Page 20 of Bishop
Seconds turn to minutes, minutes to hours. I don't know how long I'm sitting in the same spot with everyone else huddled around me, but I'm still sitting there when the heavy lock on the door slides open.
I blink my eyes a few times, trying to adjust to the dull light in the room.
Bishop pushes himself up from the floor and once again tries to stand and protect us. Luckily for him and for us, the guards aren't interested in playing with us right now. They're just here to drop off their latest atrocity.
They literally toss Willa back into the room. Her body is limp, and there are blood and cuts all over her skin.
"Oh God." Uma croaks as she pushes away from me and crawls over to where Willa is.
Looking up into the guards' faces, I see two of them are unbothered by the scene in front of them, but one of them actually has the nerve to look remorseful. I'm not sure which of them infuriates me more—the ones that don't give a fuck or the one who expects me to feel pity for him.
"Get out! Get the fuck out of here!" I surge up to my feet and lunge at the guards before anyone can grab me.
The remorseful one grabs hold of my arms to keep me from striking them. I didn't even realize I was swinging my fists.
"I tried to get them to stop. I swear I did," he whispers in my direction as if that's enough to absolve him of his crimes. It's disgusting. With all the hatred in my heart, I clear my throat and spit directly in the man's face.
"Gabrielle!" Bishop hisses at me from where he is behind. We all know how unhinged these guards can get. I don't care. I don't care about anything anymore.
At least until I hear Willa call for me. Her weak voice cuts through the rage.
I pull away from the guard and fall to my knees to crawl over to where she is lying.
The guards take that moment to leave the five of us alone.
"Something's wrong. It's too.... something..." Willa pants and looks up into my eyes with fear.
"Nothing's wrong. We got you now." I swipe some of the blood off her face so I can look into her pretty eyes.
"The baby... Save my baby, Gabrielle." Willa begs, and I look down between her thighs. I can see the clear bruises on the insides of her thighs from where the men pried her legs open, but what was more concerning was the bright red blood that seemed to be soaking through the thin fabric she was wearing.
Just as I recognized how severe this is, Willa let out a blood-curdling scream and grabbed for her stomach.
"Oh no, is she having the baby now?" Uma asks and backs up away from her. She's scared, but I don't have the energy to console her.
I've got nothing left to give.
"Willa, I'm just going to check you out, okay. You've got some bleeding going on. I need to see." I fall right into caretaker mode, almost on autopilot.
"I'm dying. Save the baby," Willa mutters, and her eyes roll back before she refocuses and looks at me.
My heart is beating a million miles a minute. This can't be happening. Not right now. Not today.
"No, you're going to be fine. Everything is going to be alright." I look up into Bishop's face, trying to get a little bit of reassurance, but instead, all I see is the defeated look etched in his expression. My eyes follow his, and I look back down between Willa's legs to see the small puddle of blood that we'd noticed before has nearly tripled in size. She's bleeding out. There's nothing I can do to stop it.
She's right. She is going to die.
"I have to push. Oh God." Willa moans and barely lifts her legs before a gush of fluid and blood comes out of her. Bishop grabs one leg, and I grab the other. She pushes a few times weakly. I do all I can to guide her through the process, but I can tell she's not really paying attention to me. She's only doing what her body needs her to do. After the third push, I see a small head poking out from between her legs. Positioning myself so I can catch the baby, I grab one of the last rags we have and cradle it under the child's head. Another push later, and Willa has given birth to a very small little boy.
The silence in the room is deafening.
I rub the child as best I can. It's so small, barely bigger than my hand. Its eyes are still mostly translucent, and they are closed.
"Come on, baby. Come on, Skylar. Cry for us." I pray with everything I have as I begin CPR on the small child. There's no response, and the child's skin is grayer than anything I've ever seen on a newborn. It feels like hours I'm working on the child until Bishop grabs hold of my hand and stops me.
"He's gone," he whispers, and it opens the floodgates. This poor child, who didn't even have a chance at life, taken from the world.
Uma and April hold each other in the corner and cry hard. Even Bishop cradles his face and lets the tears flow. I can't. I'm numb. I simply wrap the child up in the small rag and lay him next to his mother, who has gone silent herself. The blood still hasn't stopped from between her legs, and her breathing is more thready than before.