bookshelf behind her desk had landed on Lucy’s back with such force and at the perfect angle that it had severed her spine in two. Her spine…we could see the horrific break popping up beneath her skin, already turning black with internal bleeding.
“It doesn’t hurt,” she told us weakly. “I just can’t move. Please, I just want to get out.”
“Okay, Lucy. We’re getting you out,” I told her. The ringing in my ears started to take over, and if she replied, I couldn’t hear it.
On each side of her, we wrapped our arms around her and lifted her broken body, dragging her toward the door.
The ceiling erupted into flames, and the heat had the physical force to bring us to our knees. The air was filling with acrid black smoke. It was so hot that it burned to breathe. The damage to Lucy was so severe that it didn’t really matter anymore. Gavin and I broke into a jog.
A weird groan shivered around us, a whargnd of a snarl. It was felt as much as heard. Through the door, into the sunshine and fresh air, I paused for just a second to suck in a lungful.
“Keep going!” shouted Gavin. “The gas main will put a crater in this place!”
We broke out into a run. Through the parking lot, I witnessed people gathering across the street.
“Where’s Charlotte?” I screamed.
But we just kept jogging with Gavin chanting, “Go, go, go, go!”
Halfway across the street, I found it horrific that not one of the spectators had come to help us. We were filthy, covered in cement dust, and black soot. I was rapidly losing faith with our fellow man when the weirdest thing happened.
Life trickled into slow motion, much like the time when I had watched the EMTs carrying my mom out of the house on a gurney all those years ago. Air shifted around us as though trying to suck us back into the black hole that was once our clinic.
Lucy’s broken back arched up in our arms, scaring the shit out of both of us. She threw her head back, her lungs filling with a screaming gurgle of an inhale, her unseeing brown eyes opened wide. No, she could see, but whatever it was, it was to remain a mystery to us. With a strength that should not be possible, her arms pulled our heads into her chest, knocking them together painfully.
“Ow! Shit, Luce—” I snapped, my eyes watering.
Behind us, a beast of unknown proportions opened its maw and unleashed a roar from the depths of hell itself.
Gavin’s other arm wrapped around me and held on to me tightly just as the shock wave blasted the three of us into the air.
As I flew, the sweetest of memories floated through my mind. A kiss that had brightened my life with the brilliance of Technicolor. A voice full of promise for wondrous things to come.
It told me, “Don’t go anywhere.”
Not without you, I wanted to reply.
I didn’t go anywhere. When I hit the ground, I went to Nowhere.
It was darker than black in Nowhere.
Phil
Earlier that morning…
Next to me, I felt her stir. She stretched. I loved that, feeling it when she got to the good part. Her muscles trembled, and the vibrations passed through the bed and into me.
Opening my eyes, my heart skipped a beat.
Kenna…My Baby Girl.
Morning light caught her copper-hued hair, making the sight of her dazzle. She was so fuckin’ breathtaking that it hurt to look at her sometimes.
In my chest, I felt her excitement. She’d been ready for our trip for days now, and this was the last day of waiting. I wasn’t excited for Italy. I’d been there. It was beautiful, sure, but it was nothing new to me. What was new was that I would get to see it with her, through her eyes, her passion. That, and I got my fiancée all to myself. I didn’t have to share her with our friends and family or her work. It would be just my Baby Girl and me.
She moved to get up, get this last day started and over with. I didn’t want her to go. I wanted her here with me, and I was suddenly flooded with panic.
Don’t let her go!
Wrapping my arm around her waist, I dragged her back, pulling her into the curve of my body.
“Don’t go,” I said, my throat feeling tight.
She laughed. “I have to, babe! Last day!”
“No. Call in sick.”
“Pfft.”
“I’m serious.”
She turned to face me, her green eyes flashing and