Page 75 of The Casualty of Us

---

Oh god—I can’t—“Oliver!”

“With eyes so…”

How?

“Oh, sweetheart…”

How? How? How? How?

“I think I might have to…”

“NO!”

“Keep you.”

“I can’t, I can’t—” Air. I’m missing air. “Ollie…”

“Just breathe, Ophelia.”

“Ophelia!”

I choke. “No, no, no, no—”

I don’t want to. He wants me to. I can’t—

“Ophelia…”

“I c–can’t.”

Is that me?

“Ophelia,” he demands. “Fucking breathe.”

No.

“Now.”

I don’t sound like me. He doesn’t sound like him.

Maybe the me is gone and the him is here.

Maybe I slipped away all curled up out there somewhere.

“…are mammals of the order Pholidota.”

Maybe—“Ophelia, Ophelia…”

“Ollie!”

“Ophelia Sage, you fucking take a breath or I will spank you.”

I gasp.

“That’s it,” he rasps in my ear, thumbs sliding down my cheeks. “That’s it, Freckles, breathe for me.”

“I can’t—” I gasp again, lungs hurting from the sudden intrusion. “Oh god—I can’t—I didn’t—”

He doesn’t understand.

---