stepping over broken branches, moving alongside the evident trail. But as he continued, his head twisting in front of him and around, he could no longer see the man. He walked faster, staring ahead, trying to catch up, but still, he could no longer see the man. It didn’t make sense. Had the man stepped off his own tracks? Conor came to a stop, heart beating in his ears now as he twisted around, looking around the bush in search of the large man.
“You want to join your friend?”
The voice came quietly from behind him.
Conor wasn’t quick enough. He stepped forward, but a hand grabbed at the collar of his sweater and yanked him back with sudden force. Conor’s throat burned as he fell to the ground, breath knocked out of him, his hands already grabbing at his collar. But he was being dragged violently through the bush now, and the collar was digging into his neck and he couldn’t breathe.
He kicked his legs out, twisting his body around, but he wasn’t quick enough. The hand let go of his sweater and grabbed at his head, shoving it back. Conor’s head slammed into the ground as a large weight pressed over his chest, keeping him down in place.
It was the man’s knee, and it was digging harshly into his chest, right over Conor’s heart. His hand was now swallowing Conor’s face, covering his eyes. Conor’s nails clawed at the man’s arm, but it was covered in that thick jacket.
“Let me go!” he screamed.
But the man didn’t let him go. He kept his hand pressed against his face, and he added a bit more weight onto his chest, making Conor shriek in pain.
“You’re not going anywhere,” the man said. “You followed me here. I gave you a chance to run away, but you’re so eager to join your friend. He’s gone, you know. You were never going to see him again.”
“No!” Conor screamed, crying now. “Let him go, please! Take me. Take me instead.”
“Such a brave boy.”
Conor sobbed, his heart beating through his chest like a jackhammer now because he didn’t want Max with this man. He didn’t want him to hurt. Until that very moment, he’d never given much light to how much he’d cared for him. Max was his little buddy. He had looked up to him, and Conor had made the choice to come here, to play that stupid game. It was Conor’s fault, and it wasn’t right for someone else to pay for his mistakes.
“Take me,” he repeated. “Take me, please.”
“I’m taking you regardless,” the man said gruffly. “Don’t get your hopes up. You’re not seeing your little friend. He’s gone now. He’s far away and you’re never going to find him, but I’m taking you somewhere else, you just wait and see what we have in store for you.”
Conor continued to struggle as the man rattled on. In an effort to distract, one hand still clawed in vain at his arm, but his other hand discreetly slipped into his back pocket. He grabbed his old man’s pocketknife, pulling it out and trying his damn hardest to flick it open. His fingers pulled at the blade, trying to separate it from its locked position. In desperation, his middle finger rested under the blade to prevent it from snapping closed. A searing pain flitted through Conor as he opened it, the blade cutting into him the whole way. He didn’t hear it, but he knew it’d snapped open in a straight position.
Now he gripped the handle and in one quick swing, he plunged it deeply into the man’s hand. Conor felt the knife poke through the man’s hand, its tip digging into Conor’s mouth. It cut straight through his bottom lip only briefly as the man screamed. The weight on his chest eased as the man buckled back in pain, and Conor rolled out from under him and quickly jumped to his feet. He took a step forward, but the man’s other hand grabbed at his leg. Conor fell forward to the ground, kicking back quickly, managing just barely to get ahead of the man. He took off again, dizzied by the pain in his mouth. Aware the man was right behind him, adrenaline spiked through Conor as he ran in any given direction.
Desperate to get ahead, he didn’t care where he was going. He was getting as far away as he could get, but he heard the man’s curses as he chased him, sometimes getting so close