Free Throat by R. A. Nelson Page B

the shoes. “But they will buy hers.”
    Snap out of it, Emma
, a voice said. It was my own voice, coming up from far below.
Now. Now. Now
.
    “If you do not come to me,” Wirtz said, “let me tell you what I will do. I will find you, and through you I will find your family.” He smiled. “I will have her. I will hold her in the air and break her spine across my leg. With luck, she will still be alive. Alive enough to know she has been paralyzed. But do not worry. Her condition will not last long. I will rip her throat open and suck her dry until she isshriveled and gone almost completely, but not quite. I will save some spark of life, some
Funke
, until the very end. And then I will tear her head from her shoulders.”
    The voice in my head was screaming now.
Come up, Emma, come up!
    “Very well,” the vampire said. “Your silence is your answer.” He gestured at the sneakers. “This is your decision. I will find you. Her blood will be on your hands.”
    He stooped beside Manda’s shoes, reaching as if to stroke them with his dirty fingernails.
    “All I need is something that will tell me … where … you … are.…
Ah.
”
    The fingers stopped just short of caressing the shoes.… The vampire had spotted something else. A scrap of paper.
My school lunch menu
. The menu was upside down. If Wirtz turned it over, he would see the name of my school in bold print across the top.
    He reached for the paper, then his face twisted with something that almost looked like pain. The vampire drew back his hand and stood, looking at me. Mouth like a wound. He sighed.
    “No matter. It is only a question of time. And I have so very much of it. Run if you prefer,
Mädchen
. I will still come. I will never stop coming until I find you. Never.
Das schwöre ich
. This I vow.”
    Hurry hurry hurry!
    I was close now, so close; the part of me that the seizure had buried was moving fast, about to break through the top.
    The vampire smiled. “
Sie werden wie ein Schwein sterben.
”
    You will die like a pig
.

The clock read 12:04.
    An animal sound gushed from my throat. The seizure was over; I was free of the paralysis. I flung myself off my bed and leapt across the room at Wirtz.
Kill him. Kill him
.
    I flew straight through the vampire and smashed into my closet door instead. The door groaned as it was knocked off its track; I lashed out furiously, splitting the wood in half and throwing shards of it up in the air. Sheetrock rubble from the ceiling fell on my head. I looked wildly around the room. Wirtz had disappeared.
    I shouted Manda’s name at least five times before my mother came in and grabbed my arm from behind. I flung her away, not realizing she wasn’t the vampire. She slammed against the bedroom door, shutting it with her back, looking at me with crazy eyes. Manda’s voice came crying through the crack.
    “Emma, Emma, Emma!”
    My mother put her arms out toward me, eyes wide as she took in the destruction of my room. “Emma, what’s wrong! What’s happening?” She was almost screaming the words.
    I felt all the air leave my body.
Oh my God. What am I doing?
“I have to … I have to go, Mom,” I said. “I have to go now.…”
    She put her hands out again. “What … what are you talking about? What’s wrong?”
    Manda banged on the door, but my mother was still leaning against it.
    “Emma! Emma!”
    My sister’s voice sounded alarm bells in my head. I took a step backward and looked around in a panic. I could still feel the vampire in the room. His cold, heavy emptiness filling the space.
    Manda was still screaming. Mom was struggling to keep the door shut so my sister wouldn’t see this.
See what I’ve become
.
    I had to do something. Seconds counted.
It’s me he wants
, I thought. Wirtz was looking for me; I was leading him straight to them. If I stayed any longer … the vampire would be back … holding Manda in his hands. His mouth on her throat. As her life ebbed, when he was