The monster roared.“GO!”
And Lenny did, stumbling into the woods. The monster held Eva close, searching with trembling fingers for where the bullet had lodged itself in her flesh, like a seed planted in soil. Red bloomed from the wound in her side, flowing too fast and covering both of them in blood.
Her blood.
“Eva?”the monster whispered, feathering a panicked touch to her cheek. Her color was fading, a deathly pallor swallowing the rosy hue of sun-touched skin.“Wake up,”it pleaded weakly, cradling the back of her neck to prevent her head from lolling.
Salt burned the corners of its eyes. Strange, how tears could hurt sometimes.
With a little sob, the monster repositioned Eva on the grass and pressed both palms to the wound in her side. The gentle pressure made Eva convulse, her eyes slitting open.
She moaned.
“I’m sorry.”The monster couldn’t tell where its panic ended and Arthur’s began. The level of terror coursing through their shared being was so violent it made the monster nauseous.“I’m so sorry. But you’ve got to stay awake for me.”It scrubbed under its eyes, clearing the blurriness away, tasting salt.“You have to stay.”
Eva’s lips parted, but no sound came out. The monster strippedoff Arthur’s shirt and balled it up, then pressed it to her wound.“Come on, Freckles,”it choked out.
The monster had never prayed before. What was a creature like it supposed to do with God, anyway? But it firmly believed that if anyone should curry divine favor, it was Arthur’s bee girl. A plea kept beating in the monster’s head, finding release the way Arthur did with his tapping.Not her, not her.It was an ancient rhythm full of pain.Not her, not her, PLEASE.
It reached into the dark of its mind as a sob tightened in its throat. But Arthur wasn’t there.
“Please,”the monster whispered as it bowed over her bleeding body. This wasn’t supposed to happen. All it had wanted was to protect Arthur, but this would break him.
Not her, not her.The monster’s plea fell in sync with its pulse. It had never wanted their bee girl to become another one of Arthur’s scars.
The forest seemed to mirror the sounds of Eva’s body: the river’s rush like her blood, the beat of life underground like the thump of her heart, and the rustling wind like the gasp on her lips.
Tears striped down Arthur’s cheeks. Even trapped inside his own mind, Arthur was nothing but heart, and the monster could do nothing to stop the pain when the same slide of grief was pulling it down too, a tar pit of panic drawing it lower with every passing second. When Eva’s breaths became a wheeze, the monster broke.
This couldn’t be happening. They couldn’t lose her!
But they already were.
The hard reality made a bout of nauseating fear roll over the monster. This was why it kept Arthur numb, because feelingthiswas agony. A love like theirs shouldn’t end in loss like this!
But that’s what all love stories did.
A sob ratcheted the tightness in the monster’s chest. Had it made things worse? It wanted to be a balm, but maybe it had simply become another burden for Arthur to carry.
He would never forgive the monster if it let Eva die.
The monster wouldn’t forgive itself either.
Eva twitched a little gasp beneath the pressure of the monster’s touch. She looked so delicate, so unlike herself. She was usually a force of nature. Now she was a greenhouse. A whole world trapped in glass bones far too fragile to keep her safe. Not even her uncanny ability to heal could pull her back from a wound this deep.
Her skin was graying fast, her hairline drenched in sweat.
I can help you.
The voice startled the monster, drawing its gaze to where the spirit of the wood stood nearby. How long had she been there?
You can save her, devil, the spirit said.If you heed my instructions.
The monster’s jaws snapped.“How?”They were running out of time, and it could do nothing to help her! It was a creature of death, born to take. Not to heal.
We bring my son back.The spirit’s leaves rippled, her tone cool and firm.For good, this time.
The words dropped a pit into the monster’s stomach.“Arthur needs me,”it rasped.
