Blizzard

chapter 17

Toni froze. She hadn't noticed the dagger before. She cursed herself for being so fucking full of her own shit and not seeing it sooner.

"Shit, shit, shit." Toni rushed to Shelby and fell on her knees beside her, not knowing what to do.

"What the hell happened to you?" Toni muttered more to herself than to Shelby since she couldn't actually answer her. She reached her hand out to touch Shelby's flank but then thought better of it.

Shelby's flank was rapidly rising and falling with every shallow breath she took. In the darkness of the evening, part of Shelby's normally white fur looked black from what Toni could only assume had to be blood.

"Do I call an ambulance?" Toni thought out loud.

Shelby's head shot up. There was a fear in her eyes that hadn't been there before.

Toni took that as a loud and clear no. She ran her hand over her tied up hair, trying to come up with options. "A vet?"

Shelby weakly shook her head.

"Then what the hell am I supposed to do?" Panic was starting to seep into her voice, raising it.

Shelby looked at her and somewhat lifted her head. It seemed like she was trying to motion to the dagger.

It was enough for Toni to understand what she was trying to convey. Toni's eyes widened. "You want me to pull it out?"

Shelby nodded, though only barely. She lay her head back down, letting out pained shallow puffs of air.

The cold of the snow-covered ground was starting to make Toni's knees go numb but she didn't have the time to care.

When Toni–as gently as she could–touched her flank near the weapon with her left hand, Shelby's breath hitched.

Toni immediately retracted her hand. "Shit." She mumbled.

If she was going to get it out, Toni knew she was going to have to hurt Shelby. She placed her hand back where she'd put it. This time Shelby didn't react.

Toni moved her other hand to the dagger. She had only barely touched it, when Shelby let out a pained whimper. Her breaths were coming out in short, shallow puffs.

Toni couldn't help but be reminded of the beartrap incident. She tried to reassure herself with how Shelby's leg had healed incredibly fast. Surely, a simple dagger wouldn't be able to kill her. At least, that was what Toni hoped. But if she remembered anything from the tv shows she'd seen, whether they contained some portion of truth or if they were all just fiction, it was that silver never did bode well, and this dagger looked a worrying lot like it was made out of silver. It could also have been made of a different material but if Shelby's state was anything to go by, it was more likely the case that it was made from the deadly substance.

Toni tried to take hold of the dagger again. This time she noticed that Shelby tried to hide her pain by keeping quiet, but she could still see clearly how much she was hurting her by the way her shoulders tensed and her breathing quickened even more.

"Fuck." Toni said. She moved her hands away from Shelby. "I can't do this."

Not when she didn't know what the fuck she was doing. For all she knew, moving the dagger could kill her.

Toni decided to call the one person she knew that might have a clue of what the hell she was supposed to do. She took her phone out of her pocket. Toni left bloody smudges on the screen as she unlocked it and clicked on the contact. She put it on speaker and laid it down next to her so her hands were free.