As he ran, he heard his father’s voice. Before the constant tension, Dad could always talk Matt off the ledge. His father would say, “How do you eat an elephant?” Dad would cup Matt’s chin in his hand, look Matt in the eyes, and answer his own question: “One bite at a time.”

When Matt was younger, the message got lost in his wandering thoughts. He’d say to his dad, “What kind of person would eat an elephant? How would you cook it? And aren’t elephants an endangered species?”

His dad would smile, tousle Matt’s hair. “One bite at a time, Matty.”

Matt jogged through the park. In the dark section, the one students knew to avoid, figures lurked near the shrubs. At this hour, you could find yourself in a scene from 28 Days Later, running from vibrating tweakers or lethargic opioid zombies. He made his way past the chess area, his thoughts jumping to his last game with Reggie. The momentary thrill of winning that game had been stolen from him like everything else.

In his peripheral vision, he saw a figure. The silhouette of a tall guy in a ball cap. Probably a married guy trolling for an anonymous same-sex liaison, another charming feature of twilight in the park.

He ran until he saw the light burning in the lobby of his dorm tower. Catching his breath at the crosswalk, he scanned the area and didn’t see any news vans or photographers. Traffic hurtled along, the city awakening.

“Got a light?” a voice said from behind him.

Matt turned around. It was the guy in the ball cap. It was pulled down low, shadowing his features. All that was visible was the bottom half of the man’s face. He had a scar that ran from his nostril to his lip, like from cleft lip surgery. He held a cigarette between his fingers.

“Sorry, I don’t.” Matt said it firmly in the polite don’t fuck with me tone you needed to take with the more aggressive creatures of the park. Matt turned back to the street, waiting for the light as cars flew by.

That’s when he felt the shove from behind, and plunged into traffic.

CHAPTER 10

Matt hit the asphalt hard, hot pain shooting up his hip. But the sensation was dulled by the fear seizing him as he watched the blinding headlights race toward him. Matt’s body went stiff as he braced for impact. The lights went dark, the vehicle swerving and then screeching to a stop. Matt could see only starbursts now, but felt someone clawing at his clothes, roughly patting him down, jabbing a hand in the pocket of his shorts. He started swatting at the blurry figure, and by the time his vision was clear, the man was gone. The door of the cab that had barely missed him flew open and the driver ran over.