SAGE

Worry, fear, anger, and hurt collided inside me all at once, a violent storm with no mercy and no center, as Freda crumpled to the ground.

One moment she had been standing beside me, and the next she plunged to the ground in a lifeless heap, as though her bones had simply given up.

My scream strangled itself before it could escape.

I dropped with her, knees slamming into the stone as I gathered her into my arms, dragging her close as if my body alone could anchor her to this world.

“No! No… no!” The word spilled from me in fragments, breathless, broken.

Her weight started to feel...