Insomnia (The Night Walkers)

by Johansson, J. R.

  Jeff spun toward me, his eyes hard and angry. “This is my school. And you don’t get to share my glory. I made our team a winning one. Not you. I turned soccer from a sport into a lifestyle. Not you. Mia is mine, and you can both burn in hell if you think I’m going to let you have her.” Then he gave a crazy laugh and pointed to the flame. “Burn, get it?”

  “Did Thor help you with all this?” I had to keep him distracted. Every time he met my eyes, I saw it. That desire to kill, to cause pain. I needed to keep him focused on gloating over his victory. I had to keep him away from Mia.

  “Thor? You think that moron has the brains to pull off something like this?” His laugh was ice cold. “He’s my permanent alibi. He already kept me from getting in trouble when Liv and that other whore started yelling rape, and he’ll keep me from getting blamed for this.”

  I coughed. “Rape?” Liv … the fear I’d seen in her eyes in the hallway. She hadn’t been afraid of me—she’d been afraid of Jeff.

  His eyes glinted in the light of the fire. “They wanted it.” A sneer twisted his lips and his eyes looked wild. “Just like Mia will.”

  Turning, he walked toward her. “You want it, don’t you, Mia?” He grabbed a paper from a nearby table and lit the corner. He knelt before her and touched the flame to her calf. I fought the rope that bound my hands as she screamed.

  “Stop it!” I yelled as loudly as I could, trying to draw his attention back to me.

  “Don’t tell me what to do. Never tell me what to do!” Whirling, he dropped the paper in the trash. In an instant he was on me, hitting me over and over. My world filled with the metallic taste and smell of blood.

  Time passed through a haze as I tried to make my brain refocus. Whether from the hour or the worsening storm, the light coming through the high windows was dimmer than when I’d arrived. Snow fell outside—that much I could tell. It was hard to remember what had happened, though—hard to remember anything. Jeff added a piece of wood to the garbage can, and then he sat beside Mia and ran his fingers down her hair.

  He turned to face me, his expression hard, cruel. “I downloaded this neat little tracking program to tell me when someone logs into my account from another computer. I noticed you finally accessed my e-mail. It took you long enough. That was pretty much genius, don’t you think?”

  I met his eyes and tried to nod, but my head refused to obey and fell to one side.

  “You’re an easy target, Parker. Always so trusting.” Hat-

  red filled his eyes, but his mouth twisted into a smug smile. “You really should’ve taken those password security recommendations more seriously.”

  I remembered that Jeff had sat next to me in computer lab last year. He must have seen my password back then, and I’d never seen any point in changing it. He was right—I’d been a fool. I’d accepted the fact that I was guilty of everything and stopped searching for the real threat.

  I’d made a mistake, but I’d be damned if I was going to let Mia die because of it.

  “Of course, I considered using your real e-mail, but I couldn’t risk you finding out too early and ruining all the fun.” Jeff laughed, sat on the floor beside Mia, and held her hand in his. She was helpless, and he was psycho. It made me furious, and the instant he glanced my way, he could see it.

  “You know she isn’t yours now.” His eyes flashed with arrogance and fury.

  “She was never mine,” I growled out between my bloody teeth as Jeff ran his hand up her arm. “But she isn’t yours either.”

  “Yes she is.” His head whipped back around to face me. “Her hands aren’t tied, but is she telling me to stop?”

  He was staring at me like he seriously expected an answer. I opened my mouth but nothing would come out.

  “I can do anything to her.” He moved his hand to her opposite cheek and lifted her hair away from her ear. “I can touch her and kiss her.” He nibbled on her ear for a moment and then bit her until a few drops of blood came out and she flinched. “I can hurt her. Anything I want and she will let me. That’s how I know she’s really mine.”

  My hands gripped each other so tightly behind me I thought I might pull something, but I didn’t say a word. I kept my face neutral. I wasn’t going to play into his twisted thrills.

  Mia’s whole body shook as Jeff kissed her neck. He pulled the neck of her T-shirt down, his hair falling around his face as he kissed her shoulder. She might not have been saying no with her voice, but her body was screaming it. It horrified me, but I didn’t let it show. I couldn’t—not now, not when she needed me most.

  “Whatever, man.” I shrugged. Everything felt a little clearer; my brain was responding faster with every minute he wasn’t attacking me. “You’re sick, but she’s not my problem. Do whatever you want with her.”

  Jeff raised his head and stared at me. Something about my statement seemed to make him unreasonably angry. “What do you mean? I’ve seen you following her. You want her too. I’ve seen it.”

  “I did at first.” I met his eyes and didn’t even glance at Mia. “But I was just curious. I haven’t even seen her in weeks. She’s exactly like every other girl.”

  “You haven’t seen her because you were in the hospital. Do you think I’m stupid?” He snarled and stood up. “Freeburg thought I was stupid.” He paced around the room, his motions tight and rigid like a furious robot. “He was like you. Both of you, staring. She didn’t want you or Freeburg. Mia didn’t want you. You were just a distraction. Distracting everyone from me.”

  Staring at the snow out the window, he muttered, “Like Mom, always distracted from me, no one notices. But not now. Not this time.”

  He spun to face me as though just noticing I was there again. “You love her, and you kept her from me. Don’t lie. I don’t like liars.” He grabbed a chisel from a nearby workbench and lifted it as he walked toward me. His eyes were glazed over and focused at the same time—I saw a need for violence in them that I never could have imagined.

  “Okay, I lied,” I shouted as he closed in. “I love her.”

  He froze and dropped his arm. Peace filled his expression and he grinned. “I knew this would be fun.”

  In the silence, we heard a door slam somewhere in the school. The wind picked up outside. I could hear it whistling through the walls—maybe a gust had closed the door. Jeff placed one finger to his lips and held his chisel up again. I nodded and he slipped out of the room.

  Now was my chance. It might be the only one I would get.

  I sawed my wrists back and forth; they were raw and bleeding from my efforts, but the rope still wouldn’t give. My legs weren’t tied down. Maybe if I caught him off guard I could kick him.

  I glanced at Mia. Her shirt was crooked, her shoulder still exposed. But she didn’t even seem to notice. Her eyes were glued to the fire still crackling in the trash can. Why hadn’t the fire alarm gone off? Looking around, I saw the smoke detector hanging useless on the ceiling. A window at the top of the wall, above Mia’s head, was open, and most of the smoke was escaping there.

  I inhaled the stinging, hazy air. I needed to get through to Mia. It was our only hope.

  “Mia.” She jerked at the sound of my voice but didn’t lift her eyes from the flames. “Mia, I know you’re scared, but I won’t let the fire hurt you.”

  No response for 1 … 2 … 3 … Then a slight shake of her head. She could hear me.

  “I won’t let the fire hurt you like it did your parents.” I could hear something in the distance—a shout and then silence. “You have to trust me, Mia. I won’t hurt you.”

  Mia stopped shaking and took a deep breath, but she still couldn’t drag her eyes away. Behind the silence of her response, a weird shuffling sound came up the hallway.

  “I’ll do everything I can to help you, like in your dreams. But you have to let me.”

  Mia’s eyes flitted to mine for a m
oment and I thought I caught a slight nod, but then she glanced at the door behind me and her eyes went straight back to the flames. I hoped it would be enough.

  I could hear Jeff grunting behind me but I couldn’t see him. “You know, if you untied me, I could help you,” I said.

  His laugh was brittle. “I doubt you’d want to do that.”

  He finally came into view, and I saw why he was struggling. He was dragging someone along the floor behind him. The body was half-rolled in a mat, the head covered in a black snow cap. It was agonizing, only being able to see a portion of the person at a time, but by the time Jeff dropped the mat, I could see the blood-soaked shirt that read The police never think it’s as funny as I do.

  My gut clenched, and suddenly I couldn’t make my body respond to any of the orders my brain threw at it. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t think. And the painful vacuum in my chest convinced me that my heart had refused to beat.

  “Your little boyfriend doesn’t look so good, Parker.” Jeff stood in front of me with his hands on his knees. The smirk on his face made me gag.

  Finn was dead, or dying, and Jeff was enjoying it. I couldn’t stand to see his face anymore—not ever again. He was close now … close enough …

  When I kicked hard against my chair, flipping it up in the air and connecting my shoe with Jeff’s face, it felt eerily similar to an extremely solid soccer ball. He lurched backward and sprawled across the floor, and I crashed down too, landing on my bound wrists.

  I felt two snaps in my left arm and yelled out in agony. I thought I would pass out from the pain, but Mia yelled something. Not words, actually; more like disjointed sounds. I rolled the chair toward her and my hands went oddly numb.

  Jeff was out cold, blood flowing freely from a deep gash on the side of his head. When he fell, he’d knocked over the garbage can, and pieces of burning wood were scattered around the room. A couple were already burning themselves out on the concrete floor, but one had landed in the wood bin and the fire had started to spread.

  “You–you–said–ahh–you–Parker.” Mia was breathing so fast her skin was stark white and her lips had a strange bluish tint to them. I knew if I couldn’t calm her down she wouldn’t be conscious for long, and then …

  Well, then we’d all burn.

  “Mia, I need you to come to me.” I spoke through gritted teeth, trying to forget the agony in my arm. She shook her head, her breathing actually speeding up more. “You need to take slower breaths. Everything is okay now. We’re leaving, okay? I need you to come untie me and then we’ll leave.”

  She seemed uncertain, but she glanced at Jeff’s limp form and her breathing softened a little.

  “There isn’t any fire between you and me. Can you come over here so we can go?”

  Mia glanced over at the fire and froze, her body trembling so hard I thought she might fall over.

  “Mia!” I shouted, and her eyes turned back to me. “Don’t look at the fire. Look at me. Keep your eyes on me. Like the dream, okay? It’s just us and we’re going to get out of here alive.”

  She nodded and crawled toward me. By the time she made it across the first few feet, her breathing had slowed even more.

  “Great job.” I spoke slowly and calmly, focusing on Mia and not the fire spreading from the wood bin to the desk. It moved fast, greedily consuming the papers and wood projects waiting to be graded.

  “Can you focus on my hands? We need to untie them so we can leave.”

  She moved around behind me and gasped. “One is br-broken.”

  “I know. We need to go so I can get it fixed, okay?”

  “Okay.” I could hear her sobbing as she scooted over to reach my ropes. With every tug, pain shot up my body and through the top of my head. I bit my tongue so hard it filled my mouth with blood. I couldn’t risk a scream escaping and frightening Mia back into her frozen state.

  The room was filling with smoke now and I could feel heat waves pulsing from the blaze at the other side of the room.

  “G-got it.” Mia tugged one last time and my hands were free. We got to our feet as smoke spilled out into the hallway and the fire alarms finally went off. Mia crouched down and covered her ears, her body racked with sobs. I rushed over to Finn. He was still breathing. A deep cut leaked blood from his stomach. Jeff must have stabbed him with the chisel.

  I glanced down at my arms. My left one was useless. It was bent at an angle that looked so wrong. My right one was weak too, and my wrist had been rubbed raw, but there was no way I would leave Finn or Mia behind.

  Pulling Mia to her feet with my right hand, I raised her chin until her eyes were level with mine. “We’re leaving now. I need you to hold on to my shoulder so you don’t hurt my arm. Okay?”

  “Okay.” She nodded and coughed. The smoke was getting too thick. “G-get me out of here.”

  Mia grabbed onto my left shoulder and I dragged Finn’s rug toward the hall with my good arm. I’d gotten the rug halfway through the doorway when it stopped moving. Ducking low, I covered my mouth with my sleeve and peered through the smoke.

  Jeff smiled back at me from the shop room. Blood ran down one half of his face.

  “I’m … not … done.” His voice was low, gravelly. Mia whimpered into my shoulder.

  “Mia, I need you to keep going.” I squeezed her hands and placed them on the rug. “I need you to pull Finn outside. I promise I won’t let Jeff get to you.”

  Her eyes swirled with terror as they met mine. “You want me to leave you?”

  “Yes.” I nodded. “Now go!”

  I jumped over the rug without touching Finn and slammed my body into Jeff’s as hard as I could. The hit knocked him on his back, and as we slid across the floor I glanced behind me to see Mia pulling the rug into the hall. Even through the smoke, I could see how hard she was shaking. But she was still doing what I’d asked.

  Jeff’s fist connected with my face and it felt like my cheek exploded. Then he was on his feet, and I saw him pull back to kick me. I rolled aside and out of the way. Every movement made my broken arm scream in agony. He was coughing, and he staggered to one side. Keeping myself low to the floor, I waited. I could breathe; he couldn’t.

  I found a piece of wood nearby and held it tight in my good hand. If I was going to get out alive, I needed to make my move. But I couldn’t just run. He’d come after us once already, and I had to make sure Mia had enough time to get Finn out.

  It felt like everything had slowed down, and I took a deep gulp from the disappearing pocket of fresh air. I watched Jeff bend his knees and duck to get below the smoke. His crazed eyes met mine. I saw in them what I’d seen in the eyes of Mr. Flint so many weeks ago, when he’d killed his wife, and in the eyes of Darkness. Jeff would kill me without a second thought if I let him.

  He lunged toward me as I swung, and I felt my makeshift weapon connect with his head. The sickening, solid thud reminded me of the way it felt when I’d hit Dr. Freeburg with the paperweight. I pushed aside the thought and watched Jeff stumble forward. I scrambled back, but when I saw that his eyes were closed and he was heading directly toward the fire, I dropped the wood, reached out, and grabbed his shirt.

  He turned to face me, blinking in confusion. His pupils were different sizes and he glanced down to where my hand was gripping the fabric. His face filled with anger.

  “Stop, Jeff!” I pleaded with him, seeing him start to pull away.

  “Shut up and get off me.” He shoved against my shoulder and I lost my grip. I stared in horror as he walked backward into the flames.

  I couldn’t watch. I turned my back, ducked low, and ran out the door as his screams echoed behind me.

  I was halfway down the hall before I saw them. Mia was on her knees, still trying to pull Finn as her shoulders shook with sobs. Finn was heavy, and it was clear Mia couldn’t breathe. I could barely breathe myself and I wasn
’t trying to lug another person around. My vision was already getting blurry and my throat burned from the smoke. The nearest doors were the ones by the gym, but they were still about ten feet away. We had to make it. After all this … I wouldn’t let them die now.

  I knelt beside Mia and she turned tear-filled eyes on me. “You’re here.”

  “Not for long.” I grabbed the opposite corner of the rug with my good hand and ducked even lower for one more breath of clean, cool air. “Let’s go.”

  “Thank you,” she choked out. Then we both pulled as hard as we could, toward the cold snow and fresh air outside.

  thirty-two

  By the time we got out, sirens were sounding in the distance. We collapsed onto the snow, both of us gagging and coughing out the smoke that permeated our bodies. As soon as the spasms stopped, I checked on Finn. He was still breathing, but it made a weird rasping sound. There was so much blood. Careful to avoid my broken wrist, I took off my sweatshirt and secured it against his wound.

  I couldn’t take anymore. I buried my face in the snow, letting the cold seep in through my blistered skin. After all that, was it not enough? Would Finn die anyway?

  There was a soft tug at my shoulder and I sat up. Mia wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me close. “Thank you,” she whispered, hot tears burning on my cheek. “I’m so sorry I thought it was you.”

  I didn’t know how to respond. There was really only one answer.

  “Me too.”

  We held each other as the fire spread deeper into the school. Ashes mingled with the snow and fell on us as we coughed and cried until the paramedics arrived and pulled us apart. One of them inspected my arm, but I jerked it away.

  “I’m fine. Help him!” I pointed toward Finn, even though two paramedics were already hurrying him toward one of the ambulances on a stretcher. I only caught pieces of words—“loss of blood,” “uneven breathing,” and “John Doe.” The ambulance sped away immediately, its siren blaring through the frosty air.