Page 80 of Night Falls on Predicament Avenue
Will I try to reach from the beyond and touch the living?
Will they even hear me or see me if I try?
All I know for certain is that if I tell it truthfully, I am not ready to die. I am not ready to uncover what lies beyond. I am not ready to wander the halls of an empty house, waiting for the moment I am freed from the prison of penance, kept from the bowels of hell, and allowed to enter the sanctuary God has ready for those who make it there.
But I am going to die.
I know this now.
I can feel it. A premonition. An awareness. A reality that is unavoidable.
I have dug the pit of my own grave and am simply waiting to be placed inside of it.
It will happen soon.
When night falls on Predicament Avenue.
29
NORAH
Present Day
NORAHFLUNGHERSELFBACKWARD, pressing against the wall as the woman stepped closer.
“Please. Help me.”
Norah couldn’t speak. Words twisted in her throat, clutching at air and stealing her ability to breathe deeply.
“Please?”
Still Norah couldn’t reply. She struggled to suck in air, to scream, to do something—anything—but the fear that encircled her was paralyzing.
The woman stumbled, tripping on her own feet, and then swayed. Instinctively, Norah reached for her. But the woman jerked backward and bumped into a kitchen chair, sending it crashing against the table.
In a flurry, the woman sprinted for the back door, which washalf open. She rammed her palms against the screen door, and Norah saw spots of blood staining the wood, left behind by the intruder’s injured hands.
“Wait!” Without thinking, Norah raced after the woman. The cool night air hit her lungs, and she gratefully sucked it in as she spotted the woman dodging between the gravestones.
Norah ran after her. The woman’s expression was imprinted in Norah’s mind, and as the surprise and terror fell away, Norah interpreted the fear in her eyes. Fear, not threat. Desperation, not intention to cause harm.
Sticks snapped under Norah’s feet, and she heard the underbrush along the tree line rustling as the stranger plunged through the woods.
“Wait!” Norah cried again, but she was answered only by the sound of crashing into the leaves as the woman tripped and fell. She saw the petite form dive across a fallen log, then shove to her feet. She looked over her shoulder, and in the moonlight, Norah made out the whites of her eyes.
“Please! Let me help you!” Norah called.
The woman didn’t stop, but instead increased her pace. She skirted the backyards of a few more houses on Predicament Avenue. Norah chased after her, glancing toward the neighbors’ homes. She debated whether she should run to one of them for assistance, but none had their lights on. If she did, she’d lose sight of the woman, whose bloody hands and horrified expression now haunted Norah.
She couldn’t help but feel the weight pressing on her chest as she ran, branches scraping her face and clawing at her clothes. Was this what Naomi had looked like the night she’d been attacked and murdered? Her hands bound? The reports stated she was found facedown on the earth. Someone had shoved her face into the dirt, suffocation mingling with strangulation.
Tears scored their way down Norah’s face. She wouldn’t let it happen again. She had no clue who this woman was. But now itwas clearer than ever to Norah that the woman was like Naomi. A victim. A victim of something—of someone—and she needed saving.
The woman cut across a back lawn, and Norah followed. It seemed the woman knew she was there, knew she was chasing her, but she refused to stop running. Norah increased her pace despite the pain in her side. She’d never been athletic and was definitely out of shape, yet the woman ahead of her wasn’t remarkably fast either. Perhaps malnourishment had weakened her.
A shed’s silhouette loomed in the distance, and the woman aimed for it. She glanced over her shoulder at Norah and then continued. Norah opened her mouth to plead with her to stop, but her breath came out in a gasp. Her chest felt as if it was going to explode for lack of air.
Running around to the back of the shed, the woman kicked at the wall. A board popped out, and she squeezed through the gap. Seconds later, Norah approached the shed’s back wall and, disregarding the warning thrumming through every nerve of her body, tried to follow where the woman had gone through. But because she was larger, she didn’t fit through the opening. She grabbed at the board next to it and pulled hard. It gave way, and Norah was able now to slip through the wider gap.
