My phone vibrates in my pocket.
The sound is wrong, too loud, too sharp, cutting straight through my skull.
I pull it out.
Liam.
My heart slams so hard it hurts.
“Liam?” My voice breaks around his name. “Where are you?”
Static crackles. Then breathing. Shallow. Wet. Like he’s drowning.
“Khai…” His voice sounds far away. Echoing. Like he’s calling from the end of a tunnel. “I need you.”
“I’m coming,” I say immediately. No hesitation. “I’m on my way. Where are you?”
A pause.
Then, “Don’t.”
I frown. “What?”
“I need you,” he says again, words tangled, slipping over each other. “But you can’t come here. You can’t, fuck, Khai, stay away.”
The beeping gets louder.
My chest tightens. “You’re not making sense.”
“I messed up,” he whispers. “I shouldn’t have, he wasn’t supposed to,”
“Who?” I snap. “Who wasn’t supposed to what?”
The line crackles. Something shifts. His breathing stutters.
“I’m scared,” Liam says. “I don’t want to die.”
Panic claws up my throat. “You’re not going to,” I say fiercely. “I swear to you. I’ll be there in,”
I glance at the dash.
The numbers blur. Slide. Lock into place.
9 minutes.
“I’ll be there in nine minutes,” I tell him. “Just stay awake. Stay with me.”
Silence.
Then, so quiet it almost disappears, “I love you.”
The call drops.
The world lurches.
I’m driving.
No,
