I struggle against him. I want to keep going, but then I catch sight of myself in the room's cracked mirror—bleeding, eyes wild, shirt stuck to my skin with sweat and blood—and I look just like him. Crazed, and worthless, and clinging to life.
Like I’ve been slapped across the face, everything around comes back into focus.
Alvarez is in a crumpled heap on the floor.
Eden lets me go when he’s sure I won’t run.
The adrenaline is gone.
I slump against the wall.
There’s too much clarity.
I want to throw up.
“Christ,” Eden mutters, and grabs a towel from the bathroom. He throws it at me, then goes to check Alvarez’s pulse, holding two fingers to his throat.
Alvarez coughs, then moans. “He’s gonna kill me… He’s fucking crazy—”
“Shut it,” Eden barks down at him. “If I were you, I’d crawl to the nearest ER and tell them you fell down the stairs.” He wipes his own hands on his jeans. “Get up, Tek. We’re leaving.”
The screech of tires stiffens me.
A car skids on the crosswalk. Half on, half off. Diagonal.
The old lady holding onto my arm loses grip and falls to the ground. I try to grab her, block her, but drop her shopping in the process.
I pound my fist down on the hood.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I yell at the driver, then drop to the pavement to scoop up the trembling woman.
I hear a deep shout behind me, and when I look back, the driver’s side door is already flung open and Tek is reaching inside, dragging a kid no older than me out by his jacket.
The sounds coming out of him aren’t human.
They’re raw.
Animalistic.
The kid's legs get tangled in the seatbelt, but Tek keeps pulling him anyway.
His face smashes into the doorframe, his nose bleeding instantly.
Tek slams him down on the hood, holding him there with his forearm.
The driver's feet scramble as Tek roars, “You hit him! You fucking hit him!”
Shawn howls like a banshee from the sidewalk.
Liv runs to my side. I hand the old woman off to her then make a B-line towards Tek, kicking aside the strewn groceries as I go.
He winds his fist back—“I’ll fucking kill you”—and lands a punch before I can reach him.
He winds up again, and I wrap my arms around his chest, pulling him off the driver and sending us both into the side of the car.
The kid slides off the hood, limp and weeping.
Tek bares his teeth at me. It takes all my strength to hold him back.
