Prey [Ambassador's Pick ONC23]

11. Sacrifice

"No."

I step away from the truck, shaking my head violently, as though I can dislodge the image of my dead best friend from my mind. Ice seeps through my veins, freezing me from the inside out. My chest clenches painfully as grief tightens my heart in its unrelenting fist.

"No," I repeat, as though saying the word magically makes it true. "No. NO!"

"What's wrong?" Hope hobbles around the truck, gripping onto the side of it to help support her weight. She reaches the back and looks in, a loud gasp falling from her lips as she sees Celia's body. "Oh Sadie, I'm so sorry."

It's the thickness in her voice that destroys me. I shove my knuckles into my mouth to stifle the scream that rips through my throat. My teeth press into my skin until the taste of copper coats my tongue. And yet the pain feels like a soft breeze compared to the tornado that's currently raging within.

My legs lose the will to stay straight, and I crumple to the ground for what feels like the hundredth time tonight. But Jeremy and Julian were never as close to me as Celia was and this feels like a different kind of heart break. She was always a part of my life, long before any of the men, and losing her feels like a large chunk of me has just broken off and fallen to the ground, shattering on impact.

Would Seth and I have been able to save her if we had just gone back? Was she already dead then? Or did we hammer the final nail into her coffin? We should never have left her to fend for herself. It was the most selfish decision I've ever made and now Celia has paid for it with her life.

Oh God. Celia's dead. She's really gone.

The guilt won't let me breathe properly as the sobs rack my body. My chest is being crushed beneath the weight. I gasp for air but it doesn't help. My stomach clenches painfully as the rivers run down my cheeks. I drop my hands into the dirt, grasping fistfuls of it as I let out an inhuman wail, crying into the night as though I'm actually allowed to grieve when in reality it's my fault she's gone.

I chose Marcus over her. I chose myself over her.

What a friend I was.

"Sadie." Hope's hand lands on my shoulder, a warm and comforting weight that I don't deserve. "We don't have much time. We have to move, or hide."

"Just leave me here to die," I manage to choke out between sobs. All my friends are gone, possibly even my husband by now. Our chances of actually making it out of this are miniscule, what's the point of even trying?

"What about your brother?" she asks "The one in hospital? Don't you want to get back to him?"

My cries subside slightly as I look up at her in distaste. "You have no idea what you're talking about."

"I heard the guys talking about him earlier. Marcus, was it?"

"Shut up." I clamp my teeth together, the rage replacing my regret for a few moments. "I don't want to hear it right now, Hope."

"But you need to." She crouches down in front of me, a loud groan of pain accompanying her movements. "Sadie, I don't want to die out here and I know that you don't either. Our only chance of survival is sticking together and helping each other."

"Easy for you to say. You need me a hell of a lot more than I need you." I eye her injured ankle. She'd barely make it a hundred meters without me. "And you didn't know them like I did. You hardly even knew Julian."

She flinches as though I've physically harmed her. "Maybe not, but that doesn't mean I didn't care about him."

I scoff, pushing myself to my feet. As cruel as it sounds, Hope is the last person from our group that I would have wanted to be left with. I would have preferred knowing that Seth was okay, or having Celia by my side instead of cold and lifeless a meter away.