A/N: This story kind of runs similar to Wherever This Goes, mainly because I was working on them at the same time and didn't realize the issue until I had finished this one; and since it's already finished, I don't want to waste it.
She could hear the sound of the axe making contact with her skull.
The force from the initial blow practically spun her around as her body was slow to catch up with the snapping motion of her head. She hit the rotting table behind her, but managed to catch herself on it at the last minute- refusing to allow her legs to collapse underneath her. Barely maintaining her balance, she fumbled to regain her footing before she shoved herself off of the table.
The crunching sound of the splintering table behind her told her that she had barely avoided a second, most likely fatal, hit from the same axe.
Her head felt like it was splitting in half and her vision was spotting in and out- she wasn't fucking sure how she was still functional enough to move. But she was fucking glad that she was, or else this would've been it for her.
And she refused to go out this early on.
She was running on adrenaline and right now, it was probably the only thing keeping her alive.
Fingers fumbled to keep a tight hold on her gun as she blindly fired off a bullet behind her in an attempt to hit the axe-wielding Haunted. The bullet barely seemed to graze its leg though- hardly slowing it down as it continued to stride after her. The damn thing wasn't even running or attempting to move faster; it was like it was fucking playing with her, knowing well she wasn't exactly in the right condition to fight back.
Turning around, she forced herself to take a stand and raised her gun again; she had to use both hands to steady her aim as she fired off two more times. This time she managed to blow off a chunk of its shoulder and the left portion of its face. Its head whipped to the side at the maiming blow, but it just turned back to her- showing off a grin of missing flesh and shattered bone.
Her hands were shaking and her vision continued to slip in and out of focus, making it increasingly difficult to get a headshot.
Not impossible though.
The door to her right was kicked open without warning and she caught the sudden flash of movement all too late.
She heard herself curse in surprise as she felt the glass bottle smash against her right shoulder. The force of the blow left her stumbling back and with little time to recover before the second Haunted, some mutilated- looking woman, forced the shredded edges of the broken bottle into her injured shoulder. The sharp edges cut clean through her shirt and buried easily into her skin before they were ripped out and aimed at her neck. Out of desperation, she threw her arm between herself and the woman, and barely escaped a slit throat as she knocked the Haunted aside. And while the woman was stumbling, she placed the barrel of her gun point-blank to her temple and pulled the trigger.
It was a mess of skull fragments and brain matter as the woman's head was ultimately obliterated; her husk of a body was thrown back from the force and was left crumpled on the floor.
She cut her attention back to the first Haunted and gasped as she watched it raise the axe once more. Barely getting out of the way, she heard the axe hit the air just behind her before she turned and pulled the trigger once more. This time, the bullet blew off the top portion of its skull, revealing the shredded remains of its decayed brain.
It simply turned back towards her and swung again.
She stumbled back, almost tripping over the dead body of the second Haunted, and tried to put a greater amount of space between them.
She was vaguely aware that they were getting close to the end of the rotted corridor now, where a narrow staircase would lead them downstairs to an even smaller floor. It would be useless to try and make a run for it- she wouldn't get far with a head injury like this... Hell, she wouldn't be conscious for too long with it. Her best chance of survival was to kill this guy now and then figure out where the hell her partner went- hopefully he was having better luck than she was.
But the Haunted seemed to understand her plan- either that, or he had finally gotten tired of this shitty game.
He charged towards her this time and rammed the blunt end of the axe into her sternum before she had a chance to react. He finally hit with enough force to knock her down.
And she hit the floor hard.
Her gun was knocked out of her loose grip as her body shifted its focus to how the air had been forced out of her lungs. It felt like she could taste blood in the back of her mouth.
Her head was absolutely spinning now and it felt like she had blacked out for a second or two. No matter how hard she struggled to get back up, to regain her footing, it seemed useless; it was like all of her limbs had gone numb and could no longer support her weight. Struggling hands simply slipped out from underneath her no matter how many attempts she made.
She wasn't going to die here!
Things were not supposed to go like this!
She could barely push herself away from the Haunted as it started towards her; its disfigured form looming over her. And she couldn't stop it as it leaned down and grabbed a handful of her hair. Her heels dug and scraped into the floorboards as it hoisted her up just enough to grab her by the arm instead. It drug her across the floor despite her best attempts to get loose- the incapacitating pain that throbbed from her head kept her from doing much fighting though.
Before she knew what was going on, the Haunted yanked her up and just about hoisted her off of her feet before it threw her down.
She hit the first step on her left hip, with all of her body weight coming down on it, before the rest of her body went tumbling after.
All she could hear was the sound of her body hitting every step on the way down.
She hit the second platform with just enough force that she was propelled down the remaining flight.
The back of her head cracked hard against the corner of one step before it was smashed against the wall and then collided against a second step.
By the time she hit the bottom, she was almost certain she wasn't breathing and it felt like her body was paralyzed by pain. Or maybe just paralyzed over all. She couldn't even attempt to move as every inch of her practically screamed in protest at the notion. Her entire body was shaking as a feeling of shock washed over her.
She felt a strange sense of warmth against her face and her vision barely focused long enough to notice the pool of blood forming underneath her head.
But, over the constant ringing in her head, she could hear the Haunted slowly coming down the stairs after her...
She wasn't going to die here...
In absolute agony, she tried to force herself up despite the hot pain that shot itself down her spine and covered her entire body within seconds. Fingers were shaking as they searched for her gun- only to remember that it had been knocked aside upstairs. Perfect...
She could only watch the stairs in near black vision as the Haunted grew closer and closer.
Then she heard the sound of the front door get kicked open behind her.
And she watched as the remaining bits of the Haunted's brain were blown out the moment it came around the corner.
She grimaced as the body toppled down the stairs and landed just inches from her.
"Kidman!"
She could barely hear the call of her name- it sounded like someone had shouted it from the end of a long tunnel. But she knew it was someone calling for her...
She heard him kneel down beside her and felt his hands gently roll her onto her back.
"Stay with me, stay with me." Joseph whispered as he cupped his hands against her jaw.
Her vision was still fading in and out as black spots clotted together in the corners of her eyes- but she could still see the look of worry and panic etched on his face. And she knew he was trying his best not to show it, at least for her sake.
It was still difficult to breathe, her chest was still throbbing from where the axe had been smashed against her and the trip down the stairs certainly didn't help it. She couldn't tell the difference between the heavy ringing in her head and the rapid beating of her heart, which felt like it was in her throat at this point. She could barely feel the faint, warm presence of his hands either, even as they gently moved to brush the wet bangs from her face.
She was in worse shape than she thought...
He carefully eased her head to the one side, cradling it in one hand, as he just now seemed to notice the blood pooling out on the floor. And she could see the color drain from his face as his fingers found the laceration that had split the left side of her head clean open.
"You're bleeding..."
She could hear the fear in his voice now.
"It's... it's just a bump." she briefly mumbled, unsure if she could even hear herself talking.
"Everything can't just be a bump to you." he lightly scolded, probably more so out of worry than anything else. "... Especially not when it's bleeding like this."
She felt the way he gingerly tried to push her hair out of the way of the open wound, probably to get a closer look at it. His fingers barely grazed the injury, but it was enough contact to send refreshened pain throughout her head. And she couldn't stop the cry of pain that left her as the pain only worsened the ringing in her ears and further blacked out her vision.
She barely heard the sharp curse and quick apology that escaped him as he pulled away from the injury.
She could feel him shaking as he moved to take her hand in his before he lightly squeezed it.
"You're okay, you're going to be okay."
His words were reassuring and, despite his obvious worry and fear, his tone was firm and almost confident this time.
She listened to him talk until his voice faded to the point where she could no longer hear it.
But she could feel the way he refused to let go of her hand.
"Juli, stay with me..."
A soft groan escaped her as pain quickly followed her reawakened sense of consciousness.
She didn't bother moving and instead, laid as still as she could- unsure if she was going to pass back out or not. And it was only when a sense of warmth and feeling drifted back into her fingertips and across her body did she figure she was probably going to stay alive for a little longer. She wasn't in near as much agony as she had been when she passed out, but... she wasn't exactly comfortable with it either. Her head had calmed down to a throbbing ache that continuously pounded away behind her eyes; and her chest had settled with a sense of soreness every time she breathed in. She might've cracked her sternum, which was fun.
Her fingertips twitched as she tried to test her sense of movement to see if she could at least still feel all of her limbs; her arms were heavy and her legs were incredibly weak, which made it difficult to move either any of them- but she still could to a degree, so she wasn't paralyzed.
With concentrated strength, she managed to drag her fingers to her head to examine the injury. Her fingertips fumbled briefly with the motion, but she could feel where her hair was still damp from the blood- although when she drew her fingers back, they were clean. Someone must've cleaned the wound for her...
She couldn't really feel where the laceration was anymore- it just felt like a mess of dried blood that had clotted together in her hair.
It took her a few minutes of lying still to recover just from that limited amount of movement.
When she did eventually recover, she managed to pry her eyes open and clear up some of her clouded vision- at least enough of it to look around and try to figure out where she was now.
She was in some barren, abandoned room, but... it didn't look like any of the rooms back in that village. The building itself might've been more updated- although not by much. The bed underneath her was in better condition at least, and the ripped sheet hanging from the ceiling a few feet from her hinted that, at one time, it provided some amount of privacy. She could see through it though, so it wasn't doing that great of a job now.
There wasn't much of anything else to the room though- nothing asides from dust-covered furniture and a couple of candles that provided a small amount of dim lighting.
He must've moved her some place else... but where?
Groaning again, a little louder this time, she tried to force herself up to get a better standing on her situation right now. She felt herself physically shudder at the sharp pain that radiated from her aching back and hips; that trip down the stairs might've not paralyzed or killed her, but it sure as hell was trying to now. The slightest movement hit her with an overwhelming sense of nausea and it took every ounce of control to not give in to the crippling ache of her stomach.
"Joseph?" she called briefly, although unsure of how loud she had called for him. Her throat was sore and her voice felt rough when it came from her lips.
She didn't even know if he was around or not...
He didn't know how many times he had paced around the entire house- or hospice, whatever the hell this place was. The floorboards creaked underneath as he slowly walked the second floor balcony once more; he kept half an eye on the front door that was just barely out of sight.
The eerie silence had been welcoming when compared to the shrieking and growling they had escaped from in that village, but... now it was beginning to get to him. At the very least it meant that there was nothing occupying this space but them and that he would hear anything that might try to get in.
But something about it made his skin crawl- like there was something else here that he just couldn't see.
It wasn't easy to escape the chaos from that nightmare village and he hadn't exactly been thrilled to get past the gate only to see another house; the last thing he needed was something else that could prove to be yet another death trap for him. But with Kidman bleeding out in his arms, he didn't exactly have a lot of choices.
It seemed the world was working in his favor though since the place was empty and void of any of those creatures- who, curiously, didn't follow them past the gate.
There were plenty of beds on the first floor, but he didn't want to risk an easy ambush situation. At the very least, the rooms upstairs were a little more secured and would buy him some time if those things found them here. He just prayed that they wouldn't...
He didn't know what this building was, or had been at one point, but the anatomical sketches and notebooks pointed to something like a hospice. Why something like this would be located out here was beyond him. It was empty and provided them with some form of shelter, so he wasn't exactly questioning it to the extent he should've. The only grievance he had with it was the half cut-opened corpse lying downstairs on the table in the middle room. He hadn't been thrilled to see it when he stumbled across it and the bloody tools on the floor didn't help the questions that came to him. But whoever it was, or had been, was dead, so he pushed it from his mind for now.
He didn't bother to look at the notes that were scattered around- he didn't even want to know what this place was right now...
He was just thankful that it still had some medical supplies sitting around. Not that many, of course, but there was enough for him to use to try and patch her head wound up. His hands were still shaking from the long process it took to clean the injury and keep it from bleeding out any further. She had lost quite a bit of blood, but thankfully not enough to cause serious side effects.
But it wasn't the injury itself he was worried about... He didn't know how hard she had gotten hit, so it was impossible to tell what kinds of damages he wasn't seeing. Her skull could be fractured, her brain could be swelling or hemorrhaging- anything was possible at this point. And he didn't have either the supplies or knowledge to help her if that was the case. He knew basic, maybe even moderate, first aid, but... that was it; that was the extent of what he knew.
He could keep her wound from bleeding and patch it back up, but that didn't necessarily solve anything if there were internal damages.
...
He briefly brushed his hand against his vest, feeling where the fabric was still damp from her blood.
He hadn't intended for them to get separated in that village, but things went to Hell real quick and somehow he had gotten himself dragged outside. And no matter how hard he tried to find her again, it seemed like those creatures were everywhere he turned. He knew she could handle herself and the occasional echo of a gunshot told him that she was still alive.
It was by chance he even ran into that house. He had been trying to follow the sound of her gun and... just happened to get lucky.
If he hadn't gotten there when he did...
His hand briefly reached for the balcony railing as the thought continued to unravel him. He slowly sat down on one of the steps and briefly leaned against the wall.
This place, whatever it fucking was, terrified him- he wasn't afraid to admit that.
The concept of those creatures was hard to understand; they looked human and yet... they were far from it. It had almost been impossible for him to raise his gun at them- let alone pull the trigger. He had been on the police force long enough to know that aiming a gun at someone wasn't easy and it was an action that shouldn't be abused.
They looked human...
The first time he had shot one, it left this cold feeling inside of his chest, and yet he watched a good portion of its torso get blown open to reveal seemingly rotten insides.
It had been difficult then and had only gotten a little easier now because he knew they wouldn't hesitate to kill him.
They wouldn't hesitate like he had...
It felt like pure chance that they had, at least, managed to find each other. And he was glad to know that he wasn't in this new-world Hell by himself. It was easier to shoot and kill when it felt like he had someone to protect- although he knew well enough that Kidman didn't need him to protect her. And it was easier to investigate this godforsaken place when he had someone next to him watching his back.
And then they ran into that village and everything went to Hell.
He couldn't lose her...
This world, whatever it was, felt like it was toying with him- like it was fucking around with him. He couldn't necessarily describe it, but... he could almost feel something crawling around in the back of his head. And it felt like it was trying to burrow itself into his brain or something. Every now and again, he'd get these sharp pains right at the base of his skull that seemed to coincide with the paranoid feeling, but they would end almost as quickly as they started.
He didn't know what it was, but he sure as hell didn't like it.
Either way, he just... he didn't want to be alone here.
An exhausted sigh escaped him as he pushed his glasses up and briefly rubbed at his eyes- careful to mind the deep cuts that tore his right cheek open. One of those creatures had a shard of glass or something and had been pretty adamant about killing him with it. He barely managed to escape the thing with his neck still intact.
He was a little surprised he had escaped with only a few, minor injuries; he had a few too many close calls back there, most of which dealt with a well-aimed sickle that would've left a nasty mark had it actually hit.
Slipping his glasses back on, he slowly forced himself back to his feet and started to head down the stairs once more; he'd feel more productive if he was actually doing something- it would help keep his mind off of the current matter at hand as well.
"Joseph?"
He paused briefly at the faint, barely audible call of his name and almost brushed it off as a mind trick. Still, he wasn't completely convinced it was nothing and instead headed back up the stairs and towards her room. It wouldn't hurt for him to check in on her again- at least make sure the injury hadn't decided to start bleeding out once more. He hesitated at the door before he pushed it open- although he wasn't entirely sure why he had paused.
The door opened to a small chorus of curses and he was surprised to see that she was partly sitting up already with one hand tightly grasping her head.
The amount of sheer relief that came over him was indescribable.
She was more than likely in a world of pain, but... at least she was alive and had regained consciousness on her own.
And he was relieved at that, actually a little happy as well, but there was one glaring issue that immediately turned it all into concern.
Joseph pushed the door closed behind him and hurried over to her. "You really shouldn't be sitting up right now- you do not need to be aggravating that head injury of yours." he started as he carefully put his hands on her shoulders and gently eased her back down. For a moment, he was almost surprised at how quickly she went with the motion; he guessed he had assumed that she would fight him on it. But, instead, she almost looked to be more relieved by the gesture.
She was a little pale, most likely from the pain, but she seemed to still be in good health overall... for what it was worth anyways.
"How bad is it?" Kidman finally pressed; her eyes closed for the time being as she briefly touched at the injury once more.
He wasn't going to lie to her...
"You're lucky you're alive." he answered, as he carefully sat down on the edge of the bed next to her. He moved to hover his hand over her own, before she dropped it so he could examine the wound. He did what he could to clean the sticky mess of blood out of her hair, but there wasn't much he could do for the dried mess that had clotted against the laceration itself. While stitches probably would've been ideal for the gaping wound, the best he could do for it, given the situation, was a kind of ointment or gel that had hardened over the skin. It had seemed pretty desperate at the time, but it was holding up better than he thought it would; the bleeding had stopped for the time being, so at least they didn't have that to worry about. "If it had been half an inch deeper, maybe even less, you would've been dead. You lost quite a bit of blood too, but... it doesn't seem like it caused any serious head trauma. At least from what I can tell- which isn't much, mind you."
She let out a soft groan and moved to run one hand through her unbloodied hair. "So I could be walking around with some kind of concussion or brain hemorrhaging?"
He didn't really want to answer that question.
"If it was a concussion, you wouldn't have woken up." Joseph started, although not sure if that answer was supposed to assure her of that. "As for brain hemorrhaging... it's not out of the running."
"Perfect."
The sarcastic tone in her voice was oddly fitting.
He pulled away from the laceration for the time being and noticed the way she lightly gripped at her right shoulder. He didn't know what had caused it, but she had several, fairly-deep puncture wounds in her shoulder that had stained a good portion of her shirt with blood. They were easier to take care of and he had managed to clean and cover them with a few bandages to keep them from getting irritated by her shirt.
She had a hell of a bruise on her upper chest as well; he didn't know what had caused it, but he wouldn't be surprised if it had broken her sternum.
A silent sigh escaped him as he watched her weakly pinch the space between her eyes. It was easy to tell how difficult it was for her to move based on her less than smooth movements and somewhat jerky shaking. "... You know, you're lucky you didn't break your neck on the way down. Or anything else for that matter."
Kidman touched briefly at her neck at his words. "Don't I know it. Although it sure as hell feels like I did."
He could imagine it did.
Christ, she looked exhausted.
"... You should take it easy while we have the down time." he spoke.
She gave a light nod, but he had a feeling she hadn't quite given up on that decision just yet. "Where are we anyways?"
"Hard to say. It seems to be some kind of... hospice of some sort, based on some of the paper work I found downstairs." Joseph answered once more, before he moved to lightly brush her fallen bangs from her face. He wasn't exactly sure why he felt the need to do so, but she didn't say anything about the gesture. "We're just outside of that village, but this place seems to be safe enough for the time being- which is saying a lot. Not to mention, there were some medical supplies lying around that I had to use to put your head back together."
She offered what small chuckle she could muster.
He glanced briefly to the door, almost half-expecting something to come barging in. It felt like one of those scenarios where it had been quiet for too long and something was bound to come along and rectify it. Maybe it sounded crazy, but after everything that had happened in the village, he couldn't really blame himself for the slightest sense of paranoia. This place was safe for the time being... but it wasn't like there was a specific time limit for that- anything could happen at any time, and they weren't exactly prepared to handle another ambush at the moment.
"We should keep moving."
Yes, they should; this place was dangerous and there was no telling what was going to be around the next corner.
"Not right now." Joseph lightly objected. "We have time and I'm not going to risk moving you around without some kind of destination in mind."
She gave what might've been a brief, aggravated sigh. "... We don't know what's going to come next."
For a woman who had taken a serious blow to the head and a very traumatized trip down a flight of stairs, she remained persistent. She always seemed to have her eye set on some kind of goal and it was difficult to move her from that. And in this kind of situation, she wasn't wrong.
"You're not winning this."
A brief, disappointing groan escaped her this time. "I had a feeling you would say that." Kidman whispered.
He chuckled and watched as she lightly touched at her head once more- almost as though she was still having a hard time believing that she had lived from it. There was a little more color returning to her skin now, so hopefully the brief period of rest was doing her some good. If worse came to worse and they had no other choice but to leave, then he would just have to carry her out of here. He wasn't going to leave her behind and he certainly wasn't going to let her walk out of here on her own.
If anything, he had to take responsibility for the position she was in now.
They never should've gotten separated...
Joseph moved his hand to brush through her hair once more, at first pulling it away from her face, before he continued to run his fingers through it. She didn't seem to mind the gesture and he watched as she briefly leaned into it. She looked better, but... the image of her lying at the bottom of those stairs with blood pooling out of her head felt like it had been permanently burned into his memory. The panicked thoughts that had immediately plagued him still ran through his head over and over again; the prospect of her dying right then and there had been far too close to becoming a reality. And, the worst part was, in a way, it was still a possibility. She had almost died... What was he supposed to do in a case like that? What would he had told Sebastian?
That he had let her die...
He wasn't going to ignore how the shaking had returned to his hands. Running his fingers through her hair one more time, he briefly hesitated before he moved to cradle his hand against her cheek. "... You really scared me back there, you know?"
If she had picked up on his nerves, which no doubt that she had, she didn't say anything. Instead, she managed a brief smile at the touch and slowly moved to tangle her fingers in the thin material of his sleeves. "I scared myself too."
That was reassuring.
If they were both scared, then that meant they were still alive. They could still survive this...
And it showed that she was still consciously aware of what was going on. She wasn't confused or showing signs of distress or anxiety, so... she could still pull through this without a hitch.
He felt the slight movement of her fingers as they drifted further up along his sleeves, before they lightly grabbed on to his black vest. When she gave a gentle tug on it to coax him closer, he knew what she was doing, what she wanted out of the action. And while he normally would've given all too easily into it... he had to object this one time. "You need to rest." Joseph started, as he made the motion to pull away. "I'll make sure this place stays secured until you're better."
"I'll be fine." Kidman assured; her fingers briefly wrinkling his vest in her grip. "Just... stay a little longer with me."
"You're still recovering-" he replied, although knowing well that he was going into a losing battle. It would be pointless to fight her like this.
And the way her hands moved to fit against his shoulders told him that she already knew she had won.
"... Come here." she whispered as she pulled him to her once more- although, far more successful this time.
He gave a defeated sigh, before he followed her lead and gently leaned down to press his forehead to hers; he could already feel her arms as they slowly moved to drape over the back of his neck. With a concentrated sense of gentleness, he slipped his arms underneath her slender form and held her to him; his hands bundling the thin material of her shirt in them.
But, she was relentless as she pulled him closer to her again. The new movement allowed her to tuck her head into the curve of his neck without aggravating her injury- thankfully. He could practically feel the steady way she breathed as her fingertips slowly traced shapes over the back of his neck.
"You're going to be okay." he started. "... I'll make sure of it."
"I know you will."