*****
Sara watched Soren run toward Ken as he lay on the ground pointing the gun. She knew he’d never make it in time, but there was nothing she could do.
At that moment, however, she saw Alex break free, suddenly running again. Both she and Richard screamed at him.
“Alex, no!” she shouted.
But her fears of Alex being caught in the crossfire didn’t come to pass. Instead, she watched as her son kicked the gun Ken was holding just as the weapon fired.
She saw Soren go down, but she didn’t wait to see what else had happened.
As soon as she knew Alex was safe, Sara slammed her foot onto Richard’s leg as hard as she could, and then knocked the dreamweaver’s gun out of his hand. It went flying into the grass.
“You bitch!” he screamed.
But Sara rounded on him, delivering a swift kick to his groin. Richard doubled over and Sara didn’t hold back. She kneed him in the head, sending him sprawling backward. She looked at Alex to make sure he was still safe, but then hurried to keep up her assault.
Sara pounced on Richard and punched him in the two gashes on his face, hoping her guess about his abilities was enough. She hit him again and again. The dreamweaver began screaming in agony.
“Get off me,” he yelled.
But instead she drove her fist into the gash and tore at it with her nails. There was a ripping sound as she dug into his flesh. She grasped on the ground with her left hand for something — anything — that she could use as a weapon and found a small stick. She jammed it quickly into the gash on the other side of his face.
Richard shrieked an inhuman cry. Before her eyes, she saw his face shimmer and change. The gashes disappeared and the eyes moved closer together and he became human again. Sara didn’t care. She kept on hitting the creature.
“Mom?” came a voice from behind her.
The man below her was bruised and bloodied, his eyes dazed. One of the gashes had healed around the stick, leaving it still sticking out of his face. Sara yanked it out and blood began pouring down his face. She stopped punching him, turning to Alex, who was staring at Richard in shock.
She stood up, giving Richard one more kick for good measure as she did so, and ran over to Alex. She hugged him close.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
Alex nodded, his eyes wide.
“Sara, what happened?” Ken asked.
Ken seemed confused, like he’d just woken up. She supposed he had. She looked at the fallen figure in the grass on the outer edge of the playground.
“You shot Soren,” she said. “See if he’s okay.”
Ken ran over to where Soren lay.
Sara wanted to make sure he was safe, but she couldn’t bring herself to let go of Alex. She took his hand as she searched for Richard’s gun on the ground. When she found it, she aimed at the creature, who was still moaning in the grass. She couldn’t risk the creature getting back up again. This had to be finished.
She glanced back to see Soren sitting up and felt a wave of relief wash over her. He was alive, at least. It was only then she let herself admit she couldn’t have borne it if he’d died too. These past few days, she realized how much she’d missed him being a part of her life. When John died, she’d lost her fiancé and her best friend.
Soren nodded toward her reassuringly and Ken pulled him up. Soren put his hand on his shoulder but didn’t appear badly hurt.
“I thought you were a crack shot,” Soren said to him. “But it just grazed me.”
“You can thank Alex for that,” Ken said. “He kicked the gun just as I was aiming at you.”
Soren looked over at Alex.
“Nice work, kid,” he said. “You saved the day.”
Despite everything that had happened to him, Sara saw Alex beam in response.
He should be crying, she thought. How is he holding up so well?
She thought of what Richard had said. “He hasn’t told you, has he?” Sara wondered what secrets Alex had been keeping. But now was not the time to find out.
Soren and Ken walked over to where Richard lay.
“What are we going to do with him?” Ken asked. “If we take him to jail, he’ll just dream his way out again.”
“I don’t think it will be our problem,” Soren said.
Sara realized he wasn’t looking at Richard any longer, and followed his gaze past her into the woods.
The shade emerged from the trees, striding forward. She hugged Alex tighter, still worried he might try to take him. But the shade merely nodded once in their direction as he headed toward Richard.
Both Ken and Soren stepped away from the dreamweaver. When Richard looked up, barely conscious, and saw the shade, he whispered one word. “You.”
“Me,” the shade replied.
He looked at Ken, Soren and Sara.
“It would be best if you left,” he said. “The boy shouldn’t witness this.”
“Thank you,” Sara said. “Thank you for saving my son.”
The shade only nodded again.
“Go,” he said.
Sara wrapped her arm around Alex’s shoulders and the four of them began walking away. As they did, they heard Richard begin shouting.
“No!” he screamed. “No, no, no, no, no.”
Soon after, even that short, repeated word became indistinct and turned into indecipherable caterwauling.
It took Ken and Soren several minutes to figure out their location. Neither man had been carrying his cell phone when the shade brought them to the forest, and Sara had no recollection of arriving there. They walked for ten minutes and came to a road that Soren recognized and knew would lead them back to his apartment.
Even from that distance, they could hear Richard’s screams.
Chapter Eighteen