Chapter Six

This is no yellow brick road
We've been traveling on
A river of tears washed us here
We're right where we belong

Lindsay jumped when someone hopped in front of her. She gasped when she looked up to see who it was.

"You!" Immediately, her heart started pounding vigorously.

"Yeah, cutie!" The madman took a step closer, causing Lindsay to back into the chair. She flinched as a flicker of silver dashed past her eyes and stopped in front of her nose. He gave a terrible laughter, one that sounded as if it were trapped in his lungs and couldn't quite make it out of his mouth. Her hair stood on its ends when the wheezy chuckle flew past the one inch of air between them and into her ears.

Lindsay's head throbbed when she realized that a sharp object was pointed right in her face. "No, please." Her throat was parched.

"Saw you that day, cutie. Why didn't you kiss back?" He asked, still grinning like a deranged Cheshire cat. It was painful looking into his insane eyes, which focused, gaze unwavering, at her. She gave a silent yelp when the knife was plunged into the wooden seat of the bench.

He pressed both his hands onto the back rest of the bench, boxing Lindsay in. She felt claustrophobic when she could not see anything else but his way too hairy chest.

"Go away!" She found her voice and spoke as calmly as she could.

His face erupted into a big smirk, "Not gonna happen, cutie, you better kiss back this time" and bent down to kiss her. She struggled and he bit down on her lower lip. Hard. Lindsay thrashed in pain and he released her.

"Danny!" She screamed as loud as she could, ignoring the metallic taste of the blood that was welling up in her mouth.

"Oh, cutie. You forced me to do this." He pulled the knife, semi embedded in the wood, up and waved it crazily in her face.

Lindsay panicked, "DANNY!" before screaming again when the blade of the knife came piercing through her dress pants and deep into her thigh.

Danny had finished squeezing sauce into the hotdog when he heard Lindsay scream for him.

"Crap." He cursed and abandoned the food, throwing them into the hands of a very confused hotdog vendor.

He heard her again, this time much louder and coupled with hysteria. Hurdling over a few potted plants he dashed towards her. When he saw a rather huge man standing in front of her laughing crazily, Danny sped up and slammed himself into him.

"Lindsay!" Anger swelled in his chest when he saw the blood dripping off her chin. Raising his fist, he brought it down harshly into the back of the man's skull.

Danny got up and moved to help Lindsay.

"No!" She yelled, "Call someone to arrest him!"

He nodded and whipped out his cell phone, stepped on the back of the man and put a call to the police. His back was facing Lindsay and he failed to see the knife handle sticking out of her thigh. Work routines taking over his mind, Danny knelt down to search for an ID.

Lindsay closed her eyes tiredly and wiped the blood off her face. Her cheeks tightened in pain as she ran her tongue along her lacerated lip. There were probably a few punctures in the inside of her lip. It hurt to talk, and it hurt to close her mouth. She felt a sense of irritation realizing that she had to leave her mouth open with the blood spilling out.

Sniffing, Lindsay opened her eyes to look at her thigh. If not for the pain, she would've been thoroughly amused by the morbidity of the whole situation. There she was, sitting in The Village surrounded by picturesque scenery like an idiot with a swollen lip jutting out with a mixture of blood and saliva dripping all over her blouse. What's more? A knife was stuck in her lap, with only the black plastic handle visible. She felt amazed that it was still possible to think.

Shaking all the random thoughts away, Lindsay removed her damp fingers from her chin and prodded tenderly at the wound. Owww. As she pressed, more blood oozed out from the tiny gap between her flesh and the knife. How the hell am I going to get it out of my leg? It was disgusting. Her pants were ruined, one leg completely drenched, and not to mention a gash in the cloth.

"Tyson Connor."

She looked up at Danny's voice.

"Driving license," He waved the card in the air before slipping it back into the wallet and turning around to face Lindsay.

Danny winced at the sight of her fat lip. "Oh God, are you alright?"

Lindsay rolled her eyes at him, stray tears streaking across her cheeks and pointed to her right thigh.

"What the hell!" He knelt down to take a closer look, "Oh my God, Montana. Does it hurt?" His question was answered when she drew her lower leg under the bench when he touched the top of the knife handle. More blood seeped from the wound into the fiber of her pants.

In the distance, they heard the police sirens wailing. Danny held her hand and looked into Lindsay's eyes. "Is this the…"

She nodded, and clenched her eyes shut when dizziness over took her. Danny placed a hand on her cheek, brushing the moisture away with his thumb.

"What did he do to your lip?"

Eyes still closed, Lindsay made a biting action, wincing when her lip throbbed.

"Eww. I'm gonna let the paramedics pull the knife out, okay? I don't want to make it worse." Danny whispered gently, squeezing her cold and wet hand.

She nodded again, opening her eyes slightly. Her right leg was shaking in pain and her mind was threatening to float away, as though if it pressed hard enough against the top of her skull, it could fly upwards.

A police car parked near them and two officers came running out.

"Mr. Messer?"

"That's me. I found an ID, the perp's name is Tyson Connor."

"Okay, I'm Officer McCain." He shook Danny's hand and shouted at his partner, "Randy! Get him into the car."

The younger man nodded eagerly and handcuffed Connor, pulling him out of unconsciousness and dragging him rather inelegantly into the police car.

"Officer, I think she needs to get to a hospital fast." Danny pulled the stray strands of hair out of Lindsay's face. She nodded empathetically.

"The paramedics should be arriving soon. In the mean time, does Miss.."

"Miss Lindsay Monroe." Danny spoke on her behalf.

"Does Miss Monroe want to make a statement."

Lindsay's eyes snapped open at the absurdity of the Officer's question. She pointed at her lip and rolled her eyes.

"I think she means she'd make the statement when she can talk." Danny squeezed her shoulders and looked straight at the Officer.

"Oh, right. I'll just..." Officer McCain walked back slowly to the cruiser sheepishly.

A/N: A little morbid, I know...