Neighbors

Matt's heart pounds as he throws open the front door. The look of terror on Kat's face had him sprinting from the window before he could think.

The blood on her face, causing a tight knot deep in his gut.

Seeing her lying naked on the bed with her hands tied tightly behind her back, her feet drawn up behind her painfully added to his urgency.

She had the look of an animal prepared for slaughter.

Hardly slowing, he had yanked the front door open, slamming it against the wall, and raced down the short hallway to crash against the door to the stairwell, using his shoulder to fling it open with a hollow thud. The momentum of his body, as he leaps the first six steps, propels him hard into the wall on the first landing.

He doesn't even acknowledge the pain.

Grabbing the handrail, he pulls himself forward, leaping down the steps in bounds, clearing four and five at a time.

His body whips around the final landing and he crashes against the door to the lobby. The force splinters the jamb, and he stumbles, falling hard and sliding across the moisture slick linoleum.

'Get up!' He yells out loud and scrambles to his feet. His boots slide out from under him in his frantic attempt to reach the door, causing him to go down again. He lands hard on one knee, his hands outstretched, but manages to push himself forward.

He bursts out the door into the rain, his right shoulder and side beginning to throb as he races towards Kat's building.

The thick glass door only rattles in its frame as he yanks on the handle.

'Fucking security!' He screams, looking around desperately.

He spots a wrought iron bench to the side of the short walkway, several feet from the building and lunges forward, grabbing it by the armrest, pivoting his body with the bench whipping around him.

He rotates in place once, and, using that centrifugal force, he launches the bench at the door with everything he's got.

Glass explodes inward as an alarm begins to wail moments later.

He leaps the remains of the bench, his hair brushing the door frame, and lands in a crouch amid the safety glass strewn across the floor. He springs forward, reaching for the handle of the stairwell door.

The door suddenly flings open, crashing against him painfully in the chest and face.

The force spins him while throwing his body back at the same time. He lands hard against the unforgiving tiles, his head bouncing against the linoleum.

Matt's vision swims, and bright spots seem to flash all around the lobby.

As someone rushes past him he reaches out to grab the stranger, but his fingertips only brush against the smooth leather of a boot as Matt's world spins around him.

Within moments Matt recovers enough to roll onto his side, and glances through the ruined doorway. A strong pulse of pain, growing in time with his heartbeat, emanates from the side of his head, but through his blurred vision he sees what appears to be a man running through the rain. But it's only a few seconds before he is out of sight as he rounds a building across the street.

Matt pushes himself to up shakily, touching the painful spot on his head, a large lump forming. His fingers come away sticky and red.

His concern over Kat has him going shakily up the stairs, instead of after who he thinks is probably the man he had seen moments before through her blinds.

Stumbling several times before he reaches the sixth floor, Matt lurches out of the stairwell, his body protesting.

He feels the pain quite vividly now.

Approaching Kat's door on rubbery legs, he sees it ajar and pushes it open. The scene beyond scares the hell out of him, causing him to rush through the chaos of her apartment, stumbling into her bedroom.

He sees her motionless on the bed, the dim light through her blinds throwing vertical shadows over her body as he stumbles in.

She's tightly bound with some kind of electrical cord, lying on her stomach with her face turned toward the door. As Matt stumbles into view her eyes widen as tears spill across her cheek.

There's a cloth gag, held by rope securely tied behind her head, and there's blood down her cheek from a nasty looking scratch. A small stain of blood had dried on the sheet.

Matt lurches toward the bed, reaching out a hand as the world spins crazily around him, then crumples to the floor.

An extremely bright light shocks Matt to consciousness, and someone pries one of his eyes open, shining a flashlight in his face.

'He's coming around.' A deep male voice says.

Matt tries to sit up, but strong hands keep him from rising, and he realizes, his vision swimming again, that his wrists are handcuffed. It also feels like someone had used power tools on his brain.

'Hold on there mister. Let's wait for the paramedics.'

Matt tries to look around, but a wave of nausea washes over him. 'Kat.' He mumbles weakly as he tries not to vomit.

'Is that her name? She's doing okay, but were gonna let the EMT's check you both out first. You still have to explain a few things.'

Matt loses consciousness again, the dimly lit room spinning around him as darkness closes in.

machu