Mark John stood next to the door. He wordlessly beckoned Daisy inside. His eyes, empty and bloodshot, looked her up and down.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
Daisy was silent for a moment, listening. Where was Jude?
“I was worried about Jude,” she said, her heart beginning to pound harder.
“Why would you be worried about her?”
Daisy had to think fast. “She called and sounded upset earlier. She said you had gone out and I thought I would come over and see if she was okay.”
“She’s fine. It’s strange, because I’ve been here for a while. If you thought she was upset when I wasn’t here, why did you wait so long before coming over?”
“I couldn’t find your address,” Daisy said lamely.
“Really.” Mark John clearly wasn’t buying it.
Mark John reached around Daisy’s back and locked the front door. Daisy’s blood ran cold.
“Follow me,” Mark John directed.
“Where are we going?” Daisy asked, rooted to the spot. “Where’s Jude?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he took Daisy by the elbow and maneuvered her toward the back of the house. When they came to the doorway of the den, Daisy took one look at the sight before her and whimpered.
Jude was on the floor, unconscious. At least Daisy hoped she was only unconscious. Blood pooled around her head and her face was bruised and swollen.
“Oh, my God! Jude!” Daisy cried, then took a step toward her friend. Mark John yanked her elbow to whip her back to her place next to him. She covered her mouth with her hands and closed her eyes to shut out the sight.
“Shut up!” Mark John bellowed. With lightning speed he reached out and hit Daisy across the face with his open hand. Tears of pain sprang to her eyes almost immediately and she stared at him for a brief moment, stunned.
“What’s wrong, Mark John?” she asked, blinking furiously. She didn’t want him to think he made her cry.
“Nothing!” he shouted.
“Mark John, there’s something in your genes that’s making you do this. Have you ever heard of the warrior gene?”
“Of course I’ve heard of it,” he spat. “It’s a curse!”
“But what it means is that you may not be fully responsible for your behavior. You can’t help the way you are. We can get you help for this, Mark John, but you can’t hurt Jude or me,” Daisy said, holding perfectly still so he wouldn’t wrench her elbow any further. “Please let go of me. You’re hurting me.”
“You don’t understand anything, Daisy,” Mark John said in a tired voice. “I know right from wrong. I know it’s wrong to hurt people. But I just can’t help it sometimes.”
There was a knock at the front door. Mark John gripped Daisy’s arm tighter and snarled, “Who’s that?”
“It’s Brian. He’s here to help you.”
“You’re a liar!” Mark John yelled. His voice was so thunderous Daisy was sure Brian could hear him.
“Please, Mark John. Let us help you,” Daisy said, glancing toward the door. She could see it from where she stood in the den and she wondered if she might be able to yank her arm from Mark John’s grasp and reach the door before he could catch her.
“I told you to shut up!” he yelled again. His eyes flashed and his glance wavered toward the door for just a second. It was as if he knew what she was thinking. Before she had time to put her plan into action, he flung her to the floor with such force that when she hit her head on the corner of the couch, the room went black for several seconds. She could hear him muttering to himself, though, so she knew she wasn’t fully unconscious.
When her vision cleared she looked over to where Jude lay on the floor, just a few feet away. Then she looked toward Mark John, who was sitting on the couch with his head in his hands, still talking to himself. Then she saw the briefest of movements outside the den window.
Brian! He had come around the house and was peering inside. She saw his eyes widen and he disappeared from view.
Daisy groaned inwardly. Where was he going? She tried pushing herself up onto her hands and knees, but they were still bruised and scabbed since she had fallen on them a few days earlier when she was walking to the movies with Grover. Besides, the room was spinning and she couldn’t trust herself to move yet. She slumped back onto the floor. A noise escaped her lips and Mark John’s head whipped around.
“Don’t you ever give up?” he asked, getting to his feet.
“No,” she croaked. He walked over to her and kicked her ribs with a vicious force. She could actually hear a cracking sound. She groaned in pain while her head lolled on the floor again. Mark John watched her for a moment, then apparently deciding she, like Jude, was unconscious, he returned to the couch.
Daisy had positioned herself so she could peer through mostly-closed eyelids and see both Jude and Mark John without him being able to see her. She hoped Mark John didn’t hear her sharp intake of breath when she saw Jude moving.
Jude let out a whimper of pain and rolled over. Daisy could see her reach slowly and gingerly for the place where the blood was still seeping slowly from her head. Mark John glanced up from where he still sat on the couch.
“I’m sorry, Jude. I didn’t mean to hurt you. It’s just…it’s just that…all of a sudden I felt this rage and I couldn’t control it and….” He stopped talking. Jude wasn’t responding. Daisy hoped with all her heart that Jude was smart enough to pretend to have fainted again.
Daisy opened her eye just a bit further and could see Mark John’s shoulders shaking. He’s crying, she thought. Just like Thomas cried after hitting Adelaide.
But then the shaking stopped and Mark John stood up again. He stalked over to Jude and lifted her by placing his hands under her armpits. He began to drag her toward the den doorway. Jude didn’t move or make a sound. It was possible she had fainted again, or maybe she was pretending.
Mark John continued tugging Jude’s body until he backed into the corner of a cabinet that stood near the doorway.
“Dammit!” he roared. Daisy squeezed her eyes shut again at the sound.
He let Jude slump to the floor while he shoved the cabinet with a force Daisy wouldn’t have thought possible. His anger was palpable. The glass figurines and knick-knacks in the cabinet made tinkling sounds as they toppled over and broke inside the cabinet as it teetered for a moment, then settled back into its place. Mark John seemed oblivious to the sound of breaking glass. He turned to Jude and grabbed her by the arms, dragging her again, into the living room.
While he was busy with Jude, Daisy recognized her chance to get out of the house. Very slowly, watching him out of the corner of her eye, she pushed herself, wincing, to a kneeling position. Mark John was so busy with Jude that he didn’t notice her moving.
She took a deep breath and bolted toward the back door. At least she felt like she was bolting, but she didn’t seem to be getting to the door very quickly.
This time Mark John noticed her movements. With a roar that didn’t sound human, he lunged toward her as she reached the door, pulling it open and crashing onto the patio outside.
“Brian! Help!” she yelled. Her voice didn’t sound very loud in her own ears.
Mark John was on top of her just a second later, pummeling her with his fists. She tried moving her head to dodge his blows, but he managed to make contact with her face several times. She could hear a voice screaming. Was that her?
She didn’t realize what was happening when Mark John slumped over next to her on the patio. Daring to open her eyes and peer over Mark John’s limp body, she could see Brian standing over his brother-in-law, a two-by-four in his hands.
He had, quite possibly, saved the lives of both Daisy and Jude.
“The police are on their way, Daisy,” Brian said, kneeling down next to Mark John and peering at him in the dimness of the patio light. He still held his makeshift weapon. Then he turned to her. “Hang in there for just a couple minutes. Help will be here very soon.
“He’s unconscious,” he continued reassuringly. “If he wakes up before the police get here, I’ll just hit him again if I have to,” he continued.
“Jude?” Daisy asked hoarsely.
“I haven’t been in to check on her yet. I don’t want to leave you out here alone with him.”
“I’ll go check on her,” Daisy offered, pushing herself slowly to her feet. But her body screamed in protest and she gently lowered herself back onto the patio. “Just give me a minute.”
“I told the nine-one-one operator we’d need ambulances, too, so they’ll be here any minute. You need to stay still right now,” Brian said, keeping a wary eye on Mark John.
She closed her eyes again and tried to focus on something other than the pain, but it even hurt to breathe. She strained her ears and could, mercifully, hear sirens in the distance, getting steadily closer.
She took some shallow breaths and shifted her head to see if she could get a glimpse of Jude in the house. She could see her friend lying on the floor inside the living room doorway where Mark John had left her. A cold chill snaked up Daisy’s skull.
Had Mark John succeeded in killing her?
She turned to look toward the gate in the backyard. The sirens had stopped, but she could see swirling lights reflecting off the neighbor’s houses. The ambulances were in the driveway.
Brian gave a shout to direct the authorities to the backyard. Daisy knew he didn’t want to take a chance that Mark John would come to and cause more pain if he woke up while Brian was showing the police and paramedics where the injured women lay.
A phalanx of officers and paramedics came into the backyard, moving cautiously at first, then building speed when they realized two people were lying on the ground. One of the officers barked an order for Brian to set the piece of wood on the ground and step away from Mark John.
Another officer approached Daisy and she lifted her head feebly.
“My friend is inside on the floor. Please, go check on her first.”
The officer nodded and beckoned for a paramedic to join him and the two of them went into the house as another officer and two paramedics walked swiftly to where Daisy lay.
While one paramedic tended to her and the other knelt by Mark John, a policeman asked questions about Mark John and Jude. Daisy could hear another officer asking similar questions of Brian just a few feet away. As they spoke Mark John began to move his legs. He groaned. One of the officers was by his side in an instant.
“Can you tell me what happened here, Mister Friole?” he asked.
Mark John shook his head limply from side to side.
“Did you attack this woman?” the officer asked, gesturing toward Daisy. Mark John nodded feebly.
In just a few minutes he was strapped to a stretcher. An officer was accompanying him to the hospital in the back of the ambulance.
Shortly thereafter Daisy was also strapped to a stretcher, being taken to another hospital. Brian asked if he could accompany her; the police and paramedic agreed he should ride in the back of the ambulance.
Jude went in a third ambulance to the hospital where Daisy was being sent. No one accompanied her except for the paramedic who rode in the back of the vehicle.