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“I’ve called an ambulance and they said the police are on their way too. Can you go tell one of the girls that they need to wait by the treeline for them—and one of them at the entrance, so they know where to go?”
“Yeah, be right back,” he says, sounding shocked.
I still don’t look away from Darren, feeling lost.
“Bro, I need help,” Connor yells. I look up, finding him struggling with Banner. He’s not moving, his chin dropped to his chest.
“Banner,” I cry out, rushing to my feet. I help try to support him as we lie him down near Darren. I take in his appearance, my heart breaking in two. He has a gash on the side of his head, blooding seeping down his face, and his lips are blue.
Connor takes his coat off, placing it over Banner. Tom does the same, coming to sit next to me as I begin to shake.
“What happened, Emma?”
“Mr. Flint… he came out of nowhere, Tom. He hit Banner with a branch, and he went into the water. Then he pulled a knife on me. He was going to stab me—rapeme,” I whisper. “Then Darren tackled him. I don’t know—it happened so fast. Darren hit him with the branch, and I thought it was over. There was so much blood,” I whisper, looking down at my hands, which are still covered in Darren’s blood. I start sobbing, trying to wipe it off on my coat.
“Get it off me,” I scream, wiping more furiously. It’s still there, staining my skin and soul.
“Shh, it’s okay. I got you,” Tom soothes, placing his hands over mine.
“Please, get it off me,” I whisper, feeling dizzy.
“Who’s Darren?” Connor asks, and I feel Tom stiffen next to me.
I let out a dry laugh, wiping my eyes with the sleeve of my coat. “He’s the lad who attacked me a few years ago and put me in hospital.”
“Um, what the fuck!”
“Bro, just drop it,” Tom says softly, but his voice holds warning.
“Okay.”
“The ambulance is here,” Rafner breathes out, gasping for air as he runs back into the clearing. He looks as pale as the rest of us, staring down at the two lifeless bodies.
Two paramedics come rushing through the trees, their lights bright, making me blink, wincing. I fall against Tom, watching blankly as one works on Banner while the other announces the other two dead.
It’s then that the night’s events catch up to me and I pass out, my head feeling heavy.
CHAPTER TWENTY
The paramedics are pushing me through A&E when I hear a commotion close by. I jump, startled at the noise. I close my eyes, rejecting the sound, and the voices fade into the background.
“It’s okay, Emma,” Tom assures me, taking my hand as they wheel me into a room. A sudden chill sweeps through me, and I begin to shake uncontrollably. My pulse races as I stare, in a daze, at Tom.
Tom grabs the blanket from the bottom of the bed, pulling it over me. I watch him, feeling detached from my body.
He looks over his shoulder, his lips moving as he talks to someone. I blink, feeling numb. He steps aside and, in his place, Mark and Levi stand in front of me, bending down so we’re eye level.
Marks lips move, but I can barely make them out. It sounds like I’m swimming under water. “Emma, baby, are you okay?”
I blink.
Mark is talking to Tom, running a frustrated hand through his hair, making it stick up. I want to tell him to straighten it before a male nurse walks in, but nothing comes out.
I blink.
Levi holds Mark, rubbing his hands up and down his back as Mark’s shoulders shake.
I roll away from them, facing the other side of the small cubicle they put me in. A nurse comes to check the IV the paramedic put in me, before pressing buttons on a machine.