Page 148 of Almost Rotten

With trembling fingers, I brush the sweat-soaked hair off his forehead. “Please, Ty,” I plead, bringing my lips to his clammy, overheated skin. “Don’t leave me. You have to be okay. We have to be okay.”

Every word escapes with a hiccup, my plea punctuated by a painful breath.

You have to be okay.

We have to be okay.

The stain continues to grow, the blood bright against the cream color of his T-shirt. So similar to the blood pooling around my mom on the kitchen floor.

I hate blood.

There’s so much blood.

Ty coughs, sputtering, wheezing.

When the coughing finally subsides, I sit up and survey him once more.

He’s covered in blood, spatters of it all over his light-colored shirt, trails running out of his mouth and down his chin.

There’s blood everywhere.

I soothe him as best as I can, holding him to me as if I can stop the bleeding with sheer willpower.

He starts to shake.

He doesn’t stop.

I silently sob as he trembles in my arms.

“Help is on the way,” I hear someone say.

Who? I don’t know. Nor do I care.

Ty stops shaking, his body going limp in my arms.

My heart shatters into tiny fractals around us.

Is he—

No.

I refuse to even think it.

Anything but Tytus being okay is unfathomable.

My chest aches as I gasp for breath, arms straining as I try to hold him tighter.

Vision fading in and out, I whip my head around and search the space for Mercer.

He did this.

With intention.

He put Tytus in a cage, locked the door, and let him hurt himself so badly he’s now lifeless in my arms.

When I finally find Mercer with his hands on his knees in a corner, I choke back a sob. That snags his attention. I feel his eyes on me. Even through the dark, I hold his gaze, ensuring he feels the depth of my ire.

“I willneverfucking forgive you for this.”