Page 122 of Sky Full of Stars

“Meg,” I plead with her, reaching out to take her hand.

“You heard her. There is no problem here, so leave.”

The man looms over Meg, her shoulders hunch and she drops her chin, cringing. Hell, no. I don’t know who this asshole is but if he thinks I’m walking away and leaving him to hurt my friend, he’s dead wrong.

“Megan come with me,” I say more firmly. “Come outside.”

“I can’t,” she says. “Please just go, I swear I’m fine.”

“You’re clearly not,” I glare over her shoulder, the man is now pulling her aside so he fills up the doorway. “Let her out.”

“I told you, go the fuck away. This isn’t your business.”

He isn’t a big guy, he has some weight around his middle, he’s wearing a grey t-shirt with baggy sweatpants, his feet are bare, like he lives here. Megan has never once mentioned a boyfriend or husband. She came to the gym to the self-defence classes and I know in my heart this is the reason why. I don’t know the situation but it feels like this guy was out of her life for a while, now he’s back and I won’t stand here and let him hurt her.

“I’m going to call the police,” I reach for my phone.

In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the best thing to do. I should have stepped back, said okay, then called the cops. But no, I told him my intentions and he wasn’t about to let me do that.

Before I can blink, he grabs me by the hair and pulls hard. I lose my footing in the stupid heels and start to go down. He pulls me harder and drags me into the apartment, one of my shoes coming off as I struggle against the brutal hold he has on me.

I’m vaguely aware of Megan pleading with him to leave me alone as the door slams shut. He knocks her aside hard, and she goes down, hitting the ground with a smack. We’re in a narrow entrance way so we’re close enough to touch. He pulls me up by the back of my dress, his hands digging viciously into my skin as he tosses me along the hallway. I fall backwards and land on the carpet in a living room. All around there is broken furniture and glass on the floor from a smashed lamp.

Megan shouts and runs towards me but he kicks her again, pushing her and holding her down with his foot on her neck.

“I fucking told you, no one finds out about this. I told you to stay the fuck away from everyone. Now look what you’ve done,” he spits on her and punches her hard in the face. She slumps down the wall, knocked out cold.

Then he turns and looks at me. There is something wild in his face, like he isn’t all together here, he’s in a complete rage and nothing I say or do is going to stop him. I push myself backwards along the floor using my feet and elbows and scramble to my knees. He watches me, a tilt to his lips as he thinks he has me beat. It’s him or me. He isn’t going to let me walk out of here. And he won’t let Megan either.

I kick off my shoe and get to my feet, spreading my legs in a fighting stance. He laughs, it’s loud and cruel and one of the worst sounds I think I’ve ever heard.

“You should have stayed the fuck out of it,” he snarls at me.

“Maybe it’s time you went up against someone who can fight back,” I throw back at him.

“You think you can fight me, bitch?”

“Why don’t you try me and find out?”

Jesus, why am I goading him? I should be trying to convince him to let us go. I could stand and plead and offer anything under the sun, nothing will change his mind. I take a deep breath in, getting control and slowing my heart rate, Sam’s training runs through my head.

The guy starts toward me, he’s like a tank, one speed, one direction, because he thinks he can barrel into me. I jump to the side and his swinging fist completely misses me, as I move out of his path, I bring my arm up, fist clenched and slam an upper cut right into his ribs beneath his raised arm. It’s like hitting a wall behind a protective layer of cushion. I’m used to hitting hard bags, although my hands are usually wrapped and gloved.

It hurts but I don’t have the time to shake it off. I aim a side kick at the back of his knee. It knocks him completely off balance and he goes down on his other knee, his hand slams down on the floor to stop him face planting.

I glance around to a bottle of beer on the table, swiping it up, I slam it down towards his head but he’s recovered from my attack and reaches out, hitting the bottle out of my hand. I jump back to get away from his second swing, but it glances off my hip and shit, it hurts.

Taking two more steps back I stand and watch as he gets to his feet. The look in his eyes is pure feral now. He’s enjoying this. I try to centre myself again but my heart is pounding with adrenalin and fear. A quick glance to the side shows Megan is still out and I’m worried he did serious damage to her. I dropped my purse when he pulled me into the apartment with my phone inside, not that I could ask him to hold up while I call the police or anything.

“Come on then, what else you got, girl?”

“I’m not a girl,” I snarl.

“Looks like from where I’m standing,” his eyes trail down my body and a ripple of disgust runs through me.

I’m not stupid. If he incapacitates me, it’ll be game over. I start to move sideways, putting the coffee table between us but moving him away from Megan as he circles after me.

“Yeah, did you think that when you were on your knees, asshole.”

---