Rewriting the Apocalypse novel · Chapter 14 of 24
Chapter 14: The Hand He Held
Eli Mercer pressed his back against the concrete pillar and counted the cracks in the floor so he would not look at her.
The hunger had started in his hands again.
It was a low, bright itch in the nerves, and it climbed.
"Go back to Sam," he said. "Please."
"No."
"Jo, I can't promise what I'll do."
"Then stay where you are, and I'll stay where I am."
She sat down on the oil-stained concrete ten feet away, with her back to a parked car and her hands in plain sight.
She was doing it for him.
She had no idea how much that cost him to see.
He pulled his sleeves down over his fingers and shut his eyes, and the first life came up through the floor.
The chair room on September fourteenth was white and cold.
The guards had ordered him out three times.
He had told them he was the escort and that the subject was his to settle, and they had let him stay, because nobody at Corwin thought a recruiter could do any harm.
He had sat on the stool beside the chair, and he had taken her left hand in both of his.
Her fingers were slick with sweat.
She was fully awake.
Her gray eyes were fixed on the ceiling, and her throat worked, and she could not move or scream.
Faulk stood over her with the instrument tray, counting.
"Ten," Faulk said, softly. "Nine."
He had held on.
He had said, "I'm here, I'm here," into her ear, until Faulk told the guards to take him out, and the guards did not dare lay a hand on him because Kessling was watching from the glass.
"Seven."
Her fingers had closed on his so hard that the bones ground.
She had said his name, once, in a whisper that tore.
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