“Let him go,” he says calmly, even as his eyes jerk from the… thing between my thighs to my eyes. He’s completely freaked out.
I swallow and it takes a couple of tries before I get the words out. “What if he wakes up?”
Luis shakes his head. “It ain’t happening, man. He’s not sleeping.”
My stomach revolts and I drop the guy, spewing everything in my stomach.No no no nononono.
“It’s ok. He was going to kill us. It’s ok. It’s ok. It’s ok…”
Luis’s words get lost in the rejection in my mind. I couldn’t have. I couldn’t have. I wasn’t trying to. I just had to stop him. He was going to kill us.
I hurt.
I open my eyes, staring at the dead man at my feet for an eternity.
“Trent.”
I tear my eyes away from the body to Luis. He’s staring wide eyed at my legs. “What?”
“He stabbed you.”
I follow his gaze to my leg. It’s been screaming at me because the claw of the hammer is lodged in it. If I leave it in there, I might get a blood infection. If I take it out, will I bleed out? Is it in a major artery or vein? It’s close.
“I’ll risk a blood infection.”
Hours pass.
We try to escape, but we’re not strong enough to get up to the hooks. We’re not lucky enough that the beam is rotten enough that we can break it with our weight. Luis fights harder than I can to get free.
I think I’ve been stabbed in the back, but I don’t tell Luis. He’s not doing well.
Luis sniffles, pulling my attention from the terrifying pain in my back to him. “Don’t cry. You can’t afford to dehydrate like that,” I whisper.
He shakes his head. “I can’t hold it anymore.”
It takes me a moment to understand, and then vulnerability passes through me. It’s been a constant companion, but I tear up with Luis. “It’s fine. Me, too.”
Luis turns his face into his arms, hiding his shame. “I mean, I gotta piss.”
I look down and immediately regret it. I kicked the body as far away as I could, but it wasn’t that far. His neck looks like a big bruise and it’s turned at an unnatural angle. I killed him.
He might’ve killed me, too. I’m just taking longer to die.
Luis sniffles again, and I pull myself out of that hopeless spiral.
“We’ll both go together,” I say, even though I think I can probably hold it longer.
Luis cries softly, nodding.
I count to three and hide my face the way he does. Magnus better get here soon or we’re going to die here. Me before him. I think the thing in my back is going to kill me faster than the hammer in my leg.
Even if those things don’t kill me today, Magnus only has another day before dehydration is going to get us. Two days if it’s as warm tomorrow as it was today. Maybe that will take me before a blood infection.
The sun sets.
The heat in the barn from the day disappears with the sun. The pain dulls as I lose feeling in my arms. I start shivering as the night cools, but the heat on my skin tells me it’s not just the weather. I close my eyes, succumbing to the misery of the fever. My muscles lock up and I shake, causing more pain with every tremor. It’s debilitating and hard to force my body to stop.
Magnus, where are you?
