Page 118 of Tell Me Why
Maybe.
Maybe she could just…
His eyes were steady.
Close.
He smelled of himself.
It was far away and confused, and losing reality by the moment.
She wasn’t going to be here much longer, and if here was real…
The pain wasn’t what she was afraid of.
“Do it,” she whispered, and he nodded back.
“Fight for me,” he answered.
“How long?”she heard Tell asked.
“Darling, no one has ever gone this direction before,” Ginger answered. “She is her own standard.”
“She needs to feed,”Tell said.
“A fountain won’t let her get close,” Ginger said. “Even a well-compensated one. It’s visceral, like being around a rabid animal. They’ll know there’s something wrong with her, and she’s got nothing going for her.”
“Then we order in,” Tell said.
“It won’t do any good until I’m done,” Ginger answered.
“She’s not healing,” Tell said.
“I see that dear. Hand me the suture thread, there. Yes. No. Yes. That one.”
Ginger was still working, apparently.
Or Tina was nearing finished with being butchered.
One or the other.
She had no idea how much time was passing, nor whether the fact that she was in immense pain was a good thing or a bad thing.
What she did know was that she was sound.
Strangely enough, even with all of the delirium and a complete lack of confidence in what was reality and what was not, she simply knew that she wasn’t going to slip away.
If they killed her, it was going to be abrupt, unexpected, but if this was real…
She was going to endure and she was going tobehere when it was done.
“You in there?”Tell asked.
“I’m here,” Tina answered.
“When this is over, I’m not going to let you look at all of the stuff Ginger took out of you,” he said. “But it’s a lot.”
“I was here for it,” Tina said. “I know.”
