“Help,” I said, the word coming out unrecognizable. “I need help.”
“Hello?” the dispatcher said. “Say that again, please.”
“I need help,” I moaned as I wrapped my hand around the phone and army crawled back to Dylan’s side. “Help me.”
“Tell me your address, please. I need to know where you are.”
“Help me,” I moaned as Dylan’s breathing seemed to slow.
“I can’t understand you,” the dispatcher said calmly. “Can you please speak up and tell me where you are?”
Tears of frustration ran down my face as I dropped the phone and reached for Dylan’s hand.
Then I did the only thing I could.
I screamed until the breath left my lungs, and the pain in my chest was so overwhelming that I started to lose consciousness again.
My last thought before the darkness took me under was that at least they hadn’t gotten Finn.
Chapter 16
Teddy
Iwas pulledto them like we were connected by an invisible tether. I’d carried neither of them in my body, but they were inexplicably tied to me in a way that surpassed muscle and bone and blood. They were shielded by the first responders who’d converged on our house, but I knew where they’d fallen, and I moved straight to them.
I’d known the moment that Curtis turned to look at me that I would be right where I was in that moment, falling to my knees next to Jesse as the paramedics strapped a collar around their neck. I would’ve known them anywhere, but their face was so swollen and mangled that they were unrecognizable. One paramedic cut Jesse’s T-shirt off and then their binder, unconcerned with the flesh he was exposing in his determination to check them for injury.
Beside them, another set of paramedics worked on Dylan. He was already stripped to the skin, and his pale face was almost gray as they spoke words that I didn’t understand, their hands working in frantic tandem as they stanched the bleeding from three different wounds on his torso.
Where was Finn? I looked around frantically.
The paramedics rolled Dylan like he was nothing but a doll, first onto his side and then onto his back, where they strapped him to a flat board.
“Any allergies or medications?” one of the paramedics asked. I wasn’t sure if he was there for Dylan or Jesse.
Where was Finn?
“No, none,” Curtis answered, his voice raw.
Jesse gasped in pain as the paramedics lifted Dylan from the carpet, tearing their intertwined hands apart.
Where was Finn?
“Where are you takin’ him?” Curtis asked frantically. “What hospital?”
I didn’t hear the answer because my eyes were on Jesse’s face as they tried to say something.
“Don’t try to talk,” one of the paramedics soothed. “It’s okay. Help is here.”
My child’s gaze was terrified and frantic as it met mine.
“You’re okay,” I soothed, my voice so raw it didn’t even sound like my own. “You’re going to be okay. They already took Dylan away. He’s with the other paramedics. They’ll help him.”
They tried again to say something, but it was so garbled that there was no way to decipher it.
“Where’s Finn?” I asked, my voice cracking. “Do you know where Finn is?”
Jesse nodded, their gaze trying to tell me something. For the first time in their life, I had no idea what they were trying to say.
