Page 103 of Walking in Darkness

“Oh God,” she wheezed beneath her breath, blinking one long blink before she swallowed hard and leaned forward so she could inspect it.

It was still gaping. Flayed open wide. But it looked like maybe it’d begun to clot. Like maybe the singe of the tendril had cauterized it in some way. I almost laughed at the thought that any of this bullshit could be counted as a benefit.

“It’s deep,” Jill muttered as she pulled it apart and prodded inside with a gloved finger. It was like she could hear the shouts of questions that whirred through my mind, like she thought I deserved to know the answer.

The outcome.

“It hit the small bowel.”

“Can you repair it?” I begged, back to hanging on to Aria’s limp hand. My other arm was curled up around her head so that I could hold her the best that I could.

“I don’t know,” she admitted. Dread pooled in her being, her breaths shallow and dragging with her concession. “I’m not a surgeon. She needs to be in an emergency OR.”

“But there’s a reason you’re here,” I grated through the clench of my jaw. “A reason you were led here. You wouldn’t have set all this upif you didn’t understand it. You know what’s going to happen to her if she shows up there like this. You can do this. Youhaveto do this.”

Grooves cut deep into her forehead, and she nodded like she was trying to reassure herself; then she started tossing out instructions to Dani and me, asking for different supplies, half of them things neither of us had heard of.

“You, find her pulse in her neck. Watch the clock on the wall across from you, and every thirty seconds, I want you to tell me how many beats, okay?”

Dani bobbed her head, and she came forward, her fingers searching for Aria’s pulse. Her pale gaze met mine when she found it, though there was a foreboding in it.

A dread seeded so deep we were drowning in it.

Sweat drenching her brow, Jill moved quickly.

Fear rolled and banged against the metal walls of the van.

A pressing and pulsing slammed into me with every errant beat.

So thick in the enclosed space that it was difficult for any of us to move in it.

Timothy remained completely quiet in the front, though I could feel the weight of his gaze as he kept peering through the rearview mirror at the commotion happening in the back.

Nausea convulsed in my gut as I watched Jill using a curved needle she held in some kind of metal tongs to sew up Aria’s insides, the fingers of both hands deep in the wound.

Not because I was squeamish at the sight of blood, but because my entire fucking existence couldn’t stomach the thought of Aria not being in it.

Stay with me. Stay with me. We need you. This world needs you. You can’t give up. Your purpose is too great for that. Do you feel it, Aria? It calling for you?I silently pleaded as I kept hold of her.

The numbers Dani muttered every thirty seconds became a mark that promised Aria was still alive.

Though I knew she was. I could feel her, even though she was distant and drifting with each passing second.

Jill kept working, carefully yet efficiently placing stitch after stitch. Tying up all the meaty tissue that was exposed, then pulling the skin together to make a jagged, mangled seam.

She gasped when she placed the last suture, air rushing from her lungs as she sank back for one blink of relief before she was grabbing the stethoscope and placing it over Aria’s heart at the same second that she started throwing out instructions again, looking at Dani first. “I need bandages from the box near the rear of the bed over there, and a blanket.”

Then she turned to me. “Get another bag of blood from the cooler. Pull the tab out of the old one and attach the new. Do you think you can do that?”

“Yeah.” I scooted on my knees on the metal floor to where the cooler was in the corner. I reached in and grabbed one and did as she instructed, fumbling with the tube as I tried to change it as fast as I could. The whole time, she continued to listen to Aria’s heart, inhaling sharp breaths that she tried to keep controlled.

Fear rebounded when I turned around and saw the gloom that colored her face.

Crushing.

Excruciating.

The way whatever was in her eyes sucked the hope out of me.