The Shooting
Date: 2020. 06. 02.
This was exactly how good days go really bad. He should have expected something bad. Really. His whole life went by that rule. Good, then really bad. Though, that day's events reached the extreme bad category.
It started as an average school day with Math, Literature, Mr. Johansson, Chris and his personal gang. Keep it a secret, but he started to like this new subdivision. Moreover, summer was nearly here and it seemed that it softened even Chris' hard attitude. So, you can't blame Morthy to be kind of happy and calm. Oh, and he had been until lunch time, that's it! The bell barely rang when he was unexpectedly pulled to his feet.
"Lunch time!" Chris stated the obvious and he pulled the smaller teen with himself out of the classroom. The poor teacher just blinked after them.
"You never seem to be excited about anything which isn't a demon!" Morthy huffed as he was dragged down the corridor.
Chris turned his head towards him for a second, his green eyes sparkling like every time when he is excited.
"I'm hungry and I have something really interesting to tell you about!" he grinned.
Morthy felt his stomach drop. "A demon, right?"
His only answer was a smirk and that was all he needed to know. Morthy let out a defeated sigh and dropped his head. Doom. Chris Perry was the doom personally, he decided.
They reached the cafeteria and they froze to the spot as they saw what was going on. The place had already been full with people, which wasn't surprising despite how fast they arrived there. The scary thing was how everyone was pressed against the walls, few even lying on the floor with pale and frightened expressions. And the reason? One of the senior students was standing in the middle of the room holding something dangerously resembling a gun. His face was twisted with horrible emotions and his eyes were blazing with craziness. It seemed like that he had been in the middle of a rant when they walked in oh so carelessly.
Everyone turned their eyes towards them. Yeah, the crazy senior too, but he also turned his gun towards them.
"Oh, man!" Morthy heard Chris' whisper.
They stood next to each other facing with the gun.
"So, it has been decided!" The senior said absent mindedly. Morthy blinked puzzled, but it seemed that Chris understood the happenings way too well.
"Think it over again!" He replied immediately.
The senior didn't even blink as he lowered the gun a little and Morthy understood immediately. The crazy guy was aiming at him. Morthy watched as the trigger was slowly pulled backwards, but he couldn't do a thing as his mind shut down again, like every time when he ended up in a life-threatening situation. But suddenly he couldn't see a thing expect something dark, in the same time he heard the shot.
And the screaming had started.
The chaos erupted around him, but Morthy only could stare at something really important in front of him. Because the sudden black wasn't his vision failing after being shot, it was something totally different. It was the back of a black shirt. It suddenly moved as the boy wearing it collapsed in front of him. Morthy's reflexes finally woken up as his arms shot out to grab the other's shoulders, preventing him of hitting his head as he crushed down. He kneeled down next to him, still holding the other's shoulders.
"You wear too much black," he forced out as he looked down at the rapidly paling teen lying in front of him.
Green eyes turned towards him lazily, time to time disappearing behind a pair of eyelids.
"Really?" Chris whispered back from the ground. Morthy watched as a single blood drop slowly left the other's nose and made a tiny red line across his face. Not just that. A huge amount of blood was appearing out of nowhere and painted the floor red.
"You stepped between us!" Morthy spoke again.
Chris grinned again which seemed so absurd on his pale and bloodied face.
"You don't say!"
"Why?"
The grin turned into a frown.
"Do I need a reason?"
Morthy froze. He spent so much time alone and he formed his own rules. However, all of them were torn apart one by one by the rapidly bleeding teen lying in front of him. Rapidly bleeding! Morthy's reflexes kicked in again as he pulled his jumper off in no time. He balled it up and without warning he pushed it down on Chris' chest earning a pain filled gasp from him.
"Serves you right! Jumping in front of bullets like that!" He huffed.
"Where did he go?" Chris asked softly.
Morthy looked up as he remembered how they ended up in that situation in the first place. He totally forgot about the shooter and everyone else the moment he saw Chris collapsing. He too could have been shot too so easily. Their surroundings were horrific and he wished that he hadn't looked up in the first place. Seeing Chris bleeding out slowly was bad enough, but this was even worse. Students were lying around on the ground. Some of them were moving and moaning in pain, but Morthy was sure that there were others who will never move again. The senior was nowhere to be seen.
"Oh, my God!" he murmured softly.
"You are an atheist!" Chris whispered.
"Not the right time, Chris!" Morthy shot back. He felt something wet on his face. He didn't need to reach up to see what it was, he knew. He was crying. He looked down in order to hide away from the scene, but he met with a sad pair of green eyes. Chris never looked sad. That was the first time he ever caught this emotion on the other's face which made everything so much real. So much worse.
And Morthy started sobbing. He didn't stop, not even when Chris closed his eyes and fell into unconsciousness, or even when someone pulled him away from the other teen. Not even when Chris was carried away by someone claiming himself to be a doctor. And that's the last thing Morthy remembers.
He woke few hours later. He was told that he got a sedative from a doctor before he was brought to the hospital. It seemed like that he was in shock. He didn't care. He had someone else to care about. He started asking around about Chris, but he was deflected by everyone. He wasn't a relative, he had no right for the information.
"But he took the bullet meant for me!" he screamed loudly in the middle of the hospital's corridor in the end. Everyone turned towards him. Just like how everything started at lunch time. However, this time there was no bullet, but a gray haired man who walked up to him. He looked old and tired, but determined none the less. With a glare sent towards the crowd everyone turned away from them again.
"Can you tell me your name?" He asked Morthy.
"Eric Morthon," he replied tiredly. A funny expression appeared on the man's face.
"Are you Morthy?"
Morthy's head shot up. There were only few people who called him that ways. After all, this nickname was given to him by a certain annoying green eyed monster…
The man smiled warmly. He offered his hand to him.
"My name is Victor Bennett! I'm Chris' grandfather."
Chris' grandfather. Morthy didn't know what to do with that information. He shook the hand offered to him then he lowered his head, hiding behind his locks. An old habit which Chris hated so much.
"He took the bullet meant for me," he whispered again.
Victor just smiled warmly. "And you kept him alive long enough for the ambulance to arrive."
Morthy looked up and to the side. Whatever, he thought.
"How is he?"
Victor sighed and he looked even older than before.
"Not so good," he started. "He had a surgery, they took the bullet out. But they keep a close eye on him. They won't let anyone in as long as he is not stable."
"I see…" a sudden thought crossed his mind and Morthy looked at Victor with an emotionless expression. "What happened to the shooter?"
"He shot himself," Victor replied. His face had a funny expression again. "You didn't plan revenge, right?"
"No," Morthy looked away. He didn't exactly have the time to plan…
"Concentrate on Chris, okay? Revenge never solves anything!" Victor said softly. Morthy nodded again and felt like running and hiding away.
Suddenly there was a loud voice roaring 'Victor!' and Morthy felt his blood run cold. Only once he had heard that voice and that time he had a fully healthy Chris to solve that certain problem. Victor's face became expressionless as he turned to him.
"You should go now. He tends to do stupid things and I don't want you to be caught up in the middle!"
Morthy nodded and moved away from the gray haired man. Though he made sure to be near enough to see what happens.
Soon Wyatt Halliwell walked down the corridor, towards Victor with an outraged expression. People got out of his way without a word. Morthy couldn't blame them. This eighteen years old boy was dangerous on an average day, but today he had his little brother hanging between life and death. And Wyatt Halliwell doesn't care about anyone else, just about the said little brother. Though, the mortals around them didn't know about that. They just felt the danger in the air.
Morthy pressed himself against the wall as he watched as a low voiced argument turned into a full shouting match between Mr Bennett and his grandson. He just really hoped that in the end Chris will walk out of this fine and sarcastic again, because Morthy feared for San Francisco if not.
