Next Chapter is up!
“I can’t find him.”
The steadiness of my voice surprises me.
Donnie stares, eyes full of pain and worry and defeat, but all of that is glossed over by a look of sheer exhaustion.
“We’ll get him back, Raph,” he says firmly, gripping my hand tight. “I promise, we will. But right now… The storm’s too much. We have to go home, regroup, come up with a plan—something. We’re just wasting time out here.”
My chest fills with air that goes nowhere. “…I know.”
His gaze holds my face steady. A sound becomes strangled in his throat—he steps forward and hugs me.
“It’s okay,” he says, over and over. “We’re okay—he’s okay…”
I don’t hug him back. My arms feel so heavy. Everything is. I want to believe Donnie—I want to trust in him, like I should have the last time we lost Leo. But my thoughts are a whirlwind of destruction and fear and ache. I’m so scared, my body is becoming numb, unable to handle the rush of cold, the what-ifs, the thoughts of Leo, alone and broken and hurt and dead—
He’s not dead—
But he could be.
