Get up, damn it! Callie needs you! You have to help her!
“Let…me…go!” Her sister’s small body flailed around as she fought a valiant fight she was never going to win.
“P-Please, J-James.” Cera swallowed hard. “L-Let her…g-go…”
Those sirens were louder now, yet they seemed so far away. Red and blue lights flashed in equal intervals from somewhere outside, their familiar hues filling the otherwise shadowed room.
“Fuck!” James cried out.
A dull thud reached her ears, as did Callie’s muffled sobs. Despite her disoriented state, Cera. understood what those sounds meant.
James had just thrown the little girl down to the floor.
Forcing her eyes to focus, Cera blinked quickly to clear her view. Everything was still blurry, but she could tell James was cradling his free hand against his body, almost as if Callie had hurt him there somehow.
That’s my tough girl.
Calliewastough...for her age. But neither sister was any kind of match for a man of James’ size. And with Cera having been seriously injured, it would take a miracle in order to make it out of this alive.
But waiting for a miracle that may never happen was a waste of time. If she wanted to survive—if she wanted to get Callie away from the girl’s psychotic father—Cera knew she’d have to fight.
First things first, she needed to get to her sister. She had to do what she could to protect Callie until the cops arrived. But as she willed herself to move, a searing, breath-stealing pain spread across her chest and down her left arm.
Oh, god! It hurts so bad!
The pain was unlike anything she’d ever experienced before.
“C-Cal…lie,” she managed a soft whisper.
At least, shethoughtshe’d said her sister’s name out loud. Cera wasn’t certain, however. Of that, or anything else.
Because the world around her was starting to fade,
She reached for her sister again. She needed to let Callie know she hadn’t given up.
I’m still here, Bug.
I’m still alive.
I’m still fighting…
But rather than her arm and hand lifting as they had before, the only movement she could muster were a few twitches of her fingers. The hope—the fight—she’d felt just moments ago began to dissipate with each of her labored breaths.
This was it. This was how she was going to die.
I’m sorry, Mom. I’m so sorry. I tried to keep him from taking her. I swear to you, I tried!
The black dots from before grew into a cloud of darkness. As her began to rapidly fade, the silhouette of a second man appeared suddenly in the open doorway.
His unfamiliar voice was muffled, as if he was farther away than he actually was. But Cera was still present enough to comprehend the other man’s order for James to drop the gun.
Cera couldn’t quite make out James’ spewed response, and her cloudy vision prevented her from making out the second man’s features. All she knew—all she cared about—was that he was doing his best to get James to surrender.
While the standoff continued, her gaze fell to where her sister had been laying. Cera blinked several times, determined to make Callie appear, but it was no use. Her sister was no longer on the floor.
A slight shift in focus revealed James had picked her back up and was now using her sister as a human shield.
Please, God. Please don’t let him hurt her!