Toys

Chapter 18

The next few seconds were the longest of my life. I was truly flying, twisting and turning in blissful weightlessness, helpless yet absolutely free.

But a harsh, hate-filled noise interrupted the thought, pushing it away and sucking me back to-

The motorcycle rider was trying to twist himself around so that he could land on top of me-maybe I’d absorb enough impact for him to survive the fall.

Not going to happen! I would have yelled, if there’d been enough time to form the words.

But I did hook my leg tightly behind his. Then I threw my shoulders back and away from him, causing our tangled bodies to shift in the ever-louder, whistling-now screaming- air.

For those few seconds, I had been watching the pavement below. Now I saw everything at once-bricks, glass, the side of a building blurring like the view out a train window as it plunges into a tunnel…

The stinging air was pulling, ripping at my hair, my clothes, my lips, my eyelids… and then-

The murderer skunk hit the ground first. I smashed into his body like a pile of lumber landing on a sack of rotten fruit.

And then-nothing at all.

Short circuit?

Death?

I had no idea.