Like a gory perverse halo, blood pooled behind his head. His eyes stared blankly at the ceiling.
“Asher?” my voice didn’t even sound like my own.
It was small, shaking…quiet.
Verging on broken.
I pressed my trembling red covered hand to his cheek…nothing. I moved closer, not caring about the bright read staining the pale pink. Not caring about the physical pain.
“Asher?” My voice was ragged now, loud, and panicked.
Tears were falling in earnest. The back of my throat burned, and I just needed him to respond. I wanted him to wake up, look at me, smile, and tell me we got this. This was just a small bump, and we’d be fine.
“Asher, please,” my voice caught.
My hands moved to his chest and I shook him roughly, and the way his head lolled, I nearly threw up. His eyes stared blankly at the ceiling, not seeing, not sparkling—just empty. Frozen and unseeing.
“Asher,” my voice was caught between a command and a sob.
His body was limp. His limbs were slack and shifted with every shake I forced onto his body. His blood continued to empty from him—coating both of us and staining the ice. They’d have to redo the rink after this. Tears poured from my eyes. I wiped them away with the back of my blood-covered hand.
His blood.
It covered everything.
Tears kept falling.
“Asher,” I sobbed, the sound of his name garbled by snot, spit and trauma.
It was a broken word, barely audible as it kept repeating from my lips. Then the first hands touched my body. They tried to pull me away. I struggled. I didn’t care about my own pain.
I broke.
More people.
More hands.
I was gently moved.
I kept reaching for him, begged and pleaded with anyone to save him. To just save him. Arms held me against a firm chest, a hand tucking my head under a chin. Voices saying I needed to be checked out, but a different voice said I just needed to be held.
Then, I saw them touch Asher.
The world got quiet.
My pain was the loudest thing in the room.
I couldn’t really hear them over my own hysteria. The pain erupted in me, building and exploding in waves. There was one word that cut through it all.
One word that utterly shattered me.
Dead.
I swore the world stopped at that moment. Something irrevocably shattered.
The word echoed.
In my head.
