I snatched the barely human-sized box, not even moving back when a barrage of rats shot out, not even taking a deep breath before I tore it open.
An inhuman noise came from my chest. The sick motherfuckers had stuffed her into a box that she hardly fit in, knees to chin. Her hair…I wasn’t even sure I was looking at the right person until I moved her chin up some. She looked like a sleeping beauty that had been mangled in a car accident. Her entire face was swollen and crusted over in frozen blood.
She didn’t make a noise as I gently picked her up, cradled her in my arms, and fell to the ground. She was so much smaller than I remembered, but my heart was shrinking in her presence. She was the queen of it, and I’d obey her every command.
“Please,” I whispered, one word I’d never spoken before. “Please. Please wake up.”
I hadn’t even noticed Saverio next to me, taking her pulse with his contraption. “She has a pulse,” he said, “but it’s weak. That’s why my device didn’t register it. Being so close, it’s picking up now, but we need to get her help, Teo.”
I looked in his eyes. “The quickest way out.”
He sighed. “We’re going to have to walk it, just like we did before.”
“I’ll fucking run it.”
“We can’t jostle her too much. I can’t tell what’s broken.”
“Everything,” I barely got out.
He nodded and squeezed my shoulder. He dug in the straps that were over his arms and pulled out another device. He went to use it, but I could tell by the look on his face that something was wrong. His eyes rose to meet mine for a brief second before they flashed back to the small black thing in his hand. A second later, he flung it across the room, and it hit the wall.
He stood in a rush and paced. “They cut us off—I’m not getting a fucking signal.”
“That means we’re back here without help,” I whispered, not wanting Stella to hear and be afraid.
He nodded. “We’ll move, but it’s going to be slower. The men won’t know to move forward and join us this far in without my word.”
“No extra protection.”
“Just who we have,” he said.
“Fucking good enough.” I forced my knees to rise from the floor, and I stood as gently as I could. She lay limp in them, and I refused to fucking think about why.
Please. Please. Please. Open your eyes, Stella. Look at me.
Saverio ordered the men to create a shield around me. Until we could make it to an area that had an escape hatch, or to Sub Rosa, which wasn’t ideal with the way the crowd was fighting, we were going to have to make it back alone.
“Move!” Saverio ordered, leading the pack of us.
As we started to move as a body, it sounded like old wheels started to turn, the ricketyclick clackthat had been so loud before. Saverio ran to the wall, but it was too late. Another door came crashing down, and another cloud of dust swallowed us all. Men were choking, and I did my best to cover Stella’s nose and mouth, but I didn’t want her to have to struggle for air. Her breaths were barely coming as it was.
Once the dust settled, Saverio took out a flashlight and spun it around the room. A bunch of men who looked like they had gotten into a sack of wheat flour stared back.
“We are trapped,” one of them said.
Saverio hit him in the eyes with the flashlight, and he winced. I could tell he wanted to snap,no shit!, but he held his tongue and looked at me. “What I have with me is basic, but until someone comes looking for us, it’ll do.”
He ordered one of the men to hold the flashlight while he set his backpack down and started to dig through it. He took outa few supplies, including a needle and thread for sutures, along with antiseptics.
“This place is fucking filthy, but it’ll have to do for right now. I’ll try to do this without compromising what should be clean.” He poured alcohol on his hands, then called another man over and did the same to his. He removed a version of a mini folding table, rinsed it with alcohol, and then set up a makeshift area for stitches.
My stomach swam. I wasn’t intolerant of blood, or any bodily fluids, but seeing the way it constantly ran from Stella’s head was making me woozy.
“Close your eyes, Matteo,” Saverio ordered, and he rarely ordered me to do anything. “I couldn’t watch someone do this to Mia either, though I’d be thankful I didn’t have to do it myself. Stella’s bleeding severely from her head, though that’s not always uncommon since the head is so vascular, like fingers, but it needs to stop. The cold air helped it clot some, but it’s not enough to stop it altogether.”
I listened and closed my eyes while I held on tight to her. I was expecting her to squirm in my arms, ask me who I was and demand that I let her go, but she was so still,myheart didn’t feel right in my chest. It felt weak, like all the blood was draining from my body, and another inhuman noise escaped from my mouth.
“Hold on, Teo,” Saverio said, and I could tell from the brightness, even though my eyes were shut, that the flashlight was pointed at us. As Saverio stitched her up, the man whose hands were clean was helping.
