Chapter 10 - The Last Resort
“Rebecca!”
Richard’s voice cracked, a sound of absolute, primal terror that cut through the howling wind.
He dropped to his knees in the freezing snow, sliding the last few feet until he reached her. He scooped her slight, lifeless-feeling body into his arms, pulling her head up against his soaked shirt. Her skin was the color of blue porcelain, her lips stained a faint, frightening purple.
Daniel and I reached them a second later. I dropped to the snow beside them, instantly pressing two fingers against the side of her neck, searching for a pulse.
For a terrifying three seconds, there was nothing. Just the frozen stillness of winter.
“Is she… is she breathing?” Richard whispered, his face twisted in agony as he stroked her icy hair, a tear freezing instantly on his weathered cheek.
“Her pulse is thready, but it’s there,” I shouted over the wind, sliding my arms beneath her shoulders. “Daniel, help me lift her! We need to get her back to the SUV right now—she’s in advanced hypothermic shock!”
Between the three of us, we hauled Rebecca’s light, freezing weight out of the cemetery drift and bundled her into the back seat of the SUV, cranking the heater up to maximum while Clare wrapped her in three emergency thermal blankets we found in the trunk.
“Drive, Daniel! Step on it!” Richard yelled from the back seat, cradling Rebecca’s head in his lap, rubbing her icy hands between his own calloused palms. “Get to the regional medical center in Binghamton! Now!”
The SUV fishtailed on the icy gravel as Daniel slammed his foot on the gas, tearing back through the cemetery gates onto Route 11.
In the back seat, Rebecca stirred slightly. Her eyelids fluttered open, a pair of dark, exhausted eyes staring up through the frost-fogged window at the blinding white sky, before drifting down to focus on the old man holding her.
“You… you shouldn't have come,” she whispered, her voice barely a dry rasp.
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Richard choked back a sob, pressing her cold fingers to his lips. “I’m sorry, my girl. I’m so sorry. You’re not a secret anymore. You’re home.”
Rebecca closed her eyes, a faint, ghost of a smile touching her pale lips as the SUV surged forward through the snow toward the blinking emergency lights of the hospital down the road.
