Page 85 of Like A Moth To A Flame

“What?! Why?! Barrett, you’re hurt! You’re bleeding, we have to—”

“If you call them,” he groaned. “He’ll know.”

I froze, the weight of his words sinking in like heavy stones in my stomach. Who would know? What was Barrett talking about? The questions swirled in my mind, but he weakly grabbed my hand before I could voice them, his fingers trembling against mine.

“Who?” I whispered, my voice sputtering and cracked. Somehow, I knew, even before he told me.

“He’ll kill me if I tell you who he is,” he whispered urgently. “You have to listen to me.”

“He d-did this to you?” I asked, shaking my head. I didn’t want to believe it. “My stalker did this to you? He hurt you… why? Because ofme?”

“Vanessa!” He shouted, and I fell quiet, too scared to talk, to move, or even to breathe. “My leg is broken. At least one, maybe both. You need to help me into the car and drive me yourself.”

Broken? My mind couldn’t even compute the word.

I felt eyes upon me, cold, undead breath slithering down my neck. My knees shook, threatening to betray me and spill me down into the hay right alongside him.

“Now, Vanessa!”

The urgency in his voice spurred me into action. I reached down, grabbed my phone, and shoved it into the front of my bra. With trembling hands, I carefully helped him to his feet, taking on moreof his weight than I thought possible. His groans of pain sent shivers down my spine, and I had to fight to blink away the tears.

It felt like an eternity, each step a battle against the encroaching darkness. The thought of his broken leg made my stomach turn, a mix of anger and helplessness boiling within me. When we stepped out of the dog run, I swung the door shut behind me and hastily latched it. Looking down, the moonlight illuminated the inhuman angle of his leg, and my stomach sloshed and churned, threatening to spill my peach cobbler across the grass.

Looking up, I caught sight of his face. His skin was ashen, soaked with a sheen of sweat, and his mouth was down-turned in a deep, hollow frown.

“Okay,” I groaned, adjusting my hold around his waist and planting my feet. “We can do this. We have to do this.”

I pulled him forward, taking the brunt of his weight across my neck and shoulders. With every step, he screamed, his voice grating on my soul until it was bared, raw, and bleeding.

Finally, we reached my car, and a jumble of relief and dread washed over me. I carefully helped Barrett into the passenger seat, his face contorted with pain as he settled in. The moon cast an eerie glow over the scene as I circled to the driver’s side, throwing myself into the seat and slamming the door closed. My fingers shook as I pulled out my keys, fighting to slot them into the ignition. Finally, they found a home, and I forced the engine to life, peeling out of the driveway and leaving a cloud of dust in our wake.

His breathing was labored as I sped towards the nearest hospital, my knuckles white on the steering wheel. The world outside was a blur, the wind whipping past me and the treeline fading intoa violent blur on either side of the road. My mind was a tornado, tearing through my emotions and pulverizing them into dust.

“Why would he do this?!” I sobbed, not daring to take my eyes off the road. I slapped at the tears racing from my eyes, and the lake of snot that had gathered beneath my nose. “Y-you’re not a threat to him! You’re not… t-taking me. I don’t understand!”

I couldn’t breathe. My breaths came in small, rapid gasps, and my heart was a drumbeat inside my chest.

“This is my fault!” I sucked in a deep, pulling gasp of air, fighting to stay sane. “You’re hurt because of me!”

“Nessa, listen,” Barrett said, his voice a whisper in the passenger seat. I chanced a glance at him. He was on the verge of losing consciousness. “You n-need to let this go.”

“Let this go?!” I barked, and a manic laugh slipped past my lips. “He could have killed you!”

“For the sake of us both,” he said, his voice fading with every syllable. “Let thisgo.”

“Tell me who it was!” I begged, blinking hard as I fought to force the words from my throat. “I can make all of this go away! All you have to do is tell me who did it!”

There was no answer, and when I looked over, he was silent, his head slumped forward against his chest.

I was hysterical when I pulled into the ambulance bay at Morris County Hospital. It was almost a thirty-minute drive, but it was the closest we had. Scrambling out of the car, I sprinted towards the double doors, pounding on the glass with hands that I hadn’t even realized were covered in blood, leaving gory smears across the glass.

“Help me!” I shrieked, my voice tearing from my throat. “I need help! Somebody help!”

The doors swung open, and a team of nurses rushed out, followed by a pair of doctors, their voices calm and soothing as they guided me away from Barrett’s car.

“No!” I spat, twisting away from them. “I-I’m staying with him! I’m gonna stay—”

“Miss, listen.” A dark-haired, olive-skinned nurse pulled me away from the commotion, with a gentle voice and a soft hand entangling both of mine. “We need to get him assessed, okay? We need to figure out what’s going on, and then we can come and get you, okay?”

---