My previous red glow around my body was turning light gray and then continuing to turn darker. I had a feeling that soon Del would have been linked to me for too long and he would accidentally kill me. 2D still laid on the ground, his abdomen gushing out blood. Jeiel was still holding him and violently crying. Murdoc and Noodle had been too shocked to move and were staring with fear as 2D's breath began to slow. Darla sat untied in the chair but slumped over from her own injuries. Robbi smiled weakly, but evilly, as he witnessed this.
So I guess it all comes back in the end to a single decision. This decision will not only affect my fate, but of others too. Would you save a life at the cost of your own? I have a choice. I can transport everybody to a hospital and save the life of 2D and Darla, but not mine. Or I can save my own, and Darla might be able to survive at the nearest hospital, but 2D, he needed help fast. He wasn't going to make it long enough to get to a hospital in time. Of course if I transported them to one, my aura would go black indicating that Del had burned my body and I would die. I knew this because I was starting to feel a small burning pain on the inside of my entire body.
I know what you are thinking, and only you can decide your fate. Del told me as I looked at what everything had happened in just a few days.
Will I survive, if... I didn't even have to finish my thought because Del already knew what I was trying to ask. He kept quiet. My head began to spin. Jeiel's brother had saved Jeiel, Jeiel had saved 2D, and 2D had saved Jeiel. They all made those life threatening decisions, I guess it was my turn.
I grabbed Darla and slung her over my shoulders.
Then I said, "Jeiel give me you're hand. Murdoc, Noodle, grab Jeiel's other hand." They obeyed my demand. With my other hand, I placed it gently on 2D's chest and with everybody together, I thought about a hospital in New York. The calmed silence of hospitals, the constant beep of a heart monitor. Nasty hospital food, and the clammy warm feeling everybody felt in the elevated temperatures of each bedroom and waiting area. I thought of New York, the busy streets. The tall buildings that soared into the sky with sophistication, and then I closed my eyes, this time barely feeling the roller coasters and weightlessness. Instead all I felt was pain and burning, and sleepiness. Like a fire had started inside my body and was slowly reaching the surface. It brought a whole new meaning to your, "blood boiling".
I opened my eyes slowly, everything blurry but I could tell I had transported everybody right in front of a hospital. The burning feeling increasing as I felt a tear drip from one eye due to the pain. My ears canceled out all noise and I slowly closed my eyes again. A sudden calm washed over me, I felt my heart beat slow. The pain began to subside into nothing. Then darkness engulfed my entire body as I felt more at peace then I ever had in my entire life...
I jolted awake again and got up from the pavement. I watched as Jeiel and Noodle ran to the hospital door. Murdoc had Darla in his arms and was rushing to the door. Paramedics with two stretchers came to 2D... and why were there two? If Murdoc was carrying Darla, why was there another one. I looked behind my back and gasped. I saw my own body, limp, laying on the pavement. I looked down at my own transparent hands.
Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder and I turned to see who it was. Del looked at me with sad eyes. Without warning I collapsed to my knees with my hands over my eyes as I began realizing that I was dead.
"Al'ight stop the 'pity me' shit." Del said. I glared at him for his insensitivity towards my death!
"You're not dead." He said to me. I instantly got up, confusion filling my face.
"Well kinda, kinda not. You're in a sleeping state, but not a coma, its different. I put you in it right before I transported everybody, so that I wouldn't kill you. You weren't meant to die. As part of my duty, I am here to help you back to your body, since... you know... I'm the one that almost killed you and put you in this state." Del explained. I nodded, joy filling me at the hope that this wasn't the end of my legacy on Earth, but I (almost) went down with a pretty heroic one.
Del held my hand and lead me to my body, I was still laying on the ground as the paramedics came. At first contact with my body, I instantly was surged into it and woke up, freaking out the paramedics. I got up on shaky knees, but stood before them. They lifted one eyebrow and scratched their heads in confused unison.
"I'm all good." I said with a smile and a thumbs up as they shrugged their shoulders and walked off.
With that I ran into the hospital to where Darla had been taken. She lay awake as doctors surrounded her body to tend to her injuries. They let me in the room when they were done. Darla smiled when she saw me.
"Russel, you saved 'ma life!" She said with a little energy in her voice. I walked over to her and hugged her.
"Anybody woulda' done it." I said humbly.
"No, you were the only one that searched for me, who saved me and I owe you my life." Darla explained. Then her expression darkened, and I asked what was bothering her.
"Robbi is still in Russia, and I have a feeling he will come back for me." Darla said with worry crossing her face.
"Well if he does, I'll kill him." I said reassuringly with amusement. Darla beckoned me closer to her like she was about to tell me something important. Then without warning, she grabbed my face and pulled me to hers as she kissed me. I doubled back when she let go. My eyes wide, and my heart pounding faster. She giggled.
"Now let your girlfriend recover." She demanded and turned to her side to sleep. I was so happy, had I finally found love? Well, I was one step closer for sure now.
I left the room with a bit of a prancing skip as I celebrated Darla's kiss. Then I looked to my left and saw Murdoc and Noodle consoling a crying Jeiel. I walked over to them.
"Little 'ol face-ache will be alright, love. Don't worry." Murdoc soothed Jeiel, but she was still crying. I looked into the room they were next to, the blinds closed.
"I want to see him." Jeiel said with a sniffle.
"We all do, but for now we have to wait until the doctors' are done with him." Noodle told Jeiel gently, perhaps the way she would tell a child bad news.
We all waited outside the room. An hour passed. Jeiel had been fixing her smeared makeup with a compact. Murdoc crossed his arms with his eyes closed like he was taking a nap. Noodle just stared at the floor. I just sat watching all of this. Suddenly a doctor emerged from the room and Jeiel burst out of her seat to the doctor. Murdoc's eyes shot open, telling me that he really wasn't asleep.
"How is he?" Jeiel's high-pitched voice asked with some desperation. The doctor began explaining 2D's condition, then he noticed the blank, ditzy face on Jeiel, and began his sentence again. This time, not using fancy doctor terms.
"We were afraid he wouldn't make it, but the bullet didn't tear any important organs. He's quite lucky, because we believe hes going to be okay." The doctor told Jeiel. Her eyes lit up as she asked if she could see him.
"You can, but he's sleeping right now." The doctor said then began to walk away.
Jeiel went into 2D's room and sat down in the chair that was closest to his hospital bed. Murdoc, Noodle, and I all followed her inside. Jeiel scooted the chair closer to his bed and held one of his hands. He laid there peacefully without any expression on his face, his eyes closed. We all stayed there a couple hours hoping he would wake up, but he didn't. It was getting extremely late and everybody but Jeiel prepared to go home.
"C'mon Jeiel, we'll visit Dee tomorrow."
She looked at me then responded saying, "I'm staying. I want to be here when he wakes up. That's what he did for me after the fire, that's what he would be doing right now if he hadn't..." Her voice broke but then she regained posture, "If he hadn't pushed me out of the way." Jeiel finished. I sighed then walked out of the room. Murdoc and Noodle a few steps ahead of me.
"Is she coming?" Murdoc asked. I said no and he continued to stare ahead as we walked outside to a taxi so that we could go home.
When we finally got home, all of us were exhausted and starving. Turned out, nobody had eaten anything since the abduction, which was three days ago, except Noodle who was provided with food from the Russian family. After dinner, it was late so I went to bed. When I woke up, the night had faded and daylight had entered, I got some breakfast and went to the hospital. Jeiel hadn't come home last night.
As I entered the patient room, Jeiel was asleep in an awkward position in the chair. 2D still asleep. I sat down in a chair, then slowly Jeiel woke up. She stretched and rubbed her neck from the sore position she had been sleeping in. She sleepily smiled at me and yawned. Her smile faded as she saw that 2D hadn't woken up yet.
"You should probably go get some food. I'll watch over him while you eat. You must be hungry, if Murdoc was right and you haven't eaten since the abduction. It's been four days!" I exclaimed with some worry in my eyes.
Jeiel looked down to the floor and grumbled, "I'm not hungry." Without making any eye contact at me.
"Don't lie, you need to eat..." Came from a sleepy voice. Jeiel snapped her head at the awoken 2D. He met her with sleepy, but caring eyes. He reached his hand out towards her, beckoning her to come closer. Jeiel got up and went to him.
His hand lightly touched her hair as he said, "I'm sorry." Jeiel gave him a confused look.
"For what?" She asked.
"For accidentally hitting you, love." 2D explained.
Jeiel rolled her eyes then said, "You're still on that, I know it was an accident. You saved my life!" Jeiel said then without warning, she kissed him. When they parted, 2D weakly tried to sitting up but winced.
"Somebody mind getting 'me painkillers, like a lot of 'em." 2D asked, rubbing his head. Jeiel got his pills and gave some to him. Then she brought a cup of water to his mouth.
"Now please, go eat some'fing. I don't want you to starve." 2D told Jeiel after swallowing the pills. Jeiel nodded her head and left the room.
2D smiled at me.
"What?" I asked when he didn't stop smiling.
"I'm just happy shes okay." 2D said. After some causal talk with my blue haired band-mate, I went into Darla's room. She was watching TV. Her eyes lit up when she saw me.
"So how exactly do I have to do to show my thanks for you rescuin' me?" She asked, a spark gleamed in her eyes.
"Just get better." I said. I held her hands and slowly bent down for a sweet, gentle kiss.