Leighton’s voice pushes through the door: “Everything all right in there?”
“Yeah.”
“I don’t know what you saw inside that thing, but I want you to know I’m here for you, brother. If you’re freaking out, you got to tell me, so I can help you.”
I rise.
He continues, “I was watching you from the theater, and I have to say, you looked out of it.”
If I were to walk back into the lobby with him, could I break away, make a dash through security? I picture that massive guard standing by the metal detector. Probably not.
“Physically, I think you’re going to be fine, but I worry about your psychological state.”
I have to step onto the lip of the porcelain urinal to reach the window. The glass appears to be locked shut by means of a lever on each side.
It’s only two feet by two feet, and I’m not sure if I can fit through.
Leighton’s voice echoes through the bathroom, and as I creep back toward the sink, his words become clear again.
“…worst thing you can do is try to manage this on your own. Let’s be honest. You’re the kind of guy who thinks he’s strong enough to push through anything.”
I approach the door.
There’s a deadbolt.
With trembling fingers, I slowly turn the lock cylinder.
“But no matter what you’re feeling,” his voice close now, inches away, “I want you to share it with me, and if we need to push this debriefing until tomorrow or the next—”
He goes silent as the bolt shoots home with a soft click.
For a moment, nothing happens.
I take a careful step back.
The door moves imperceptibly, and then rattles ferociously inside its frame.
Leighton says, “Jason. Jason!” And then: “I need a security team to my office right now. Dessen has locked himself inside the bathroom.”
The door shudders as Leighton crashes into it, but the lock holds.
I rush for the window, climb up onto the urinal, and flip the levers on either side of the glass.
Leighton is shouting at someone, and although I can’t make out the words, I think I hear approaching footsteps.
The window opens.
Night air funnels in.
Even standing on the urinal, I’m not sure if I can make it up there.
Leaping off the edge, I hurl myself toward the open frame, but only manage to get one arm through.
As something bangs into the bathroom door, my shoes scrape across the smooth, vertical surface of the wall. There’s no traction or purchase to be had.
I drop to the floor, climb back up onto the urinal.
Leighton screams at someone, “Come on!”
I jump again, and this time, I manage to land both arms across the windowsill. It isn’t much of a hold, but it’s just enough to keep me from falling.
I wriggle through as the bathroom door breaks down behind me.
Leighton yells my name.
I tumble for a half second through darkness.
Crash face-first into pavement.
Up on my feet, stunned, dazed, ears ringing, blood running down the side of my face.
I’m outside, in a dark alley between two buildings.
Leighton appears in the open window frame above me.
“Jason, don’t do this. Let me help you.”
I turn and run, no idea where I’m going, just blazing toward the opening at the end of the alley.
I reach it.
Launch down a set of brick steps.
I’m in an office park.
Bland, low-rise buildings cluster around a sad little pond with a lighted fountain in the middle.
Considering the hour, it’s no surprise there’s no one out.
I fly past benches, trimmed shrubbery, a gazebo, a sign with an arrow under the words TO WALKING PATH.
A quick glance over my shoulder: the building I just escaped is a five-story, nondescript, utterly forgettable piece of architectural mediocrity, and people are streaming out of the entrance like a kicked hornet’s nest.
At the end of the pond, I leave the sidewalk and follow a gravel footpath.
Sweat stings my eyes, my lungs are on fire, but I keep pumping my arms and throwing one foot in front of the other.
With each stride, the lights from the office park fall farther and farther away.
Straight ahead, there’s nothing but welcoming darkness, and I’m moving toward it, into it, like my life depends upon it.
A strong, reviving wind slams into my face, and I’m starting to wonder where I’m going because shouldn’t there be some light in the distance? Like even a speck of it? But I’m running into an immense chasm of black.
I hear waves.
I arrive on a beach.
There’s no moon, but the stars are vivid enough to suggest the roiling surface of Lake Michigan.
I look inland toward the office park, catch incoming, wind-cut voices, and glimpse several flashlight beams slashing through the dark.
Turning north, I begin to run, my shoes crunching wave-polished rocks. Miles up the shoreline, I can see the indistinct, nighttime glow of downtown, where the skyscrapers edge up against the water.
I look back, see some lights heading south, away from me, others heading north.
Gaining on me.
I veer away from the water’s edge, cross a bike path, and aim for a row of bushes.
The voices are closer.
I wonder if it’s dark enough for me to stay unseen.
A three-foot seawall stands in my path, and I scale the concrete, barking my shins on the way over and staying on all fours as I crawl through the hedgerow, branches grabbing my shirt and face, clawing at my eyes.
Out of the bushes, I stumble into the middle of a road that parallels the lakeshore.
From the direction of the office park, I hear an engine revving.
High beams blind me.
I cross the road, hop a chain-link fence, and suddenly I’m running through someone’s yard, dodging overturned bicycles and skateboards, then darting alongside the house while a dog goes apoplectic inside, lights popping on as I hit the backyard, jump the fence again, and find myself sprinting across an empty baseball outfield, wondering how much longer I can keep this up.
The answer comes with remarkable speed.
On the edge of the infield, I collapse, sweat pouring off my body, every muscle in agony.
That dog is still barking in the distance, but looking back toward the lake, I see no flashlights, hear no voices.
I lie there I don’t know how long, and it seems as if hours pass before I can take a breath without gasping.
I finally manage to sit up.
The night is cool, and the breeze coming off the lake pushes through the surrounding trees, sending a storm of autumn leaves down on the diamond.
I struggle to my feet, thirsty and tired and trying to process the last four hours of my life, but I don’t have the mental bandwidth at the moment.
I trek out of the baseball field, into a working-class South Side neighborhood.
The streets are empty.
It’s block after block of peaceful, quiet homes.
I walk a mile, maybe more, and then I’m standing at the empty intersection of a business district, watching the traffic lights above me cycle at an accelerated, late-night pace.
The main drag runs two blocks, and there’s no sign of life except the shithole bar across the street with three mass-produced beer signs glowing in the windows. As patrons stagger out in a cloud of smoke and overloud conversations, headlights from the first car I’ve seen in twenty minutes appear in the distance.