Page 45 of Duress
“Don’t you dare die, Dane. Stay with me. Please stay with me. Staywithme.” I can’t see anything; my vision is so blurred with tears. Frantically I use one hand to pat at hispockets, praying he has his cell phone on him. I keep the other pressed against the wound, holding pressure best I can. I blink away tears, clearing my vision enough for my eyes to lock with his. I am unable to look away, paranoid if I do, he will close his eyes and I will lose him forever. His blood is hot and sticky, and it seeps between my fingers. Bile rises in my throat, but I swallow it back, forcing myself to hold it together long enough to get Dane help.
I nearly cry out in relief when my hand meets a hard rectangle in his back pocket. Pulling it out, I hit the emergency call button on the lock screen. The phone tries to slip through my blood-slick fingers, but I hold on to it as the screen lights up with the outgoing call. Dane’s eyes take on a distant, glassy look, and his lip quirks up at the corner in an almost smile. Abject terror clutches my heart in its fist as his face takes on a serene expression.
“I love you, Everly.” His words are so quiet, I’m not even sure I hear them at first, but his hand weakly squeezes my arm, letting me know they were real. Dane loses consciousness just as the call connects.
“9-1-1, what’s your emergency?”
“I need help! He’s been stabbed, and he’s losing so much blood.”
“Ma’am, who’s been stabbed? Can you tell me where you are? Are you currently in danger?”
“Dane. He’s stabbed Dane! 276 Vista Drive. Please send somebody. I can’t stop it. I can’t stop the bleeding. Please help me.” I’m mindless with terror now, as Dane grows paler in front of my very eyes.
“Ma’am, did you say 276 Vista Drive?” The dispatcher’svoice sounds so far away as her question cuts through the fog of hysteria.
“Yes!” I’m sobbing now, in full on hysterics as I beg and plead for Dane to hold on. “Oh god, Dane don’t die. Don’t die. Don’t die. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
The voice on the phone stays calm as she instructs me to keep holding pressure on the wound, assuring me that help is on the way. My mind clings to her words of comfort in a desperate bid to hold on to the last shred of my composure. I can’t save Dane if I fall apart. My head throbs, eyes stinging from tears, and my arms ache from the amount of pressure I am putting on them to staunch the flow of blood.
I lose all sense of time as I kneel there, soaked in Dane’s blood, begging him to live. Eventually, chaos erupts around me, as two large bodies kneel on either side of me. A third person pulls me from my position, and I jerk and fight with them, terrified to remove my hands from Dane.
“Ma’am, we’ve got him. Let us take over.” A young man with blond hair and eyes the most serene shade of blue appears in front of me, stealing my focus as one of his partners scoots into the position he forced me to vacate.
My muscles—no longer rigid with purpose, their only job to keep Dane alive—go lax, forcing my body to go limp in his arms.
“Hey there, I’ve got you.” He guides me gently back until I’m on the floor, the adrenaline that had kept me going flushed out of my system in one blink of a moment. The EMT leans over me, keeping my focus on him as he checksmy pupils and rattles off my vitals to someone nearby that I can’t see.
My brain gets sluggish, turning his words into muddled sounds I can’t quite follow. I hear the wordbleedingagain, but it almost feels like he’s talking about me. I think I should be concerned, but instead I just feel tired, and I close my eyes, letting the darkness take me.
CHAPTER 41
DANE
I’m cold. So fucking cold. That’s the first thought that drifts through my mind as I slowly regain consciousness. I part my lips to say something, but my mouth is so dry it feels like it is glued shut. I try to open my eyes, but I’m so groggy and they’re so heavy. They flutter shut again almost immediately. The only thing I glimpse is white sterile walls and harsh florescent lighting. A soft, rhythmic beeping is a metronome that prevents me from fully succumbing to the sleep that is beckoning. That and the pain that rolls through me every time I take a breath.
“Whhhterrr…” My throat burns when I try to speak, the words coming out an unintelligible mumble. Where am I? What happened?
“Dane! Hey, I’m here.” A soft, warm hand finds mind under the scratchy blanket that is doing a pitiful job of containing my body heat. “You want some water?” I move my head in the barest hint of a nod, and I hope whoever is here with me saw it. Why does everything hurt so much?
“Here, open your mouth. I’ve got a cup with a straw.”
Keeping my eyes shut from the harsh light, I follow the familiar voice’s direction. I know who this is, but my mind won’t tell me who it is. Cool water rushes into my mouth, soothing the parched feeling. I drink and drink, until the straw makes a gurgling sound as air is sucked into it. Releasing the straw, I let out a relieved sigh, feeling slightly better now that my mouth doesn’t feel like it is stuffed full of cotton.
Slowly I blink my eyes open again, squinting to let in as little light as possible. Serena—with her halo of curls, gold eyes, and exhaustion etched onto her face—comes into view. She’s wearing a BFPD hoodie and looks like she was dragged out of bed in the middle of the night.
“Hey you. Nice of you to decide to rejoin the land of the living.” Her words are joking, but the tremor in her voice betrays how worried she is.
“Where—” I want to sayam I?but exhaustion keeps me from forming a complete sentence.
“You’re at Birch Falls Memorial. You were brought here yesterday. Do you remember anything about what happened?” Serena’s tone is cautious, like she is afraid of revealing too much of the circumstance that brought me here.
Closing my eyes, I try to think about the last thing I remember. Everly. Everly was in danger. Bryce was hurting her. I remember punching him. Tackling him. Rolling on the ground. Pain. So much pain. Then Everly begging me to stay with her.
“Everly… Bryce…hurt her…”
“Yeah, you were at Everly and Bryce’s house. It looks like there was some sort of confrontation, and you got hurt. You were stabbed.” That explains the searing pain in my abdomen. Realizing I was injured and incapacitated, leaving Everly alone with Bryce, sends fear straight into my heart. The beeping of the heart monitor ticks up in rhythm in response.
“Everly…okay?”
