My mind clears a little, but it’s instantly bombarded with new worries. “My friend!”
“I’m sure she’s fine,” he says.
Abbie was with his friend. Hopefully, they’re together.
Maybe they even managed to get out before the building collapsed.
God, I hope so. She’ll call for help.
“What do you think happened?” I ask.
“An explosion.”
My eyes widen at him. “Like a bomb?”
When he nods, my body grows heavy with fear.
Was it an attempt to kill Abbie and me?
Crap, if I survive this ordeal, my parents will probably kill me.
Carefully he pushes his arm beneath my neck. I try to shift closer to him, and when his arms are wrapped around me and my temple is pressed to his warm chest, I close my eyes.
“Don’t fall asleep,” he warns me.
“Okay.” Opening my eyes, I stare at the defined ridges of his abs. “Do you work out?”
“Yes.”
I let out a humorless chuckle that makes tiny flames of pain lick at my ribcage. I wait for the pain to pass, then murmur, “I hate exercise. I don’t like sweating.”
“Mmh…” The rumble comes from deep in his chest. “Are you going to tell me all your secrets?”
I glance at the broken concrete, and a relentless hopelessness settles heavily in my heart. “I might as well tell one person before I die.”
He presses his lips to my hair, then murmurs, “I promise you won’t die. Not on my watch.”
Tilting my head back, I look deep into his eyes, the flashing red light breaking our connection every couple of seconds.
I don’t know his name, and honestly, I prefer it that way. Not knowing who he is makes everything easier somehow.
I’ll be his little deer, and he can be my prince because weaving a fantasy in the middle of all the horror makes me believe we’ll get out of this alive.
Because let’s face it, the bitter reality is that we can both die here tonight, and I can’t deal with the terrible fact.
So, instead of facing the harsh truth, I latch onto the fantasy.
My prince is strong, and he’ll keep me from dying.
Chapter 4
Misha
As the minutes mercilessly crawl by with no sign of help in sight, my worry increases until it feels like it will gnaw its way right through my chest.
My little deer is slowly bleeding to death, and I can hear her strength fading in her voice. I’m also sure she has broken ribs, if not internal injuries, as well.
As hard as I tried to shield her during the fall, I couldn’t do shit to keep the pieces of concrete from tearing her up. I felt her body take the blow when the metal rod stabbed her, ripping her top off in the process.