Hazel
I can’t move. I can’t speak or blink. And I realize I can’t breathe. The burn in my lungs gets stronger as my eyes go blurry.
“Hazel.” Someone is talking to me. “Hazel!”
Hands grip my shoulders and shake me. I blink, the tears spilling down my cheeks as I finally suck in a breath of air.
It’s Easton. Easton is standing in front of me. I’m in Easton’s house.
“It’s going to be okay. You hear me? It’s going to be fine. He’s nowhere near us, and they’re going to catch him. The police are going to catch him.”
Neil. The police are going to catch Neil James. That’s what he’s talking about because Neil…because Neil…
“How could this happen?” It’s the first thing I manage to say, and Easton guides me backward until my legs hit the couch and I collapse.
The tears are coming, but I can’t really feel myself crying. I can’t feel much at all, in fact. And I’m not processing anything around me.
“Hazel.” Easton is still there. Right, because, of course, he is. This is his house. “I need you to look at me, honey.”
He’s asked me to do something, but I can’t for the life of me remember what it was. Then, his fingers are on my chin, moving my head so that I look at him.
He’s there. He’s really there. Right?
“Easton?” He offers me a comforting smile, one that is laced with concern and worry.
“Yeah, Haze. I’m right here. Can you breathe for me?”
I nod, doing my best to take a deep breath, and then it all shatters.
I’m looking at Easton and crying because Neil James broke out of prison. He broke out, and he’s going to come after me. He’s already sent someone once.
My breaths are flying in and out of me now. I’m hyperventilating. Everything is spinning, and then arms wrap around me, pulling me against something firm and warm.
I bury myself in that sensation. In Easton.
It’s several moments before I finally have a handle on myself, but I do. I clear my throat, and I look up at Easton, nodding my head in a silent “I’m alright. I’m not breaking down anymore.”
He relaxes but only a hair. After another moment, he leans away from me to grab the box of tissues. I snag one, dabbing at my face and blowing my nose with another.
“I don’t understand how this could happen. It’s 2025. Can people really still orchestrate prison breaks? Our security isn’t better than that?”
The panic isn’t gone, but there’s a horrible frustration and rage that swims up alongside it. They’re enough to keep me from disassociating again, but I’m not sure if that’s a good thing.
I was attacked in an alley in Red Lodge. Neil knows where I am. He’s coming.
My breathing accelerates again, and Easton rubs his hands up and down my arms. “Focus right here, Hazel. Focus on the feeling of my hands, on the couch beneath you.”
He’s trying his best, and I do, too. I try to focus on the sensations. But all I can see when I blink is that damned Halloween mask, memories of pain rushing to the surface.
“He’s going to come after me. He’s going to come here.”
My voice is almost unintelligible through the sobs, the racking breaths that shake me.
“He’s not going to get that far. Okay? The police are going to find him. There’s a lot of ground between California and Montana. Neil’s going to get caught.”
“He wants revenge, Easton.” I snap my eyes to his, feeling so broken and cold and terrified. “I put him in prison, and he wants to get back at me for it. That man who attacked me?—”
My words falter on a hiccuping cry, and I crumble, hanging my head in my hands.
