Masquerade

38

~Willow~

I'd seen my father get up from his seat to follow Nick, and the dark look on his face instantly worried me. Excusing myself from Gale, I got up to follow. Though I don't think his mood had been caused by anything Nick did, I'm concerned anyway.

As I make my way to the exit, I open the door to slip outside after them, but what I see unfolding stops me midway out the door.

"Nick! Look out!"

My dad launches himself at Nick, knocking him sideways, just as the car barreling toward him jumps the curb without slowing. Nick's phone goes flying from his hand as the car slams into my father, throwing him up onto its hood. His body slams into the windshield, creating a dark web of cracks across its smooth surface.

"DADDY!" I scream as the nose of the car slams into the front of the building and my father rolls back down the hood, coming to rest against the cracked brick wall.

I can barely hear the commotion inside the restaurant caused by my terrified scream, nor do I take much notice of Nick picking himself up off the walk. I can only see my father, lying limp and seemingly dead on the hood of Spencer's car. I dart from the doorway, praying he's only unconscious.

"Willow!" Nick shouts.

I ignore him, and everything else, the soles of my shoes crunching against the fine silt of brick mortar cast across the sidewalk from the car's impact. I lean across the hood and reach for my dad, pressing my hand against a seeping gash on his forehead. His blood is hot against my palm, and the feel of it ignites even more terror inside of me.

There are other people's voices now, their soft murmuring growing louder until they completely drown out the sound of my heart pounding in my ears.

"911! Someone call 911!" a lady cries out from somewhere behind me.

To my right, I hear the driver's side door opening, and I glance in its direction. Nick reaches in and snatches Spencer up by the front of his shirt, then drags him out onto the walk. I barely have time to register the dazed look in Spencer's eyes before Nick lets him go to slam a fist in the center of his face.

He stumbles back, hitting the side of the car hard, and Nick follows, the rage in his eyes terrifying to look at. I turn my focus back to my father as Nick's fist swoops in again, my eyes welling with tears when his his next solid blow finds its mark.

"Daddy?" I whisper, blocking out the sounds all around me: Nick's rage as he releases it on Spencer; the growing panic of the assembled crowd; the sirens' screaming their approach from the distance. I focus only on my father's limp form. He's breathing, but he doesn't open his eyes to look at me. My tears slip down my cheeks as I silently will him to stay alive.

"ALLAN!" My mother's panicked scream breaks me, and a harsh sob escapes me as I turn to watch her stumbling approach. Her face is deathly pale, her eyes terrified O's. Her mouth hangs slack and trembling. She reaches for my father, clasping her hand around his then squeezing it tightly. She looks to me, as if I can fix what's just happened.

But I can't. Nobody can. My heart seizes in my chest and suddenly I can't breathe. My mother's eyes flit over my shoulder to where Nick is still dealing with Spencer, and whatever she sees there clears away some of her shock.

"Stop him, Willow," she says to me through her own tears. "You've gotta stop Nick. He's gonna kill him."

My neck creaks as I slowly turn my head in Nick's direction. Spencer is on the ground now, with Nick bent over him. As I watch, Nick drops to his knees, takes Spencer's head between both hands, then lifts it up and slams it against the concrete. The resounding thud breaks my paralysis.