He always hits me where no one can see. The first time it happened, I thought I was seeing him for who he really was. . . . Then I realized I was lying. I’ve always known who he is—what he is. I was just too afraid to name it.
—Page 79 of Tessa Waye’s diary
Todd?! It was Todd? I push back from the desk, feet kicked under me, ready to run. No, he’s been so upset. Her death gutted him. Remember the tears? How he fought her dad? How he was eaten up with guilt? It couldn’t be Todd.
Except he’s smiling and nodding like he knows what’s tumbling through my head and he likes it. The pieces click into place. Access to Tessa. Access to Lily.
And now we’re alone.
“Surprised?”
Todd holds up his cell phone so I can see the screen. It’s my bedroom. It’s me. Right now. “Amazing what those security system install guys will do for an extra hundred bucks. He put another cam in your room’s heating vent and routed the feed to my cell. For a while, it was enough to know that it was there. I didn’t turn it on until recently, and guess what I found out?”
Chills skitter up my spine and I reach for my bat, but my hand grabs air.
It’s gone.
When I turn around, Todd laughs harder. “Missing something?” He holds up my bat so I can see it.
“You said you wanted to protect her,” I blurt. “You said you should’ve done something.”
“Protect her from him, from that asshole father of hers.” Todd’s hand grazes the edge of his jaw, as if he’s remembering Tessa’s touch. “She didn’t need protection from me. She seduced me. She wanted it. They always want it. I could have had any of them, but I wanted her because she was broken.”
Todd’s eyes drop to the desktop, where his fingers tap against the wood. “I loved how much Tessa wanted me. She thought I was a god, but it wasn’t until she fought me and I forced her anyway that I felt like a god. In one afternoon, I finally understood why her father hit her—because nothing tastes better than power over someone else. Made me think about sweet, little Lily . . . and what I could make her do.”
My breathing’s gone rough and ragged, making me sound like some animal run to ground. I start to grab random objects. Books. Computer cords. A laptop bag. There’s nothing here! How am I going to defend myself?
“But what I realized is Lily would never be a challenge,” Todd continues. “I don’t want her anymore. Right now, I want you.”
Me? I look back at my computer. The chair is spinning. It’s empty. Todd is gone.
He’s coming. I run for the door, grabbing the knob with both hands to work the lock except . . . the lock just spins and spins.
“No,” I whisper. He must have disabled it. It’s useless. “No, no, no!”
I hurtle around, launch myself at the window, but when I lift up on the frame, nothing happens. It doesn’t budge, and my fingertips graze freshly hammered nail heads.
He’s nailed the window shut. There’s no escape.
I back away, my eyes darting over the room. I need a barricade, but the bed’s too heavy. I’ll never be able to move it. My desk? Too light, and it’s too small to wedge against the door.
“Oh, Wiiiicccckkkkeeet.” Todd’s voice floats from somewhere farther down the hallway. “Are you going to run from me?”
What am I going to do? My eyes fall on my bedside lamp. I’ll fight.
“I hope you do run.” Todd laughs, and I fling myself toward the bed, unplugging the lamp, dipping the room into dark. “I really hope you do. I like it better when I get to chase.”
Footsteps. My hands are sweat-slick and sliding along the lamp’s metal base. He’s on the stairs.
I yank the shade off the top, break the cord from the base. Makeshift bat. I hoist it to one shoulder, test the weight. Lighter than I want, but short enough that I’ll be able to do some damage. It’ll work.
I stand in the dark and wait. When he comes, I’ll nail him. Except . . . maybe I shouldn’t wait. I shift my weight from foot to foot, trying to ready myself and ignore how my knees want to crumble.
I ease forward, opening my bedroom door so I can see Todd coming—and lights sweep the street outside my window.
“Well, look who’s here,” I whisper as Detective Carson pulls up.
“Not a runner then.” Todd sounds disappointed . . . and intrigued. “Guess you just go for what you know, huh, Wicket? Having that fucking loser for a father, I can’t imagine this is the first time you’ve been chased.”
No, it isn’t. And you’d think it would make this easier, but it’s not. I’m trying not to breathe so hard. I’m trying to be quiet, but I can’t get enough air.
He’s a few feet from me now, just outside the doorway, and I can’t see for shit. After Todd saw my room was dark, he flipped out the hallway lights. Now we’re both blind.
Until a dim glow crawls across my floor from Carson’s headlights.
Shit! The detective is turning his car around. Is he leaving? For a second, I think about hurling myself into the window, about smashing the glass and screaming for help.
Would I make it?
“I see your hero has arrived.”
I stifle a gasp. Todd’s closer than I thought, just on the other side of the wall.
“Don’t even think about screaming for him,” Todd says. “I’ll be on you before he ever hears a sound.”
There’s a creak of floorboard, and blood throbs in my ears. I ram my shoulder against the wall and lift the lamp higher.
“You know he’s suspected me all along,” he continues, and in the dim light, I see his fingers wrap around the door frame. “That’s why he keeps making excuses to come by, why he keeps circling the house.”
I hold myself steady even though everything in me is screaming to start swinging. Careful, you don’t want to break his hand, you want to smash his face. You want to get him down so he can’t get back up.
“At first.” Todd takes another step, pushing the edge of his profile into reach. He exhales, and I can smell the peppermint he’s chewing. “I thought—I hoped—he was after you and your piece-of-shit father. Then I realized it was me and the game was on, but he’ll never catch me. Do you know why, Wicket?”
He’s trying to get me to talk, get an idea of where I am. I hold my breath.
Todd sighs, disappointed I didn’t take the bait. “He won’t catch me because after I finish with you there won’t be anything left and I’ll be gone.”
Another step closer and I swing. The lamp base connects with his nose, and there’s a sickening crunching noise. Todd screams, lashes out. I duck, but I’m not fast enough, and his hand digs into my hair.
“You little bitch!” he hisses, and yanks me to him. The lamp base’s corner has torn his cheek wide open, exposing a seam of teeth. “You will fucking pay for that!”
I kick, connect with his knee, then his shin. He sucks in a hard breath, and I register one horrifying heartbeat before Todd punches me in the face.
Once.
Twice.
Stars explode behind my eyes and warmth courses down my face. Blood. But no pain. Not yet. That will come later. Sticky heat floods my face, the shock making me hesitate.
It’s all the opening he needs.
Todd half kicks, half pushes me onto the floor. I fall on my back, rolling even before I fully connect. Surprise is gone and instinct is kicking in. I cannot get pinned. I must not get pinned down. He’s too heavy. If he gets on top of me, I’m done.
Todd crashes down after me, one hand raised. Something metallic flashes.
Knife!
Todd plunges it downward, aiming at my chest and catching my arm instead. Pain rips through me, shooting all the way down to my fingers.
“When I finish with you, they’ll never even find your pieces!”
My good hand flails, scrabbles, and connects with a discarded boot. I grab it, smashing it into Todd’s broken nose. More blood sprays. He backhands me, and the swing hits me so hard it actually knocks me out of reach. I slide across the floorboards, crash into the dresser, and Todd staggers up, ready to come after me.
He’s just not fast enough.
I’m on my feet now, and I plunge into the hallway, into the dark. Todd grabs the edge of my T-shirt. It rips, but it doesn’t slow me down. He’s right. I do know all about being chased. My dad gave me plenty of practice, and Todd won’t catch me now.
I jump the stairs two at a time until I hit the middle landing and my socks slip. I smack into the wall, go down hard on my knees. The pain in my arm streaks tears down my face.
“Got you!”
I look up and see him scrambling down the stairs after me. I scream even as my feet push me up for one last run that will get me nowhere.
I slam into his stomach, keep pushing until he falls right over me. Todd flips, hits the stairs with wood-splintering force. Something cracks and he slumps. I don’t even realize I’m still screaming until he slides to the bottom of the stairs.
Todd lies there, not moving.
Holy shit, I’ve killed him.