Please be alive. Please be alive. Please be alive.
“Shot,” the guard says. “Several times.”
My world narrows. My heart shrivels in my chest, and it takes every ounce of strength left in my bodyto stay seated and not slide to the floor.
I thought I couldn’t breathe a minute ago, but that was heaven compared to this. Compared to the vise-like grip of despair wrapping around my ribs and squeezing me with a crushing force.
I won’t survive this. I won’t. I can’t.
“Is he still alive?” Edgar asks.
The guard nods. “Unconscious, but breathing.”
A mixture between a sob and a laugh tears out of me, and I lean forward, pressing my palms into myknees and focusing on the floor between my feet. I have a bad case of emotional whiplash, and I feellike I could hurl. I take slow, deep breaths through
