Hope

Hope sat up and stared in panic at her closed bedroom door, her body breaking out in a stinging sweat. “Oh, fuck.”

He placed his hand over her mouth and she registered the look of intense concentration on his face. She froze as well, barely breathing against his palm. Fear began to worm its way through her, killing her rage, leaving her feeling cold and empty.

They remained like two frozen statues for what seemed like forever. Downstairs something fell over with a loud thump, accompanied by breaking glass. The noise built as more things were thrown around. She could imagine that last crash was her curio cabinet falling to the ground, crushing all of her grandmother’s china.

She tried to gasp, but his hand prevented her from drawing in much air. He instantly moved into action, managing to move across the room without making a sound. The sun had begun to set, and only a faint hint of the purple-blue twilight sky shone through the window.

Danny closed the door and held it so that, when the old lock clicked into place, it barely made a sound. She didn’t know why he bothered, like anyone downstairs could hear over the sounds of her home being brutalized. He ghosted across the room to the window, looking around her backyard before returning to her side.

He pointed to her duffle bag. She grabbed it and looked to her bedroom door, her heart slamming so hard in her throat she could barely swallow. Her cell phone still sat in her purse locked in the back of the Lincoln, but she had her gun in her bag...without any bullets. Panic began to crowd her thoughts, making her want to run out the door and try to make a break for the street, to creep down the hall to where the only upstairs phone sat on a small table near the top of the stairs. Damn this old house and its archaic wiring. Why couldn’t she have moved into some nice new home with a phone jack in the bedroom?

Danny’s firm hand gripped her wrist pulling her out of the downward spiral of her panic. She hadn’t even noticed he’d moved. To her surprise, she saw her window was now wide open with the curtains pulled aside. He pushed the screen he’d taken out underneath the bed and smoothed the dust ruffle.

He pulled her close and she immediately felt better. His breath tickled against her ear as he whispered, “We’re going to climb out your window and over to the roof of your sunroom, jump down and head for the car. They should be coming upstairs soon to trash it so we have to be quick.”

She nodded and a hard shudder of fear racked her frame. God, she’d heard about people being so scared they shook, but she’d never actually felt it. It wasn’t like shivering from the cold. She had broken out in a sweat over her whole body as a crazy amount of adrenalin flooded her system. Weirdest of all, she seemed disconnected from her body, as though her mind floated above this scene while her physical form remained nailed to the spot.

The crash of someone smashing what she assumed were the pictures at the top of the stairs could be heard even through the solid wood door of her room and broke her paralysis. Danny grabbed her duffle bag and threw it out the window. She wanted to dive after it but he held her back with a finger to his lips. He glanced out one more time then swung his leg over the edge. Her exit out the window was far less graceful. She lost her footing for a moment and had to bite her tongue to keep from screaming when he grabbed her around the waist and hauled her onto the sunroom roof.

Her breath came out in harsh pants, then stopped all together when she heard Slasher’s familiar hissing meow coming from somewhere in the yard. Danny held his finger to his lips, but he didn’t need to warn her, she knew better than to make any noise. They waited together, crouching against the brick side of her house as she tried to keep her feet from slipping on the asphalt shingles of the roof.

Over Danny’s shoulder, orange and pink clouds floated along the thinnest of edges on the horizon. A new worry entered her mind as she realized they had only fifteen minutes tops before the cemetery patrol closed the main gates and towed away any vehicles left inside. She debated if she should tell Danny or not, but decided to let him handle one crisis at a time. It was all her fault they were in this predicament, if she’d kept her cool they never would have lost precious time discussing her father’s betrayal, oblivious to the fact that danger was on her doorstep.

A car passed out front, the thump of the loud speaker’s bass mixing with her soft pants. A screen door banged open a couple houses down and she saw her neighbor, Chantel, letting her yapping giant poodles out. As usual, they barked up a storm, took a poop, and went about their business sniffing the yard. She wondered if the barking had made the intruders nervous. She was about to ask Danny what they were waiting for when an unfamiliar male voice came from the side of the house, moving closer. In her highly attuned state, she could even hear the grit of his shoes as he walked along the cement driveway next to her home.

“Nothing back here,” the man said in a low voice. “Wait, I hear something.”

She was sure her heart stopped altogether as Slasher’s yowls grew in volume. The neighbor’s dogs joined in, their loud barks only pissing Slasher off more. Then Chantel’s screen door flew open as she yelled at her dogs to shut up and get inside. Their barking cut off when the door slammed shut behind them, but Slasher continued to growl and spit, and she strained to hear anything over his racket.

A few seconds later the man’s voice came from next to the sun room and right below Danny. “Just some cats fighting.” A few seconds of silence passed then the man spoke again. “Yeah, I don’t think she’s coming back here. Eh? Yeah, let’s get this done.”

Danny moved to the edge of the roof, making no more noise than a shadow. She lost her balance and her foot scraped off the shingle, a rough sound that seemed to her as loud as a car crash. Thankfully, Slasher was still going ape shit in his carrier. She could only hope his caterwauling covered up the sound. On her right, through the open window of her bedroom, she could hear the distinct sound of a doorknob being turned, then rattled.

She gave Danny a panicked look, but he kept his attention on whatever the man below them was doing. Moving as quietly as she could, she leaned out over the edge of the roof and reached for the edge of the window with her fingertips. A shingle slid below her left foot and she clutched the edge of the house, trying to find something to hold onto. The rough brick abraded her hand, but she managed to get a grip.

The door rattled again followed by the sound of something heavy slamming into it. Thankfully, her doors were old and made of solid wood with thick brass hinges, but that would only slow them down for a moment. She had to shut the window to keep them from becoming even more suspicious. If she and Danny were spotted up here, or running across the yard they were both dead.

The tips of her fingers throbbed, but she regained her balance quickly. Thank god for all those yoga classes. Who knew they’d come in handy for saving herself from a fall off her roof. While the one-story drop wouldn’t cause her much physical harm, it surely would draw the attention of the thugs. Another heavy thump came from the door to her bedroom and she stood on her tiptoe, straining to reach the window.

An arm wrapped around her waist and she almost screamed, but Danny whispered in her ear, “I’ve got you.”

Using his body as leverage, she managed to shut the window seconds before a cracking sound came from the door to her bedroom. She inched back and succeeded in keeping her footing this time, breathing as shallow as she could in an effort to hear what was being said in her bedroom. Danny pressed against her, his body a solid reassurance that helped to steady her racing heart.

All she could hear was one of the men swearing in a loud voice, the rest too garbled to be understood. A few moments went by with no more sounds coming from the bedroom. She let out a low breath and squeezed Danny’s arm. He placed his fingers lightly over her mouth and she could smell a faint hint of his cologne from his wrist.

An odd gurgling sound came from below, like a watering can being emptied into a flower bed. The sound faded around the side of the house and Danny pointed to the ground. She looked over the side and her already queasy stomach clenched. He grabbed her hand and tugged her forward. Before she could resist, he gave her a gentle push and she dropped to the ground, managing to land on her feet in the soft grass with only a catch in her knees. He followed suit and pulled her down when she went to stand up. He handed her the duffle bag and helped her put it around her back like a backpack. She wished she hadn’t packed so much stuff but that was all water under the bridge now. A light came on in the kitchen, casting a small golden square of illumination on the edge of her flower bed.

Hope took a breath and tried not to cough as the dizzying fumes from the spilled gasoline filled the air. Danny pulled her close and whispered in her ear, “Stay low, but run for the back fence. I’ll be right behind you.”

It took a great deal of courage to take the first step without Danny at her side, but instinct soon took over. She moved quicker than she thought possible in a crouch. When she reached the chain link fence she realized she wouldn’t be able to climb it without making at least some noise. She turned to ask Danny what she should do to find he wasn’t there.

Her chest constricted with alarm, but she soon spotted him coming from the side of the shed with Slasher’s cage. Tears stung her eyes and she wanted to yell at him for going back for the cat, but at the same time she was extremely grateful. As he got closer, she could make out his face. When he mouthed the words “climb” she did as he asked, shimmying over the top of the three-foot fence. Danny handed her Slasher’s cat carrier then vaulted the fence. He took the lead and ran to the right, behind a large monument of a weeping angel kneeling on a marble crypt.

Their breath came out in mingled pants and she pressed her fingers through the bars of the cage, trying to comfort both the cat and herself. Danny shifted slightly forward and pushed her back without looking when she tried to peer over his shoulder.

“What is it?”

He shook his head and reached for the carrier. “We have to go, now. Don’t look back.”

“What? Why?” She started to stand but he pulled her back down. Was she Lot’s wicked wife? Would she turn to a pillar of salt if she looked?

“Please trust me. Don’t look.”

The acrid scent of smoke tinged the air and she pulled in a stuttering breath. The smell intensified but, before she could try to look again, he’d taken her hand and dragged her through the pathway of headstones. Slasher yowled about the rough treatment in a way that would make any lingering mourners think the gates of hell had been opened.

They made it to the SUV and Danny threw open the back door, shoving first Slasher inside before taking her pack and tossing it in as well. She started to turn around, desperate to see what he didn’t want her to, but he blocked her view.

“Don’t fight me, Hope. There’s nothing I can do to save your home, but I can still save you.”

He bundled her into the SUV, locked the door, and ran around the front to get into the driver’s seat. As he did, she turned and looked out the window. The first thing she noticed was a glow rising from the back of the cemetery and a billowing cloud of black smoke coming from the area of her house.

“No!” she screamed and tried to open the locked door.

Danny slid into the front seat, reached over, and pulled her hands off the door handle. “Hope, we have to go.”

“But my house! My things, my pictures...” her voice shattered on the last word. “My mom’s wedding dress.”

He started the car and pulled away from the curb so quickly the tires squealed. “I’m sorry.”

“Danny...why?” Her voice broke and she had to swallow hard to force the words out. “Why would they do that?”

“Because they want to scare you and flush you out into the open where they can get you.”

She sagged against the restraint of the seatbelt and covered her face, her harsh sobs filling the cab of the car. Her whole body tingled as if she’d been struck by electricity and she started to shake. “Those motherfuckers.”

“Yep.”