When did you risk your life helping a friend?

The Midnight Pursuit

When did you risk your life helping a friend?. My new friend Sadi called me from a bar bathroom sobbing, begging me to pick her up because she’d just seen her psycho ex’s truck circling the place. When I got there 15 minutes later, she stumbled into my car wreaking of tequila, crying Tom had tracked her down.

She’d moved to a different part of the country to get away from him. I started driving toward her apartment, taking side streets to make her feel better. We were three blocks from the bar when I noticed the black pickup truck two cars behind us. It took the first turn I did, then the second, maintaining that exact two-car buffer.

When I changed lanes, it changed lanes. When I slowed down, it slowed down. I glanced at Sadie in the rearview mirror, asleep. I figured that was better so she wouldn’t freak out.

At a red light, I got a better look at the truck. I could make out the shape of someone huge behind the wheel staring straight ahead at my car. The light turned green and my hand shook as I shifted gears, trying to act normal while my heart hammered against my ribs.

The truck matched my speed perfectly, maintaining those two cars between us like a professional. I decided to test it and took a sudden right without signaling. The two cars between us went straight, but the truck yanked across traffic to follow, horns blaring. Now it was just him and me, no buffer.

My hands were slick with sweat and I had to wipe them on my jeans one at a time. Sadi stirred and mumbled something about feeling sick. In my mirror, I could see him clearly now, both hands gripping his steering wheel, leaning forward like he was trying to push his truck faster through sheer will.

I sped up to 45 in a 30 zone. My whole body tense. He sped up. I slowed to 20. He slowed to 20.

When I stopped at a stop sign, he stopped so close his headlights filled my entire rear window, turning everything in my car stark white and shadow. My foot was shaking on the brake pedal.

Sadi woke up squinting and asked what was happening, but I just told her to keep her head down. My voice coming out high and scared. The truck revved its engine.

This deep growling sound that vibrated through my seat and made me want to floor it right through the intersection. At the next intersection, I ran the red light, praying no cops were around, my heart in my throat as I checked for cross traffic.

The truck followed without hesitation, nearly clipping a sedan that had to slam its brakes. He was done pretending this was coincidence. I took a hard left onto a main road, tires squealing, and pushed it to 60.

My knuckles were white on the steering wheel, and I kept checking the mirror obsessively. The truck stayed right behind me, maybe 10 ft from my bumper. When I changed lanes to pass a slow car, he changed lanes. When I swerved back, he swerved back.

Sadi was fully awake now, turned around in her seat watching him.

“That’s Tom’s truck,” she said, her drunk slur replaced by cold fear.

I tried to stay calm and told her we’d go to the police station instead, but my voice cracked. When I tried to change direction at the next light, Tom accelerated and tapped my bumper, just hard enough to make my car lurch forward. Sadi screamed.

I bit my tongue from the impact and tasted blood. He tapped us again, harder this time, and I heard something crack in my rear bumper. I floored it through a yellow light, my whole leg shaking so bad I could barely keep the pedal down.

Tom came right through the red behind us. He pulled alongside me in the left lane, pacing me, and I could see him screaming something through his passenger window. His face was purple with rage, spit visible on the glass.

He swerved toward us, and I yanked the wheel right to avoid him, tires shrieking, my whole body rigid with terror. Sadi was crying and begging me to go faster, but we were already doing 70 in a 40 zone, and my hands were trembling so bad I could barely keep the car straight.

Tom dropped back behind us again and rammed us properly this time, hard enough that my head snapped back. The impact pushed us into the oncoming lane, and I had to fight the wheel to get back over, screaming as headlights came straight at us.

He rammed us again, and my bumper made a horrible scraping sound as it partially detached. I was crying now, too, just trying to keep us alive while Sadi fumbled with her phone trying to call for help.

I saw her apartment complex ahead and made a split-second decision to just get her home where we could run inside and lock the doors. I took the turn into her complex so fast we went up on two wheels for a second, my stomach dropping like a roller coaster.

Tom’s truck was too big to take the turn at that speed and overshot it, brakes screaming. We had maybe 30 seconds while he turned around. I screeched into Sady’s driveway and we both fumbled with our seat belts, hands shaking so bad we couldn’t get them undone.

We were halfway to her front door when Tom’s truck roared into the driveway behind us. High beams blazing, pinning us in the light like deer. He’d blocked my car in completely.

Tom stepped out of his truck, holding a baseball bat, walking toward us slowly, taking his time because he knew we had nowhere to run.

“Sadie, he screamed”.

“Tell your little boyfriend we’re going to have a little chat”.

He took another step closer and the bat made this soft tapping sound against his leg that sent ice through my whole body. I grabbed Sadie’s arm and pulled her behind me while my other hand fumbled in her purse for her keys.

My fingers shaking so bad I couldn’t get a grip on them. Tom was yelling that I had 5 seconds to get out of his way or he’d put me in the hospital. “4 seconds”. “Three”.

My hand finally closed around the keys and I shoved them at Sadi who was already at her door trying to get the right one in the lock. The deadbolt was stuck and she was crying and twisting the key so hard I thought it might break.

Tom was close enough now that I could smell the beer on him. This sour stink that made my stomach turn.

“We don’t want any trouble,” I said way too loud, my voice cracking.

“Just let us go inside and we can all calm down”.

He laughed. This ugly sound that wasn’t really a laugh at all. A woman’s voice suddenly cut through the night from somewhere above us.

“I’m filming all of this”.

I looked up and saw someone on the second floor balcony holding up her phone with a flashlight on.

“Already called 911, so you better get out of here”.

Tom’s head snapped up to look at her, and his whole face went darker like a storm cloud passing over. He swung the bat hard into my car’s tail light and plastic exploded everywhere.

Little red pieces bouncing off the concrete. The sound made me jump back into Sadie, who was still fighting with that stuck lock, sobbing harder now. My hand found the car keys in my pocket and I hit the panic button without even thinking about it.

The alarm started screaming and the lights started flashing bright white and orange, lighting up the whole parking lot like a disco. More lights turned on in the apartments around us, and I could see faces appearing in windows, people pulling back curtains to see what was happening.

Tom’s eyes darted around at all the witnesses, and for the first time, he looked nervous, shifting his weight from foot to foot. I kept myself between him and Sadi, trying to make my voice steady.

“The cops are coming, man”.

“This isn’t worth it”.

“Just leave”.

He answered by swinging the bat again. This time, catching my side mirror, which cracked and hung there by its wires, swinging back and forth behind me.

I heard the lock finally click, and Satie practically fell backwards through the door. She grabbed my shirt and yanked me so hard I stumbled. Tom lunging forward at the same time.

We slammed the door just as his shoulder hit it, and the whole frame shook like it might come off its hinges. I threw the deadbolt while Sadi fumbled with the chain. Both of us breathing so hard we sounded like we’d run a marathon.

Tom was pounding on the door with a bat, screaming about what he’d do when he found us again. How this wasn’t over. How Sadi belonged to him.

Each hit made the door jump in its frame, and I pressed my whole body against it like that would somehow help. Then I heard it. Sirens in the distance getting louder.

The pounding stopped so sudden that the silence felt wrong. Through the peephole, I watched Tom sprint back to his truck, the bat still in his hand.

His tires screamed as he backed out so fast he clipped a trash can, sending it rolling across the parking lot. Then he was gone, just red tail lights disappearing around the corner.

My legs gave out and I slid down the wall until I was sitting on the floor. Sadi collapsed next to me and we just sat there shaking. Both of us covered in sweat even though it wasn’t hot.

My hands were trembling so bad I couldn’t even make a fist. The sirens got louder and louder until I saw the red and blue lights through the window. About 3 minutes after Tom left, someone knocked on the door.

Three solid knocks that made us both jump.

“Police, we got a call about a disturbance”.

I looked through the peephole and saw a cop standing there, but I was still so scared I couldn’t move.

“Can you show me your badge?” I asked, my voice barely working.

He held it up to the peephole and I made him do it again because my eyes wouldn’t focus right. Finally, I opened the door with the chain still on, just enough to see him better. Officer Vicram Law, that’s what his name tag said.