Page 46 of Run Wild Omega

He looks seventeen.

He looks like the boy I fell in love with.

“Tess, stay with me,” he says. His voice sounds funny, like he’s speaking to me from underwater. “You have to stay with me.”

“You look young,” I slur.

His brow furrows. He scoops me up, gathering me against his chest. He’s wearing his old jacket, the leather one with the torn lining that smelled like pine and gasoline.

“Don’t talk,” he says, adjusting his grip. “I’ve got you. I’m taking you down.”

I sag against him. My leg is a distant, throbbing thing, screaming in a language I can’t quite process. The cold is fading too, turning into a numbness that feels like floating.

I float away from his chest. I look at my hands. They are small again.

“Am I dying?” I whisper.

He doesn’t answer. He just holds me tighter, burying his face in my neck.

Everything turns white.

It’s not the snow. It’s the light. It’s a blinding, piercing whiteness that sears my retinas. It fills my vision, pushing out the dark trees, the mountain, Wyatt’s face.

It’s peaceful.

Is this it?

Is this what happens when you freeze to death in a hole in the ground? You just drift away into the light?

The pain is gone. The fear is gone. There’s only the white. It’s warm, which is strange because I know it should be cold. It feels like being wrapped in a blanket fresh from the dryer.

I try to open my eyes, but I can’t tell if they’re open or closed. The white is everywhere.

Silence.

The wind howl is gone. The scream of the storm is gone.

Just… silence.

I’m floating in it. Drifting. Like a leaf on a pond.

I wait for the pain to come back. I wait for the cold to bite. But there is nothing.

Did I die?

Did I finally push too hard, climb too high, and just… stop?

I think about the apartment. The sage green walls. The empty coffee cup on the counter. The book I never finished.

I think about Wyatt’s hand shaking around the mug.

Don’t go yet, a voice says in the back of my head. It sounds like me, but it doesn’t sound like me. Not yet.

The white shudders.

A sound cuts through it.

Thud-thud. Thud-thud.