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I raised my gun and shot one while Ethan shot the other and we stumbled upon Eugie, laying on his side, the only movement, the rustling of his fur in the wind.
“No,” I said, falling at his side. I pressed my face into his snout and waited to feel his breath but nothing met my cheek and I almost broke down. My palm went to his side and I felt for a heartbeat but it failed to beat. “Eugie,” I murmured, an overwhelming sadness already inundating me. My head whipped up. “Oh God, Cricket.”
I picked him up and cradled him in my arms, burying my face into the side of his neck. I had no idea how we were going to tell Cricket. My whole body shook with the weight of having to relay such awful news to someone I loved so dearly. I didn’t want it to be true. I would have paid my entire fortune in that moment to bring him back just so she would never have to know that pain.
I carried him the three miles back to the campsite and pulled out my sleeping bag, laying him inside and wrapping him up. I paced the side of the firepit, biting my nails while Ethan sat at the picnic bench, his head buried in his hands.
After half an hour passed, we saw Cricket and Jonah approach.
“Did you find him?” Cricket asked across the campsite.
Ethan and I stood by Eugie. “Cricket,” we said in unison.
Cricket stopped at the edge of the site and began to shake her head.
“Please tell me you found him and he’s okay,” she pleaded. “Please.”
I opened my mouth but couldn’t find the words.
She began to sob and Jonah tried to soothe her. At first she let him, but quickly slid from his grasp and turned toward us, her eyes weeping. She knew where she wanted to be. All I wanted to do was console her, but she wasn’t mine to console.
She started to run toward Ethan, run toward his comfort, her arms wide, anxious to be held, desperation written all over her face. My heart broke once more for her. I loved her so much. I wished so desperately to remove her pain. I would take it upon myself if I could.
She gained momentum, running as fast as she could, as if she couldn’t get to Ethan fast enough, and my heart broke all over again.
But instead of running into Ethan’s open arms as we both expected, she did something that shocked us both.
She ran into mine.
My heart began to pound when she neared me and I swooped her up into my embrace, hugging her so fiercely she could barely breathe.
“I’m so sorry, my love,” I told her. Her tears drenched the side of my face so I kissed them. “So, so sorry.”
“Me too,” she sobbed into my neck. “I know how much you loved him, Spencer.”
I couldn’t answer, too choked up, so I just nodded into her neck. I kissed her face once more as the tears were still flowing, and I refused to put her down. I didn’t think I’d ever put her down again.
“Why me?” I secreted into her ear.
“You were the only one I saw,” she whispered back, making my heart burst.
“Let her go,” we heard Ethan command at our right.
We broke apart and looked at him.
“Let. Her. Go.”
“Ethan,” Cricket began, suddenly aware of herself.
I tucked her behind me.
This move seemed to incense him. “You think I’d hurt her!”
“I don’t know what you’d do, to be honest.”
“Spencer Blackwell, let her go.”
“No,” I demanded.
