Chapter 3 - The Midnight Escape
Richard approached the wheelchair with a terrifying, clinical calmness, tapping the side of the plastic syringe.
"The oral supplements are no longer sufficient to manage your terrible pain, Clara," he lied smoothly.
Clara backed her wheelchair away, genuine terror flooding her veins as she realized he intended to paralyze her permanently tonight.
Just as Richard raised the needle, his encrypted satellite phone rang loudly, breaking the unbearable tension in the room.
He answered the call, his face twisting into a mask of pure, unadulterated rage as he listened to the voice on the other end.
"The police are in the lobby asking about the boy?" Richard hissed into the receiver, glaring furiously at Clara.
He aggressively shoved the syringe into his coat pocket and stormed out of the room to handle the crisis.
The heavy deadbolt clicked into place, giving Clara a desperately needed, incredibly narrow window of opportunity.
She looked at her legs, focusing every single ounce of her willpower on the dormant muscles in her thighs.
With a painful, agonizing groan, Clara pushed herself up from the armrests of her customized wheelchair.
Her legs shook violently, completely unaccustomed to bearing her weight, but she miraculously managed to stand.
She stumbled clumsily toward the sliding glass doors leading out to the high-rise balcony overlooking the glowing city.
As she pushed the glass door open, a hand suddenly reached out from the shadows and clamped over her mouth.
It was the mysterious boy from the ballroom, his clothes torn and his face covered in dark bruises from the security guards.
"My name is Leo, and we have exactly two minutes to get off this balcony before they come back to kill you," he whispered urgently.
Clara nodded frantically, trusting this complete stranger far more than her own flesh and blood.
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Leo carefully wrapped a heavy industrial rappelling rope around her waist, securing her tightly to his own harness.
They stepped off the edge of the towering building just as the heavy penthouse door burst open behind them.
