Page 65 of Stay With Me

Not that her staying awake was keeping him alive. But somehow, that’s how it felt.

She rubbed her hands through her hair again and then abruptly flopped backward, planting her wrists into the ground behind her, and felt an instantaneous fire of excruciating pain in her lower forearm.

It was like someone had left a nail in a broiling oven and stabbed her in two places.

In her panic, she leaped off the ground and let out a bloodcurdling scream. A microsecond later, she realized she’d left Nick’s head vulnerable to whatever had struck her so she blindly stomped and kicked the ground for a good thirty seconds before reaching down to aggressively rub his scalp and face, neck and shoulders.

She felt nothing new and heard nothing in their small quadrant of space on the ground so she allowed herself to double over and clutch her arm close to her body.

Her skin was a furnace and her veins were pulsing molten lava through her arm.

She panted, still bent over at the waist, as her thoughts raced.

“What about snakes?”she’d asked as they’d approached the dry creek bed.

“Yeah, they’re out there,”Nick had answered.“Quite a few different species.”

“Anything poisonous?”

“Rattlesnakes. But they usually hide in dens or in rocks, and they come out at night. That’s why it’s important to keep the tent zipped unless you’re climbing in or climbing out.”

She’d gasped.

“Don’t fret. The likelihood of us seeing one is slim. We’re not going to be traipsing around after dark.”

“So do they really rattle their tails?”

“Yup. It’s a warning. They’re not malicious, but they don’t want to be bothered. If you hear it, get away immediately. Although if you happen to randomly step on one, they probably won’t waste time rattling at you.”

Her eyes grew huge. She must have slammed her hand onto it when she leaned backward.

But she hadn’t heardanything. Surely it would have rattled if it was ticked off from her bumping it.

Then again, it did seem like she’d gone temporarily deaf in her panic.

What else could it be?

She noticed a tingling sensation radiating from her arm and traveling throughout the rest of her body.

Her mouth was suddenly flooded with a strange taste while her lips and tongue tingled and felt like they were swelling slightly. Her stomach churned for the millionth time since she’d watched Nick’s descent, and this time it completely overtook her.

She stumbled blindly toward the opposite side of the canyon and vomited, as she braced herself against the stone wall. She continued to heave until there was nothing left, then wiped her face with her shirt and staggered back toward Nick.

She dropped to the ground and crawled behind his head again, clutching her arm close to her stomach.

She moaned in agony. If the venom didn’t kill her, the pain most assuredly would. Amputation seemed like a blissful option right then.

It throbbed, and throbbed, and throbbed

Each throb sent fire and tingles throughout her extremities. The taste in her mouth grew foul, her tongue felt thick, and her breathing was infuriatingly unproductive, causing her to feel like she was fish drowning in a sea of fresh air.

And there wasn’t anything she could do about it.

All she could do was wait, and now she knew she was probably waiting not for someone to find them, but to simply die.

She was going to die, and that meant nobody would come for them so Nick was going to die too.

And with nothing to do but wait, she simply leaned forward to rest her forehead against his.