Page 81 of Broken Bayou
“Raymond,” he says.
I open my mouth to speak, and a loud knocking comes from the front room.
“Don’t answer it,” I say to Doyle.
“Hello? Anyone home?” a man yells from the front porch.
I recognize the voice. My heart stops a moment, then picks back up double time.
Another loud knock.
“Somebody answer the goddamn door!” Liv Arceneaux’s voice erupts from a room nearby. I completely forgot about her. Does she know I’m trapped in here?
“Call Travis,” I say to Doyle. “Get me out of here.”
I hear the front door open. “Hello?”
Doyle studies me a minute, then runs from the room.
I shut the door and look at Eddie. “Eddie, I need you to do me a favor.”
He stares at me but doesn’t answer.
“I can get you more metal pieces, if you do.”
He nods. I listen as Doyle and Raymond talk in the front room.
I look toward the window. “I need you to open that window for me.”
The voices in the front room grow louder, heated.
“Now!” I whisper at Eddie.
Eddie lumbers to the window and lifts the pane with one motion, with one hand. The old paint pops and cracks as the pane slides upward. Hot night air and insects rush into the room.
The window is high enough that I’ll have to hook my hands on the lower eave to pull myself up and through.
A gunshot erupts from the front of the house.
Eddie covers his ears and wails.
I hoist myself up and through the opening so fast that I fall out on the other side. My shoulder and side hit the ground hard. Mud splashes in my face. I ignore the pain in my arm, jumping up and running for the edge of the property before I can even think of where the road is. Mud from the recent rain sucks at my bare feet like quicksand, but I keep running, scanning the dark yard for the driveway. I feel disoriented and nauseated, and I’m having a hard time figuring out which direction I’m running. Then I see a car parked at an odd angle near the playground equipment. It’s not an old junker like the others. It’s new. It could have keys. I crouch as I run for it.
Clouds whisk overhead and cover the moon, plunging me into darkness, but my eyes have adjusted as I ease along the side of the car. I try the driver’s door. It’s locked. I try the remaining three doors, and they are locked as well. I peer through the window but don’t see any keys.
Then I see a light, scanning the yard from the woods. A flashlight. I crouch low. I duck next to the back tire and watch the house. Frogs croak from every corner of the yard. I can see the driveway. It’s so close. But how fast can I really run with bare feet and what feels like a slight concussion? The answer comes quickly: fast enough to save my life.
I push up from my crouched position and start for the road when large floodlights come to life on either side of the house. The front yard is illuminated like a runway. I duck back into the shadows, searching for another exit.
My gaze stops on the shed a few feet away. It looks like a work shed. Eddie’s metal shop. Something catches my eye in the corner of the shed. A shape that looks familiar. But as I try to focus on it, the front door flies open. Eddie thunders out, yelling into the night, “She don’t wanna be alone!”
Then I hear Travis yell. “Willa!”
A long, shuddering breath escapes me. “Over here,” I yell back.
A flashlight beam whips in my direction. Travis runs for me, and when he reaches me, I collapse into his chest.
“It’s okay,” he says into my hair. “It’s okay.”
