Evelyn's POV
My legs moved before my brain could catch up. I was on her in a blur, my palms on her cold skin, my fingers pressing into her neck that felt stranger under my touch than it ever should have. Lisa's pulse was a flicker, a faltering, shallow thing, like a candle in a breeze. Her lips were slate. Her breath, if there had been any, was paper thin and gone.
"No, no, no, no," I whispered, panic shredding my voice as if the sound itself might stitch life back into her. "We have to do something. Please. Hilda, please, help her. Don't let her die. Please, pllease!"
I crawled to Hilda's side, hands clawing in the dirt, tears burning my eyes. Hilda's face was calm in that eerie way it always had been, as if death and horror were only mildly entertaining details of one long, very tedious story. I gripped her sleeve, shaking.
"Save her," I begged. "You are a witch, you can do something. Please…. save Lisa. Don't let her die like this, please, I can't, I can't lose her."
