Chapter 6 - The Raging Creek
Footsteps thundered up the wooden stairs. Julian didn't bother trying the doorknob; his heavy boot crashed against the center of the wooden door, splintering the frame instantly. The wood gave way with a sickening crack, hinges groaning under the strain.
"Clara, out the window! Now!" Mark ordered, shoving the lower sash of the window upward with all his remaining strength. The rusted metal frame screeched and caught, leaving an opening barely two feet wide.
Clara scrambled through without hesitation, landing with a soft thud on the slick metal grating of the fire escape outside. Rain immediately lashed her face. Mark handed Leo through the gap, the boy crying out feebly as the freezing wind hit him.
"Hold him tight against the railing!" Mark yelled.
Just as Mark went to pull himself through, the office door blew inward. Julian lunged through the dust and splintered wood, his hands locking around Mark’s collar. The force of the impact dragged Mark back into the room, throwing him against the old mahogany desk.
"You're done running, family man," Julian snarled, pinning Mark’s chest down with one massive forearm while raising the tire iron with the other.
Mark grabbed a heavy brass paperweight from the desk and smashed it upward into Julian’s broken nose. Blood sprayed across the desk as Julian screamed in agony, staggering backward and dropping the weapon. Mark kicked Julian square in the knee, hearing a satisfying pop, before diving headfirst through the open window onto the fire escape.
"Clara, go down!" Mark shouted, scrambling to his feet.
The metal fire escape shuddered under their weight. Below them, the creek was no longer a gentle stream; the torrential storm had transformed it into a roaring torrent of brown, churning water, overflowing its banks and tearing down branches. At the bottom of the ladder, the platform had already collapsed into the flood.
Behind them, Amanda appeared in the window, leveling her small revolver directly at Mark's chest. Her finger tightened on the trigger. "Drop the boy, Mark, or I take your head off right now."
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Clara looked at her father, then down at the terrifying water below. "Daddy, don't let her hurt him!"
Mark didn't negotiate. He wrapped Clara and Leo in a bear hug and threw himself over the railing into the black, churning rapids.
