“Perfect.” She smiled and placed the blood pressure cuff back on its hook.
Karson glided in, looking dashing even in casual attire, and the room brightened.
Angela looked up and froze. Her brow flickered, and the color drained from her cheeks. Her mouth dropped open as if she was about to say something. She simply stared at him, as if something about him frightened her.
“Is everything okay?” I asked.
She turned to me and smiled feebly. “All good. You can go whenever you like. I’ll get the wheelchair and?—”
“No wheelchair,” I interrupted. “No way.”
Karson’s eyes twinkled. “I’ll carry her if need be, nurse.”
The vision of him running me through the forest rushed back. It seemed so real, but I hadn’t had a chance to ask him about it. His visits had been far too fleeting, and other people were always in the room.
“I can walk perfectly fine.”
“I believe it’s hospital policy, is it not, Angela?”
She nodded and smiled tightly, snatching up my chart and scribbling something on it.
“They can arrest me then. It’s not happening.”
He said with a sly smirk, “If handcuffs are your forte, I’m sure they can be arranged.”
Laughter bubbled from me. I climbed off the bed and went to grab my bag, but Karson had it in his hands before I took a single step. “You can at least let me carry your things.”
The nurse looked back and forth between us, a scowl on her face. “Take care, Amy,” she said, and scurried from the room.
We drove toward my new home. One side of the road was green with life, vibrant and shimmering. In complete contrast, the other side was black. Tree limbs stuck out into the charred terrain like a mesh of decayed varicose veins. Smoke whispered up from fallen trunks, dim as poltergeists at twilight. There were no signs of life. No birds, no green, just death and ash. Iwondered if Wolf was alright. He’d be fast, and instinct would’ve made him flee, or perhaps he’d sheltered in a cave somewhere. Still, I worried.
I glanced across at Karson. He was driving at speeds which would usually scare me, but I didn’t feel unsafe. I should just mention him carrying me to safety casually.
My therapist’s hushed voice found a place in my head.
“Delusional disorder brought on by trauma, but it may not be permanent.”
Sometimes I felt like my sanity fell through the cracked pieces in my head.
“The fire . . . do you think it was an accident?”
“If it wasn’t, I can assure you we will get to the bottom of it,” he answered, keeping his eyes on the road.
I looked back out the window at the blur of black forest and saw something gray, something struggling to get up.
My heart leaped into my throat. “Stop the car,” I shrieked. “Stop!”
Karson slammed on the brakes. My body jolted against the seat belt as we skidded to a stop. I jumped out and ran, darting over the charred embankment. A haze of ash shot up all around my legs, and cinders filled my mouth, my nose, my lungs. The skin on my leg tugged, pulling and tearing at the wound.
I slipped and landed on my butt, then clambered back up and half ran, half slid down the steep incline to the flat below, a whirl of soot trailing behind me like a hoard of ghosts.
“Amelia, stop!” Karson shouted. I ran on, and he was beside me in a few steps. He grabbed my arm, jerking me to a halt.
“What the bloody hell are you doing?” he snapped.
His eyes followed to where mine were fixed. About thirty feet in, lay a badly burned doe. She was flat on her side. The hair on her legs was all but gone. In its place sat blackened, singed skin. A gooey mixture of red charred flesh and yellow puss wept fromthe underside of her body and pooled onto the black earth. Her tongue was drained of color, and it hung limply from her mouth like death had already claimed her. Her breaths were fast and shallow. But it was the look in her eyes that hit my heart like a grenade. Suffering drowned her large brown eyes, and dust-ridden tears streaked her face.
I walked toward her. The awful smell of charred meat and rot slammed up nose. The agony she must have been through in the last few days was horrendous.
