I gauge the distance to the back door and wonder if we can make it, but dismiss the thought almost immediately. He is closer to Ana than he is to me, and if I try to pull her up and run the knife will catch her almost immediately.
“Done!” He
proclaims proudly, and then stares at me.
He seems to be waiting for me to ask him what he’s doing, so I oblige. I put on my best damsel in distress voice, hoping he won’t see us as any kind of threat. Ana is curled into my side, still shaking with sobs but mercifully silent.
“I sent that bitch Tiffany Wake some photos of her darling little girl over here. That should get her back here soon enough. She’s gonna learn what happens when you mess with good people, when you make good people angry.”
I wisely decide not to object to his insistence that he is a good person. Instead I try to engage him in small talk, hoping to find some common ground or get through to him. He doesn’t rise to it.
Next, I try to reason with him but that only seems to make him angrier. He starts pacing across the living room, muttering about how he’s going to teach Tiffany a lesson she’ll never forget. He’s too enraged to take any notice of what I say.
I sniff a little and try to keep myself from crying. I don’t want Ana to see that I’m upset and get even more scared. I wonder if I can grab my phone off the table without him seeing but he turns around and, reading my mind, picks it up and puts it in his pocket.
Time crawls past, and I try to keep Ana as still as possible so that he doesn’t notice us too much. I wonder if Tiffany has called the police, or if he sent her a message saying that if she does so she’ll be sorry.
Ana fidgets beside me. I hold her firmly by the arms to keep her sitting down but she squirms and wriggles. I’m worried she’ll wriggle free of my grasp and try to run from the room.
“Hey, excuse me? She needs to go to the bathroom.” I try to attract his attention and he slowly turns around.
“So?”
“Please, just let me take her to the bathroom. You really want to be standing in a room reeking of piss?”
He stares at me for a long moment, and I try to make us look as least intimidating as possible. Finally, he gestures for me to get up.
I pull Ana into my arms and walk as directed to the bathroom.
“I’m right out here. Don’t try anything you’ll regret.” He warns me, and I nod slightly.
We enter the bathroom and I lock the door. I put Ana down and scan the room, my eyes falling on the tiny window high on the back wall. It might be a squeeze for me, but I can boost Ana out, no problem.
I crouch down and put my finger on my lips, signaling for her to be quiet. Ana nods seriously, her eyes wide with fear.
I unlock the window and open it as wide as it will go. It’s high up, but I can manage to get Ana up there and I just hope she doesn’t hurt herself falling out on the other side. I don’t have any other choice though.
I crouch down next to her again, put my lips right up against her ear and whisper the plan to her. “Listen to me, Ana, you have to be super brave and do as I say. I’m going to push you out of that window okay?”
She shakes her head violently, and goes to speak, but I put my hand over her mouth in warning.
“Ana I’m sorry but you have to. Tuck you head in when you roll, like you do in gymnastics, and when you get up you run as fast as you can to the nice neighbors across the street and tell them what’s happening. The ones with the new puppy, you remember them?”
She nods, crying now, and I scoop her up and stand on the rim of the bath. I’ve just got her up onto the windowsill when I knock a bottle of shampoo onto the floor with a clatter and we both freeze.
There’s a moment of silence, and then the guy starts banging on the door and screaming. He knows.
I panic and push Ana harder. “Go, sweetheart you have to go!” I urge her.
She whimpers but manages to get out of the window until she’s clinging to my arm and dangling outside.
The door starts to buckle from the man’s weight against it, and I wish more that anything else that I could just tell Tiffany how I feel before this madman gets to me.
I wish I could tell her that I love her.
Eighteen
Tiffany