Page 49 of Reignite

Dark Night of the Soul

Iwoke up with a screaming headache. In fact, every part of my body hurt. All I wanted was to roll over and snuggle into Gray’s body.

I couldn’t move.

My eyes wouldn’t open. I breathed in the air around. Even the scent of the room smelled wrong. Where the fuck was I?

I pushed the cement from my lids and pried my eyes open. An institutional halogen light buzzed above me.

“Angelina?”

My head wouldn’t move. “Gray?”

His voice wasn’t right.

“It’s me, Jim.”

No. I wanted Gray. Where was he?

“Jim? Where’s Gray?”

The breath I used to say his name floated from my lips and didn’t return. My lungs, heart, and brain wouldn’t make another move until I found Gray.

The car. The explosion.

Gray had run toward it.

Then there was nothing.

“Gray?” His name creaked out of my throat. “Where’s Gray?”

I pushed against the four-ton blanket covering me, holding me down. Everything was wrong. The room, the man beside me, the stuttered beat of my heart.

“Angelina, calm down. You’ve got injuries and you’ve been unconscious for a while. I thought we lost you… You were shot.”

“Jim. Where. Is. Gray?” The shrill of my voice hurt my own ears, shattered through my head.

Jim put a hand on each of my arms, holding me still. “He’s… not here.”

I wiggled to make him let me go. He didn’t budge and I didn’t like it. “Where is he? Tell me now.”

We both struggled until Jim released me and plopped down into the chair next to the bed again. He dropped his head and scrubbed a hand across his forehead.

“I—He’s…” He cleared his throat, but I barely heard it over the ringing in my ears.

Jim continued to talk, I was lost in a fog of grief and confusion.

“Shot—”

“The explosi—”

“Body—”

“Not yet identi—”

“Medical rec…Army—”

“I’m sorr—.”

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