Panting heavily, she raced through the building. Her heart felt as though it were about to leap up out of her chest though whether it was because of adrenaline or because she was scared to death she wasn’t sure. All she knew was she needed to hide…now. She had gained a bit of a lead on him but she knew it wouldn’t be for too much longer. Though she knew the buildings slightly better than he did, it wouldn’t be enough to completely evade him.

The building was large and brightly-lit on the main floor. She sprinted toward the front doors, praying that they weren’t locked. She didn’t have time to grab her key or wait for someone else to open the door for her. As she slammed into the door she yanked it hard. The door jerked open with the tremendous force she used. Various residents milled about in the lobby area, turning in shock as the door was flung so hard. She didn’t have time to think about them. She raced through them and through the lobby.

“Hey! Slow down!” a voice called from behind her. “You of all people should know that running in the lobby isn’t tolerated!”

“What’s wrong?!” a familiar, friendly voice called from the front desk. She had no time to explain as she bolted passed him.

“Amelia!” another male voice called out. “What are you running from!?”

She could not answer and instead sprinted down toward the basement, fumbling to get her keys out of her pocket. The basement lights were mostly off, casting eerie shadows as she raced toward a locked door. She could hear shouts coming from the lobby area and knew her pursuer wasn’t far behind.

“What’s going on?” she heard the first boy demand. “Why is she running?”

Amelia heard no answer. Instead another shout came from the second boy. “Hey! Where do you think you’re going? Come back here!”

But she could hear his footsteps echoing down the stairwell. Panicked, she turned the key in the lock. The door clicked open and she scrambled inside, shutting it behind her. Darkness engulfed her but she feared turning on a light. She did not want any clues as to where she was hiding at all.

Her heart thudded in the blackness so loud that she feared he’d find her just by listening. She tried to control her erratic breathing only to realize she felt physically nauseous and faint. Bile rose in her throat but she pushed it back down knowing as soon as she let it escape her mouth she wouldn’t be able to stop it. That was the last thing she needed on top of everything else.

A door from outside slammed open followed soon after by footsteps. With each step their echo slowed. He was looking for her and he knew she was not far.

“Oh Ami!” his once soothing voice called. “Come on, don’t be like that with me. I just want to talk for a while.”

But she knew very well that that wasn’t the case. The voice that had once soothed her fears now made shivers of fear run down her spine. His tone was laced with a venom she had never once heard from her former love. It filled her with a new kind of terror.

She backed into a recessed area of the large closet, careful not to trip over the mounds of objects that laid all around, scattered about. Her body quivered. From a distance she swore that she heard pounding on a door. Silently she pleaded with God that it was her friends coming to her aid. Her heart sank, however, when she realized that somehow her former love had somehow barricaded the door, keeping them out and her in. Perhaps they could make it to the other set of doors before he blocked those off as well.

A loud scraping sound, however, quickly squelched all hope she had left. He was blocking that door as well. She was trapped. All she could do now was hope and pray that the metal door’s lock would hold strong against his soon-to-be attempts at getting to her. What she wasn’t prepared for, however, was just how quickly those attempts would begin.

The door handle jiggled after only a few seconds and it was all she could do to keep herself from screaming out. Clamping hard down on her tongue, she soon tasted the iron tang of blood in her mouth but she couldn’t stop. It was either that or allowing the fighting scream to escape past her sealed lips. She couldn’t let that happen. He slammed into the door a moment longer before he apparently moved on. She could feel a slight sigh of relief escape her, but she knew it would not last for long. She knew that he would be back.

She closed her eyes momentarily and took a few deep breaths before opening her eyes and looking around. Perhaps there was a way to get out of here - one that she had not noticed all the times that she had been down in the room. She got up and moved around a little, careful not to make too much noise. She found it hard to see anything amid the darkness of the room, but nevertheless, she continued to search. The search itself, however, did not last for very long and to her dismay, she quickly found out that she was thoroughly trapped. Time for a new tactic. But what that tactic was, she was unsure.

“Ami!” his cold voice called, echoing down in the equally cold basement. “Come out, come out wherever you are!”

Amelia squeezed her chocolate brown eyes shut tightly to keep herself from tearing up. Never before had she been so scared in all of her life. Briefly she wondered if it were possible for someone to die of fright. If so, she had to have been close.

“Ami!” his voice shouted once again, this time close to the door she hid behind. “Oh come on Ami, I know you’re in there. Just come on out so we can talk.”

It wouldn’t be long now. She backed away from that door a ways before tripping on something and falling hard on the floor. A quick racket followed. If there was any doubt in his mind where she was before, it was gone now. Almost immediately the handle jiggled once more followed by a series of hard kicks to the handle. As if sensing that wouldn’t open the door, he began kicking at the old metal of the door. It began to give way and splinters of light began to shine through.

Amelia saw with the bit of light that peeked through exactly what it was that she tripped over. A baseball bat, and a metal one at that. Thank goodness that Student Government is full of a bunch of packrats and keeps all their crap down here! And thank God they must have had a baseball tournament at some point!

Quickly she picked up the bat in her trembling hands. Moving a bit closer she waited. The door was cracking down now and she wondered how exactly he could keep up the assault. He had to have been exhausted by now! But the attack continued.

“Just open the door Ami!” he called. “Every kick makes me much angrier! Let me in before I do something I might regret!”

Too late, Amelia thought to herself. She already knew what he intended to do to her once he got his hands on her. She wasn’t about to welcome him in with open arms. No, instead she had another idea entirely.

With one more hard kick, a large hole appeared in the door letting the small bit of light from the basement in.

“Ami,” he cooed coldly. He took a step in as Ami pulled the bat back behind her head.

“Ready or not, here I come,” he hissed as he took three steps inside, ducking through the hole into the room.

“Not a chance in hell,” she sneered back and swung the weapon as hard as she could. She snarled angrily and fearfully when he ducked out of the way, his head avoiding getting smashed in. However he wasn’t able to fully avoid a hit. The bat caught him in the shoulder and sent him sprawling to the ground.

Seeing her chance, Amelia jumped over him, dropping the bat down on his back and sprinted out of the storage room. Or at least she tried. In his rage, her former love shot his hand out, grabbing at her ankle. With a cry she was smash into the floor. With his hand still on her ankle he began pulling her back toward the room that he was still in. She turned and saw the furious rage in his eyes.

Tears began to stream down her face. “Let me go!” she screeched at him. “Why are you doing this to me?”

“You broke my heart,” he hissed at her, moving her closer to him. “I think you owe me something in return.”

“No!” she wailed as he crawled over top of her. “Please! Stop! I’m so sorry that I hurt you!”

“Shut up bitch!” he snapped back striking her hard across the face. “I’m sick of hearing you whine!”

Her mind reeled with the assault. Never before had he ever hit her. He had always been such a gentlemen and a kind person. She could never even imagine him ever hitting her before. She choked back a sob. She had hurt him that much?

The sound of broken glass interrupted the both of them.

“Police!” a man shouted. “Let us in!”

Both relief and terror coursed through her body. Someone was here to save her, but what was he going to do? Amelia was sure that he wouldn’t surrender so easily. She heard scraping as if they were moving the barricade. The glass! Of course, how could she have forgotten about the glass in the door? Her friends would not have been able to get at it because of the metal crisscrosses that ran in between the two panels, but of course the police could.

Suddenly the boy got up off of her. Before she could even attempt to escape he hauled her to her feet. “Damn,” he muttered under his breath. “Get up and don’t try anything stupid. Or else.”

From somewhere he pulled some kind of rope around her throat and pulled. She gasped as some of her breath was cut off. She could still breathe but barely. He fumbled around in his pocket and she heard him open his pocket knife. He flashed it in front of her face momentarily and she felt the tears begin to slide down her face harder.

That was the knife she had given him for his birthday a few months back. Now he was threatening her life with it. This time she couldn’t choke back a sob.

She heard the door open and quick footsteps echo down the hall. A light suddenly shined in her face and she had to turn away.

“Let her go.” an older voice demanded.

“Get out of here,” the boy sneered back. “Or I’ll kill her now.”

She opened her eyes in time to see the knife flash in front of her face once more. “And get rid of that damn light!”

The light moved and Amelia could see that the police were there standing in front of her. Safety was only a step away and she could not even take it. The police stood their ground. Suddenly the pressure on her neck increased. Amelia gasped and choked. She couldn’t breathe! Her lungs screamed for the oxygen that she couldn’t get. Her body tried to cry but with no air, it only caused her to choke instead.

“Get back!” he shouted insanely. “Or I’ll let you watch as I strangle her!”

The officers fell back a bit and the pressure lessened enough for her to get the breath back into her body. She sputtered and choked as her body greedily sucked in the air it needed. “Now, now officers,” he sneered. “This is really just a boyfriend girlfriend matter anyway. Nothing that the law needs to get involved in.”

If she hadn’t been in such a terrible predicament, she would have glared angrily at him. How dare he! She never knew that he harbored these kinds of feelings and attitudes and now that she knew, she was glad that she had broken things off with him before they got too serious.

Well, almost glad. It would have been much easier to be happy if he wasn’t the one holding her life in the palms of his hands.

“Come on son,” one of the officers started. “Don’t do something that you’re going to regret. You don’t really want to do this anyway do you?”

“You don’t know me,” he suddenly sneered back. “You don’t know what she did to me. She was my entire life! She was my heart and soul…my light in the darkness. And then what does she do? Dumps me for some other guy!”

That’s not true, Amelia thought to herself, squeezing her eyes shut, but she dared not voice her thought. Its just the way it happened. I never imagined it happening so quickly! I wasn’t happy. You weren’t happy. I had to do something!

“Put down the knife son. Don’t throw your life away over some girl.” the officer replied taking a small step forward. Her captor shifted his weight suddenly and the rope tightened a fraction. Her eyes shot open again. Out of the corner of Amelia’s eye she could see his knife come closer to her face. She sniffled but choked back another sob.

“You don’t understand!” he roared suddenly. “Get out of here now! I’ll kill her, I swear to God I will if you don’t get the hell out of here!” The tears began to fall freely from her eyes as she heard those awful words coming from his mouth - the mouth that once made her laugh.

“Men, fall back.” the officer that had been speaking to her former love told the others. Slowly, with weapons still drawn, the men backed away until they were out of sight. Everyone in the room, however, knew that they were still close by, ready to spring into action at the first chance they could. The officer looked at her momentarily and then back up at Amelia’s captor. “May I stay and talk? Man to man?”

“This is no business of yours officer,” came the curt reply.

“Unfortunately as soon as you began chasing her, it became my business. But we can settle this business in a calm, cool way and no one will get hurt.”

“I’m already hurt,” the boy said, a hint of remorse creeping through. “She hurt me beyond repair.”

“And you want to hurt her back, is that right?”

“Yes. I-I mean no. I-I mean, I don’t know.” He sounded confused suddenly. It was as though the idea of what he was doing was actually hurting her both physically and mentally never once crossed his mind. The grip on the rope slackened a bit and Amelia was able to breath somewhat regularly once more.

“Son, you don’t want to do this,” the officer repeated. “I can understand what its like to have someone you love not love you back. I’ve been there too. You feel hurt and confused and you’re unsure of just how you’re going to go on with life. But hurting her is not going to make you feel better. Trust me, it’ll be okay. You will survive and you will become a stronger person in the end.”

“No, I don’t want to go on with life.” he suddenly was rigid again - Amelia and the officer both could feel it. “I want Ami! And I’m going to have her no matter what.”

Though the rope remained loose around her throat, the knife tightened there. Amelia gasped and sobbed when she felt the cold hard steel press gingerly into the soft flesh of her neck. She didn’t dare to move and she hardly dared to breathe.

“Son,”

“And stop calling me ‘son’! I am not your son!”

“Of course, you’re right. I apologize.”

“Now leave. I know that I’m in deep shit already and I know damn well once I let Ami go, I’ll have cops all over, swarming me. I’ll be in jail for the rest of my life as it is.”

“So you’re thinking what’s one more charge against you?” the policeman asked.

“Yeah.” came the reply.

“You know, I’m not going to lie to you and tell you that once you let her go you’ll be on your merry way. You won’t. There will be a trial and there will be jail time.” the officer agreed. “But just how much and how long depends on your next move. If you are cooperative and don’t harm her, you’ll get a few years.” the officer paused a moment as if to let him think it over. “However, if you harm her in any way be it sexually or murder, you’ll never be free. You will spend the rest of your life behind bars. How do you think your friends and your family take that?”

The boy tensed his hand as if to challenge the police officer. Amelia winced but refused to cry out as the newly sharpened blade scratched at her soft skin, tearing it only slightly. He seemed to mull over the officer’s words for a moment. His hand trembled and at first she thought that he was going to slit her throat right then and there, however a few seconds later the blade moved away from her throat. A loud clang echoed through the basement as the knife fell to the floor followed soon after by Amelia. He let go of her and she collapsed hard to her knees, the stress and the fear taking their toll on her body.

She stayed there, sobs wracking her body, oblivious to the rest of the police officers running in. She didn’t see them push her former love hard against the wall, handcuffing him. She didn’t hear them read his rights. She didn’t feel the officer that had saved her life come up beside her and put his hand on his shoulder. He said something but she didn’t hear it. The only thing she heard among the commotion was the boy.

“I’m so sorry Ami. I never meant to hurt you. I-I just love you so much…Please forgive me!”

For the first time she could ever remember, she glared at him with cold, unfeeling eyes. “I may some day far in the future be able to forgive you, but for now I can’t. You nearly killed me and yet you say that you love me. You never loved me. You were obsessed over me. If you loved me you could have never dreamed about doing what you just did to me. You tried to kill me! I will relived this damn nightmare for the rest of my life! I won’t forgive you for this. Not for a long, long time.”

A flash of hurt settled on his face, but she didn’t feel guilty. The kind, sincere boy that she had known was either a façade or just plain gone. He wasn’t the boy she had liked so much. Not anymore, and she knew that he never would be again.