57. Silas #2
The silence was deafening and a weight in my chest cracked wide open, terror flooding in like ice water.
I pushed harder. Legs burning. Lungs seizing. Heart trying to escape from my ribcage.
“Si?” A faint whimper.
Coming from the alley just ahead.
I ran faster, breath breaking apart.
“Katie?”
She lay crumpled, tucked behind a dumpster.
Small. Fragile. Wrong.
The oxygen whooshed out of me, my body locking up for a second too long as I took it in—the pale stretch of her skin in the darkness, the way she curled in on herself, arms wrapped around her stomach like she was trying to hold herself together, gasping and trembling.
Her eyes were wild and glassy, darting frantically, searching for me. Blinking too fast, like she was fighting to keep them open.
Blood spilled through her fingers, pooling over her hands, soaking into the pale blue of her sweater until it was almost black.
Too much. Too much.
“Katie—” my knees hit the ground, hard. I was scrambling, crawling toward her. “No, no, no. No. Oh, fuck. No.”
I reached her, hands trembling as they hovered above the mess of blood and fabric and terror.
What the hell was I supposed to do?
My breath came in ragged gasps, my chest squeezing so tight it hurt. I should’ve known what to do, but all I could do was stare at the slick, pulsing red spilling between her fingers.
Too much. Too much.
I forced myself to move, pressing my hands over hers, trying to stop it. I needed to make it stop.
The blood was everywhere. Warm and slick, coating my fingers, seeping into my skin as I pressed down harder.
“Stay with me, stay with me.”
She was shaking so hard, her whole body trembling against me, like she was coming apart piece by piece.
And then I saw them.
Her jeans.
The tiny, purple embroidered butterflies scattered across the fabric—ones I’d seen a hundred times before—now dark, drowned in blood and dirt, shoved down to her ankles with her underwear.
Ice cold horror slid down my spine, rotting me from the inside out. Bile forced its way up my throat. The world tilted, crushing in on itself.
“HELP!” My voice tore from my throat, raw and desperate, echoing across the empty brick walls. “Somebody help!”
Nothing. No one. No footsteps. No voices.
Just the wind howling through the alley, rattling a loose street sign. Just her broken, shuddering sobs.
I twisted, frantic, my pulse a deafening roar in my ears.
Where’s my ph one?
Fuck.
It was on the dorm room floor. Left and forgotten.
I swallowed the rising panic and turned back to her. “Katie, stay with me.”
A soft, gasping noise, slipped from her lips, barely there. “Si…”
Her hand trembled as she lifted it, the palest I’d ever seen it. She tried to cup my face, her fingers smearing blood across my cheek in a warm, sticky trail.
I caught her hand, pressing it against me, as if that could keep her here. As if that could undo any of this.
Her eyes met mine, glassy and terrified.
She looked so scared.
And I was useless.
“I’m here,” I choked out, voice cracking, breaking under the weight of it. “I’m right here. Stay awake. Please. Please—”
But the blood wouldn’t stop. It poured out of her in impossible amounts, seeping through my fingers, pooling beneath her.
“SOMEONE, HELP!”
No one came.
No one was coming.
Her breath hitched, her body shuddering violently. “Si…”
I leaned in closer, desperate, helpless.
“I love you.” The words shivered out of her.
My stomach clenched. My entire body seized up. No. No. Please.
“I love you,” she whispered again, weaker this time, her lips trembling. “Always.”
Please. No.
Her hand was slipping, her grip loosening, body growing limp against me.
“No, Katie. Stay with me.”
Her eyes searched mine, desperate, begging for something. For me.
I couldn’t let her go—not like this. I swallowed the agony clawing its way through my chest, forced my lips to move, forced the words past the lump in my throat. “I love you too.”
It was a lie. But it was the only thing I could give her. It was my fault this had happened. I could at least give her that.
Her face softened slightly, and a tiny, broken breath left her lips, like she’d been waiting for that. Like it was enough.
I clutched her hands, squeezing them, willing her to stay. “I love you, Katie. Just hold on. Just stay with me.”
Her chest hitched—a shallow, broken gasp that barely made it past her lips.
Her body was giving up.
“No,” I whi spered, shaking my head as if I could force reality to bend. “You’re okay. You’re gonna be okay—”
But she wasn’t.
The warmth was draining from her skin, her body growing too cold, too fast.
It was happening. Her breath slowed, her fingers twitched one last time before going limp in my grip. Her chest, rising in frantic, uneven gasps only moments ago, started to still.
Tears broke free, hot, heavy drops spilling down my face, landing on her greying skin as I bent closer, pressing my forehead gently against hers.
“I’m here, I’m right here.”
But she wasn’t. Not anymore.
I felt her last exhale, soft and fleeting against my cheek, like a ghost of the life she had just an hour ago.
Her body gave one final, violent shudder—then nothing.
Stillness.
A silence so complete it crushed me.
I pulled back, just enough to look at her, to plead her to come back—but her eyes, once so wild, were empty now.
I screamed.
I screamed louder than I ever had in my life, my own voice ripping from me like a blade.
Her name broke from my lips, a desperate, raging plea.
One she would never hear.