Hello, World
Named after the Song by Two Steps from Hell. Another Sally/Callum pairing. This time,not OneShot! Hoping to have 3 chapters,maybe. Please R and R!
Sally awoke, only to find herself laying a field of lush, emerald green grass. She rose slowly and carefully, hand resting across her swollen abdomen, scanning the area around her. But Callum was nowhere in sight. It didn't particularly worry her; he had after all promised to protect her and keep her safe from harm. No. Not just her. Them; the both of them. She smiled slightly, rubbing her abdomen gently. It was then she caught sight of Callum.
"Cal!" Sally called, spying the sergeant whirl around in response. Sally blinked at the look of fear etched on his features. Why the hell was he scared for?
A harsh bang filled the air, so loud and so sudden it made Sally jump, and Callum fell to his knees as if he had been shot. Sally wanted to scream and run to him, but could do neither. Her lips felt chained shut and her feet felt glued to the floor. Sally could only cry and watch in horror as her love began to fall face first into the ground and dissipate into a million pieces like glass hitting concrete.
'Cal...' she choked mentally as her heart twisted and shattered for him, but the nightmare wasn't over yet. It was just beginning.
As soon as Callum was gone, the smell of smoke filled her senses. The next thing Sally knew, the calming emerald around her had changed to blazing ruby as a hellish inferno took hold around her.
"Run!" Sally swore she heard Callum's voice scream even though she knew he was gone. Arm around her abdomen as if to protect her unborn child from the flames, even though she knew it would do little to help, Sally ran, desperately seeking shelter from the blaze. But the blaze was already out of control, and it was easily keeping pace with Sally. She tried to run faster, but she was too heavily pregnant to move much faster than a shuttle walk. The heat was making her break into a sweat, which vaporized instantly as the flames lashed out at her.
Suddenly, Sally found herself falling forwards, having misplaced her foot on the slippery grass and mentally swore at her own stupidity. Desperate to protect her baby, she twisted at the last moment, landing harshly on her hip. She screamed in pain as the bone crunched sickeningly. It only took Sally a couple of seconds to realise she has broken her hip and now wouldn't be going anywhere. Even though she had resigned herself to this fate, instinct compelled her to try and rise anyway.
"Guuurgh!" She grunted, one hand on her hip, the other on her swollen torso. She could only watch in terror as the flames got closer and closer to incinerating them both. Curling up to protect her baby, for all it was worth, Sally scrunched her eyes tightly shut, waiting for hell to claim her.
But the flames did not engulf her. Sally raised her head in confusion as the flames swirled in front of her to form a shadowy being which laughed manically at her, its cold deathly eyes boring into her own. Despite the fact the creature's gaze made her feel terrified and sick, she couldn't draw herself away from it. In a horrific way, those eyes were awe inspiring and beautiful, having some hypnotic quality that held Sally's gaze upon them.
The creature sobered after a while, gliding with supernatural and demonic grace towards the young officer's rigid form, stopping at a distance that Sally would have deemed too close for comfort had she not been paralyzed. The creature reached out with a surprisingly cold hand, gently caressing the arm that Sally was using to protect her belly with. The officer flinched away from the touch, shocked by just how freezing the hand was, leaving her belly exposed.
The creature's mouth twisted into a smile, licking what appeared to be its lips with a shadowy tongue, running the forked appendage across its teeth coldly. Before Sally had even realised what had happened, the creature had raised a foot and she felt a sharp pain in her abdomen. Then another blow. Then another.
"No, please, stop!" Sally came to her senses, crying out in anguish. But it was no use. The creature knew she was now far too breathless to fight back, and kept on viciously kicking her. Sally moved her hand to protect her child, only to scream as a foot connected with her hand, crunching it. She screamed in pain, trying to cradle her now broken hand.
"S'no mer time fer yer." The creature jeered in a much debased form of English, the first time it had spoken to her. "Yer's 'uffer 'ow I's done. S'ends, ner!"
The creature slowly bent down, grabbed Sally roughly by the neck and clamped onto it with a viscous bite that instantly drained her of her strength. That last thing she felt was a vicious kick in her abdomen, and her neck snapping in two.
The Kiss...of Death...
Sally awoke with a start, sweat pouring off her forehead like she really had been in a fire. She could still feel a sharp pain in her belly, so she sat up, clutching it gently. To her relief, it was just her unborn baby kicking her within, as if it could sense what a terrifying ordeal its mother had been though. Sally felt a tear trickle down her cheek.
"Oh sweetheart. Mummy thought she had lost you." Sally rubbed her swollen belly with the same gentleness as when she had clutched at it.
Feeling thirsty, Sally rose to get a drink. As she opened the door of her room, her abdomen clenched tightly for a moment, before settling down.
'Braxton Hicks.' Sally muttered in her mind. 'The girls did try warning me about those, didn't they?' Sally laughed out loud at her own thoughts, before wandering down the corridor of her flat towards her kitchen. She wasted no time in pouring herself a glass of water, just about the only drink she could manage ever since she fell pregnant, before quietly drinking it up.
'Not quite time yet, eh little one?' Sally resumed her thoughts from where she left them. 'You'd better be good and not decide you want out before daddy gets back home, though...'
Sally broke off her thought trail, hearing a loud rattle come from one of the other rooms in her flat. She froze, using her copper trained ears to listen out for the intruder, a zillion thoughts running though her head. At first, she thought it was Callum; after all, it was about time he was back. But he never came back home without announcing his arrival to the flat in spectacular fashion as he walked through the door. Which meant someone else was here... Sally raised the hand with her glass in it, poised to throw it if the intruder dared to step into the kitchen.
It wasn't long before the sound of heavy footsteps echoed into the kitchen, drawing nearer and nearer to her. The hand with the glass in it began to shake as the intruder rounded the corner and lifted his head up to face her. For a moment, Sally stood paralyzed with utter dread. All she could see was the burglar's masked face juxtaposed with that of the creature from her dream. She let go of the glass in silence, and it shattered on the floor so loudly it made them both jump.
Both eyes – Sally's sapphire and the burglar's emerald – locked, neither flinching from the other's gaze, neither even blinking. Another Braxton Hick caused Sally's abdomen to clench up, and she moved her shaking raised hand onto her belly. She spied the burglar's eyes following her hand movement, noting how their gaze turned to shock.
"What are you doing here?" Sally let out in one breath, her breath laboured from her previous pain.
The burglar didn't answer, but instead responded by taking a step forwards.
"You stay back!" Sally shouted at him, making him flinch. "If you go now, I won't call the police. You can see I wouldn't stand much of a chance against you."
The burglar took another step forward.
"Can't you see I'm giving you a chance?" Sally reasoned, mentally wondering if she could restrain him somehow. If only she had a pair of cuffs...
But the burglar would not listen to her reasoning. He kept inching forwards, until Sally deemed him too close for comfort. The last thing the intruder hadn't expected was for her to charge at him. Despite being encumbered with pregnancy, Sally moved at blistering speed across the kitchen. She spotted the glint of the knife too late, and barely had time to turn to shield her unborn child. The simple twist meant that the burglar plunged the knife into her upper left arm. Sally staggered backwards, collapsing by a kitchen cupboard, knocking a knife holder to the floor beside her in the process.
"Guuurgh!" She gritted her teeth in agony, pressing a hand down hard just above where knife was now embedded in her arm.
The burglar stared at her for a moment, almost appalled at what he had done. He cringed as Sally let out an ear piercing scream and clutched her swollen abdomen.
"Ahhhhh God, please, not now!" Sally let out in her scream. "Not here!"
The burglar finally gathered himself together and bent down next to Sally, seemingly to help her, until he reached for the knife in her arm.
"Get away from me!" Sally shouted, her pain giving her voice extra power. Picking up a knife from the floor next to her, she viciously plunged it into the closest part of her intruder – his left ankle.
The man yelped in pain, stumbling away from her, before limping out of the flat as fast as he could, leaving a breathless Sally wounded, in pain and panting for her life. Her vision blurred. She had never felt more tired in her life.
'Callum...please. I need you here.'
That was the last thing the terrified young officer thought before she closed her eyes.