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“You fucking bitch!” He spins, dragging me with him, and in one swift move, he kicks her straight in the belly.
But time slows after this. A sick goddamn joke the universe is playing on us… because my world crumbles as I watch him bend over and slam his knife into her middle.
Twice.
He tugs me back as I scramble to get to her, but the air feels like molasses, slowing my movements as a harrowing shriek bursts my eardrums.
The scene plays in slow motion, a movie I can’t wrap my head around, because there’s no way anything I’m seeing is real. It must be a nightmare. It has to be. Just like I’ve had every day since I’ve been here. That must be it—a nightmare.
“Shut up!” someone yells, just as a deep slam in my ribs takes my breath away, the noose falling limp around my neck.
It’s not a nightmare.
“Hanna!” I cry out.
Something scratches my leg as it pulls on me, but I don’t care, I’m almost next to her, witnessing the pain slowly dissolve from her eyes.
“Hanna! Please, please, honey, please stay with me!”
There’s a commotion around me, urgent exchanges between men, but I can’t focus on them. All I see is her.
Metal on metal screeches, then a different light streams in, giving me a better view of the pool of blood gathering underneath the woman who has given me life over the last six years. I don’t turn, though. I refuse to break eye contact.
I finally reach her, roll her onto her back, and press my arms on the bloody mess on her stomach. Breaking eye contact for a moment, I look around the room in a panic, searching for something to wrap around her, to apply pressure. A screeching metallic sound splits the air once more, the dim light all that remains in the space. That, Hanna’s staggered breaths, and my whimpers. Nothing else.
We’re alone.
“Please, hold on! You’re so strong. Between us, you’ve always been the strongest. A goddamn force to be reckoned with!” I sob as I take in her paling face.
“Anni…” she whispers, grabbing onto my forearm with a shaking hand. Her whole body is trembling.
“No! Don’t you dare show weakness now. If anyone can do this, if anyone can survive this, it’s you!”
“I love you, Anni. So much…”
Blood begins to spill out of her mouth, a trickle at first, then more with each breath. I lean over and lift her head so she doesn’t choke, while trying to apply pressure to her stomach with my other arm.
“Hanna, please, please don’t leave me.” Pushing through the sting in my eyes, my tears fall onto her body, mixing with her blood.
Yelling and frantic thuds distract me, a whirlwind of crashes and noises coming from beyond this door.Fighting?Gunfire sounds a second later, jolting me, confirming. The blood rushes back into me with a welcomed force.Is it them? Ronan?!
“We’re in here!!!” I scream repeatedly with newfound power, holding Hanna to me. “They’re coming for us. Hang on, just a little longer, honey. I’m begging you, just a little longer.”
But she’s not shaking anymore. She’s still, apart from her chest that moves with slow breaths, too much time between each one. And she’s smiling.
“Please, please don’t leave me.”
“We had some fun…” She quirks her lips.
“We’ll have some more. Me, you, whoever’s growing inside my belly. You can’t leave me. I can’t do this without you.”
She takes a staggered breath, choking silently on the blood that fills her mouth.
“You’re so mu—much stronger than you think. And… you’ll never be alone again. You’ll have everything… you’ve ever wished for.”
“Please, not without you. Please… I love you.”
She’s too goddamn calm!
