SAVE ME FROM YESTERDAY

RASTRO 26

💙🌻

Rhian entered Glaiza's building through the back door, intending to go straight up to her apartment, but something stopped her.

A noise.

Static, like a radio between stations.

It scratched at her nerves, clawing under her skin. She closed her eyes.

Flashing red and blue lights. The crackle of static as a police officer rolls out yellow tape. Smothering pain as she's lifted onto a stretcher.

Police radios.

She forced the image from her mind. Why was she hearing them now? Breathing hard, she strode down the hall toward the bar. A grim-faced policeman stood there, speaking to someone outside her line of vision. Rhian's stomach went into freefall.

Glaiza.

Oh God.

Something cold sliced through Rhian's stomach, filling her body with an awful. paralyzing fear that she already knew too well. Her knees shook, and her chest seized. Not Glaiza. This wasn't happening. Not again. Rhian's feet kept moving, propelling her toward the inevitable.

The police officer turned toward her.

"We're so sorry to inform you...

A silent scream rose in her throat. The world around her was blurry and sluggish, silent except for the frantic whooshing of her heart inside her ears. She glanced toward the bar.

And there was Glaiza, seated on a barstool. Relief almost knocked Rhian's knees out from under her. She pressed a hand to her heart, attempting to steady herself.

It was all she could do not to fall into Glaiza's arms, hold her, kiss her, sob into her hair until she'd found her balance again. Glaiza was safe and whole. Alive.

But then the rest of the scene came into focus, Glaiza's red eyes, the devastated look on her face, the policemen on either side of her. Gabby stood nearby, arms crossed over his chest, his expression pinched. Glaiza looked up and met Rhian's eyes, chin quivering.

Rhian's stomach bottomed out all over again. Two police officers had stood beside her hospital bed that night, just like they stood with Glaiza now.

This time, it was happening to Glaiza, and Rhian needed to be here for her. She forced herself to keep walking, the sound of her heels against the tile floor echoing way too loudly in the otherwise quiet room.

"What's happened?" she asked Glaiza  gently.

"I was robbed," Glaiza said, blinking up at her.

Rhian exhaled, squeezing her eyes shut. She'd jumped straight to thinking someone had died.

Robbed.

That was... way less horrible.

"Oh."

"Who are you?" one of the police officers asked.

"Rhian Ramos. I'm with-"

"She's my girlfriend," Glaiza interrupted, extending a hand toward Rhian.

Girlfriend.

She'd been about to say she was with the team from Revival, and now her head was spinning for an entirely different reason. She stepped closer, skin prickling uncomfortably as she took the hand Glaiza had offered.

"I let Pam close for me last night, and it looks like she cleaned me out before she left." Glaiza stared at her with dazed eyes, as if she still couldn't believe it had happened.