Page 7 of Reclaiming Adelaide
I jumped over Miss Lavender’s wooden fence and lumbered across her backyard. My feet hit landmines of empty pots and bricks like a bull’s horns in a China shop.
A hoarse, deep voice called out as I hit the shadows on her back fence, and I peered around.
Where did he go?
My ragged breaths filled the air as I hoisted myself over Mr. Belvedere’s chain-link fence, my heavy sweats catching at the twist on top. I tilted head first toward the ground, my pants pulling away from my body until the material gave way with a tear, sending me plummeting to the ground as if someone reinstated gravity without warning.
“Owowow,“ I whispered, shaking out my wrist. A faint ringing in my ear caught my attention, freeing space from this nightmare for a moment. I pulled in a ragged breath, staunching it just before capacity as the stitch in my side ripped a gasp from my lips.
Where did they go?
Miss. Lavender’s yard remained shrouded in darkness. Not a single moving object flitted across her yard.
They wouldn’t have given up so easily? Would they have?
I scooted my back to Mister Belvedere’s brick home and caught my breath, listening to the surrounding nothingness. Not even a distant rumble from the man’s truck. It was like I’d hallucinated it all. But the ache in my shoulder divulged a secret no one knew yet…
Someone had tried to kidnap me… or worse.
Shivers broke through my skin as chilled air slipped through the tattered hole in my pants, thrusting me back into the here and now. How long had I been sitting here?
My heart still raced, my breaths steady, but my mind had calmed only a fraction. Enough for me to picture the yards it would take for me to get home. I bounced my finger in front of me in the unique pattern it’d take, the neighbors’ names on my reticent lips.
A zinging ache rushed down my thigh as I hoisted myself to my feet. The adrenaline hadn’t given up the reins yet, and it still hurt to move.
I groaned, using the brick wall for support as I steadied myself and walked through the front gate, peering down the street in both directions the closer I came to the front of the home.
Nothing.
No engine.
No footsteps.
The thick air around me set forth a beat of death. These were either my last moments or ones I’d remember for the rest of my days.
I limped across the street, opening the fence to Mrs. Gracens’ yard, then to the next, and then another until I toppled over into my backyard, my body aching, lungs gasping for air.
My heavy feet and cramping thighs slowed me down as I slugged through my father’s damp grass, safety holding me in its fragile arms. I dug out my key as I avoided my father’s sprinkler system and walked around to the front door.
How had I made it home when it felt like such an insurmountable task? Did they determine I wasn’t worth the effort? Were they just a bunch of drunk idiots looking for a good time?
I waddled up the stairs and slipped my key into the lock, praying they forgot about the chain as a pair of headlights illuminated the porch.
My heart sunk into my stomach, and my fingers slackened on everything in my hands, dropping them to the porch as the engine’s rumble reverberated around me. How did they know where I lived?
The big black truck with the menacing lights and oversized tires revved its engine two houses down, placed strategically to see me approaching from all sides.
How was that possible? Who were they?
“Daddy!” my voice broke as I pounded my fists on the door. “Daddy, open up, please!”
I turned over my shoulder as the revving stopped, and I found a scene straight out of a horror movie. The broad, beefy man stood at the end of my driveway with a scowl on his face and a wide stance.
He took a step forward, drawing a high-pitched scream from the bottom of my lungs, shattering the tranquility of the night. I jumped over the side railing, my feet sliding on the wet grass, and set off the sprinkler as I rounded the corner.
There was no way I’d jump back through people’s yards, so I dropped into my window well and laid on my back, my knees tucked up to my chin.
Don’t make a sound.