My heart drops into my stomach.
“There was a storm, it took out the boat. He was pulled from the water.”
The ground is shaking, it’s quaking under my feet making it impossible to stay standing. I hear my knees hit the floor, but I don’t feel it, I hear a scream that I realize a second later is coming from me. It’s being ripped from my lungs, my throat. The world is ending.
Arms are on me, holding me tight, keeping me from shattering into a thousand pieces. But barely.
“Vanessa.” My name is being shouted.
“Vanessa.”
But I only hear the scream.
“Ness!” More shaking, more pain, more tears.
“Ness, look at me!”
Rett grasps my face, forcing me to look at him. He’s blurry and unfocused but he’s right there, holding my face tight, “Look at me, Ness.”
The wailing stops, just for a minute as I focus on his words, “He’s alive, Vanessa.”
“Where is he?” It doesn’t sound like my voice, but I know it’s my lips moving, my own words, “Where is he, Rett?”
“In the hospital on the mainland. Torin got a call this morning. He’s bad, Ness.”
My head is shaking, “He can’t die!”
“We have to go!” He demands, sterner now, “Put your coat on. It’s cold.”
I slide my arms into the coat Rett pulled off the hook, not feeling the warmth it provides, and I lock up behind me. The cold outside is nothing compared to the cold I feel working through me, it doesn’t make me ache or hurt, doesn’t make me shiver. I feel numb as I follow Everett through the snow towards Torin’s house.
Torin is already waiting, with both Arryn and Maya. They’re wrapped up ready to go and a boat is waiting.
Absently I notice the boat isn’t Torin’s but one of the older town fisherman’s, its aged with flaking paint but it’s sturdy. But of course, it won’t be Torin’s. Torin’s boat has been destroyed.
Maya grasps me the moment I’m at arm’s length, pulling me in and then Arryn joins in behind. They hold me when I don’t think I can hold myself.
Everything is a blur, a fog in my mind. I know it’s happening but it’s like I am watching from outside of my body. I text my sister, letting her know what’s happening so she can keep watching Ethan for me and we’re moving across the water before I can blink, the boat being pushed way beyond its limits to try and get us there as quickly as possible.
Arryn is holding my hand so tight I can’t feel my fingers and she speaks to me every few minutes, but I don’t know if I am answering her. All I see is him.
Accident.
He’s bad.
Hospital.
He was coming back.
But he didn’t make it.
Fresh tears spill over, instantly becoming cold as the wind whips at my face. The ride to the mainland is bumpy and treacherous, the sound of the birds in the sky shrill and alarming. I didn’t know how to feel or what to think.
It passes quickly though, and we’re soon anchoring up at the port, Torin helping Maya and Arryn out of the boat, and then me.
I just stand there, knees locked, heart heavy and wait until someone guides me. There’s a car, it’s warm but does nothing to tackle the cold I feel working inside of me. Music plays but I don’t hear it, someone speaks but it’s just noise and then the large, white building of the hospital comes into view.
Dread sinks into my stomach and sickness makes it hard to swallow. Hands guide me and my legs carry me though it feels as if I have no control over myself, like I am working on pure muscle memory alone.
