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“I need to close my eyes now,” Naomi’s voice was so weak, barely more than a tiny hint of sound.
“No, you don’t,” Dylan said firmly. “You need to keep looking at me, keep talking to me. You're a fighter, Naomi, you can do this.”
“I'm sorry.” A single tear made its way down her cheek, mixing with the blood and leaving a watery red trail in its wake. “I don’t feel so good.” Her eyes drooped closed.
“Naomi?” Dylan carefully jostled her, but she didn’t stir.
Dylan looked ready to fly into a full-blown panic attack. Davis was still standing frozen in place. And fear over where Clara was and what was happening to her was about to tear him apart.
Then he heard the sirens.
Help was almost here.
Help for Naomi and help to find Clara.
Jonathon prayed for strength for Clara to stay strong until he found her.
* * * * *
3:24 A.M.
Her head was pounding. Worse than when she got stress headaches. Her stomach felt queasy, too. It felt like she had the flu, only her mind was practically screaming at her that she wasn't sick.
She’d been drugged.
The first thing that hit her was a deep, dark, fear for her sister.
Clara remembered watching the knife gouge into her sister’s shoulder.
Then someone had hit Naomi over the head, knocking her out.
The last she’d seen of her sister, Naomi was lying unconscious on the kitchen floor.
What had they done with her?
Was Naomi dead?
Had she bled out?
With her mind occupied by thoughts of her sister, Clara didn’t even give her situation a second thought. If the Doll Killers had killed Naomi to get to her, then she would never forgive herself.
Surprised, Clara realized that she didn’t doubt that she would get home alive. She knew that Jonathon would stop at nothing to find her. And it seemed she trusted implicitly that he would rescue her.
She prayed he had gotten to her house in time to save her sister. It had already been after midnight when she’d gone downstairs to wait for him. Surely he couldn’t have been that much farther away. He must have gotten there shortly after she was taken. Naomi couldn’t have bled out that quickly.
Clara wanted to believe that, and yet she hadn’t seen how badly Naomi was injured. Her sister could have been dead before the Doll Killers ever left the house. Or she could have died all alone and scared. Or maybe she never even woke up again after she’d been hit in the head. She might have died without ever realizing what was going on.
No.
No. Naomi wasn't dead. She couldn’t be.
And yet, Clara knew she could be. Her sister had risked her life to try and help her. Even after she’d been stabbed, Naomi had continued to try and fight off their attackers. And that might very well have cost her sister her life.
Working herself into knots over Naomi wasn't going to help her right now. Clara forced herself to take slow, deep breaths. She had to keep calm. If she didn’t keep calm, then she wasn't going to be alive when Jonathon found her.
She drew in a long breath, holding it, counting to five and then letting it out…she repeated that several times.
In and out. In and out.
