The Quiet

I stepped backward, taking Clay with me. He moved like a zombie and seemed to not register that Maddox had pulled the knife from Lena’s body and was coming toward us.

“What do we do?” I whispered.

Silence.

The rain had started again, and before I knew what I was doing, I pulled Clay over to the back door and unlocked it. We stumbled out and onto the grass. Everything was cold and soggy, and for a moment I couldn’t stand.

I was soaked. I turned my head, shivering, to see Clay lying face down in the grass and mud. I reached over and pulled him by the hair, to get his mouth away from the ground before he suffocated.

“Lena,” Clay groaned as he looked at me. “Oh God, what did I do?” He was shaking, and I didn’t think it was just from the cold.

“You didn’t have a choice,” I told him. “It’s done. Now we’ve got to move.” Behind us, I could heard something. I looked and saw Maddox, pissed, and wielding that knife like it was a sword.

“Fucking bitch!” he shouted, reaching for me.

He caught me around the ankle and started to drag me backward. I screamed Clay’s name and dug my fingers into the earth, the lawn coming up under my nails. Clay leapt for me, missed, and slammed his face into the concrete near the door.

“Cari!” he shouted, after lifting his face and revealing a cut on his jaw. All the blood on his face made him look maddening.

“Clay, help me!” I couldn’t stop screaming as Maddox gripped me around the waist and lifted my body. I kicked, shattering the window of the door as he pulled me inside.

“Shut the fuck up!” Maddox hissed.

His fist collided with my head a few times, and when he put me down, I staggered before tripping over the side table and losing consciousness.