Chapter 25 Marlene
Marlene
It happens in slow motion.
Hands from out of the dark grab Javi, seizing him by his raincoat. A knife flashes in the moonlight.
A face covered in blood, blue eyes the only thing visible.
I focus on the hand, the knife, on Javi. I tune out Kaitlyn’s screams.
Adrenaline lances through me, and I’ve never felt this way before. Something like a feral rage drives me forward as I watch Javi struggle against the attacker, his feet trying to gain purchase on the ground. I fight the fear coursing through me to focus.
Javi’s trying to grab for something at his waist as he dodges the blade coming for his face, and I realize with a jolt that it’s the knife from the kitchen, tucked into his belt. He manages to get ahold of it; then, just as he pulls it free, the attacker slices his upper arm, and Javi drops it.
I don’t think. I race forward, dive into the mud for the knife, and grab it. I plunge it blindly, and now it’s not just Kaitlyn screaming.
I’m screaming, too.
And so is someone else.
I’m breathing hard. Someone is lifting me up and pulling me away, and I’m still screaming.
“Holy shit, Marlene,” Javi says, and for a second, I don’t understand why.
Until I see the attacker on the ground, the knife lodged in his leg.
Tears streak down my cheeks, and my throat is shredded from the screaming. I look up, and Javi and Kaitlyn are staring at me in disbelief—her face whiter and paler than I’ve ever seen it.
“He was going to kill you,” I say, forcing out the words. “I—I couldn’t let h-him.”
The attacker’s cries reach a fever pitch.
“Who the fuck are you?” Javi demands, turning on the writhing person on the ground. I’m still struggling to breathe, and I taste metal. I must’ve bitten my tongue at some point, blood slipping between my teeth.
“I asked you a question, asshole,” Javi says, but the person doesn’t answer.
They’re wheezing and clutching their leg, seemingly unable to pull their eyes from the knife sticking out of their thigh.
Javi bends down and grabs the stranger by the shoulder, forcing them to turn around, to show their face, and Javi and Kaitlyn gasp at the same time.
I blink past the rain and the tears, and the stranger comes into focus before me. I see through the mud and the blood caked all over their face, and then I notice their pants. Bougie-ass pajama pants that I should’ve clocked immediately.
Emerson.