‘A … human sacrifice?’
A chilling numbness washed across the surface of Adriana’s skin.
‘Yes. He wishes to spill the blood of a virgin: you.’
A roaring tumult of chaos blasted through Adriana’s skull with all the force of a rampaging herd of elephants.
‘I…’ she gasped, unable to respond with anything else.
‘This is why you must do exactly what I say, my dear. Exactly what I say.’
19
CHLOE
17th September 2020. New York City
For a few moments the teenagers simply lay on the floor of the fire escape in a heap, groaning, each feeling as if he or she had been kicked in the gut, a sensation to which only Daekwon, the boxer, was accustomed. He managed to stagger to his feet before the others did and brushed the glittering pebbles of broken glass off his clothes with shaking hands.
‘Shit just got r-, real,’ he gasped, awestruck. ‘Fuck me, shit just g-, g-, got fuckin’ real. Did y’all s-, see that shit?!’
‘They were going to shoot us,’ Jun groaned, fighting to force the breath that had been knocked out of him back into his lungs. ‘The soldiers … they were aiming their weapons … at us.’
‘Fuck, shit … fuck, fuck, oh my God,’ Chloe panted, scrambling to her knees, her chest heaving with panic, the heavy eyeliner that rimmed her eyes making them look even wilder as they strained to break free of their sockets, while her hands flapped about madly; panicking birds tied to her wrists. ‘Those soldiers … shit, shit, they wanted to … Jun’s right, oh my God, oh fuck, what do we do, what do we do?!’
Daekwon, shaking a little less intensely than the others, leaned over the edge of the fire escape and peered down at the rooftop below.
‘The s-, soldiers, they all, th-, they got KO’d!’ he yelled. ‘And the rh-, rhino too!’
Chloe staggered over to the edge of the fire escape just in time to see the badly wounded tiger tumble off the rooftop and plummet down into the alley below. The beast landed on top of a parked car with a resounding metallic crunch, flattening the vehicle.
‘The tiger!’ she shrieked. ‘No, no! It can’t be dead, it can’t be dead, the poor tiger, oh my God oh my God!’
‘We have to get out of here,’ Jun murmured, strangely calm and collected despite the circumstances. ‘The soldiers … they were going to shoot us. They saw us, and they know we saw … the werecreatures. We have to get out of here, quickly, before—’
A furious hammering on the door cut Jun off.
‘Open the fuckin’ door, NOW!’ a deep voice bellowed, harsh and throaty with naked aggression. ‘You have five seconds to comply!’
The teens froze, their eyes stark white with fear, their blood icy with panic. Daekwon stared down at the many flights of steel stairs leading down to the ground, and then shot a panicked glance over his shoulder at the front door of the apartment. Whoever was outside yanked a few times on the doorknob and hammered again on the door.
‘You have three seconds to comply! Open this fuckin’ door or there will be serious consequences!’
As a young black male, Daekwon knew that there was only one way this encounter with law enforcement goons was going to end for him, and it took him less than a split-second to make up his mind about what to do.
‘Sh-, sh-, sh-, shut the fuckin’ w-, w-, window an’ go down the f-, f-, fire escape!’ he screamed, shoving his phone into his pocket. ‘Run, run!’
Daekwon’s frantic urgency spurred the others into action, enabling them to break free of the paralysing dread that had frozen their muscles, joints and tendons. Jun was the first to scurry down the fire escape stairs, followed closely by Chloe. Paola was only just coming to, but Daekwon helped her to her feet and assisted her down the first few stairs. Just as he did, a deafening blast rocked the apartment as the soldier outside fired his combat shotgun through the door.
‘Fuck!’ Daekwon yelped, ducking instinctively. ‘Go, go, go!’
The others needed no further encouragement; the sound of the shotgun blast got their adrenalin racing – a rare sensation for any of the teens except Daekwon – and within seconds they were sprinting at full tilt, jumping multiple steps in their panic-driven haste to get to the alley below. As they ran, the sound of Paola’s window shattering emphasised the immediacy of the threat.
Another booming shotgun blast then rent the air with its thunderclap bang, this time fired from directly above them. Sparks flew from the inner rail of the stairs as balls of buckshot smashed into it, but none of the teens were hit.
‘Faster!’ Chloe screamed. ‘Go, go, faster, run!’
Again the shotgun clapped, and another shower of sparks doused the fleeing teenagers, but again they miraculously escaped injury, but they knew that their luck wouldn’t last forever. From above the sound of furious footsteps thundering down the steel stairs in pursuit injected urgent speed into their flight. There was no shouting from the man, no yells for them to stop and put their hands up … and they all knew that he did not simply want to arrest them. No, his goal was far more sinister than that.
‘Oh my God oh my God oh my God,’ Paola whimpered, weeping hysterically as she fled, ‘I don’t wanna die I don’t wanna die I don’t wanna die!’
‘Faster, f-, faster goddammit! Fuckin’ run, run!’ Daekwon roared desperately. He could hear the soldier gaining on them, and as he was the rearmost one, he knew that he would die first when the man caught up with them.
In the front of the pack, Jun, leaping entire flights of stairs at a time, was almost on the ground. He, like the others, was so fired up with adrenalin and terror that he hadn’t noticed that a black van had screeched to a halt just a
