PART 7 – THE ESCAPE THROUGH THE DARKNESS
The fall was harder than expected. My knees hit the wet earth hard, and a sharp pain shot through my leg. But I couldn't stop. The voices on the stairs were getting closer, and then I heard the sound of violence against the bedroom door.
BANG!
The door was kicked open with a forceful push. They were in.
“This way! Quick!”
My brother's hand grabbed my arm and pulled me up. Without looking back, we ran through the muddy garden straight toward the old wooden barrier. My brother pushed a rotten wooden plank aside, and we crawled through the opening into the dark alley behind it.
The rain washed over us, but adrenaline pulsed through my body. We ran through the narrow, deserted streets of the neighborhood until we arrived at an old station wagon parked inconspicuously in the shadow. My brother opened the door, pushed me in, and threw himself behind the steering wheel.
Within seconds the engine roared to life, and we drove off with our lights off.
I sat in the passenger seat, breathing heavily from exertion, still clutching the red box desperately in my arms. Only when the streets of our neighborhood were behind us and we merged onto the highway did I dare to exhale.
I glanced at my brother. In the glow of the dashboard, I saw the deep wrinkles on his face, the exhaustion in his eyes, and the scar on his jawline that he hadn't had twelve years ago.
He was no longer a boy. He had become a man who had had to live in the shadows all those years.
“Why?” was the only thing I could get out. My voice sounded hoarse and broken. “Why did you stay away for twelve years? Why didn't you come to Mom's funeral?”
My brother gripped the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles turned white. He didn't look at me, but stared fixedly straight ahead at the empty road.
“Because if I had come back...”, he said with icy calm, “...we both would have been dead.”
Those words hit me like a sledgehammer. I opened my mouth to ask something, but he raised a hand defensively.
“Not now,” he said quietly. “They are tracking us. And they won't give up until they have this box.”
