Chapter 23: Lost Again

Zach blinked. Didn’t save who? “Dolores is dead?”

Grace nodded, her face pale, her neck bruised.

His hands found her other then squeezed both of them. He sat on the edge of the bed. “What happened?”

“He came up behind me. I never heard him.”

“So she got shot anyway,” he said.

Her crestfallen face made him wish he hadn’t been so blunt. He took a deep breath and pushed what grief he had over Dolores to the back of his mind. He needed to concentrate on the living for once.

“I guess you couldn’t change what was supposed to happen. Maybe you weren’t supposed to change it.”

His words sounded odd to his ears, but he knew Grace believed in what she said. She had a gift in her own mind. Even if he didn’t understand he wanted to.

“You don’t understand. She wasn’t supposed to die. That’s why she talked to me. I’ll go see her again.”

Coughs rocked her and Zach poured water into a glass. He handed the liquid to her. She drank, then handed it back to him.