Page 55 of Poisoned Promise
There’s nothing familiar about his bulbous nose, thin lips, or scarred cheek, so in the same second that we lock eyes, I ball one hand up into a fist and launch it at his face.
He jerks back with a yell of alarm and scrambles as far away from me as I can.
Which isn’t far at all because I follow him instantly, throwing myself out of the bed and onto unsteady legs.
This isn’t my bedroom.
I’ve no idea where this is. The wallpaper behind the stranger is red with silver swirls, the floor is incredibly soft under my bare feet, and the door the stranger is sprinting toward is an unfamiliar dark-stained wood.
“Who the fuck are you!?” I yell, throwing myself forward as hard as I can.
The man scrambles away, so I drop forward onto my hands, spring upwards and spin while throwing my leg outward. Mybare foot catches him in the centre of his chest and he crashes back into the wall with a cry.
“Holy shit, you’re fucking crazy!” he yells in alarm, ducking my next blow and scrambling away as I withdraw my fist from the wall.
“Who are you?!” I yell again, pushing off the wall and racing after him but he makes it to the door, wrenches it open, and darts outside.
The door slams closed just as I reach it, so I collide with it full force and slam both my hands against it while locks click into place.
“Open the door motherfucker!” I scream, battering the wood with my hands. “Open the fucking door!”
“Mom?” Alex’s soft, trembling voice cuts through my adrenaline-fuelled panic, and all concern about where I am, where Alex is, and how I got here melts into utter relief that Alex is with me.
Spinning on the spot, I lock eyes with him across the room and lunge toward where he sits on another bed tucked up against the wall.
“Alex! Oh my god, are you okay? Are you hurt? Did he do anything to you? If anyone hurt you, I swear I will kill them!” Landing on the bed next to him, I cup his face and quickly look him over, then glance down at his clean t-shirt and the now blue cast on his broken arm. Nothing looks out of the ordinary.
“Mom.” Alex’s face crumples, and tears flood his eyes. Then, he sags against my chest, and I wrap my arms tight around him.
“It’s okay, honey. I’m here now. It’s okay. Are you okay?”
“I didn’t know if you were going to wake up,” he sobs, curling one fist into my t-shirt. “I was s-scared.”
“I’m awake, honey. I’m awake. It’s okay. You’re okay. I’m right here.” Tightening my embrace, I cradle the back of his head with my hand and glance around.
This room’s pretty empty. Two beds. A side table with a lamp and a sealed window.
Judging by the flashing lights I glimpse outside from radio towers, we’re pretty high up, which means breaking that window isn’t an option.
How did I get here?
Fog clouds my thoughts and I shake my head slightly, then I lean back from Alex and cup his tear-stained face. “Honey, answer me. Are you okay? Did anyone hurt you?”
“No one hurt me,” he sniffles. “I’m okay.”
“You promise? Because if anyone hurt you and threatened you not to tell me, you still have to tell me.”
“No one did,” he insists through his tears. “But?—.”
“But?” My chest tightens immediately. “Honey, tell me what happened? What happened at…” I trail off as the memory of poor Mary face down on the ground with blood staining her white curls pops right into my mind.
“There were people,” Alex cries, tightening his grip on me. “These men came knocking and they broke down the door. They were yelling about you and Mary, she tried to call the cops, Mom. She was telling me to run but they had guns, and I was scared. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
I’m going to kill Felix with my bare hands.
“It’s okay honey. Nothing that happened was your fault, you hear me?” I swipe some of his tears away with my thumb. “Tell me everything.”
“They kept yelling and yelling and Mary was trying to stay between them and then… I don’t know. It looked like she started having a heart attack. She couldn’t breathe. She was clutching her chest and she fell into one of the men and he hit her, and she went down and then… and then—!” He’s gasping desperately through his tears. “Your friend turned up!”
