I look directly at the figure. He has his phone up to his ear. He points to it while tilting his head slightly. My heart drops. I swipe right on the call and place it to my ear.
“Hello, Noah.”
“What… what do you want?” I choke out. I can see him laughing to himself.
“It’s simple. Leave.”
“Why?”
“You know why,” he spits, the smile on his face drops. “We already warned you once, or are we not being clear enough?” he asks while staring me down. At first, I don’t know what he’s talking about. But then I remember.
The brick.
The brick was from the Bronze family.
Itwasaimed at me.
“You being back in Perrancombe will only cause… problems.” The call disconnects. He drops the phone to the ground and presses his heel to it. He brings a chef’s knife out and pretends to slit his throat, staring me down the whole time.
Panic sets in, and I tense up. My ice cream drops to the floor as the figure disappears into a crowd. The freeze, fight, or flightresponse kicks in, but mine is broken and doesn’t know what to do. I want to fight him. I want to make him bleed. I want to beat him within an inch of his life so that I don’t have to deal with this pain. I want to run away. I want to leave this park, this town, this country, so that I don’t have to see him again.
Ultimately, I freeze. Then I begin to tremble, and my eyes threaten to spill.
“Noah, are you…?” Teddy begins but doesn’t even finish because he knows I’m panicking. He takes my hand and leads me to the benches across from us. I left my ice cream on the floor where I stood, staring down the monster that ruined my life. I heavily lower myself onto the bench and stare at the ground. My brain is fuzzy and feels broken. I can’t function when the panic sets in. My body seems to shut down while a hurricane of noise hits my brain with no way of sorting through it all. I’m trembling all over. Teddy grips my hand and gets me to breathe with him. I can’t get my lungs to fill again, no matter how hard I try.
I need to find out who they are. I know it’s the Bronze family, but who are they underneath the mask? What are they doing here? Why are they still tormenting me? What did I ever do to them? They killed my mum, I can’t let her die for nothing. They need to be stopped.
I can’t breathe
I can’t breathe
I can’t breathe.
“Noah, c’mon, breathe for me, baby, it’s okay,” Teddy pleads.
Teddy askedeveryone to leave us alone for five minutes, and he held my hand while the attack went on and passed. It wasonly five minutes, but it felt like an hour. When I finally sit up, all the energy in my body disappears.
“Are you okay now?” Teddy asks, his arm around my shoulder as I lie against his chest
“No.” I hate that question. I don’t mean to be so blunt, but the more I talk, the more the tears threaten to spill out of me. I don’t want to cry here, or at all. Teddy doesn’t deserve that. I don’t want to be a burden to him.
“What set it off?”
“I saw someone.”
“Someone from your past?”
I just nod. Teddy stands up to look around, but I bring him down by his hand.
“He’s gone, Ted, and besides, maybe I just imagined it,” I say, trying to convince myself it was all just a dream.
“Who was it? You look terrified,” He asks me, worry in his voice. He begins stroking my hair as I lean closer into his chest.
“Someone was wearing the same mask as the guy that killed my mum,” I begin, my voice wavering. I’m struggling to get the words, but eventually they fall out of my throat.
“The bronze family did it, and I just saw someone wearing their mask,” I tell him, my heart beating quickly in my chest.
“The bronze family? What did the mask look like?” He asks, urgently.
