Chapter 1
His blood on the door, his blood on the floor in our living room.
I can't look away.
Someone hugs me and I realize I'm crying.
"Daisy, go to your room. It's better you don't stay here"
It's uncle Jesse's voice.
I'd like to follow his advice: go to my room, close the door behind me, put my head under the pillow, fall asleep and wake up tomorrow to realize it was only a nightmare.
But my feet are glued to the floor and I can't move.
He's there, on the ground, and I can't leave him.
He wouldn't leave me, never, I know it.
The only thought I want to run away makes me feel guilty.
"Daisy, please, you can't help him right now, you're too much shocked. Your cousins and I are taking care of him"
Uncle Jesse is able to read my mind.
I nod, heading to my room.
My eyes are drawn to his body lying on the floor near the fireplace; I want to know what's happened to him, what's going on, but at the same time I'm terrified.
Bo and Luke are kneeling by his side, and their back partially covers my view.
Uncle Jesse takes my hand, leading me to my room.
The first thing that hits me like as slap his paleness: his skin is so pale... where it isn't covered with blood.
I watch his chest rising and falling rhythmically, quickly, as if he's struggling to breathe.
Bo stands up, running to the bathroom, probably looking for clean towels.
When Bo moves away, I can finally see.
Uncle Jesse holds me tight, my face against his chest; he doesn't want me to see.
Few seconds, but it's enough the scene sticks in my mind, and it'll stick in my mind forever; I won't ever forget it.
I finally arrives in my room, my face still buried against uncle Jesse's chest.
When he closes the door behind me, I nestle on my bed.
Outside it's dark, and blasts of wind shake the windows; the wind seem to shake the whole farm.
I'm shaking so much I think it's because of me the farm is quivering.
I try to close my eyes, but those images creep into my mind.
Paleness.
Blood.
And so many cuts; some flesh wounds and some very deep cuts: cuts on his chest, cuts on his arms and legs.
After some time I hear knocking at the farm's door.
"Where's he? What's happened?"
I recognize Doc Appleby's voice.
"It's important to disinfect the wounds and to stop the bleeding, or he'll die. Bo, Luke ... "
Doc Appleby, his voice firm and measured, starts to give instructions to my cousins.
But after his words "bleeding" and "he'll die", his voice becomes more and more distant from me, and I can only hear an increasingly and insistent hum.
I feel as I have thousands of ants on my skin.
Even if I close my eyes I feel dizzy.
I faint (or I think so), and when I wake up Uncle Jesse is near me.
My eyes are full of tears, but through my tears I can see him smiling.
"It's all right, Daisy. Everything's OK"
I burst into tears, ashamed of my weakness: I've always thought I'm a strong woman, but tonight I've understood I'm not strong at all.