I’m Saving Him

Aviva

I wake in a cold sweat, finding it impossible to catch my breath. I didn’t dream last night, but I feel like my mind has been moving a hundred miles per hour without a moment’s stop in the hours I spent sleeping beside… sleeping beside Freya. 

I look around, pushing a patchwork quilt down to my feet as I take in a new space, a new room, memories of last night flooding back to the forefront of my mind. I’m in Freya’s cottage in the village. I came here instead of sleeping alone in Ryan’s house. I curled up in bed beside her after leaving the mountain, after swimming in the hot spring, after I felt like I had something sharp lodged in my chest….

A shout echoes from outside. More shouts, all male, follow. It’s an argument. 

“Freya?” I hiss, feeling over the bed. It’s still warm, like she’d only been here moments ago, but it’s so early that the sun ha