There was no forgetting, and there were no hunters here to save her now. As her father got closer, she knew that there was no one left to protect her from the monster who had tortured her in both life and dreams. There was only her.

So she stood up.

Ignoring the pain in her leg, she forced herself to her feet in one swift deliberate motion. When her father reached her, she was upright, her fists clenched, her body taut and ready, her eyes trained on his. He stopped moving forward, his own eyes betraying his uncertainty.

“Come on!” she screamed.

But he didn’t. Instead of continuing forward, Xander Thurman tossed the mannequin leg at her, turned, and ran toward the exit, his right leg dragging slightly.

Jessie stood frozen for a moment, not sure what had just happened. Then she stepped forward to chase after him.

She had to stop immediately. Her leg hurt but that wasn’t the real problem. She still felt woozy from the blow to her head. She bent over slightly, trying to keep the room from spinning. She watched, frustrated and helpless as her father pushed open the exit door and disappeared from sight.

She allowed herself five seconds to recuperate, taking in several deep breaths, hoping that her head would clear. It helped. She didn’t feel totally lucid but she no longer feared that she would topple over if she tried to walk.

She took one step. Her leg held steady. She took another. The knee was sore but she could put weight on it. She took a third step. And then, confident that she could stay upright, she broke into a run, out the door, in search of the father who wanted to kill her.

*

She was getting close now.

After leaving the warehouse, she briefly thought she’d lost him. But then she saw the limping figure about fifty yards ahead of her. He was moving away from the business district and toward the adjacent residential area.

As she ran, Jessie pulled out her phone and auto-dialed Dolan’s number, trying not to lose her grip in the downpour. It went straight to voicemail.

“Dolan,” she yelled breathlessly into the phone. “I’m chasing Thurman. He hit Murph with a car and chased me into a warehouse. I disarmed him but he got away. He’s currently running westbound on West 25th Street into the West Adams residential zone. My ringer is off but you can track my location.”

As she tried to shove the phone back in her pocket, her fingers slipped and it fell from her grip. It hit the ground and slid along the asphalt until it ended up in the gutter, where it was carried along by the torrent of water.

Everything after that seemed to happen in slow motion. Jessie watched as the fast-moving current tugged the phone swiftly toward a storm drain. Realizing she couldn’t catch up in time, she dove to try to snag it. But as she leapt, her left leg buckled and she landed well short, crushing her ribs and knocking the wind out of herself. She could only lie helplessly in the rain as her phone disappeared from sight.