in the bedroom doorway, watching me. I handed the piece of paper to him, not saying anything. His eyes skimmed the page. He frowned and read it again.
“Shit.”
Fear poured from him, his shock robbing him of control.
“Yeah.” I sat on the bed.
“What are we going to do?”
I loved him for that. It wasn’t my problem; it was ours. And I knew the fear he wasn’t able to suppress wasn’t for himself. It was for me. But, I couldn’t pull him down with me. I wouldn’t.
“I’m going to the bank, taking out everything I have, and doing what the note says. I need you to stay here.”
He lowered himself to the mattress beside me. I’d expected an argument, but he sat there quietly for a moment, closing himself off emotionally as he stared at his hands.
“Want to know why I stay with him?” he asked quietly.
His question was unexpected. Though something about his tone had me worrying about what he would say, I nodded.
“You have your parents. They love you completely. You stay away from them to protect them, just like you do for me. But I saw…” He exhaled slowly. “Remember the day you came home with me?” He gave a pained laugh. “Your mom had put pigtails in your hair so it wouldn’t fall in your face when we fought on the playground. I stood behind you, staring at your hair and cringing when you told my dad never to hit me again.”
I remembered confronting Mr. Petnu. Ethan and I had both still been in grade school when I finally figured out why Ethan was angry all the time. I could still feel the rage that had consumed me as I’d stood before Mr. Petnu.
Ethan looked up at me before he continued.
“And when he fell to the floor, I wanted to cry I was so happy. But not you. Hurting him to protect me had hurt you. I remember how you’d whispered ‘I broke him.’ You didn’t, though, Z. You fixed him. I’ve stayed because I never wanted you to regret what you did for me.”
I couldn’t speak around the tightness in my throat.
“All you’ve ever wanted was a friend. That’s who I am. And that’s why I’ll follow you. Because there’s nowhere else I’d rather be, and no one else I’d rather be with.”
It hurt so much. For the second time in less than twenty-four hours, I threw my arms around him. He held me close while I fought not to cry. I was the reason he’d stayed with his dad. But, by staying his friend, I’d trapped him in more than just his home. He would stay with me to face the creatures the letter mentioned. I recalled the teeth of the thing that had brought me to the ground and knew Ethan would have no chance if they found me again. Yet, I couldn’t bring myself to let him go.
“You are my best friend,” I said with a tight voice. Finally, I pulled back. “I want one promise from you.”
“Anything.”
“If I tell you to run, you go… or I’ll make you go. Run and find someone perfect and sweet who hates violence. Have lots of babies and name one after me. Okay?”
He closed his eyes and turned away before he nodded.
“Life should have been kinder and made you my brother,” I said.
A sharp, rapid knock on the front door echoed through the small house and broke the moment. I quickly got off the bed.
“Might be one of the thugs,” I explained when Ethan gave me a questioning look.
He smiled, and with a shake of his head, he stood. I followed him into the living room. Ethan had already folded his blanket and picked up while he’d waited for me. I wondered how often he did that for his dad.
Through the diamond of smoke-stained glass that decorated the window of the front door, I saw the top of a dark mop of hair. A step behind that head, I caught a glimpse of blonde. They were definitely not the thugs.
Ethan reached for the knob without looking through the window. His trust humbled me at times.
As soon as the door opened, anxiety, fear, and desperation flooded the room. It all came from the girl with the dark mop of hair. Her emotions were so loud, she drowned out what the girl behind her might be feeling.
“Hi,” the dark mop of hair said, meeting Ethan’s gaze. “Is Isabelle—?” Her gaze shifted to me. Some of her desperation faded as joy lit her face.
We stared at each other a moment while I waited for her to say what she wanted. But she kept quiet, staring at me as if I were her long lost relative or something.
Then, suspicion crept in. First the letter, then the weird dog attack, now strangers showing up at Ethan’s and asking for me? No one knew I was here. I didn’t recognize her. How did she know my name?
“Who are you?” I asked.
Ethan shifted and started to close the door at my distrustful tone. The girl’s expression quickly changed to one of frustration as she placed a hand against the door to stop it.
“Look, shutting the door in my face won’t answer the questions you must have. How about letting us in so we can talk?”
Before I could tell the two girls to get lost, the blonde spoke up.
“My name’s Gabby. This is Bethi. We’ve been driving for a week just to find you—”
Find me? Panic jetted my adrenaline.
Knocking Ethan to the side, I grabbed the door and slammed it in their faces. I heard one of them cry out as I grabbed Ethan’s hand.
Run. Hide. The words echoed in my mind while my pulse jumped, and I felt a sliver of fear. I needed to get Ethan out of there. I pulled him with me to the kitchen, not ten feet away, and toward the back door.
“She’s running,” I heard a girl shout from the front.
Ethan kept up with me.
“Z, what is it?”
“It’s them,” I said, pulling the backdoor open only to stop abruptly.
A man stood outside and held up both hands in a pacifying manner. I wasn’t in the mood to be calmed.
“We just want to talk.”
“No.”
I dropped Ethan’s hand and breathed in, pulling the man’s urgency and caution away. With the next breath, I took his concern and lifted my fists. I struck out, hitting him in the face. His brows rose, but he didn’t move much. I didn’t stop. I clipped him again and, like a breeze, I ruffled his russet hair.
The two women rounded the building just then, followed by another man. He had thicker shoulders than the first guy. Worried that I wasn’t causing enough damage, I pulled from all of them. My skin started to itch.
“Stop!”
I didn’t turn to see which girl yelled. I focused instead on the man before me. The next blow snapped the russet-haired man’s head back. When he narrowed his eyes and came back around with a swing of his own, I stole his aggression and went for his ribs. He grunted in pain.
Humor burst from someone in the group. The unexpected emotion almost distracted me.
“Clay, don’t laugh. Help him,” one of the girls said.
Ethan moved to block whoever was coming to help. I knew he wouldn’t stand a chance.
“Ethan, run,” I said as I dodged a swing.
Anger and fear flared. I grabbed those emotions too, spun around, and hit the new guy in the face.
Someone cried out. The other man grabbed my arms, pinning me.
“Isabelle, enough,” Bethi said. “You’re only going to hurt yourself.”
“I don’t think so.” I pulled hard from the emotional soup they’d made. First, the girls fell to their knees. Worry drifted from their men. I pulled again, and the arms around me loosened. Then, the men went down.
I turned and yanked Ethan to his feet. Despite his last minute effort to block me, he looked faint. When I pulled hard, I couldn’t target.
“Sorry, Ethan.”
“S’okay.” He took a deep breath and managed a few stumbling steps.
The strangers were starting to move. I wanted to pull more and knock them out, but I couldn’t risk Ethan. The men struggled to their feet. Ignoring us, they went to the girls and started to help them up.
“Come on.” I pulled Ethan behind me, and I made for the front of the house where we’d parked. “Do you have your keys?”
Before we stepped around the rusted fender that separated the side yard from the front yard, I felt it again. The black hole. The void of emotion. With the group behind us and our car in front, we didn’t have a choice but to face the thing that had chased me into the alley. I wanted to swear. Our chances of escape were slim. I tightened my grip on Ethan’s hand and stepped forward.