Page 34 of Poison Aches
But this girl… she dares to do the things no one in their right mind would ever do.
Before I can respond, the girl goes back to pressing her ear against my chest.
“What are you doing?” I demand, feeling panicked.
“3 minutes,” the small voice sounds in the room.
“What?”
“Please give me 3 minutes. One minute to soak in the heartbeats, the warmth and the flow.”
Stunned, I look down only to see her curly black hair, the blood in my veins heating up to a feverish point.
I should push her away but…I don’t.
“And the second minute?”
“To thank the heartbeats, the warmth and the life.”
Jesus Christ.
“And the third?” I groan, feeling like I’ve been sucker punched.
“To give my heart time to match yours.”
“Why the hell would you–”
“Because I almost had a heart attack from the terror… so I need my heart to match yours because so long as it does, we’ll be more than all right.”
Everything in me freezes at those words.
I don’t know what to say or think. In fact, I’m not even breathing so when she pulls back and looks up at me with her doe eyes shining like pearls in the deep dark sea, I fold.
“You’re still here, still breathing, still alive… doesn’t that count for something?” she murmurs in a low voice. So low that for a second I think I imagined it all. “But if counting helps, I’ll count with you but in my way.”
A fresh burst of anger washes over me with that question.
“Ouch,” she gasps.
I realize then that I was still holding her tiny hand in mine and just now, I squeezed it a little too hard.
I should let go, but for some reason the look of slight discomfort on her face is acceptable to me.
A penance for her ignorance.
She looks down at our joined hands, then she peeks up at me through her long eyelashes, and she smiles.
“What’s the second thing?” I demand.
“I’m sorry,” she suddenly whispers, looking at me through her long eyelashes.
“What?”
“I…. I’m sorry for not remembering what you need me to remember.”
The thing in my chest groans again, but this time with an excruciating pain that takes my breath away.
Don’t break.
