“Do you need help?” Theo asked loudly, walking closer to the door. The man looked frazzled. His hair was mussed, and the coat he wore was unzipped, showing the light blue shirt he wore underneath. When Theo got closer, she could see that a few of the buttons on the shirt were missing. What really drew her attention, though, was the wide gash on his forehead that was oozing blood into his brow.
“I’ve just been in an accident,” the man told her. “It’s slippery out here. I’m afraid I slid and hit a sign and now my car is stuck in a snowbank.” He lifted his hand and Theo saw he was holding a cell phone. The screen was dark, but she could see the spidery web of cracked glass. “I must have broken the damn thing,” he explained. “I can’t get it to turn on, and I need to call 911. Can you help me?”
It was obvious to Theo that the man was injured. She tried to look past him to the right, but all she could see were two cars that were parked at a diagonal in front of the building. When she looked left, she realized she couldn’t see very far up the street. She knew most of the businesses in town, except for Lowell’s Supermarket, closed by seven. She wasn’t sure how many of them the man had gone to before he showed up at her doorstep.
Theo felt a tingle of uncertainty, then scolded herself for it. She pulled the keys from her pocket and unlocked the door. The second the lock disengaged, Theo felt the man push the door open. He moved quickly, stepping inside and closing the door behind him.
“I’m not terribly surprised that Ashley was wrong,” he said.
Theo blinked. “What did you say?” Her fingers were wrapped tightly around her keys. The man moved forward, and Theo felt him grab for her other hand.
“She told me how smart you are. She was wrong. It’s sad. That was probably the last thought she had, too.” He shrugged. “Oh, well. I wonder what your last thought will be?”
That tingle of uncertainty flared up into full-fledged panic and Theo did the first thing that came to her mind. She unclenched her hand enough so that one of the keys fell in between her fingers. She swung her arm up and jabbed the metal into the man’s cheek. His eyes went wide, and she heard him grunt.
“You little bitch,” he spat in her face before Theo turned and took off running. She knew she’d never make it down the hall, through the kitchen and to the back door. If she could make it to her office, though, she could lock herself inside. She didn’t make it nearly that far.
Theo had gotten a little space between them. The man flung himself forward, wrapping his arms around her legs, knocking her off balance. Theo fell forward. It happened so fast that she was unable to get her hands up quickly enough to break her fall. Instead, she landed with a loud thump, her chest and the underside of her chin taking the brunt of the impact. She felt the air in her lungs forcefully leave her body, and suddenly she couldn’t breathe. Everything around her spun and she tasted blood a moment before she realized that her teeth had clamped down on her tongue.
Theo heard something else hit the floor. When she opened her eyes, she saw something slide away from her. It was a phone with a bright yellow case. It was Ashley’s phone.
“You …. son … ofabitch …
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going? You can’t leave,” the man taunted when Theo tried to crawl away. “We’ve barely gotten started.”
“Ash …” Theo gasped.
“What’s that?”
“Ashley …”
“Weren’t you listening?” he said, taking ahold of Theo’s arm. His grip was like a vise, and he flipped Theo over onto her back as if she weighed nothing at all. She felt the warm stickiness of blood on her lower lip and chin. “By now, Ashley’s probably been reunited with Mina. She fought it, of course, but they’re both finally where they belong.”
His smile looked maniacal, and it made Theo fight against him even harder. She wriggled underneath him, trying to free her arms. He was straddling her, and she could smell the sour stench of body odor and sweat on his skin.
He let go of her arms and moved his hands quickly to her neck. Immediately, Theo began battering him with her fists, the keys she still held scratching and gouging his face.
“I’ve changed my mind,” the man said. “I think the quicker we get this over with the better.”
He squeezed, digging his fingers into Theo’s soft skin. It didn’t take long before she was gasping for air. She kicked and bucked, trying to get the man off of her. She swatted at him, using her right hand to land punches, and her left to slap his face.
“Stay awake,” she told herself, holding even tighter to her keys, the metal cutting into the palm of her hand.
She couldn’t get enough air. She gasped like a fish out of water, but he was holding on too tight. She felt panic starting to take over as she began to lose consciousness. She bucked again, this time bringing her leg up. It was almost a spasm, her body’s way of reacting to the panic she felt. Luckily for her, she managed to knee the man hard enough in the groin that he instinctively let go of her throat to clutch at himself.
He rolled off Theo and she writhed on the ground, trying to get a breath of air. She knew she didn’t have any time to waste, and she’d only made him angrier. When he could move again, he’d be sure to finish her off.
Still gasping, Theo struggled to get to her hands and knees. Her eyes were watering and it hurt to swallow. Her head was thumping as she moved forward slowly. She knew the only way to escape him was to get to her office. It wasn’t even three yards away, but it felt like a mile. She pocketed her keys again and continued to crawl. Then she scrambled to her feet and stumbled toward the open door. She heard the man behind her. By the time she’d gotten to her office, he was only a few feet away.
Theo’s eyes scanned the shelves to her left. They were filled with history and law books, some of her favorite fiction titles, a smattering of knick knacks and framed photographs. She briefly caught sight of the Murphys in Disney World, Theo as a six-year-old child with curls gone out of control in the Florida humidity. Cleopatra had her mouth open, and her eyes were wide. She had her arms stretched out like she was performing a cheer, only in Theo’s head, she heard her sister yell, “Get out! Get away!”
On one of the shelves sat the oversized snow globe Glory had mentioned in her email. It was almost ten inches high, and the globe was six inches around. Inside was a miniature version of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. She remembered Glory trying to talk her out of the souvenir but Theo could not be swayed.
Theo wrapped her fingers around the base and swung it around like a left-handed batter standing on home plate. Instead of connecting with a baseball, Theo managed to connect with the left side of the man’s head. She hit him so hard it reverberated down her arm. She lost her grip on the base and the whole thing fell, the globe breaking and water and bits of plastic snow exploding all over the hardwoods.
The man howled in pain, falling sideways against her desk. The blow didn’t knock him out, but it did knock him off balance. Theo took advantage and hopped over the lower part of his body. If she couldn’t lock herself in her office, she’d have to lock him inside of it.
She slipped in the water and careened forward, hitting the doorframe hard with her shoulder. Blinding pain shot through her chest, and she had a hard time getting the keys out of her pocket again. She made it over the threshold, but the man wasn’t far behind. She pulled the door shut as he was trying to keep it open.
“No!” she screamed at the top of her lungs, only the voice that came out of her wounded throat sounded croaky and deep, much more of a whisper than a shout.
Through the foot wide opening between the door and the frame, she saw the man slip in the water. His body went backward, and he let go of the door. Theo had been pulling it so hard that it slammed shut with a loud bang. The noise surprised her, and she fumbled with the keys, trying to find the right one to fit the deadbolt.
“Come on,” she told herself, trying to push a key into the keyhole. Wrong one. “Shit,” she muttered, trying again. She heard noises on the other side of the door, and she pushed another key inside. This time it fit. She engaged the lock and heard the man twisting the knob from inside.
“Goddamn it!” he yelled.
Over the roar of pain that was throbbing in Theo’s head and the cursing that was coming from the other side of the door, Theo could faintly hear the music box of the destroyed snow globe slowly playing the notes of “A Foggy Day (In London Town)”.
“Theodora!”
Theo blinked and turned toward the front of the office. Vivienne was standing outside. She’d pushed the wreath aside and was peering through the glass with her hands on either side of her face.
“Theo!” she yelled again.
Theo walked toward the front door, taking a few seconds to reach down and pick up Ashley’s phone. She glanced at the screen and saw that it was intact. She had to hand it to the guy. He’d been thorough when he planned this whole thing out.
“You fucking asshole,” Theo whisper screamed out of her damaged throat, turning to throw a scathing look at the thick oak that separated her from her attacker.
