PA•RAl•y•sis: n. unable to move
A numbness starts at the crown of my head and seeps slowly down my body. I want to cry, but every feeling inside me has been nullified and replaced by an overwhelming sense of emptiness. My phone rings, and a glimmer of hope flutters in my chest. Maybe it’s Laila, calling to explain what’s going on. To tell me why she just walked into my boyfriend’s house as though they have been doing this on a nightly basis. I raise the phone. Across the bottom of the lit screen it says, Mom calling…
I pick up. “Hello?”
“Addie, where are you?”
“I’m out … studying.” For the first time, I don’t feel bad lying to her. I don’t feel much of anything.
“Why are you lying to me?”
Obviously I’m still not very good at it. “Don’t worry, I’m coming home.”
“Yes. You are. This is ridiculous. I don’t know what has gotten into you lately. You know you’re still grounded, right? The Addie I used to know would have respected that rule.”
The Addie she used to know did a lot of things differently. Saw a lot of things differently. Or maybe I just didn’t see things that were obviously right in front of me. It’s possible I said goodbye, but I don’t remember saying it. Either way, I had hung up the phone. So when it starts ringing again, I’m not surprised and prepare myself for a lecture about how rude it is to hang up on people. But when I pick up the phone, glowing across the bottom of the screen are the words: Freakshow calling…
The air in my lungs leaks out. The phone stops ringing and becomes eerily silent. How did Poison get my phone number? I look around, weighing my options.
The phone rings again. I answer. “Hello.”
“Addie, just the girl I was looking for. I need a favor.”
I reach my thumb forward to start the car, and my hand comes to an abrupt stop, a foot away from its goal.
“No,” Poison says. “You can’t leave. I need you here.”
I throw my phone onto the seat beside me and use my now free hand to try to move the other one. It doesn’t budge but instead reaches for the door handle. I try to fight against it, to tell my fingers to turn on the car and drive away. They don’t listen. They are following someone else’s orders.
I step out of the car, and that’s when I see Poison standing like a dark shadow under a streetlight, twenty feet away. Screaming is my best bet, but as I open my mouth to do so, my throat constricts.
Not a good idea, he says inside my mind.
I claw at the invisible hand squeezing my neck. Then I walk again on mind-controlled legs. My lungs burn, and the street sways.
When I stand in front of him, he says, “Don’t scream. I just want to talk.”
I nod, and my airway clears. I cough and gasp for breath, steadying myself against the dizzy nausea.
“I need you to make a phone call. Just one little phone call, and you can be on your way.”
I don’t believe him for one second, but in order to buy some time I say, “To who?”
“No questions. All you have to say is, ‘Hello, this is Addie.’ That’s simple enough.”
“Why should I?”
“I thought I just showed you why you should. Do you want me to show you again?”
“No. Fine. I’ll do it.”
“That’s a good girl.” He pushes a button on his phone and then hands it to me with a reminder: “When he answers, just say, ‘Hello, this is Addie.’ No more, no less.”
I nod, trying to plot my escape when this is over because I know he’s not just going to let me walk away, but then the man answers, “Coleman here,” and all thoughts of escape are gone.
I almost whisper, Daddy, but bite my tongue. If I say anything, my dad will think I’m in trouble. Technically I am, but I don’t want my dad doing whatever Poison is going to demand of him. Not if I still have a chance at escape.
“Hello?” my dad says again.
I slip my thumb up to the End Call button and push it. The line goes dead. “Dad? Is that you? This is Addie.” I try to say it with panic in my voice, which isn’t hard, since my heart is thumping in my throat.
“That’s enough,” Poison says.
I bring the phone away from my ear, and before he can take over my body again, I push End, pretending to hang up.
“No, you idiot,” he says. “I needed to talk to him.”
“What do you want with my father?”
“He’s telling lies about me. He needs to know I won’t stand for that. I thought I’d give him a little incentive to stop.” He holds out his hand for the phone. I start to give it to him, but I let go before it reaches his hand. It drops to the sidewalk with a clatter. I pray that it broke. As he bends down, cursing, I turn and run toward Bobby’s house, screaming at the top of my lungs. I only get through the sentence, “Help me” one and a half times before my throat is constricted again and my whole body is frozen in place.
Just when I think I’m going to die, Bobby walks out onto the porch and glances wide-eyed between Poison and me. Never have I been happier to see him.
“Addie?” he says, and suddenly I can breathe again. My body drops to the ground, and I land on my palms.
“Bobby, help me,” I croak.
“What’s going on?” he asks.
I stand on my own accord, keeping an eye on Poison while I walk toward Bobby. “Just leave me alone,” I tell Poison. “And my father too.”
Once at Bobby’s side, I grab on to his arm, my legs feeling like jelly beneath me. He protectively takes a step in front of me. “Get out of here, or I’m going to call the Bureau,” he says to Poison.
Poison lets out a low laugh, shoves his hands in his pockets, and then walks away whistling.
Bobby turns toward me. “Are you okay?”
I shake my head no.
“Come on, I’ll get you something to drink. Do you want me to call Duke and have him come over?”
I shake my head no again. “I just want to sit for a minute, and then I’ll go home.”
Bobby leads me inside.
I am overwhelmed by a sense of gratitude toward him. He just saved me.
“Was that the guy you and Duke had me research?” Bobby asks.
“Yes. Thanks for helping me.”
“No problem.” The door shuts with a swoosh, and he slides the security bar across and punches a code into the palm pad.