Chapter

Evelyn's Pov

The voice became louder than before until we felt a slam against the windows and I shrieked in fear.

“Get away from the window!” I screamed.

The face staring at us through the broken kitchen window was pale, and blood ran from a cut above his eyebrow. One hand gripped the edge of the frame while the other reached blindly into the kitchen.

Ethan grabbed Vanessa and pulled her behind him.

“Help me!” the man gasped. “Please! They're coming!”

I backed away, keeping my eyes on his hands. There was blood on his shirt, and his breathing sounded wrong. Every breath came out in a strained, choking gasp.

“Don't touch him,” I warned the moment Ethan tried to get closer.

“He's hurt,” Vanessa whispered and I whipped my gaze sharply to her.

“He could be infected.”

The man slammed his palm against the window. Glass fell onto the counter, and he cried out as a shard cut his wrist.

“Please, I have a little girl!” he shouted. “She's outside. You have to help me!”

My stomach tightened.

I knew what that desperation sounded like. I had heard it from people begging to be let into shelters in my previous life. I had also seen what happened when someone opened a door without thinking.

“Ethan, stay back,” I said. “We don't know what happened to him.”

Ethan looked at the man, then at me.

“Are you seriously going to leave him out there?”

“I'm not letting a stranger into this house when we don't know if he's been bitten.”

“He's bleeding!”

“That doesn't mean we should let him inside!”

The man tried to pull himself through the window. His shirt caught on a piece of broken glass, and he struggled to free himself. “Please!” he cried again. “I don't want to die!”

Vanessa tightened her grip on Ethan's arm.

“Ethan, we can't just leave him and be heartless. What if he really has a child out there?”

I turned towards her. “And what if he's infected? What happens when he attacks us?”

“He's asking for help,” Vanessa replied.

“Then help him from outside. Don't open the door.”

Ethan's jaw tightened.

“Enough, Evelyn. We can't stand here arguing while someone is dying.”

He moved towards the kitchen door and I stepped in front of him.

“Don't.”

“Move.”

“Ethan, listen to me. We have no idea what he's carrying. You saw what happened outside. You saw those people attacking each other. If you let him in, you could put everyone in this house at risk.”

He glanced over my shoulder at Vanessa. She looked frightened, her fingers wrapped around his sleeve.

“Ethan, I'm scared,” she whispered.

Something changed in his expression.

He pushed past me.

I caught his arm. “What are you doing?”

“I'm opening the door, we need to help the man and save him.”

“You cannot be serious.”

“He needs help.”

“And my parents need help too!” The words burst out of me. “My father may have been exposed. My mother is alone with him, and I need to get to them. We don't have time to bring every stranger into this house!”

Ethan pulled his arm free.

“Your parents are not standing at this window, Evelyn.”

I stared at him.

For a moment, I couldn't believe he had said that. The man outside struck the glass again.

“Please! Please, open the door!”

Ethan rushed towards the kitchen entrance. I followed, but he had already unlocked it.

“Ethan, don't!”

He opened the door.

The injured man stumbled inside, nearly falling against him. Ethan caught his shoulder and dragged him over the threshold.

“Easy,” Ethan said. “Come inside.”

I froze.

The man was shaking violently. Blood covered one side of his shirt, and his eyes kept darting towards the broken window.

“Thank you,” he muttered. “Thank you so much.”

Ethan shut the door.

I looked at the blood on the kitchen floor.

“Where were you hurt?” Ethan asked him.

The man shook his head. “I don't know. People started running. Someone pushed me down, and then…”

His voice trailed off but I cut him off.

“Did anyone bite you?” I asked.

He looked at me.“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“I'm telling you, no!”

He raised his voice, and Ethan immediately stepped between us.“She's only asking because we need to be careful.”

“Then why did you let me in?” the man snapped. “You think I came here to hurt you?”

I swallowed my anger.

“Ethan, we need to check him for wounds.”

“Give him a minute, Evelyn.”

“A minute? You just brought him into our house!”

“He's terrified. Stop treating him like an animal.”

I looked at Vanessa. She had moved closer to Ethan, watching the stranger with wide eyes.

“Come away from him,” I told her.

Vanessa shook her head. “I'm fine.”

“You don't know that. Your arm is already injured.”

Ethan turned towards me. “Can you stop frightening her?”

I almost laughed. He had opened our door to a stranger whose condition we couldn't confirm, yet somehow I was the one frightening Vanessa.

The man suddenly grabbed Ethan's wrist.