Decker yelled out, “Someone get a fucking blanket! Elevate his feet.” His hands remained deep inside Bram’s chest. Everything was flooded with body fluids, seeping and oozing from the open cavity. At least at present, arterial blood wasn’t actively squirting.

The priest’s face had turned gray, his legs and arms a series of random twitches and tics.

Decker whispered, “Hang in there, Bram. We all need you to hang in there, buddy. I need you to do it, Rina needs you to do it. Everyone needs you, guy. Just hang in there.”

Marge’s hands began to tremble. She willed them to be steady. Her eyes welled up with wetness.

Words forming on the priest’s cyanotic lips.

Our Father who art in heaven.

Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

“Ambulance is here,” Oliver yelled out.

“Thank God!” Marge whispered.

“Nobody move until they get here!” Decker said to Marge and Michael. A group of paramedics raced over to the scene, meticulously relieving the cops of their tenuous positions as medics. Immediately, Marge walked away. But Decker and Michael remained kneeling at the priest’s side. Michael took one hand, Decker took the other.

Bram’s complexion had turned pasty, his skin temperature cold and clammy. He managed to squeeze his brother’s hand. “Finish…”

Michael’s voice trembled, his eyes clogged with tears. There was panic in his voice. “Finish?”

An oxygen mask was placed over Bram’s face, a needle scanning the priest’s arm for a vein. His breathing remained choppy and shallow.

He whispered, “Give us this day…”

“Oh, the Lord’s Prayer…” Michael said, “Yeah…uh, give us this day our daily bread…uh…uh…”

Decker said, softly, “And forgive us our trespasses…”

Michael cleared his throat. “And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us…” He paused as the IV was hooked into Bram’s deflated vessels, an instrument buried into his collapsed lungs.

Decker said, “And lead us not…”

“And lead us not into temptation,” Michael sputtered out, “but deliver us from evil.”

Bram nodded, whispered between labored breaths,

“Deus, qui inter apostolicos sacerdotes famulum tuum Abram Matthew Sparks et Sacerdotali fecisti dignitate vigere: Praesta, quaesumus, ut eorum quoque perpetuo aggregetur consortio. Per Dominum nostrum.

“Te amo, Jesu Cristo.”

The priest shut his eyes and went slack. Michael looked at Decker with frightened eyes.

“His chest is moving,” Decker said.

Michael bit his lip, continued to squeeze his brother’s limp hand.

A paramedic said, “You’re going to have to move so we can transfer him to the gurney.”

Decker nodded, helped Michael up onto shaky feet. Both of them were covered in blood. “Clean yourself off. Start calling your siblings.”

Tears were running down Michael’s face. “I don’t know if I…” He staggered on his feet.