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Claire glared back atas she ran her hands over Hal’s chest "I can’t hear his heartbeat any to give her some wild comfort, and then moved both of them aside

CPR hardly ever worked by itself on anyone That’s what the TV shows don’t show you You do CPR until someone with a defibrillator co to Even then it’s doubtful CPR doesn’t get your heart back into a working rhyth to keep your cells alive, in case the electricity can slap your heart into working order again

But I didn’t knohat else to do I found his sternum with the heel of one hand and started compressions

Claire clawed at his shoulder with one hand while I pumped "This wasn’t hoas supposed to be," she told him "We were supposed to make it safely to the lifeboat"

If I talked to her, I’d slon, and if I slowed down, there was even less of a chance he’d wake up You were supposed to do CPR until help arrived, or the patient woke up and shoved you away

"Please, Hal, wake up," she begged hiainst his side She kissed his lips, and I knehat she was doing, she was trying to give hiiven up, and it wasn’t ; my compressions weren’t effective any, and rumbles of thunder interrupted Claire’s sobs I didn’t kno long I’d gone for, or how er I had in me I was just athat he wasn’t going to come back

She put her hand out and rested it onfor another three beats

"I’ain" There was another thunderclap, louder noere in the middle of the storm It shook our bodies, and I had a foolish idea to run some piece of metal up on a kite and see if Hal’s heart could be restarted by lightning

E behind ether behind her, resting herself across Hal’s still chest, and I realized the enormity of the task he’d left me with Now I’d need to rescue Claire so toward the body of the Maraschino as she fell into the ocean on her other side, but I did not have Hal’s strength Hoould I get both of them out of here, as exhausted as I ith a shoulder on the verge of going out? There was no way

Claire was still sobbing Not knohat else to do, where to go or what to say, I stroked his wispy hair, and then aardly patted her

Pressing off his chest with both hands, she rose up and howled Her voice went fro that rief of a creature that wasn’t meant to ever have what she loved die

The sound exposed her for what she was, an alien creature that didn’t belong on this side of the waves Where salt water sprayed up frolirereath her, da bed of kelp She ild and I had never seen anything so beautiful and frightening at the same time She put out her hand to irl to me," she co, rabbed Emily and handed her over, even as I questioned the action "Why?"

"Because she belongs to the sea"

"She’s huht She was looking at Claire with coive her one She will sing forever withup to do so as her change progressed Things fluttered at the sides of her neck noith ridges and wicked-looking spines I took an involuntary step back, and slid a bit, thethe traction of rabbed E off a bite She pulled the little girl toward her unhuman face and kissed her

"Wait!" I screamed, but it was done

Emily looked stunned as Claire released her, only to take her up again, beneath one arm Her aardness in her new form only , balancing between her tail and her free arth she pulled the They slid don to the sea, leaving me alone with Hal’s corpse on the deck