Page 87 of Malicious Marriage

Fuck. My head hurts.

There’s a moment of relief when my phone finally shows one bar of service but just as I tap the emergency call once more, a low battery warning flashes up then my phone flickers and dies right in my hands.

“You’re kidding.” Hitting the power button does nothing, but I still hold it for a good ten seconds while praying some emergency battery power exists inside the phone.

Nothing.

Just my dull reflection staring back at me while blood trickles from a small wound on my forehead.

“C–Clover?”

“Bobby!” He immediately takes all my attention. “Oh, my God, are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“What… What happened?” He’s groggy and croaky. When he tries to reach for his seatbelt, his fingers slip and he misses. “Where are we?”

“We crashed. Bobby, I’m so sorry, this is all my fault. I don’t know what happened! I think you had a heart attack or something. I don’t know for sure.”

“Where are we?” he repeats slowly as he tries to move.

“Hold on. Hold on!” Pulling my seatbelt free, I fall forward slightly against the dashboard, but I support myself by bracing my knee against the glove box. After wrestling with the door handle, I get the door open and spill out onto the forest floor. The incline is steep enough that I slide a few feet, but I scramble up onto my feet and use the tree as support while moving around to the other side of the car.

“Clover, call for help.”

“I tried,” I gasp, panting as I open his door. “No bars and my phone died.”

“Use… use mine.”

“After I get you out of here. This feels like a death trap but we’re on an incline, okay? So when I pull you out we might fall, and that’s fine, but I need you to stay with me so please,pleasehold onto me.”

Bobby looks at me with foggy eyes, like he knows I’m here but can’t quite see me. Given the damage to the car, getting him as far away from it as possible feels like the best option. Then, once we’re back on the road, I can use his phone to call for help.

“Hold onto me, okay?” I say between panting breaths. “Hold on.”

“Clover—”

“I’ve got you! I’ve got you.”

Unbuckling and getting Bobby out of the car is the easiest part. Getting him up the incline when his ability to move his limbs seems hindered is where it gets harder. We slide a few feet down the incline together until I’m able to stop myself by digging my heels into the dirt. From there, it becomes an exhausting game of making it a few steps and then hauling Bobby up beside me. I don’t have space to think of anything other than pulling Bobby up to the road and, bless his heart, he does his best to help.

With only a few falls and slips, we make it to the top of the incline utterly exhausted and panting so heavily that my throat feels raw. Just as I drag Bobby up the last inch and help him away from the edge, the dark clouds above us split open and rain pours.

We both slip on the rapidly soaked ground and hit the dirt where Bobby lies groaning.

“Bobby, where’s your phone?”

“Huh?”

“Your phone, where’s your phone?”

“Uh… in the… in the car.”

“What?”

Bobby’s eyes flutter and then slowly close.

“Bobby? Bobby!” I surge up onto my knees and hover over him with both hands clutching his face. “Bobby!” The rain falls like a quiet mist that soaks instantly into my clothes and hair. The music of water hitting the leaves of the trees around us becomes the only sound as Bobby falls unconscious and my heart breaks.

“Bobby, please come back to me. Come back!”