The Power Within (ON HOLD)

Chapter 6

They have a knife.

They have a knife. 

They have a freaking knife.

That one thought kept circulating through my mind. A random person is in my church's parking lot when they are not supposed to be there. They're wearing a hoodie, presumably so that no one can see their face and crouched alongside the cars, presumably to keep from being seen. All while Lucas and I are the only ones in the parking lot. 

At this point, there are multiple scenarios running through my mind. Best case scenario, this is somehow a huge misunderstanding and there is a perfectly logical reason as to why this person is creeping around with a knife. Worse-case scenario, at least my spirit would be close to a holy place.

No.

I couldn't afford to think like that. I glance at Lucas from the corner of my eye. At this point, he had moved slightly behind me, hiding behind my leg, while still clutching the ball. I had to make sure it didn't come down to the worse -case scenario. I look back at the person. They were still in the same position, not having moved at all. I needed to do something because who knows how long this stare down will last before they decide to make a move.

But what to do. Should I yell and hope someone inside hears and comes out? Would that make them run away or decide to come at us?

I fix my posture a bit, making sure to straighten out my back and to stand in front of Lucas. I make sure to try to keep my head up since this isn't the time to have a submissive body language. I need to stall this person.

"Hi", I said, trying to make sure that my voice didn't give away the fear that I felt.

I knew this was a risk, that something I said could end up being a slip-up, but it was better to try to get any sort of information out of this person than to just wait it out and see where this goes. This would also give me time to think about what to do.

"Do you need anything?"

Should we try to run inside? What are the chances of him chasing after us? But Lucas can't run that fast...

The person was still silent. They haven't even moved at all, even after I spoke. There was no reaction from them whatsoever. 

"The church isn't open to the public right now."

Again, the person doesn't react at all. I can't even tell if they're young or old, a guy or a girl, let alone how emotional they may be.

Would I be able to take the knife from them? But I can't see how strong they look...

"Since the church isn't open right now, you shouldn't really be here."

They still haven't responded and that made me more nervous. It felt that they knew they had the upper hand in this situation, and anything I was doing was just pointless; that the end result would just be the same. Talking to him wasn't getting me anywhere.

Screw it.

I take a step back, making sure to keep Lucas behind me still. My heart drops when the person also takes a step forward, making sure the distance between us isn't further but also not closer than it originally was. For every step I take back, they take one forward. I take a couple more steps forward and stop. This wasn't going anywhere. Besides, if I take too many they might think I'm trying to move closer to the church to make a run for the door. 

With this, we're close enough.

Church had recently installed security cameras. They don't fully cover the parking lot, but from where we stand now, we should be in their range. Now, we just have to pray that there are actually people actively looking at them. 

The person still has yet to say anything. Even with their hood pulled up, I can tell that they're observing me, trying to see what I'm going to do. I wish I knew. No matter how much I think, nothing seems like a good idea. I was lucky that I was even able to move without the person jumping at us with the knife. 

Maybe I could try to knock the knife out of their hand. By throwing the ball, if I threw it hard enough it might cause them to flinch and give us time to run inside. Better yet, it could cause them to drop the knife completely. My depth perception isn't the best, but I should still be able to hit their hand. I glance down at the person's hand since it all depended on how tightly they were clutching the-

Crap.

In that one moment, their grip of the knife tightened. At that moment, I knew what was coming next, but I also didn't know what was coming next. My body moved before I could even begin to panic as if I had been trained to deal with situations like this. 

Before the stranger could strike first, I had already lunged toward them. As they stepped forward with the knife pulled out, I was right in front of them. The person immediately lashed forward with the knife, but I moved to the side, grabbing the person's hand that was holding the knife. 

I felt them tense up but before they could do anything I had already pushed them down, making sure to keep their hand with the knife pinned down. I put my knee on the middle of their back, trying to keep all my weight on them to prevent them from getting back up.

My heart was racing, and I could feel myself breathing hard. I looked at my hands and I could see them shaking. I kept waiting for the person to get up, or to at least struggle but they just stayed down. 

Get up. 

Was this really all there was to it? The attempt to intimidate us and then try to attack us with a knife just to be taken down by a small push? After the mix of emotions he put us through, after the thought that my little brother would be killed?

Get up.

I put more weight on my knee, trying to keep it on their spine. Get up and struggle. Struggle until you realize that it's pointless. Feel the fear and hopelessness that you made us feel. I was still shaking at this point out of anger. How dare they. Still keeping most of my weight on them, I attempt to get the knife out of their hand. This way, they won't have the upper hand. It isn't until I managed to grab the knife that my brain finally starts to process the sound of footsteps rushing to me. By the time I realized what was happening I was knocked off the person, the knife flying out of my hand.