Chapter 4 - The Threat
The man sitting up in the back seat of my moving car was Brooke's older brother, David.
I had completely forgotten that he had asked to nap in my air-conditioned car an hour before the party started.
David’s eyes were bloodshot, and his face was twisted into a mask of pure, unadulterated rage.
"Pull the car over right now, Helen," David growled, reaching his large hands forcefully toward Maisie.
Maisie shrieked in absolute terror, scrambling frantically across the leather seats to get away from him.
"Get your hands off her," I screamed, swerving the heavy vehicle violently across the double yellow lines.
The sudden, aggressive swerve threw David off balance, smashing his head heavily against the tinted passenger window.
He cursed loudly, recovering his balance and reaching over the center console to grab the steering wheel.
I was driving sixty miles an hour down a busy residential avenue, and we were about to crash.
I slammed my foot onto the brake pedal with every ounce of strength I possessed.
The sudden deceleration threw David violently forward, wedging his upper body tightly between the two front seats.
I did not waste a single second trying to reason with a monster.
I reached into the center console, grabbed a small canister of police-grade pepper spray, and shoved it directly into his face.
I held the trigger down, unleashing a brutal stream of burning chemicals into his eyes and nose.
David let out a deafening, agonizing roar, completely releasing the steering wheel to claw blindly at his own face.
I unbuckled my seatbelt, opened my door, and rushed around to the rear passenger side.
I yanked the door open and violently dragged a screaming, blinded David completely out of the vehicle.
He hit the hot asphalt hard, rolling into the gutter while gasping pathetically for air.
I slammed the door shut, sprinted back to the driver's seat, and sped away before anyone could call the police.
My hands were shaking so violently I could barely keep the car inside the white painted lanes.
I looked back at Maisie, who was curled into a tiny, trembling ball on the floorboards.
"You are safe now, baby," I promised, tears of sheer adrenaline blurring my frantic vision.
But Maisie was not looking at me.
She was staring down at her own chest in absolute, paralyzing horror.
The thick towel had fallen away during the violent struggle, completely exposing the black harness.
The red light on the plastic box was no longer blinking in a slow, steady rhythm.
It was flashing frantically, illuminating the dark backseat with terrifying speed.
A cold, mechanical voice suddenly emitted from a small speaker hidden inside the device.
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"Perimeter boundary breached," the robotic voice announced loudly.
"Lethal protocol initiated in exactly sixty minutes."
