Excerpt

(From CONSTRAINTS)

… he found her sitting in the drawing room as she had the previous day. They talked briefly before he went to his room. It had been a long a tense day, ending in the unexplained chase on Link Road. He needed to sleep. If he woke early, there would be time for a run.. The next day was Saturday but the office would be open. They could not afford to miss a single day if they were to meet the deadlines.
He must have been asleep for an hour or two when he woke with a start. There was a click of the latch as the door of his room was gently pushed shut, then the soft sounds of bare feet. Suddenly alert, he listened carefully as the feet came towards him in small steps. It was too dark to see much but he could hear them shuffling towards the bed. He sat up silently, one arm ready to swing, hand tensed into a fist, and put on the bedside light.

(From EXPLICATION)

Link Road was quiet and more than usually dark. Part of the way down, a street light blinked and flashed teasingly; many of the lights were not working. He walked in the middle as usual and watched a two-wheeler turn into the road and groan along one side of the road, its headlight bobbing when the front wheel dipped into a ditch or cavity.
It followed a wayward path, curving in and out; avoiding potholes. Then, when it neared, it suddenly screamed to full speed and came straight at him, headlight blazing. Clovis shouted at the driver. He could see the white of the driver’s bared teeth, white eyeballs and a flash of white in his hair. A few metres away it swivelled around and tried to steer him to the right. He jumped ahead and ran as fast as he could, letting it pass him on his left.
That’s when he saw a delivery truck, no lights, bearing down on him from behind. He slammed his right foot down to check direction and hit the edge of a small crater. His right ankle buckled and left foot pushed out to keep balance. It landed heavily on a loose stone. Foot and stone shot away with the impact and he fell heavily. His head and shoulders crashed against the road.