Page 145 of Nine-Tenths

Another step, and I’m cut off from his eyeline.

He lets out a desperate, terrible wail.

I tear toward the front door. I'm in the shirt before I hit the landing, and I swap the jeans in the foyer. I jam my feet into my shoes, and don't stop running until I am all the way to the front gates. I wrench them open, and eel through the gap. I wriggle into the space between the twisting trunk of a cedar hedge and the wall, slide down, press my bruised wrist against my mouth, and start to cry.

My phone tells me it's only been an hour. Feels longer. It's felt like an entire fucking geolithic era: an ice age, and a thaw. My eyes and nose are raw from rubbing them on my shirt and the hickey on my wristthrobs.

What do I do?My mind is starting to rev back up.Holy shit, what was that? Do I go back inside? Do I… I don't know what to do.

Dav hasn't come to find me.

I can't decide if I'm relieved or hurt.

What if he's still out of his head? But what if he's just Dav again? What if he's sorry, and he's back to normal?

My hands are shaking. I don't know what to do.

It's quiet. There's no search party calling my name. There's no Sarah peering around the bush, asking if I'm alright. There's no Diego shouting "found him!"

There's nothing.

Dav hasn't told anyone.

Or hehastold them, and they don't care.

What do I do?

Do I go back inside?

Do I leave?

Dav said to walk away, to get out of his sight.

He didn't mean forever.

Didhe mean forever?

I think about texting Dr. Chen, but she doesn't know dragons. I type out a text to Hadi,What defines an abusive relationship? Then I delete it, because that's not right. Dav isn't abusive. He was…changed. Hadi wouldn't know why.

That leaves just one other person. I text her:I need you to come get me.

Another hour later, the gentle roar of a motorcycle wakes me from a miserable, dehydrated doze. I lift my head from where I had it resting on my knees, the monster hickey cradled against my stomach. The motor cuts off right in front of my bush. There's the crunch of a kickstand on gravel. How does she know where I am?

I must stink.

Stink of Simcoe.

Stink of what Dav did.

Onatah parts the bushes far enough to get a good eyeful.

"You look like shit," is what she says.

"You got gloves on?"

"Yeah."

"Help me up?"