Vicious Minds: Part 2 (Children of Vice 5)

I glanced up at the only other man in the hall. My grandfather stared down at me, the smallest smirk on his lips.

“I don’t know…but I will kill them for this,” I whispered.

He looked from my arm to my face. “Pray I don’t fucking meet them first.”

WYATT

I got to the room first.

It wasn’t hard to know which room. It was the one with blood outside the bullet-riddled door. I ran in so fast I nearly slipped in the blood. I didn’t land on the ground until I saw her body.

“Aunt Cora!” I called, crawling over the glass, rushing to her. My hands trembled as I tried to feel for a pulse, on her wrist, then her neck. “Aunt Cora! Aunt Cora, come on!”

I tore into her dress, trying to see where the blood was coming from. Finding it, I applied as much pressure as I could. “This small thing? This? You’re going to be okay…you’re going to be okay.”

I looked around the destroyed room for anything, but I couldn’t think. I just couldn’t. I was a doctor. I was a trauma doctor. I’d seen worse than this. I’d done more with less. So why? Why the fuck was everything blank? My mind was only when blank when there was nothing that could be done…and that was fucking impossible.

“Aunty…I’m…I’m going to need you to hold on, okay? Okay? We need to get you to the hospital. I’ll make sure you get there, okay?”

Grabbing a piece of cloth, I wrapped it around her chest as tightly as I could, before laying her down.

She needs oxygen. We’ll take care of the bleeding. I just need to make sure her brain gets oxygen.

Opening her mouth, I bent down to give her CPR, only for a pool of blood to pour out of her mouth.

Fatal pulmonary hemorrhage into the lung.

“C…Cora?”

Glancing up, I could barely see the person who stood there. For some reason, something was blurring my vision. Blinking repeatedly, it just became worse.

“Cora…baby…what…what you doing on the ground like this?” Uncle Declan whispered on his knees in front of me.

Trembling, I let her go, and gently he lifted her into his arms.

Hugging her to his chest, he kissed the top of her forehead. “Baby…sweetheart, you…you can’t sleep here.”

“Un…Uncle…”

“Come on, let’s get you to bed,” he whispered, lifting her off the floor, cradling her in his arms, while her arms dropped lifelessly beside him.

My throated burned with an ache that felt like ash and lava at the same time.

This…this wasn’t real.

Rising, I followed him, everyone else in the hall parting as he went forward. I looked at my Uncle Neal, hoping he’d snap out of this. But he stood there, mouth agape and eyes wide, stunned, too. I stared at everyone, every last face, hoping someone would pinch me, slap me, shoot me, just wake me up.

But all of their faces were all mirrors of this nightmare.

No…no…I…I can still save her.

I can save her! I ran, reaching out for my uncle only to be grabbed and yanked back. I looked up at the one face that didn’t mirror anything, that was void of everything. He’d wake me up. He’d…

“Wyatt, leave her,” Ethan whispered.

My mouth dropped, and I shook my head. “I…I can save her. I’m…I’m a doctor. I can save her…Let go, Ethan.”

“Not even doctors can save the dead, brother.”