Page 18 - FINAL DESTINATION

G B TAYLOR
door. His elbow made a thud as it impacted the door and moved it just enough to elicit a dry rasp from the rusty hinges. Startled, he lost his grip on the box letting tumble to the floor.
Neil heard “Got ya now,” and then hard footfalls coming back in his direction. Too late to run, he did the only thing he could. He put his shoulder into the door. The old hinges screamed in protest, but the door slammed shut. Neil could now see a simple bolt on the door which he tried to slide shut. The first try missed as it didn’t line up with the receiver on the frame. He pressed up on the door aligning the two parts and the bolt slid in just as a heavy weight slammed against the outside of the door.
Neil stood back from the door as the farmer slammed into it again. A bigger man would have broken through the old wood on the first try, but even this small wiry man made it bulge against its hinges. It wasn’t going to keep him out for long.
There was now only one way out of here. Neil ran to the window. The latches were as rusted and stiff as everything else in the house. He pounded at them with the heel of his palm until they gave way. He pushed up on the window till it cracked open enough for him to get his fingers under it and pull. Neil strained at the window until it came loose so suddenly that his face smacked into the glass.
He ignored the pain in his nose and looked back at the door. The farmer was still pounding into it and it was starting to splinter. It was close to breaking. He should get out of here as quick as possible, but he saw the box there where he had dropped it.
He had come all this way to bring her home. She was home now. Perhaps in her own bedroom. Hadn’t he done what he had promised? Still, he wondered what would happen to her. Would the crazy man with the shotgun leave her there? He could see the old farmer finding her urn and tossing it into the
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