HALLE
“Open your eyes,” I scream, patting Caleb’s cheek. When that does no good, I do it again, a little harder this time. “Caleb! Don’t you dare do this to me,” I sob, my whole body shaking. “Wake up. Please, wake up.”
The world around us is a blur. I have no idea what’s happening with my mom, whether my brothers are safe, any of it. All I can focus on is the man I love bleeding out right in front of me.
I press my hands to the wound in his abdomen and put pressure on it. I’m not sure it’s the right thing to do,but it seems like a good idea.
Thayer is on his knees beside me, probing Caleb’s neck with two fingers. “There’s a pulse.”
“Where’s the ambulance?” I scream.
I heard sirens in the distance before the shot even rang out, so help has to be on the way, right? Where are they? Caleb needs help now.
Across from me, Laith is hovering over Caleb too, his skin leached of all color.
“Caleb, can you hear me?” I give his cheek another tap. “I’m right here. Stay with me. Help is coming. I love you. I love you so much, and this is just our beginning.”
I refuse to believe it’s also our end.
It feels like hours pass before Thayer is pulling me away to make room for the paramedics.
“Let me go,” I fight against him. “He’s my husband. I have to stay with him. I need to hold him!”
“Shh,” he hushes. “You have to let them help him.”
Somewhere, in the logical part of my brain, I know that. I’ve been waiting for them, cursing their slowness. But I can’t stand the idea of being apart from him.
“Caleb,” I sob as they cut away his shirt, revealing the wound beneath and all the blood.
God, there’s so much of it.
Red and vibrant and everywhere, staining Caleb’s white dress shirt and pooling on the floor beneath him.
“I’m going to throw up,” I blurt.
Rather than let me go, Thayer scoops me up like I weigh nothing and carries me to a trashcan. We’ve barely made it before I empty thecontents of my stomach.
His fingers are gentle on my neck as he holds my hair back, but I recoil at the touch.
I want Caleb.
Thayer doesn’t react to my flinch, and he doesn’t let go of my hair until I’ve finished.
When there’s nothing left to purge, I straighten, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. When I turn and take in the room, I find that it’s emptied of everyone but us and the paramedics and Caleb.
Another sob tears out of me.
The man who’s taken over my world, who’s larger than life, who’s always there to make things better, looks so broken. They’ve moved him onto a gurney and strapped an oxygen mask to his face.
I find Thayer’s hand and grip it hard, needing the hold to keep me from crumpling to the ground.
“He has to be okay,” I whisper. My voice seems to have left me.
“He will be,” Thayer says. “He’s tough.”
As they wheel him to the door, I run after them.
“Let me come with you. He’s my husband. Please. I need to be with him.”
