Midnight Kisses| ✓

Chapter 22

And for a moment, as the seconds tick and the beams come nearer and nearer, I am frozen with terror, my throat closes off and my mind becomes blank. And then a hand coaxes down on mine. "We need to move. Hurry." And I am running but even then I am barely aware of it seeing it all, looking back to find the three uniformed officers armed with what looks like taser in a detached state, as if it's not me who is running, but somebody else, seeing it all clearly yet at the same like there's a smokescreen between me and the rest of us. All the sound fades for a second and then comes all out.

Novahk comes to a stand and I almost bump into him, the force careening us towards a brick wall. "What happened?" he asks me."Are you hurt?"

"No," I find my voice. "But what now?" We have a problem. A very ten foot drop problem. The wall is a gaping wide with inky blank night beyond it. The moon is gone and there's no option but to jump which is prosperous. Novahk looks down. There's a couple of craters and piles and piles of sand but there are quite down and if we are not careful we can get hurt. Real bad. Skull crushing bad.

The officers are almost upon us. If they find us I can only imagine what will happen to me, and to Novak. His dad will kill him. I wouldn't put anything past that man after everything I have learned about him.

"We have to jump," Novahk says calmly. "there's no other option except getting hit by tasers."

"But...." I don't get to finish my sentence because at that moment, Novahk pulls on m hand and take some along with him. We are flying in the arms of gravity. All the voice and everything whooshes out of me and my heart leaps to my throat, my stomach doing tumbles we land on a slippery slope which delivers us to ground but not before my knee hits the side of a wood stock. Bad.

"Ow," I say rubbing over it. It hurts like hell. Novahk looks at me in concern. "I am really sorry Kris but I had to do it." The officers haven't realize that we jumped out of the building because the beams and the angry voices come near the walls and disappear without once shining over us. We are safe for now.

"I know, Novahk," I say wincing, trying to stand up. He puts a hand on my waist and my hand over his shoulder, taking all my weight on his side. I rest on him for a second trying to get over the pain. It's going to leave a nasty bruise on my knee. "Can you walk?" he asks.

Maybe it's because of the fall and all the air knocked out of me. Because the anger I felt for Novahk coming here and realizing that in fact he's the vandal, seems to ebb away. I need to think this through not as an adult but somebody who understands him, without pushing him away. It is the only way I can get to the bottom of the whole matter.

I nod. "I can limp." Together we limp in the general direction of our bikes but instead end up near the docking lines where we hear more voices. "Quick duck," Novahk says and helps me sit down behind one of the crates.

There's a burst of static while one of the officers speaks into his walkie talkie. "Suspects have fled." The voice is close, too close. I squeeze Novahk's hand and lean on him. Any moment now, we can we discovered

I realize I am shaking. I am now rule breaker, I have always stayed on the good side of the law, except for that day at the l where I stood at it and now I have totally crossed over. The officer at Wilmington had left us with a warning, but now we were in a totally different ballpark. And yet when I should be worried about myself, I am worried about the boy hugging me close to his chest. He just showed me his worst secret today, the one he says would make me hate him. Would do I hate him? Because everytime I close my eyes, I see a little boy. A lot like Novahk and Adam shivering on his bed while two doors downs he heard his mother being abused by a monster unable to do anything about it.