The little girl found her way across the long corridor which led to the living room as he closed the gap, her chest heaving for sudden breaths, her heart beating faster. The door was closer than ever and this seemed like the light at the end of the tunnel. She reached for it, opened and threw herself out. Suddenly forever was over! She climbed down the porch at the light speed her body could offer and she bumped into a figure that was on the steps of the porch. The figure held onto her tightly and she yelled again at the top of her voice.
"Let me gooooo!!!!!" She kicked and kicked.
"Ingrid! Ingrid!" The figure said. "Calm down!"
"Let me go!!"
"Ingrid calm down! It's me!"
She stopped fighting her space around it and looked. She'd recognize that voice from anywhere.
"Lance?" She asked.
"Yes, it's me." He told her and removed the hoodie cap he was wearing. The moonlight and porch lights lit him up consequently. She saw his yellow golden hair and his calm blue eyes. "What is it?"
"I – I… he's trying… he's trying to kill me!" She responded. "He's trying to kill me!"
"Who?" He asked. "Ingrid who?"
She pointed towards the door. "He's… in… there."
"Okay. Stay here. I'm going to deal with him. Stay here I'm com—"
"No Lance. Don't leave me alone! Don't leave me… please. Stay with me." She hugged him tighter. "Don't leave me alone. He's going to kill me."
"Fine. Fine." He told her as he gritted his teeth. The pain from the accident earlier in the day was still fresh in his veins. "It's okay. You're safe now. You're safe. He won't hurt you anymore." He stroked her hair several times. "You're safe with me."
At that moment, Ingrid felt safe. She felt alive in his arms once again. She whimpered in his hoodie as he continued his longing embrace. Like a day-old chick on a cold windy day, she shook beneath him as she cried. He pulled on closer and she did the same.
"No one's gonna hurt you."
Lance Harper fished out his phone from his pocket and dialed a number. He made a call.
"911. What's your emergency?"
For the second time in a day, he did this. He talked and talked with the officer on the other end, and it refreshed his mind on the talk that happened in Mexico a few hours back. When he was done with the call he took Ingrid back to the porch and sat with her there.
"Where's your mom?"
She shrugged at him, her head resting on his aching stomach, still under his embrace.
"Ingrid are you okay?" He asked her. She shook her head. "What's wrong? Where did he hurt you?"
"Everything hurts." She responded as she pulled away from his embrace. He saw the cut on her forehead and the red stain of the blood that was drying over there.
"I need to see if he's gone, Ingrid," Lance told her. "I need to make sure that it's safe in there."
"Don't bother yourself." She told him.
"Why?"
"He left through my bedroom window."
"How do you know?"
"Because... I... have a rope that hangs from there." She spoke in sudden short breaths.
"Okay but Ingrid we need to go inside. It's too cold out here."
"Just… don't leave me. Please."
"I'm staying here with you the whole night if you want me to. Trust me, no one's laying a finger on you."
Lance helped the barefoot girl up and the two walked inside the house, together. Once in, he called her mother and he hoped that she'd answer.
"Hello?"
"Mrs. Layla. You need to come home immediately."
"Why?"
"Someone tried to kill your daughter."
*******************************
Layla Purcell arrived home thirteen minutes after the police had arrived. She got out of her car and the sight beforehand spelled fear. The front yard was filled with police cars and men in blue as blue and red lights from their patrol cars decorated the night sky. From the large multitude of the on-lookers to the beehive of the police, the night seemed young if anything. She had counted at least twenty people by the time she had finally reached the porch.
"Ingrid! Ingrid!" She called out for her. "Ingrid!"
"Mom!" She heard her daughter respond.
Layla trained her eyes on the ambulance on the left side of the house and saw her seated and wrapped in an orange towel. Next to her was Lance Harper. Ingrid quickly got down from the ambulance and raced over to her mother. Layla embraced her daughter in a lovely fashion when they had closed the gap between them. Time and space froze all around them and everything stopped in motion. Layla kissed her daughter's hair as Ingrid cried into her mother's blazer.
"I'm so sorry, baby. I'm sorry I wasn't here." Ingrid wept as she pulled her mother closer, shaking and whimpering. "Please forgive me."
"Are you okay? Are you okay? Is everything alright?" She asked as she studied her daughter's face. She noticed the elastoplast that was on her forehead now. "Ingrid I'm so sorry..."
Ingrid continued to weep on her mother's blazer, never wanting to let go. Layla saw Lance approach them and she cocked her head.
"Thank you." She told him. "Thank you for being with her."
"Where were you?" Lance asked whilst shaking his head.
"I – I... I um..."
"Um, ma'am." A police officer approached her from behind. "I would like to talk to you."
"Sure go on."
"What happened here today was something tragic a girl her age was not supposed to have gone through. She didn't deserve any of this. None of it! Ingrid... I'm sorry for what happened. I hope that you'll recover soon." He cleared his throat. "My forensics team has been on the house looking for clues and tips to help find out who the culprit is. The perpetrator tried to end her life by strangling her. I don't know how, but she managed to escape him. Were it not for Lance Harper over here we would be talking a different story."
Ingrid snuffed a little bit.
"Your daughter says she has no idea of who attacked her but from our circumstantial evidence that we have gathered so far, I can confidently say that she knows who it was. What I'm trying to say, in other words, is that she's lying."