Page 2 of Dearest Protector

I didn’t hesitate.

I didn’t notice that the person moving forward suddenly stopped.

In fact, I never noticed my mistake at all.

I never had time.

Almost instantly, I was slammed by some massive force that sent me flying up into the air.

Pain ripped through my entire body as I finally crash-landed hard on the cement.

I felt one more agonizing sensation tearing across my foot, and then for a moment, it felt like the whole world just…stopped.

I couldn’t breathe.

I couldn’t move.

I couldn’t speak.

I was held immobile and insensible by the most agonizing pain I’d ever experienced.

Breathe, Ariel. Breathe.

Trying to focus, I sucked air into my oxygen-deprived lungs and then let it out. I kept taking those excruciating breaths because I knew I had to, but every single one was more torturous than the one before it.

Why can’t I see anything?

I panicked because my vision was blurry. I kept blinking, but the ugly cloud over my eyesight didn’t clear.

What in the hell just happened to me?

I fought the rising darkness, something I probably should have welcomed because it would take the pain away. But I refused to give in to the temptation to take that escape route.

I needed to stay conscious.

I was confused, but I knew I was lying in the street.

I was vulnerable.

Oh, God, why am I in so much pain, and why is my brain not working right?

“Jesus, lady, I’m sorry. I never saw you,” a male voice shouted. “I’m calling an ambulance right now.”

Ambulance?

My muddled brain still couldn’t figure out what was going on.

I have to get up off the pavement!

I tried to move, wanting to rise, but I couldn’t move a muscle before the searing agony of my injuries curtailed that plan.

I’m hurt. Maybe I do need an ambulance.

Fear and a sense of helplessness washed over me, which was highly unusual for a woman who was used to doing everything on her own.

Terror and trepidation seized my entire being as it suddenly dawned on me that I’d obviously been hit by a vehicle as I was crossing the street.

When a suffocating sense of impending doom washed over me, I wasn’t quite sure if I was going to live through whatever had happened to me.