The Silver Ring by Robert Swartwood Read Free Book Online Page B

having trouble keeping her hands steady, tears falling down her face, her chest heaving.
    “Emma, hurry!”
    She immediately turned and sprinted up the stairs.
    I glanced back in time to see Cashman getting to his feet, trying to take aim, and I started climbing the stairs too.
    When she reached the top Emma kept running, went straight for her room, slammed the door shut. She even locked it and I had to bang on it, shout for her to let me in. Cashman fired below, three consecutive gunshots. I didn’t know what he hit. But I could hear him, his heavy feet on the steps hurrying toward us.
    “Emma, please!”
    Cashman, his feet pounding the stairs, almost to the top.
    “Open up!”
    I glanced back and saw the top of his bald head, then his eyes, then his grinning mouth, and then his gun as he raised it.
    Turning back, I banged on the door once more, and this time I became aware of the sudden pinprick and the next thing I knew I was taking a step forward through the door just as a bullet pierced the spot right where my head had been.

 
     
     
    24
     
    Emma was cowered in the corner of her room, strangling one of her stuffed animals against her chest. She was sobbing, and when she saw me she screamed.
    I hurried to her, lowering myself to my knees, taking her into an embrace.
    “It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay.”
    Out in the hallway Cashman shouted, then started banging on the door. With each bang Emma screamed again and again.
    “Shh, listen to me.” I held her tight, whispered into her ear. “We’re going to get out of this, okay? Everything will be fine.”
    Even now I don’t know why I lied to her like that. I guess it was just my job as an older brother to tell her what she needed to hear.
    Cashman, having come to the conclusion he wasn’t going to kick the door down, began shooting at the lock.
    Emma screamed and screamed.
    “Listen to me,” I said, holding her tight. “We’re trapped in here. We need to get out.”
    “No, no, no,” she whimpered, her faced pressed against my chest. “Mommy and daddy, they’re …”
    But she couldn’t say the word, as if by voicing the word it would mean they were actually dead.
    Cashman kept firing at the lock. This side of the door was starting to splinter.
    I shook my sister hard, growled into her face, “Shut up and listen to me, okay?”
    For a moment she went silent, staring back at me with wide eyes.
    “I’m going to open that door. And when I do, I want you to run. I want you to go to the front door, unlock it, and run as fast as you can. Go to the Sunoco station three blocks down. You know the one I mean?”
    She just stared back at me, unblinking. It might be easier to have her run to a neighbor’s, but there was no guarantee anybody would answer, and if they did, there was no guarantee they would answer in time.
    “Emma, you have to do this,” I said, shaking her again, and whatever it was keeping that needle skipping in place on the record of her mind finally caught and the music began to play again.
    She nodded.
    I quickly stood and turned and walked toward the door, the door that Cashman had stopped shooting and was now kicking again. The wood was splintered and was about to give any second.
    I strode up to it and gripped the broken knob, hoping it would still turn. It did and I opened the door.
    Cashman was in the process of lifting his foot for another kick. He paused, glaring at me, and right then I felt what I’d been expecting—that familiar pinprick—and rushed him, wrapping my arms around his body and shoving him into the wall.
    “Emma, go!”
    Behind me I could hear her feet pattering across the floor, past us, and down the steps.
    The silver ring was still glowing, making me invincible, but it wasn’t giving me superhuman strength. Cashman was able to push me off without trouble. He’d dropped his gun when I rushed him and now he grabbed it, rose to his feet, hurried toward the top of the stairs.
    “No!” I shouted, jumping