CHAPTERFIFTEEN
Vivia
Dario’sin and out of consciousness. If he were bit by a rabid animal… I stare at the door to the cabin as if it will give me the answers I need, but all I hear is the lonely howl of wind.
I have to get help.
I don’t know much about first aid, but I do know that if someone’s bitten by a rabid animal, it’s important to get emergency medical care. Crucial, even. If we don’t, there’s no telling what could happen to him.
I stare at the phone, unable to use it. I can’t call out since I don’t know the password, and I’ve been obviously blocked from making outbound calls. I try a few random passwords, but I’m only one try away from locking the phone for an hour, so that’s useless.
I bite my lip and stare at Dario. His cheeks are flushed and his breathing’s grown rapid. A deep, gnawing feeling of dread claws at my belly. Something is terribly wrong, and I have to help him, but I don’t know how.
I can’t run for help, because I don’t know where we are or how to get there.
And then a little voice whispers at the back of my mind, tempting me. Beckoning me.
Run.
You could… run. Not for help, but to escape. It’s what I planned on doing from the very beginning, but now that the option’s upon me… I can’t do it.
No. I can’t leave him, sick and unable to do a damn thing to help himself, alone in the woods with no lifeline.
I can’t run for help, either, for the same reason I can’t run to escape.
We have to reach someone, and it has to be now.
I stare at the phone in my hand, trying to find a way around the facial recognition requirement that unlocks it. I draw in a breath and try to talk to him again.
“Dario?”
I need him awake.
“Dario!”
I need him here, with me, so I’m not alone with the coyotes and whatever other predators are outside that door. There’s just… I can’t. I can’t go it alone here.
Or later, when I’m no longer a captive here. He’s the only barrier I have between me and literally everyone else.
I hear him mumble in his sleep and bring him the phone. “Dario. Please. If you could just open your eyes for like one minute— just tell me the password…”
He doesn’t open his eyes but lifts his hand, a barely perceptible little wiggle of his fingers.
What?
I stare at the phone for minutes before it dawns on me. It needs a thumbprint recognition. With a dry little sob, I quickly lift his heavy hand and press his thumb to the screen. Error, it flashes in red.
No. My heart sinks. How am I ever going to get the help that we need? I throw my head back and scream out the sheer frustration, anger, and helplessness I feel.
Goddamn my family.
Goddamn the Rossis.
Their ruthless and archaic laws have bound me worse than Dario ever has. I can’t help him even when I need to.
Okay, alright.
I can do this. I’m not gonna go all helpless female, not now.