was still there, pressed hard against her mouth, another hand gripping her shoulder.
This is real, she thought and began to struggle, fully awake.
The room was dark, the television still on, and the man who held her was making shushing sounds. It wasn’t Alan. She could see razor-cut blondish hair and the line of a square jaw, and she could smell his sweat, stale and powdery. Her heart was beating so fast that her chest hurt, and tears sprang to her eyes. The man about to kill her was a stranger, although he was vaguely familiar, as though she’d passed him on the street or seen him in a dream.
He was speaking in a low whisper. “Kate, please listen to me. It’s Corbin. It’s your cousin. I am not going to hurt you. I need you to be very quiet. There’s a man in this apartment and he’s a very bad man. Shhhh. If you scream, or make a noise, he’s going to come in here. I need you to hide, and then I can go deal with him. Nod if you understand.”
Kate shook her head. Only half the words had made any sense to her. Was it really Corbin, or was he lying? How was he here, in the apartment? She thought of trying to bite his hand, but it was pressed hard against her mouth, her lips flattened against her teeth. She could see the man’s eyes, darting furiously over the edge of the couch toward the dark interior of the rest of the apartment. He looked scared. It is Corbin, she thought, recognizing him from pictures she’d seen.
“Shhh,” he said again. “You have to trust me, or we are both going to die. Do you understand?” His voice had become more urgent, cracking almost, and Kate nodded this time, deciding that she needed to do what he said. He’d either kill her or he wouldn’t. It was happening again—not with Alan, the way she’d thought earlier—but with some man she had never met.
After feeling Kate nod, Corbin looked her in the eyes. He loosened the hand around her mouth, but didn’t remove it. “Do you believe me? You have to believe me.”
She nodded more, and took a deep breath.
“Everything’s going to be all right,” Corbin said, but his eyes were still darting toward the hallway. “Do you know about the closet in here?”
“No,” Kate said in a cracked whisper through his hand.
“There’s a false back in it. It’s where my dad kept valuable things. Press your hand all the way to the right and push. You’ll hear a click and it will swing open. There’s enough room for you to hide there.”
Kate, not even realizing it, was shaking her head again, saying “no” into Corbin’s hand. He continued:
“Just stay there until I come back to get you. If I don’t come back, then just stay there longer. He won’t find you, and eventually he’ll give up. You have to trust me, okay?”
“I can’t,” Kate said. She felt tears sliding down her face. She breathed in deeply through her nose, her chest swelling. She thought for a moment she might start laughing.
“You have to,” Corbin said. “You’ll be safe. I promise.”
She looked at him and for the first time they made eye contact. It was like finding a handhold on a sheer cliff. Making a decision, she nodded, calmly, and Corbin took his hand all the way off her face.
“Who is it?” she asked. “Who’s here?”
“It doesn’t matter. We don’t have a lot of time.”
She followed him to the closet, her numb legs somehow operating independent of the rest of her body. He gently pushed her into its interior, filled with dry-cleaned suits hanging in plastic. “Just push, all the way to the right. You’ll hear the click,” he repeated.
“Okay,” she said, the sound of her voice coming from far away.
Before shutting the door, he whispered: “I am going to save you.” And then she was enveloped in darkness. She did as he said and pressed her hand against the back wall. It gave a little, clicked, and swung open. She stepped inside and felt around. There was a small metal handle and she pulled the door back in toward her, but not all the way. The small enclosure smelled of untreated wood and musty paperbacks. She felt as though she’d stepped back through time, into that other closet in another country, another madman on the other side, only this time she was calmer. No, it wasn’t exactly a