Page 104 of Exactly What I Needed
I bumped up against a large, steel frame, and then the world turned black.
Chapter 35
There was nothing left in me. (20)
No scream to escape my throat.
No fight.
I was as hollow as the empty, blackened night sky above me.
The agony that had consumed me moments ago fled into the woods the moment he did. There should be warmth seeping around me as my own blood stained the grass between my legs and dripped steadily from my wrists.
But there was nothing.
Pain slipped away behind the deafening music that finally began to fade from the stadium behind me. Water swirled in my mind, blistering like the black spots that clouded my ability to clearly see everything around me.
Slithering beneath the hollowed emptiness was the snake of fear that he might return. I needed to escape, but there was nothing left in my marrow to carryme away.
As two blurry faces appeared, giggling and drunk, that terror held me frozen in place and temporarily cleared my vision. Sydney’s grin turned to shock, and she latched onto Tera’s arm. They skidded to a stop.
Leave, I wanted to beg. But nothing came from my mouth. My throat remained paralyzed.
“He wasn’t supposed to— He was just supposed to make her—” Sydney shook her head and took a stumbling step back.
He wasn’t supposed to what?
“We have to get out of here,” Tera replied, all giddy triumph they’d both been carrying upon arrival gone.
Yes, please. Go.I wanted to shout and yell at them. I wanted to bark a curse upon them but they disappeared just as Danny had.
And I was left alone once more with Death as my only companion.
Except the Grim Reaper stood a few feet away, his scythe held steady by his side as if he pitied me. If only I could reach out just a little farther, reprieve would be found. But nothing. His face hooded in the mist of the dampening night, mocked the escape that was at my fingertips.
Not a star shone upon my quickly fading consciousness.
Time seemed to both stand still and whir past with no control, deeper into the thundering cocoon that I was quickly falling into. Despite my torn shirt and my pants that were shredded and dangling around my ankles, the frigid night air didn’t raise a shiver in my soul.
There was nothing left.
If only I could close my eyes and disappear to just a few hours ago, where warmth wrapped me tight. Where joy and happiness swirled insunset eyes of love and desire. If there was only a way to call out for the one person who made me feel as free as a bird gliding in the breeze.
But there was nothing left. No pain. No desire. No freedom.
Only fear that held me trapped within my own mind and kept the scream of agony locked within me.
My mind begged to stretch out my fingers and graze the hem of Death’s robes, but not a muscle moved. The flesh and blood beneath my ragged fingernails caught my eye as I stared at my own body, floating halfway above it. Almost to the Grim Reaper. Almost to my escape.
Black shoes I faintly recognized kicked through Death, and he disappeared into the mist.
Tears slipped down my cheeks, but I felt no warmth from the wet stain as my newest companion ran toward me. He reached toward me. He shouted my name, begging for me. The desperation in his voice was unlike anything I’d ever heard. Laced thick with what sounded like guilt swirling amidst his pleading, Asher crashed to his knees beside me.
His voice shook as he whispered my name again, but the cage I was locked in was too tight. Too thick to draw me out. I watched his eyes slowly scan me from head to toe, and the horror upon his face deepened with each passing second. He reached forward with a trembling hand and whispered his touch across smeared lipstick and the bruised handprint Danny had left around my mouth.
Rage seared his body as he let out a howl full of the most excruciating fury. A blur of more footsteps crashed around the corner that kept me hidden from the crowd that must have left the concert a while ago, but nomatter how much I wanted to turn toward Asher, to reach toward him, I couldn’t.
Of its own accord, my hand slid from my bare and bruised leg as he ripped his cut-off over his head and draped it over my exposed body. It should have hurt as it brushed over the bruise on my stomach, but I still felt nothing. (21)
