The light blinded me. Bright, shining directly in my eyes. I raised my arm to shield my face as I tried to push myself backwards, across the stage and out of his way.
‘Please,’ I called out. ‘Don’t do this. Please.’
‘Miss?’ An unfamiliar voice spoke. ‘Miss. I’m not here to hurt you. I’m just … we had reports of a break-in …’
The figure turned the torch towards himself, and I saw a man wearing a slightly horrified expression and a security uniform standing just metres away from me.
‘Please, there’s a man here and he has a knife. He’s killed before,’ I stuttered.
The security man paled. Even in the darkness, I could see the colour drain from his face. He lifted a radio from the lapel of his work jacket and spoke into it.
‘Call 999 now. Police and ambulance. An armed man and a casualty, here at the old school site. I’m going to try to bring her out. It must be that missing woman they’re searching for.’
A disembodied voice muttered something in return as I nodded to him. I couldn’t make out what the voice was saying. My heart was thumping too hard. All I could think was that we needed to get out and soon. I was sure Michael, or whatever his name was, would be on us at any second.
The security man took a step towards me, reached out an arm to me.
‘Can you stand? Can you walk?’
‘Yes,’ I stuttered. ‘But he’s near.’
‘We’ll get you out of here,’ he said, but I could detect the shake in his voice. ‘The police have been looking for you.’
He took my hand in his and pulled me to standing, paused for just a second and took in the sight in front of him. I dreaded to think how alarming I looked. He turned, arm raised again with his torch and led me through the stage door to the corridor directly behind it. There was no sign of Michael, but I knew he could appear at any moment.
‘This way,’ the security man said, motioning for me to follow him towards the end of the corridor.
I knew there was a door there that led outside, but was sure it would be locked tight, too.
‘I have a key,’ he said, reaching for a large bunch of keys attached to his belt.
He started to fumble through them while I kept glancing at the other end of the corridor. I willed the security man to be quicker, but I could see he was nervous, too. His hands shook as he searched through the keys, which jangled together.
‘Can you hold the torch for me?’ he asked and I took it, shining it down on the keys as he continued his search.
I almost collapsed with relief when he said: ‘Ah, this should do it,’ and slid a key into the lock.
We were almost there. If we could just get outside …
‘Damn!’ he muttered, rattling the key in the lock. ‘It’s sticking. Probably rusted.’
My heart sank.
He pulled the key out and crouched down to look through the keyhole, rattling the door loudly as he went.
Too much noise. We were making too much noise. I felt my fear grow stronger, my legs tremble.
Shoving the key back in the lock, he jiggled it and fought with it, swearing loudly.
‘Hurry, please!’ I said as he rammed at the door with his shoulder, trying to force it open.
A noise from my left-hand side distracted me. I spun around, pointing the torch to the opposite end of the corridor, and saw my captor bearing down on us, his eyes wild with fury.
Twenty feet away.
Fifteen.
Ten.
Then a tug at my arm as I was pulled through the now open door, onto the stone steps outside. The security man followed, pushing the door closed as quickly as he could, putting the full weight of his body against it to hold it shut while he turned the key in the lock from the other side.
I could hear Aaron scream and curse, smash his fists against the door, but he couldn’t get out. Not now. Not from that door, anyway.
But I knew he had his own way in and out, and it wouldn’t take him long to reach it.
‘This way,’ I shouted to the security man as he spoke quickly into his radio.
He followed me down the stone steps and we turned to run up towards the front entrance of the school grounds, where we’d be easily seen by passing traffic.
A white security van was sitting by the entrance and a woman in the same uniform as the man who’d found me jumped out, pulling off her jacket as she ran towards me, wrapping it round me when I reached her.
‘He’s still here,’ I called. ‘He’ll get us.’
‘Help is coming,’ she shouted.
And I could hear the thrum of the helicopter blades overhead again and the distant wail of sirens. My legs finally buckled and the two security staff led me to their van, just as the first police car turned into the grounds.