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I wanted to help.
But I couldn’t move.
It was like I was paralyzed in fear of what we were about to discover inside this thing.
I wasn’t even sure how the hell she had fit in there, let alone have enough air to survive more than maybe half an hour.
It’d been hours.
Fucking hours.
It took three of the boys to lift it onto a flat piece of grass, and then Rip had to take to it with the shovel, jamming the edge in under the lid to pop it off because it had been screwed down.
It was chaos.
Them tearing at the lid, the EMTs rushing to set up their shit on the grass, ready to do God knows fucking what. That wasn’t even mentioning the footsteps I could hear behind me.
Cops.
Making demands and throwing out orders that my brain couldn’t even fucking process right now because it was so focused on the handmade coffin in front of me, and the lid that popped off to reveal Cassie’s body.
It was lifeless.
Her skin was pale, sickeningly so.
Making her look like she was made from porcelain.
You’d think maybe that was it, maybe this wasn’t the real her until you saw the fucking blood. On her head, smeared across her face. Her shirt. Her jeans. And each one of her nails looked like they had blood underneath them with wood splinters from where she’d tried toclawher way out.
She’d been awake in there.
Fighting to get out.
And that only made me wish I could go back down to the train crossing and watch Emmett take that blow again. Every bone in his body breaking at once, though it still wasn’t enough pain.
At least his was short.
Instant.
That was more than he deserved.
I jerked forward, but Dad caught me, holding me back as they lifted her folded and contorted body from inside and laid her out flat. Listening to her heart. Trying to find a beat. Fighting to hear a breath.
“She’s breathing but barely,” the EMT announced. “We need to get her up to the ambulance and on some oxygen to try and bring up those levels dramatically.”
I stepped in.
Not needing to hear anything else.
She had a chance, and I was going to make sure it was a fucking good one.
I scooped her up off the ground. “Let’s go.”
Their eyes were wide, but both women nodded and quickly gathered their things, following me back up the path while my family stayed behind to address the police.
One EMT headed for the driver’s seat while the other climbed in and directed me where to put her on the gurney before I pulled the doors closed behind me and the rig lit up.
Lights.
