The Face Behind The Mask

32

Dray accelerated around the sloped curve of the road. The vehicle following them kept its distance for about a half-mile but soon began closing in. Dray seemed calm, and by Kelsey's measure, too calm, as though he didn't understand the danger, couldn't comprehend that a deranged lunatic was following them.

"Call the police," Kesley said, ducking down in her seat.

Jada looked into the back seat and felt the fear radiating from Kesley. She turned her wide eyes toward her dad as the car picked up speed.

Behind them, the man honked the horn. Again.

"Don't stop." Kelsey nearly choked on her words. "Call the police!"

Now flashing lights. Headlights on, off, on, off accompanied by longer bleats of the car horn.

"Maybe it's somebody in trouble." Dray checked his rearview mirror.

"NOOOOO!" Kelsey hollered. "He's totally insane! He's dangerous!" A racking cough shook her shoulders.

Kelsey's infectious terror took hold of Jada. "Daddy," she said, her lip trembling.

The man's engine roared and his car swung into the left lane, attempting to pass. Dray accelerated. The tires of his car screeched around the curves of the narrow road bending its way through the darkness.

"Dad! We're gonna wreck!" Jada howled. When Dray steered to the center of the road, the man layed on the horn and flashed his headlights.

Kelsey pulled Dray's jacket tight around her, worried eyes peeking over the collar, riveted to the rear window.

"In a quarter mile," said Siri. "Turn left on Hancock Road."

Headlights approached from the opposite direction. Dray whipped the wheel, steering back into the right lane.

The car behind him screamed and crept into the left lane, accelerating, straining, fighting to pass.

The oncoming vehicle was on them quickly, the horn blaring. Forced to retreat, the man steered back behind Dray's car, swerving wildly, nearly losing control of his vehicle.

"Siri. 9-1-1!" Dray hollered.

"9-1-1. What is your emergency?"

When he spotted the sign for Hancock Road, Dray whipped the wheel. His car slid, screeching through the turn, rocking the passengers hard to the right. Jada screamed, terror rolling across her eyes. Kelsey slammed against the passenger door with a loud thud.

"Sir. What is your emergency?"

"We got an injured girl," he said, his voice straining. "Found her in the road. She needs medical attention." He checked her in the rearview mirror. No one was following.

"What is your location?"

"Hancock Road. I'm heading to Reynolds Memorial. Need the police." Once again, headlights came blazing up from behind. "Please hurry. We need help."

........

Skyden stood beside the hospital bed, stiff and deflated, eyes red and puffy. With an IV drip inserted into Kelsey's purple bruised arm, she looked like a refugee from some brutal war where wounded women and frightened, blood-stained children hid in roadside ditches.

When Skyden tenderly touched her daughter's cheek with the back of her hand, Kelsey's eyes fluttered, went wide momentarily, and then closed again.

"My baby," Skyden whispered. Since the day Kesley had called her, fear riding high in her voice about someone trying to break into their home, it had all been leading up to this.