CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀do with that what you will.
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⠀Despite the comforting position of our bodies pressed against each other, and despite the fact that we could hear each other's hearts, my body was telling me that something was wrong. My eyelids fluttered, and my forehead tensed uncontrollably. Despite the panic coursing through my veins, my heart refused to beat faster. Refused to flush it quickly in and out of my system. All it did was slow, and I could hear it in my ears as it did so.
⠀Slow thumps radiated from within my ears, making it sound as if large cracks of thunder were sailing through the sky and hitting my body with its pressure. All I could do was try and get the words out that I was going to fall, and someone should catch me.
⠀But it was all so confusing to me — the lights, and the sounds, and the wind chilling my hands as they lay across Daryl's shoulders. I couldn't help but let it all go and unclench myself. Let it feel like the air was swirling its way around my bones.
⠀The feeling on my skin was steadily getting more numb, as the lights around me sharpened, and pierced my eyes. All of this could have been happening quickly, but my mind was lagging.
⠀My body started to make its way backwards, and my numb fingers couldn't grip onto Daryl's clothes, although I did try. In an instant, I had turned my shoulder outwards, and letting it cushion my fall as to not hit the back of my head for the second time that day.
⠀A slow, flickering buzz. The concrete pressing into my skin through my clothes. The brightness of the sun. And the shadows that cut through it were the only things I remember seeing before I fell unconscious.
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⠀Daryl was too caught up in the sudden adrenaline rush that was Marley being in his arms once more. Sadly, he was thinking about how long it had been since he had pressed his hands into the small of her back, and had felt her shoulder blades shift between his fingers. Her extremely long hair brush against his knuckles. And that was when her hands weakly gripped at him, her nails barely scratching the fabric of his shirt.
⠀He went to pull her away, the oddness of her actions making him think something was wrong. But he felt her pull away first, but further. Her small hands reaching out to him as her body quickly thumped to the ground, so quickly that he had no time to try and catch her.
⠀His breath hitched in his throat, and his eyes widened. Everyone's attention was drawn to the girl now on the floor, as some of them noticed her eyes close slowly.
⠀He couldn't go through this again, and feeling as if their sudden break in contact had done something, he leapt forward to her body and gripped the fabric of her clothes — so close to her skin — just as Harvey was now doing.
