Chapter Three
Nora
I don’t usually spill my guts to strangers in the park—or anywhere, for that matter. But the woman sitting on the bench with me was so kind that I found myself telling her everything—from losing my job to basically getting dumped at the altar. Or in the bathroom. Whatever.
“I am so sorry you had to deal with that,” she said.
“Thanks,” I sniffled, dabbing the tears from my eyes.
I had grown up hearing New Yorkers were inevitably brusque and rude, but this woman was more typical of my experience.
“Don’t move, or I’ll kill you both.” The voice came from behind us, and I froze.
Then again, not all New Yorkers are nice people.
I glanced behind me to find a pale man with dark hair wearing a hoodie and brandishing a wicked-looking knife.
I tried to judge how quickly I could escape. But in my bare feet and a wedding dress, I suspected my chances of escape were pretty slim.
An odd whirring noise coming from the path distracted me for a moment, but a glance showed me nothing out of the ordinary. My gaze flickered to the woman sitting on the bench with me. She wore running shoes and blue jeans. She might actually have a chance of getting away.
As I was looking at her, a green flash of… something… caught my attention and I whipped around to stare at the path in front of us. Out of nowhere—like literally, nowhere—a huge green beast of some kind flew over our heads, landing on the mugger and bowling him over backward.
“Run!” I shouted, shoving the other woman off the bench where she sat perfectly motionless.
She stumbled a few steps, then spun around to grab my hand. “Come on!”
I staggered behind her, trying to keep up. My bare feet pounded against the rough asphalt and I winced with every step. “You’ll be faster without me,” I told my new friend, gasping for breath. “Go—get help. I’ll be right behind you.”
She stared back over her shoulder with wide eyes, but at my urging, took off running without me.
When an enormous roar, like the sound of a lion on the Serengeti, went up behind us, her pace increased. Even if I’d had shoes on, I couldn’t have kept up with her.
I kept running, too.
Whatever that thing was behind us, I didn’t want to come face-to-face with it. As if the thought had conjured it, the attacking beast sailed over my head and landed lightly on the path in front of me. I stumbled to a stop, a ragged groan of terror escaping my throat.
What the fuck was this thing? I mean, I’d been close when I thought it roared like a lion. But it was actually more like a tiger.
A giant, bright green tiger with black stripes.
I stood stock-still in the path, and the neon tiger and I held each other’s gazes.
Inside, I scrambled wildly to try to remember what I knew about wild animals, especially the predator types. Was it better to hold their gaze, try to out-alpha them? Or should I drop his gaze, look down at the ground, and try to seem submissive?
We stood there for a moment that seemed to stretch out forever.
And I thought my life was fucked before.
At that thought, a tiny, hysterical giggle escaped me.
And then the tiger actually grinned back at me.
No, you idiot! a voice inside my head shouted. That’s not a smile. It’s baring its teeth. That’s a goddamn hungry green tiger.
Another hysterical snicker leaked out.
The tiger cocked its head and made a series of terrifyingly growly noises.
“Nice kitty.” My voice shook so hard the words barely came out. When I took a step back from it, I held out one hand as if telling a dog to stay—and both my legs and hands trembled so badly I was afraid I might fall down. “Good, giant kitty.” I took another step back. “You stay right there.”
The farther away I got from it, the less I shook.
That lasted about as long as it took for the tiger to begin stalking forward, keeping the same distance between us, but matching me step for step.
A sob clogged my throat. I tried to swallow it down. “You stay right there, and I going to keep moving away.”
Clearly, this giant kitty did not understand a word I was saying.
We continued that way, the green tiger matching me for several more steps, until we were even with the bench again.
A pile of black rags under the park bench caught my eye, and my gaze flicked over long enough to realize that I wasn’t seeing what I thought I was.
That was not a pile of black rags. It was the mangled body of the mugger, his black hoodie soaked with his own blood.
This time, the sob escaped.
“Oh,” I said, beginning to babble in my terror, hoping the sound of my voice would keep the animal from attacking, “you are not a very good kitty, are you? You are a very violent and dangerous cat. How am I going to get away from you?”
The animal cocked its head again, first one way, then the other.
“I wish you could understand me.” I let my voice fall into a singsong cadence, hoping it would soothe the savage beast before me. “I need to get away from you. I don’t know whether to hope other people show up or not. Oh, kitty, you are terrifying.”
My last word ended on a huff of the air, as I backed into something huge and solid behind me, knocking half the air out of my lungs.
“What the—” I took a quick glance behind me but saw nothing other than the path stretching into the rest of the park. There was definitely something solid behind me, though. With one hand, I reached back and tapped against it.
Yep. Something there. Something big and metal. I knocked against it once more to be sure.
Without turning away
