Chapter 30

I clasped my hands tightly over my mouth to stop the scream from escaping, and scrambled to my feet. He stood placidly on the stage, savoring my terror as I stood frozen in place before the entrance doors. I blinked away the tears that threatened to blur my vision, and Ray stared contemptuously at me, then shook his head.

He started to approach the edge of the stage, and as he did he began to speak, "Julia, Julia, Julia… Look at yourself! You always seemed so bold when you were telling your mother that she had to kick me out. You hated me, didn't you? You wanted me to disappear."

He started down the steps, and I pressed helplessly against the entrance doors.

"Now that I've had some time to think…" His eyes flashed with anger. "…I guess I can't blame you. I felt the same way toward you."

He hopped down the last few steps and I jumped when his shoes hit the ground. He stared confidently at me across the long aisle. He shrugged and opened his hands in front of him.

"I guess you came out ahead, though. I'm about to spend the rest of my life in prison because of you. The world never really was in my favor, anyway."

He started slowly down the aisle, sauntering confidentially toward me.

He watched me quietly, and I plunged my hand into my pocket and pulled out the folded note. I held it out in front of me, looking at my scribbled name in despair and then weakly opening my hand, letting it drop to the ground.

He stopped walking.

"Yes, the note. See, Julia, I made a mistake the night I beat you. I thought that no one would care enough about to come looking for you, when in fact, that boyfriend of yours did. So now I've included him in this little operation. He's having a concert here tomorrow evening, isn't he?"

I was frozen.

"Isn't he?" His voice was sly and cunning, strange. Usually it was slurred, but now it was calm, cognizant, and threatening.

He grinned and started walking again, slowly, teasingly.

"So here's the plan: you got what you wanted, Julia. I'm out of your house, away from your mother. I'm going to be in jail. Doesn't that make you happy?"

My vision blurred, and the tears started to stream down my cheeks again.

"Well, listen here, Julia, I'm not planning on spending the rest of my life in jail without killing the person who is responsible for it."

I gasped and watched helplessly as he pulled a knife out of his belt. He held it up and turned it in his hand, watching as the blade shone in the dim light.

"So how does Piero factor in? For one thing, I knew you'd come willingly if you thought Piero was the one telling you to come. I also knew he'd be having a concert here Saturday."

He shrugged.

"The police like Il Volo, and they were talking about it. So, when Piero shows up tomorrow for the concert, can you figure out what he's going to find?"

I felt as if I could faint from terror. Ray repositioned the knife in his hand.

"Your dead body."

He grinned, and I felt sick to my stomach.

"And I bet I'll get to hear all about it from my prison cell. I'll get to see Piero's sorry little face in court. That'll be nice, since he's also responsible for putting me in prison. But don't fret, I won't kill him. I think taking you will be enough."

He was halfway down the aisle, and he stopped walking and smiled at me.

"I know what you're thinking. I'm smart when I'm sober, huh?"

He threw his head back and laughed, and I shuddered at the sound. He quieted, and the theatre fell silent, except for the sound of my gasping for breath and the faint drumming on the roof. He grinned mockingly at me.

"Well, this was fun, this whole cat-and-mouse thing we got going here, but it's time to end this. It's pretty late, and I bet the entirety of the Los Angeles police department is looking for me. And you, but not for the same reason, of course. Hold still and this won't be so bad."

He broke into a run, his shoes pounding against the ground, and I screamed and took off running along the wall with a jolt. I ran frantically in an arc around the seats, but then saw him walking over them, striding easily from chair to chair in my direction.

When I ran a few more steps, he simply stepped into another row and kept coming. When I ran backward, he did the same. He came closer and closer, and I looked desperately around for an escape. I saw the stairs leading up to the balcony, and immediately took off toward them. I scrambled up the steps, throwing myself upward onto the landing. I went to the edge of the balcony and peered over the railing at the ground far below. Ray jumped off of the seats and sprinted toward the steps. I looked around frantically and saw more steps on the other side of the landing. I started toward them, then spotted the doors that led down to the entrance hallway. I ran toward them and yanked on each one, discovering in frustration and despair that they were all locked.

I heard Ray's footsteps on the stairs, and I turned and rushed down the other side. I ran away from the staircase and looked up at Ray, who looked down at me from the landing, his eyes blazing in anger.

"Don't toy with me, girl!" he bellowed, and followed my route down the steps. I ran to the other side and dashed back up, as if part of a sick game, until I saw him turn and start back up the other way. I turned sharply to run back down the stairs, and immediately slipped and went tumbling down, screaming. My head banged against the banister, and immediately dizziness set in. Everything went fuzzy before me, and my whole body protested as I yanked myself off the last few steps and stumbled away from the stairs.

I ran out on the floor to the center of the balcony as my vision slowly began to clear. I looked around wide-eyed through the blurriness for the figure of Ray. Everything was quiet for a moment, and I looked upward and saw a blurred figure hurtling toward me. I screamed as Ray landed heavily beside me on the floor and crumpled to the ground, shouting in pain as he groped for me.

I tried to get away as he reached out and caught hold of my foot, tripping me. I managed to stop my head from hitting the ground, and I tried to yank my foot out of his hand to no avail. A shadow fell over me as Ray pushed himself up. He jerked me onto my back and held the knife up. I kicked my feet up with a terrified scream and managed to shove him in the groin. He brought the knife down as he simultaneously doubled over, managing only to cut open the leg of my scrubs.

I frantically scrambled backwards and pulled myself up on an aisle seat as he yelled curses at me. He started to chase after me as I sprinted down the aisle toward the stage, hoping to run into the concealing darkness backstage and try the doors. He had to have gotten in somehow!

He was fast, and he was close behind me. I was almost to the stage as he caught my hair in his fist and yanked me backwards, tripping over me and tumbling over the hard floor with me. He trapped me under him when we came to a stop. I screamed in agony as his weight crushed me and thrust my arms out in search for a hold.

He pushed himself up and knelt on my thighs, pressing his hand hard into my chest and pinning me beneath him. I thrashed around and screamed as he raised the knife high above me, glinting in the light. I raised my hands up in a feeble attempt to stop it from coming as I braced myself for the horrendous slashes.

"JULIA!"

Ray froze, and his head jerked sideways toward the stage. A figure leaped from the edge and landed heavily on top of him, crushing me for an instant before violently yanking Ray off of me and rolling with him though the aisle. I scrambled backwards and to my feet as Piero wrestled with Ray, hanging onto his arms as he swung the knife frantically.

"Piero!" I cried.

"Get out!" he yelled, and I took a few hurried steps backwards before tripping and sprawling on the stage stairs.

Piero and Ray both struggled to their feet and pushed and pulled at each other, yelling and grunting. Their muscles strained as their bodies came into contact and they swung at each other. Piero clenched his teeth as he shoved at Ray and blocked his swinging arms. Piero's eyes flashed with fear and then determination as he swing his fist toward Ray's face. Ray brought the knife down, and Piero shoved him backwards and gave a yell that chilled my blood and stopped my heart. Ray raised the knife again, and Piero ran wildly at him, knocking him down and landing with him on the hard floor.

"Piero!" I sobbed, reaching helplessly toward the men fighting in the aisle.

"Get out, Julia!" he yelled again in anguish as he pushed Ray's arm with the knife away from himself. I jumped up and stumbled backwards, sobbing and unable to tear my eyes away from the fight.

Ray was much bigger than Piero, and he eventually managed to pin Piero beneath him. Piero shoved at him as Ray threw the knife aside in the aisle and plunged his fist into his pocket to instead pull out a shiny metal object.

I froze in horror, and then realized that I was screaming.

Piero pushed upward at Ray and jerked him so fiercely that Ray almost dropped the thing, and in fury he gripped it and hit Piero over the head. Piero yelled as he shoved Ray off of him and started to scramble up. Ray knocked him back down and managed to point the gun down at him.

"PIERO!" I screamed, desperately stumbling back down the steps and into the aisle.

There was a deafening bang that echoed throughout the theatre, and I froze in despair. For a moment there was agonizing silence.

Then Ray toppled to the ground, blood rushing out from the bullet in his head.

I stared in bewilderment, and then turned around to face the stage.

My mother stood in the middle of the dimly lit stage, her face white, gripping a gun in her shaking hands.

Our eyes met for a moment, and then I turned away and raced down the aisle toward Piero, who was pushing himself away from Ray's body. His face was anguished as he tried to get up, but he only got onto his knees before he cried out in pain and fell sideways onto the ground. He rolled onto his back and lay still. He was covered in blood, and I didn't know if it was his or Ray's. But there was so much of it that some of it had to be his.

"PIERO!" I screamed, and threw myself to my knees beside him. I reached my arm around his shoulders and took his head gently into the crook of my arm. "Piero?"

I patted his cheek and shook him gently, bending over him and looking at his face in fear.

His eyes fluttered open, and for a moment he looked up listlessly at me with his handsome, dark eyes as his vision focused. He took in a shaky breath and stared up at me. His lips parted, and he struggled to speak.

"I love you," he whispered, and I immediately pressed my lips to his. I pulled back and looked down at him, my tears falling onto his blood-spattered face.

"I love you, too, Piero."

"I'm not dead, am I?" he whispered.

"No. No you're not!" I sobbed, hugging him. He reached up his hand and gently touched my back, and then he dropped his arm and his eyes closed.

I hugged him tightly and cried, pressing my face into the crook of his neck. He was warm and wet, and I clutched him to me. I was unaware of my approaching mother until she dropped down beside me.

"Julia," she said, and as I looked up our eyes met. She reached out and carefully laid Piero's head on the floor for me, and took both of my hands in hers.

"Ray came to the house to get the knife and the gun, and he typed the note on the computer. When I got home I found the house ransacked, and the note still on the screen. That's how I knew."

She looked listlessly at Ray's dead body on the ground.

"I'm going to prison," she said softly.

I watched her forlorn face and shook my head.

"Maybe not."

She looked back at me.

"I am. If not for this, then for keeping Ray around even though he was abusing you. One way or another, I'm going to prison."

We stared at each other, shaking, with me crying and gasping for breath.

"And that's okay," she said, "I need to go away for a while. I saw myself on the news, saying that Ray's not such a bad guy, and that made me think. And he made me think."

She gestured at Piero.

"He said I don't love you, and I think he's right. So I'm going to prison, and I'm going to think, and spend some time away from you, thinking about you. I don't want to go, but I'll do it if…if it'll help me learn how to how to love my daughter."

I stared at her, and then threw my arms around her neck. She hugged me tightly.

"Mama!" I sobbed, and when I pulled back she was crying too. She stood quickly.

"I called the police, and an ambulance. I'll watch for them."

She jogged away, and I wrapped my arms around Piero again and cradled his head in my arm. I carefully removed his broken glasses, and I kissed his still lips. I held him tightly, feeling the gentle rise and fall of his chest, and sobbed until the doctors came in and pulled me off of him.