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She screamed silently, her mouth and eyes stretched wide, unable to give voice to her misery. Her throat started to hitch as pain stretched into her arms, down to her hips. She saw no end, she saw no hope. She was incapable of conscious thought. She was desolate.

And then it stopped. The pain was gone in an instant and Izzy was lying on the couch in her own urine, blinking, her mind stuttering, and every part of her was gloriously free of pain. In that instant she had never been happier, never before filled with such joy.

“Anything?”

The man’s voice shocked her, and she jerked away from it. He was squatting next to her, his dark eyes inspecting her through the lenses of his glasses, the book in his hands. She pushed herself up and away, as far away from the book as she could get.

“Do you remember anything?” the man demanded. “Has the pain shaken anything free in your little brain?”

Izzy tried to get away. She jumped up, but not thinking properly she ran toward the window, only realizing when she stood there that she couldn’t go anywhere. She turned and the man was right behind her, crowding her, too close for her to pass safely. But she had to try... anything better than the pain...

“Do you remember, woman?” the man demanded again, angry now.

Her eyes were stuck on the book, the horrible purple and green thing that was the end of the world. She couldn’t think clearly; all she could see was the book, all she could remember was the agony.

“Anything?” the man pressed, his voice rising. “Or do you need another round to shake up your tiny brain?”

“No!” she shouted.

She jerked to her left, trying to dart past the man, but he anticipated it and moved in that direction. She tried to course correct and twist in the opposite direction, but he was there too, and there was nowhere to go. She wanted to scream, she wanted to cry, but she was trapped.

“Hey!”

A voice erupted into Izzy’s awareness, and Barbary twisted around in surprise just in time to meet a massive fist hurtling through the air toward him. Barbary was lifted off his feet, his head snapping sideways before his feet knew that he was moving, and he crashed into the TV unit and collapsed in a lump on the floor, facedown and his arms behind him.

Izzy looked at the giant, the man who had come with the Japanese man. There was blood running down one side of his face from a wound by his temple. He gazed at Izzy for a moment, breathing heavily. Then he glanced at Dr. Barbary, as if waiting to see if he would move, but the bald man lay still. The giant reached up and touched his hand to his own face. He winced slightly and then looked at the blood on his fingers.

“You are in danger,” the giant said, his voice deep and round. ToIzzy his voice was like a warm embrace. “We are not police. That was a lie. But you are in danger here. Other people will come.” He pointed to the man on the floor. “If he is not dead, he will keep coming for you.”

“I don’t know what’s going on!” she wailed.

The giant nodded once, accepting that. “I am leaving now,” he said. “The man I was with is dead.”

Izzy nodded, as if this all made sense.

The giant seemed to hesitate, but then he said, “If you want to come with me, I will protect you. There’s someone I can take you to who will keep you safe.”

Izzy blinked, hearing the words but not really digesting them. Her eyes turned to the shape on the floor, to the purple and green book that had skidded away toward the kitchen when the man had been hit.

“Okay,” she said, not thinking about it, just wanting to be protected.

The giant nodded and sighed, a sound of tiredness rather than annoyance. “Go and wash and change,” he said. “Then pack a bag like you’re not going to come back. And do it quickly before someone else appears and tries to kill us.”

Old Friends in Bryant Park (2012)

They sat beneath the trees in silence, the rain pounding the earth and blurring the neon sign in the window of Matt’s All-American Burgers.

“Shit,” Drummond said.

She looked at him, her cheeks still damp from her tears, her body exhausted from her sobs. “What?”

“We ran out without paying,” he said.

She watched him in surprise for a moment, and then a laugh burst from her mouth, a mixture of disbelief and amusement. “Are you serious?”

“What?” he asked.

She shook her head. “You’re worried about a few bucks for some lunch? And me and Izzy were scared you were dangerous.”