Unhinged

It was too late. Tana had already swung the new door open, and Randall had already shouldered his way into her living room, slamming the door behind him. His expression was so cold I could feel the chill from here.

He swayed unsteadily on his feet, his eyes wild and unfocused as he crowded Tana against the back of the new door, something metal flashing in his hand. “Did you call them? Did you make up those fucking lies about me? They’re probably tossing my place right now, you bitch! I hung up on them and now they’re looking for me!”

Tana caught my gaze and gave a small sharp shake of her head, subtly motioning with her hand that I should stay down and out of sight. I hated it with every fiber of my new being, but I did as she told me.

Randall had shoved one of his hands in his hair, clutching at it in a way that looked painful, grunting with frustration. “If Sarah had just listened to me. I was a good guy, I told her that. I was so much better to her than Charlie had been but nooo. She just wanted to be friends after laying all that emotional baggage on me – I’m not a fucking therapist…”

He snapped out of his tirade and glared at Tana, still plastered to the back of the door, but trying to stay calm. I’d never wished harder that her apartment had a back door – I couldn’t leave this damn room without Randall seeing me, I couldn’t get help for Tana. Randall raised the hand that wasn’t in his hair, the metallic glint suddenly taking shape.

He had a gun.

Fear flooded my senses, determination drowning it as my vision narrowed in on Tana. I scrambled to my feet and down the hallway, as fast as my legs could take me.

Tana screamed and dove towards the couch, Randall turned to face me and I collided with him, slamming him into the door and grabbing his wrist. His face was an ugly snarl of fury as he shoved me back, ripping his wrist loose and looking towards the couch like a predator.

No.

I punched him as hard as I could, the angle awkward because we were grappling so closely. Randall’s pupils were wide and dilated, and he was clearly under the influence of something, which made him unexpectedly strong as he shoved me back again. Tana smashed a vase against the back of his head with a dull thud, but it failed to take him down, even as blood stained the edge of the half-broken vase and the back of Tana’s couch.

There was a bright flash and a searing pain, and then there was blood on me, too. A cold sensation took over my limbs, a heaviness that made it impossible to move, to pick up my foot and travel forward, to put myself between Randall and Tana. I grew taller, a woozy Randall turning unfocused, confused eyes up to me. My floppy human spine stiffened as I fell into him, ramming his head between the edge of the couch frame and a sharp, broken piece of the vase with a sickening thud.

I was so tired.

I needed to rest now.

But wasn’t there something I needed to….?

Sleep.