Page 95 of On the Double
“Anything.”
“If I don’t make it?—”
“You will. Don’t talk like that.”
“But if I don’t, promise me you’ll take care of my goldfish.”
He sighed heavily. “Harper, you don’t have a goldfish.”
I barked out a laugh and nodded slightly. “Will you get one for me, then?”
“You’re such a pain in the ass.”
25
HARPER
“Ouch!”I shouted. “Son of a bitch! I’d still like to use that arm!”
“Ma’am, calm down,” the paramedic said as he loaded me in the ambulance. I was jostled around way more than any human should be who had just been in a near-death accident. Staying calm was out of the question.
“You calm down. I’ll be realistic!”
Oliver sighed as he sat down beside me, taking my right hand in his. “Squirt, you’ve gotta let them do their jobs.”
I pulled on his hand, dragging him closer to me. “I’ve seen this episode.”
“What episode?”
“You know, the one where the girl dies.”
He rolled his eyes at me. “Harper?—”
“No, I’m not going crazy. They’re going to inject me with some kind of poison and say I died of natural causes. Don’t let them inject me with anything,” I hissed.
The doors closed, locking me in the back. I knew I was losing it, but how could it be helped? All of these movies I’d seen and stories I’d read about were swirling through my mind at a hundred miles an hour. I was doing everything in my power to ignore the pain andconcentrate on anything else. And that happened to be recounting all the details of any horrible thing I’d ever heard or read.
“Can you give her some morphine?” the traitor asked.
“Not yet. The doctors need to be able to evaluate her pain.”
“It hurts fucking everywhere,” I snapped, eyeing him as much as I could with a collar around my neck. I turned back to Oliver, tugging on his hand again. “I read this article about this awesome surgeon in Indiana. She was in an accident and had rebar go through her chest.”
“You didn’t have rebar go through your chest.”
“I know that, but it was just like thatFinal Fantasymovie.”
He pinched his brows in confusion. “What?”
“You know, the movie where Fate comes back to kill everyone.”
“Harper, that wasFinal Destination.”
“It’s coming for me,” I whispered. “I was supposed to die in that car and now Fate is coming to get me.”
“Seriously,” my brother muttered to the paramedic. “Anything. Just knock her the fuck out.”
“Are you listening to me?”