“Help!” The cry, broken and weak, escaped from my lips unheard. I tried again, and this time, terror clutched me in its icy grasp, giving my voice more weight. “Somebody help me!”

At first, people had run away, scared, I assumed, by the sound I now knew had been a gunshot.

But as I fell to my knees next to Brooks, someone approached. I looked up, dazed and scared, as a man crouched in front of us. His eyes flicked from my face down to the still body of Brooks lying between us.

“I’ve called 911,” he said, still holding his phone cradled against his ear. He said something else, but I didn’t understand the words. Numbers, nonsense words…

He was talking to somebody on the phone, a 911 operator, I finally realized. The emergency help line in America.

“Are they coming?” I asked, my voice high-pitched and shaky.

He nodded at me, still talking on the phone. Finally, he tapped the screen and put it down on the sidewalk between us, and I heard a voice through the speaker. “Stay on the line…”

I ignored the instruction as I looked back down at Brooks.

There was so much blood. It stained the entire front of his shirt.

Without thinking, I shoved my hand into my bag and pulled out a scarf. I almost always kept one on hand in case I wanted to tie my hair up with it. I didn’t think about the germs that were probably all over the cloth as I pressed it against Brooks’ shoulder.

“You’re not a doctor or nurse by any chance, are you?” I asked, looking over at the man kneeling next to Brooks.

“I’m a school teacher,” he said with a rueful smile.

Great.

I kept my hands in place, feeling the shallow rise and fall of my darling’s chest. At least he was still breathing. That was good, I kept telling myself. As long as he was breathing, hope was alive.

“I’ve taken a first aid course.” He touched his fingers to Brooks’ neck, and I watched, helpless. “His pulse seems pretty strong, all things considered.” Nodding at my hands, he continued, “Keep doing that.”

There wasn’t much else I could think to do, but I dipped my head, indicating that I understood.

The woman’s voice came through the phone again, and I forced myself to think, to focus on her words this time. Focus on the positive things that were happening in the midst of the horror. The man bent over Brooks’ prone body had called emergency services. Whoever was on the phone was able to help.

“An ambulance is on the way,” the woman said, her voice calm and reassuring. “Just stay with me…”

I closed my eyes and focused on Brooks’ still body.

Stay with me…

“Stay with me, Brooks,” I whispered.

His lashes fluttered, and one hand lifted, just a bare inch from the ground.

“Brooks!”

His lashes flickered once more.

I wanted to grab his hand and press it to my heart, but I didn’t dare let up the pressure I had against his chest. “I’m here,” I told him. “I’m right here, Brooks. And I’m not going anywhere.”

His lips parted, and he muttered something, but the words were so faint that I couldn’t make out what he said.

“I’m right here,” I told him again.

His face contorted into a grimace, and abruptly, his eyes flew open. He stared up blindly. I bent over him, trying to catch his gaze. But his eyes were still opaque. Unseeing. What did it mean?

“I’m here,” I said again. “Stay with me, Brooks. Stay with me.”

“Daria…”

His voice was strong, and despite the horror tearing at my heart, I knew I must not let him down. I blinked back my tears. If he could be strong, so could I. I bent a little closer, until just a few inches separated us. Looking into his eyes, I said, “I’m right here. I’ll never leave you.”

In the distance, the wail of sirens penetrated the air around me.

They seemed so far away.

“Help is coming,” I told him.

Cops arrived just as the paramedics showed up, and they had to drag me away from Brooks’ side.

“Ma’am…ma’am!”

The words were all but shouted into my face, and finally, I tore my gaze from Brooks’ still form and looked at the uniformed officer. The woman gripped my upper arms and shook me slightly. “Did you hear me?”

Mute, I shook my head.

“I need you to calm down, ma’am,” she said, her words firm and measured. “The paramedics are going to help your friend, but you need to calm down.”

How could I possibly calm down?

As if she could read my thoughts, she softened her tone. “You’ll help him by being calm. So…help him. Calm down.”

Help Brooks.

I could do that.

Sucking in one breath, then another, I focused on the cop’s face. I couldn’t look at Brooks. Not right now. If I saw him pale and bleeding again, I might lose the small grasp of composure I’d gained. I might fall apart.

I couldn’t do that.

“I’m okay,” I said, my voice thin and tight.

“That’s good,” she said, nodding in approval. “Can you talk to me? I need some information.”

From the corner of my eye, I saw them hefting Brooks onto a stretcher. “I have to be with Brooks,” I whispered.

“You will be. I’ll take you to the hospital. But I need some information.”

Terrified, I looked from her back over to Brooks.

But I nodded.

I needed to help.

I needed to do something.

Anything to stop this madness.

I’d lied to them.

When they asked who I was, I’d told them I was Brooks’ fiancée. I couldn’t stand the thought of him being alone, couldn’t stand the thought of not knowing what was happening to him.

I’d seen the nurse’s glance drop to my hand, and I’d somehow managed to continue with the lie. “I can’t wear the ring to school,” I said. “I’m a dancer. No adornment during our training.”

That was bullshit, of course. But she didn’t know that. She just nodded as if in understanding, and she made a few notes before leading me through the doors and through winding halls until we stopped outside a curtained off area.

She pulled the curtain back and nodded for me to step inside. “He’s been asking for you. You only have a few minutes. We have to get him into surgery.”

“Surgery?” Panicked, I wheeled my head around and stared at the nurse, but she was bent over Brooks now, disconnecting tubes and wires, checking the various machines hooked up to him.

She straightened and tested one of the monitors with lines showing his heartbeat, then she glanced back at me.

“You have to go now,” she said gently.

“But I just got back here!”

“We have to get him into surgery, Ms. Gorev. You can visit later.”

The reassuring look in her eyes did little to ease the fear that something might happen during the surgery, that he wouldn’t come out alive.

But I couldn’t leave yet. Reaching out, I took Brooks’ hand. “It’s going to be okay. I’m only a few steps away,” I told him.

I didn’t know if I was reassuring him or myself.