Chapter 319

• It all happens so fast that it’s like a dream, the car sweeping past as I gaze out of the open door hazily, distant enough to be a blur but close enough to see it turn this way. Headlights turn to blind me painfully as the house alarm wails become almost unbearable. My consciousness gives way as the pulsing aches and ripples through my abdomen course along my legs and up my front, making my jaw ache. The warmth between my legs causing my heart to break and silent tears to pour down my face. I can no longer move or cry, immobilized and cradling her to me, begging her to stay. My head is foggy as the ache devours me slowly, like a wave of numbness moving in.
• It’s just the two of us cocooned together in a safe little bubble of non-reality, holding on in the hopes of coming out of this okay, of never being parted.
• The blur is Giovanni running toward me, a dark expression of concern on his face and his familiar wide shoulders, like Jake’s, grounding me. I focus on nothing but him and try to breathe as his face of safety gets closer, relief sweeping through me as heavy fatigue takes me over.