out! He’s dead now. We don’t have a lot of time.”
At the bottom of the stairs, I was met by an old man who, in the dim light, looked a bit like a scarecrow. He was holding a heavy wooden crossbow in his hands. Weathered and gangly, he fidgeted constantly, shifting his weight from one foot to the other as he examined my face.
“Adrian Havel?” he asked.
“Howell,” I corrected. “Adrian Howell. Who are you?”
“Of course... Adrian Howell,” the old man muttered to himself. Then he smiled and said, “I’m Ralph. So we meet at last, Adrian Howell.”
“How do you know my name?” I asked suspiciously.
Ralph looked into my eyes and said calmingly, “I’m a friend. Where is your sister, Adrian Howell? Where is Catherine?”
“I don’t know,” I replied. “She’s outside somewhere, probably far away by now.”
Ralph scowled for an instant as if he was conflicted over something, but then he said, “No matter. We need to get going.”
“Who are you?” I asked again. I wasn’t afraid of him. I didn’t know why, but if anything I felt calm and at ease.
“I’m the man that’s rescuing you, lad,” Ralph replied matter-of-factly. “Come with me.”
I looked back at my father’s lifeless body on the floor. “My parents... I can’t just leave them.”
“Yes you can,” Ralph said hurriedly. “You have to, anyway. There’s nothing you can do about your parents now. That’s a berserker I just killed for you, and there’s no guarantee he’s the only one after you. We have to go right now. I know you want answers, and I promise you’ll get them, but if you want to live, you’re going to have to trust me and come with me now. You can trust me, lad. I promise you that.”
Things had gone from “weird” into a nightmare. My parents were lying dead in the house. Cat was gone. And I was standing in a room with an old, crossbow-wielding stranger telling me that he had just saved me from a “berserker,” and that I had to go with him to get my answers.
I quickly followed him out of the house. Ralph had a car parked nearby. It was a small blue convertible, streamlined like a sports car, but in the light of the full moon, I could easily see that it was rusty and old. The top was up.
Oh yeah, never get into a car with a stranger. That’s the rule you follow when your parents are alive, your sister is annoying as opposed to missing, and there isn’t a big dead man on your living-room floor with a crossbow bolt through his neck. Somehow I knew that going with Ralph, however strange a man he might be, wasn’t about to make my situation worse. In fact, I felt that, despite his bizarre appearance and manner, I could trust him more than anyone.
Once again, I was wrong.
C hapter 3: Escape from Escape
We drove all night. I asked questions, and Ralph answered them in his wheezing voice. He looked really old, at least sixty or so, with pale, leathery skin and beady, sunken eyes that were nearly hidden by his unkempt, curly white hair.
“Where are you taking me?” That was my first question.
“Away from here,” said Ralph as we sped out of town.
“I have to find my sister, Ralph. She ran off.”
“Out of the question, lad. Your sister will be okay. She’s better off without you anyway. It’s you that they’re after. Your sister wouldn’t be in any danger if you weren’t about.”
“But she’s lost!” I insisted. “It’s the middle of the night and she could be anywhere.”
“I’m not much of a finder, lad,” said Ralph. “I can find most power alright, but a child like that... no, I can’t sense her. But she’ll be okay. The police will pick her up and she can go live with your relatives.”
“But Ralph...”
Ralph glanced at me, keeping one eye on the road. “You can’t help her, lad! You just can’t. Heck, you can barely help yourself, can you? But don’t you worry. You’re in good hands with old Ralph. Saved you from that berserker, didn’t
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