The arrow enters his chest, and he sinks down onto the floor like a bag of rotten potatoes. I feel nothing. No sadness, no happiness. Just a vapid sense of victory, whatever the fuck that means.
My father killed my mother, and now I killed him too.
That makes me a murderer, just like him.
But she didn’t deserve to die … he did.
There’s a sudden scream, and I turn around.
That sounded like … Marsha.
I throw down the crossbow and rush out the door, ignoring the painful sprain in my leg that I endured at my father’s hands. I focus on the sound of her screams and peer over the balustrade. Then I see her, running out of the women’s room, heading straight for the auditorium.
The president appears from the kitchen and in his hand a thick butcher’s knife.
Fuck.
I run downstairs as quickly as I can.
“Marsha? Where are you?” he growls out loud, trailing the hallways. “I know you’re in here somewhere, you treacherous snake!”
When he moves into the study, I quickly pass the door and run underneath the stairs, into the auditorium.
I’m met by a chair being held up against my face. Marsha’s panicky eyes home in on me, and as I turn my face, she breathes out loud. “Fuck.”
“It’s me,” I whisper as she lowers the chair. “He’s coming. Go!”
She nods and runs off toward the back door while I barricade the door I just came through with a few chairs. Right then, the door is smashed open, and the president peeks through the small opening.
“Marsha? Open the door, sweetie … no one will get hurt if you do,” he says with a sweet voice that makes my skin crawl. “Let me in!” He jerks the door handle a few more times. Then he stops to cough and heave. “You bitch! You poisoned me!”
He slams the door again, and it opens a little bit farther, despite the chairs I stacked against it. It won’t contain him forever.
“She’s not here,” I growl back as I inch closer to let him see it’s me. “Leave.”
“Noah?” he grumbles, narrowing his eyes at me. “I should’ve known you were on her side. You plotted against me from day one. You did this, didn’t you? You set them up to destroy this community!”
A wicked smile spreads on my lips, but it disappears the moment he starts hacking at the door.
“I’ll kill you both!” he roars, chopping away like a madman.
That’s my cue.
I’m not waiting around until he’s hacked his way through the door. It won’t be long now. The rage in his eyes the moment he looked at me was all I needed to know he won’t stop until we’re both ten feet under the ground.
I turn and head straight for the other door that Marsha just ran through. I have to go find Natalie and make sure she’s safe.
But right as I open the back door, President Lawrence bursts through the other one, violently shoving aside the chairs as though they’re made of mere paper.
“NOAH!” he yells, and our eyes briefly connect.
Then I slam the door shut behind me and run like hell.
I have no idea where to go, where to find Natalie or her mother, but I can’t stop running across the grass either. The president is right on my tail swinging a butcher’s knife in his hand as if he’s lost his marbles. No one stops him. The people outside are too busy fighting amongst themselves and with the guards to even notice the fact that the president himself is running right through the crowds.
I keep going, no matter the cost, even though every bone in my body hurts because I must save my wife and child.
Where would she go? Her friend’s house?
With the sun going down it’s hard to look around, but adrenaline keeps me going. I immediately run toward Holly’s home, the only remaining member of her initiation group, but the house looks ransacked, so I quickly bolt off.
The hut where she and her mother met then?
No, there’s no time, it’s too far and the president’s right behind me.
“I’ll kill you!” Blood and foam seep from his mouth.
Why won’t this fucker just die? How much poison does he need to just drop dead?
“You ruined my family and me, and now I’ll ruin yours!” he roars.
No, I can’t let him get close. He can’t touch her or my child, I won’t allow it.
Natalie has to be at the hut that belonged to the initiates. It’s the only place left to look.
Without thinking, I bolt straight for the initiate’s hut. I look around at the surrounding huts, but there are no weapons in sight, nothing I can use to defend myself for my family. I pray there’s something in that initiates hut I can use to my advantage and defend us. If I have to, I’ll block his path with my own body. I’d sacrifice my life if it means Natalie and my child will live.