When Words Waver

Prologue

Her scream – it was so achingly guttural that it stunned him in place. It was a sound so foreign that he could do nothing, feel nothing but its echo in his ears as he looked at her.

And, when their eyes met, when her tears slid down her flushed cheeks, he saw the fear, affliction, struggle, and slight confusion on her face, that not only made him stumble forward a bit, but also made him want to tear through everything he was enduring – deep inside his clawing chest.

But it was when her lips shook as she tried to signal something to him through her trembling hands, that he snapped out of his brief numb-fest; that he actually realized what had happened.

And, when a sob hitched out of her and reverberated across the low-lit room, did his stomach begin to clench; his palms begin to sweat.

And his heart – it might as well have stopped beating; his lungs may as well have stopped drawing in air. But it wasn’t like he cared anymore, not when she was suffering…