I feel my chest rising and falling quickly as I move with urgency, tapping the space around me to get through faster. To get to her.
What the fuck is wrong with me? I’m losing it.
No matter how fast I weave through the maze, it feels like I’m too many steps behind her. Each time I round a corner or slip through two spaces, she’s there, then gone.
And so are the flashes of a black boot. Then a navy jacket. A balled fist.
A man. Following her.
I’m gritting my teeth, a deep-set V forming between my eyebrows as I turn left, suddenly in the middle of a larger space, every direction of my reflection prismed.
“Goldie.”
Her image appears in small diamonds next to mine as I spin around, trying to figure out a way to get to her, until I’m frozen in place.
Because next to Goldie’s image ishim. The same silhouette from the alley.
I shake my head, trying to make him disappear again. But he doesn’t. He’s unmoving, watching her as she multiplies and divides for me in the mirror.
“Hey,” I say, almost too frozen to speak before repeating myself with more force this time. “Hey.”
The stranger tilts his head sideways. Just enough to tell me he heard me but not enough for me to see his face. His jaw tenses before he moves, disappearing.
Fuck. No, no, no, no.
I’m slipping and bumping into wall after wall, trying to get to her as my pulse races. I feel panicked, glimpsing Goldie laughing, her hair flying around as she makes her way through the maze. Because he’s there. Behind her. Then next to her ... Is he next to her? I don’t know. I can’t tell.
“Goldie,” I yell.
Her head turns in the prism, a hundred of her looking right at me. She smiles.
I start to yell to her again, but as fast as I see her, she’s gone, and as I step forward, the man appears in the same way.
He reaches inside his jacket before the glint of silver arrests my entire soul and lets a monster inside me take over.
It feels like I’m blacking out as I make my way through the mirrors, completely lost in a haze of fury and fear. I move faster and faster, my breath shuddered, mouth opened.
The only thought in my mind:Kill.
A red exit sign feels like an explosion, or maybe that’s just the force I use to bust through the door. The dark hallway’s lit by the real world on the other side, but I’d see her anywhere. I charge forward, my vision drowning in rage, eyes fixed on the shadow of Goldie against the wall.
Kill.
The motherfucker standing over her turns his head just as I grind out my words.
“Get your fucking hands off my girlfriend.”
He takes a step back but doesn’t say a word. Because he can’t. I’ve wrapped my hand around his throat, pinning him next to her.
I pull her behind me, tightening my grip, staring into his eyes.
“Why’d you follow her through the maze? What the fuck was in your hand?”
He’s sputtering, slapping at my wrist, but I don’t give a shit. I press harder, feeling the force of the pressure all the way up my arm.
I glance back at her. “Did he hurt you?”
She shakes her head quickly, eyes wide, while trying to pull my free arm as Evie and Chase come running.
