Page 26 of The Sleepwalker

Just as he is about to turn back to her car, there is a knock on the window. The shock makes him flinch. Nils hopes she didn’t notice and attempts to smile as he fumbles with the handle. The door swings open, and he gazes up at the dark figure outside.

She takes a step back from his car and half-turns towards the tennis courts.

‘It’s cold out,’ he says, shuffling over to make room for her when there is a sudden bang.

Steel on sheet metal and plastic.

The jolt reverberates through the car.

A sharp, heavy blade has appeared where his face was a second earlier.

Nils has no idea what is happening, but he scrambles away in panic.

Her axe swings through the air again, at a different angle this time. It hits the seat, causing the stuffing to spill out as she yanks it back.

His mobile phone clatters into the footwell.

Nils clambers over the gearstick into the driver’s seat.

The entire car shakes when the windscreen shatters.

Cubes of glass rain down on him as he pushes the door open and tumbles to the ground outside. He crawls away across the gravel and sees the woman coming around the car. He manages to get to his feet, but loses his balance and hits his head on the drainpipe on the side of the building.

Nils raises his left hand in an attempt to defend himself and ward her off. She swings the axe, and he ducks, but he feels a sharp blow to his knuckles and sees the heavy blade dig deep into the wall behind him.

He trips over a terracotta pot holding a dead plant, but manages to stay upright. His heart is pounding, and he can still hear Roy Orbison singing in the distance.

Nils tries to run down to the water, but his legs are so weak that he has to stop. A warm liquid hits his hip and ankle, followed by a searing pain in his arm, and he looks down and whimpers when he sees that half his hand is missing.

The blood is pumping out in agitated spurts.

He passes the only working streetlamp, moving as fast as he can, conscious of her footsteps behind him. After a moment ortwo, he breaks into a brief run, gasping in pain, and makes his way in among the tall, dense reeds.

It’s Tina, he thinks. She must have lured him into a trap, put on a disguise and come out here to mutilate him. To kill him.

Legs shaking, he keeps moving. The dry reeds give way, crunching as they snap beneath his feet.

Nils tries to protect his bleeding hand in his armpit, but even the slightest touch hurts so much that he groans loudly.

A dark bird flaps into the air in front of him.

He changes direction and sees the reeds slowly covering up his trail.

Crouching as low as he can, Nils keeps moving away from his car. Any minute now, he thinks, he’ll sit down and wait quietly until she gives up and goes away.

He keeps his hand raised, but he can feel the hot blood running down his forearm. Each jolt of pain is so bad that he almost passes out.

His heart is beating far too fast.

Nils changes direction again and steps on a thin layer of ice, which cracks loudly beneath his feet. He turns around and sees the woman coming towards him through the reeds. She is much closer than he had realised, and he panics and rushes out towards the water. The ice breaks under his weight, and his feet get wet. He’ll wade out to the rowing boat by the jetty instead, he thinks.

The freezing water envelops his shins.

The woman trudges after him with the axe resting on her shoulder.

He reaches the edge of the reeds and sees the light from the buildings on the other side of the water shimmering on the black ice.

Nils stops, panting for air. The water is above his knees now, the cold air clawing at his lungs. He tries to steady himselfagainst the ice with his right hand, but it is as thin as a single pane of glass.