Plot Within a Plot

Lila

She heard the beeping before anything else. It made her head hurt. But she couldn't escape it and was eventually forced to open her eyes. The room was dim, but still made her squint. Her chest hurt terribly and her mouth felt like it was stuffed full of cotton. She tried to swallow and her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth. 

She blinked, at first certain that Dane's father had moved her away from Dane to some little room of his own. But the beeping machine was clearly a heart monitor. There were tubes running from the inside of her elbow to a stand next to the bed. And… and she remembered.

Chris. Dane made her go. The pain of being in that rattling bin, all curled up. The way Chris had lifted her out so gently, rushing her to a van outside the building. The too-fast journey through the city streets. And she cried the whole way because they left Dane there.

They left him.

She left him.