YOU FOR HOURS AND HOURS." As he screamed, he sprayed droplets of saliva on the wooden floor.
Alex raced to a rounded room off the hallway and leaped inside, swinging the thick wooden door shut behind him. He let the large two-by-four fall into place in its iron holdings, and his muscles relaxed once he knew he was safely locked in. The circular room was the earthquake emergency zone in the house.
The room was small and well-supported, so it had the stability of a door frame. Alex had practiced locking himself in during the earthquake drills that his mother ran from the small schoolroom downstairs.
He reached up and felt for the wire chain that dangled from the single naked lightbulb. He pulled it, and the small room was cast in a dim yellow light. Shelves of food surrounded him, dozens of boxes containing snacks and meals.
He sat back on a canvas bag of sugar and turned off the light. He noticed the knotted rope that extended through the small hole in the ceiling and he smiled. The school bell.
Still on the kitchen floor, Allander rolled over on his back, clutching his injured testicles. He heard a soft ringing float through the air as the clapper struck its first tentative blows, and then the full glory of the school bell burst forth. Allander pulled himself to his knees, swearing loudly.
He limped down the hallway, pausing at the door that he had heard swing shut. He pressed his ear to the door and whispered in. "Alex. I know you're in there. I'm leaving now, but I'll be back. You won't escape me. I'll find you. And we'll have even more fun then."
Alex felt the coolness of his sweat layer his body, the rope sliding through his hands. Allander waited until the break between strikes of the bell, and then leaned forward until his lips touched the thick door.
He whispered, his voice just audible to the boy inside. "I'm going to hurt you, Alex. Hurt you in ways you can't even imagine." He waited until after the next toll, then continued. "I don't think you understand. I'm really going to hurt you."
As Allander's words reached him through the dank air of the small room, Alex realized that he would never have another night of restful sleep. Dead or alive, Allander would haunt him in his dreams and visions, in the waking and sleeping moments of the rest of his life.
Alex sank down to a crouch and hugged his knees tightly. The trembling set in as he heard the front door open and close. He rang the bell again, then sat and waited for help.