The Bodyguard ✔

Chapter Fifty

I run back into the direction we came from, in direction of the back entrance door. I start out running slower than I would want, because I'm still dizzy.

More intense than ever, I feel an agitated heartbeat in my neck. I run as fast as I possibly can on my heels and in a long dress. All I can think about is I have to run faster.

My heart almost jumps out of my chest when a strong hand grabs my lower arm. I'm close to losing balance, but yet I surprise myself by keeping myself on my feet.

Jabari catched up on me and when I figured that out, I'm pushed against the wall. There happened to be a fire ladder, and I smash into the rigid metal with my head and lower body. The blow takes me by great surprise. I almost lose conscience and I desperately gasp for air. The world turns black before my eyes and I clasp onto the fire escape in order not to fall. My thoughts are all over the place and I can't get them back in any logical order. The only thing that makes sense is for me to escape Jabari.

Still holding onto the metal of the fire ladder, I undo my heels with my feet. Jabari tries to pull me away, but I clasp onto the ladder with every strain of strength in my body. As soon as I've removed my heels from my feet, I support myself by pressing my back to the wall and use one of my legs to push Jabari against his chest. He stumbles away from me.

I take this opportunity to pick up one of my heels and let the other one behind on the ground, and I take a step into Jabari's direction. When I'm close enough, I stretch my arm and take a swing at Jabari. I hit him in the face with my shoe. No time to lose after that.

I run.

I run to the back entrance door and as soon as I reach it, I throw my body weight against it. The heavy door slowly opens under the pressure of my weight and in the meantime, I spot Jabari still recovering from a blow against the head. Just before I rush through the door, Jabari pulls himself together and aims his attention back at me, confident to go after me.

I'm back inside and before I can decide which way to go, I bump into Frank. All kinds of extremely intense emotions overcome me and I cannot decide if I want to jump into his arms and shut my eyes, slap him for leaving me unprotected, or kiss him to express my joy of seeing him in this close to hopeless situation.

My thoughts occur as fast as lightning, due to adrenaline, and in a split second, I decide to take his hand and lead him in direction of the party. "Frank, we have to go!" He must've seen my distressed appearance, and follows me without hesitation. We run through the hallway in direction of the party and before we can blend into the crowd, Jabari appears out of the back entrance door, the same one I used, just in time for Frank and I to observe him. A bloodstream runs over Jabari's face and he doesn't look happy at all. I don't know if Frank knows what's going on exactly, I don't even know what's going on, but he knows what to do now.

We blend into the crowd and immediately have to move more slowly. We will surely be noticed even more than we are now if we try to walk any faster, and that could easily give us away. Walking as slow as we are, the caused suspense is almost unbearable. My heels are gone, and because of that, I've lost my height advantage. My vision is constricted by the people around me. I solely have to trust Frank to lead us into the right direction.

After what seemed an eternity, the crowd becomes less packed and when the entrance door finally appears, the suspense in me suddenly intensifies. Frank holds my hand even tighter, if that's possible, when we disengage from the crowd and start running again.

I can only imagine how dramatic of a picture I must look like, along with my red long dress and without any shoes on. Not that any of that matters.

We proceed to run through the entrance and descend off the stairs at the front of the building. What now? I almost feel my heart drop to my feet when I don't know what to do next. I quickly look behind me, to the crowd, in search of any disturbance that might indicate Jabari closing in on us. Just before I think I see a suspicious movement, Frank starts moving again and I lose my focus.

He leads me over the parking lot in the dark, until we reach the car. Frank obeys me to get into the passenger's seat, yet I don't feel any relieve until he gets into the car as well. I've never seen him start the car this fast before and when he does, the tires screech before I even feel we're driving.

From then on, I experience a vague turbulence of moving lights from outside and inconsistent car sounds.

My heart is still beating like crazy and my sense of reality has become turbid.

Suddenly, I blur out: "Can everybody just stop trying to kidnap me!". I lift my shoulders up. Was that supposed to be funny? Because it sounded morbid.

For a second, I've forgotten Frank is right next to me. I don't turn to him, I just let him drive us onto a highway. I don't know how long we've been driving. I don't know where we are.

I let my empty thoughts carry me away into a trance. What happened?         What did I do?         Why did all this happen?        Is it my fault?          Is it anybody's fault?        Did I hurt Jabari?       Did Jabari hurt me?           That policeman...    I didn't even look if he was okay.            Maybe he died.           It could be my fault.            Am I safe now at least?           Will I be safe?            What is going on anyway?

The questions hover through my subdued mind without any logical order and they do so all at once. Does that even make sense? I don't know. I don't know anything anymore.

Frank drives further onto a highway. We are one of the few cars on this road, I notice.

Frank suddenly talks, he almost whispers. Or my mind is currently so loud he just sounds quiet to me. Anything is possible.

"I'm so sorry," He says with almost a broken voice. He turns his head to me, just for a second, like he almost can't bear to look at me any longer than that. "but I'm going to make it right."