"NO, no, no, no, Snow... how?" Snow shakily stared into Lightning's eyes and as fast as he could he explained what happened. He looked like a zombie after. Setting Vanille down, he walked over to Hope.
"What's wrong with him? God forbid he got taken, too." Serah shook her head then pointed to Hope's wrist, dangling from Serah's body. Snow grabbed it and noticed the large arrows and the microscopic eye that had appeared in the center. Trying to avoid anyone seeing his fury he turned around and looked at the front of the cave and saw someone standing in front of it, one of their legs casually bent and a staff in one of their hands.
"I can help."
No one knew who's voice it was that came from the edge of the cave; they answered anyway.
"No, you can't. She already dead." Lightning said bluntly, anger clouding her vision. There was a quiet moment of silence before they spoke again.
"I don't mean Vanille… I mean to get you all out of here. The best thing you can do is get out of this cave and back to the school. The fal'cie is moving, you know." The person began to approach Snow, who now stood up to look at her. She put her hand out in front of him, Snow shaking it back anxiously.
"Fang."
"What?"
"My name is Fang." Everyone looked up in confusion, even Hope. She turned on her heel and began to walk out of the cave, lifting her hand up to swing it, motioning for other people to come.
Everyone stood up and began to follow. Serah looked back at Vanille's body, blinking suddenly to avoid the tears from reappearing; she was still trying to realize what was happening. It was all a blur. She figured that this was the best place to keep as her grave, since she knew nothing would happen to her, and she had to be honest and realized that it would be way too tough to drag a dead body with them everywhere. Snow stepped over to Hope and began to scoop his arms under him.
"I can walk, Snow," Hope said, his voice exasperated. Snow grinned slightly and kept walking, watching Hope carefully.
A roaring sound began to flow throughout the cave like a river. The group jumped and followed Fang into a sprint, hoping to avoid any danger.
Echoes of gunshots split through their ears as their legs ached to collapse. Lightning's eyes would shoot over to Hope whenever she saw him trip out of the corner of her eye. She watched his face become more and more determined, and his eyes become more and more pained. It felt like they had run for hours, until they finally saw signs of some people. Some Pulsians sat on the sidewalk curb, staring at l'Cie marks, while other walked normally, unknowing of what happened to others; confused why they were running.
Hope hyperventilated as he felt like his legs were going to give out, his wrist simmering with pain, his head throbbing. Abruptly, his numb legs felt something go through him. He ignored it and continued running, feeling a bit more confident as he quickly caught up to the back of the group. He went to take another step on his leg, which suddenly gave out, making him trip and somersault over on the ground. Everyone continued to run ahead of him, not noticing what was going on behind them. Hope stared in horror as he saw his legs coated in a thick layer of blood. He took in a deep breath, realizing how dizzy he was beginning to feel from the loss of blood. He used his arms and his other leg to push him back up and keep him from falling again. Hope whimpered in disapproval when his leg gave out again. He was glad it was numb from running, or else the bullet in his leg would've hurt more than hell. He began to limp on one leg, knowing he would have to cause some sort of scene to make someone on the busy street notice. Why am I doing this?, he thought, then took in a deep breath. Right when he was about to call for help, he felt his leg give out again, leaving him kneeling on one leg. He realized his leg wasn't very numb anymore and felt the agonizing pain from the bullet.
"He can't walk," Hope heard whispers coming from the trees near him.
"Get ready, we'll finish the l'Cie off." Hope's eyes widened as he looked at the bushes for people, and found nothing. He heard a bang and suddenly felt something slice across his side. He yelled out and felt rivulets of blood beginning to pour out of him.
"Damn it, you practicallyt missed! Ahhh, I'll take care of you later. Let's go before somebody notices…" Hope heard them run away, and saw people beginning to look at him. A rock suddenly met the side of his head, making everything spin like a carousel.
"Oh my god, that kid got shot!" Lightning heard a woman scream from a couple of streets away. She turned her head to see if Hope had gotten scared from the comment. And noticed he was gone.
"Stop. Everyone STOP." Lightning panicked, frantically looking around. Snow ran up to her.
"Where. Is. Hope." Snow whispered. Lightning started shaking and started to run through the streets, the group following close behind her.
Hope saw people beginning to run toward him, his eyes covered in a misty layer. A college aged girl caught Hope when he began to tip forward, setting him on her lap. Hope looked up at the woman. This wasn't Lightning. He looked at all the people surrounding him. It wasn't Snow or Serah, or Vanille.
"Hey, can you hear me?" The girl shook Hope who looked at her with unfocused eyes. He tried to tell her he was all right, but a metallic taste simmered in his mouth. His eyelids felt heavy as he continued to feel his blood leaving him, and he gladly let them close. When Lightning comes, I'll be ok…
The woman stared at Hope for a moment in shock and looked at all the other people watching.
"Call the paramedics."
Snow sprinted through everyone on the sidewalk, fear clenching him inside. What if something awful happened to him?
"Excuse me," Snow approached a group of people to maneuver around them, only to find Hope. His torso and his leg blood stained, and the side of his head oozing out blood. He pushed everyone out of the way and lifted him up.
"What are you doing?" the girl asked obnoxiously, threateningly standing up them realizing he was 2
feet taller than her .
"He's... my son. I'll take him to the hospital." Snow lied, sprinting to find Lightning, Serah, Fang and Van-.
Nevermind.
"LIGHTNING! I FOUND HIM!" He heard thumping footsteps of her loud boots thumping on the sidewalk.
Her eyes widened when she saw Hope's body in Snow's arms. With a worried expression on her face,
Fang made her way up the stairs, everyone following at full speed. Lightning shut the door of Serah and
Snow's dorm room that they had barely used this school year, wiping the blood of her face in which a bullet skidded.
"Is everyone ok?" Fang asked, waiting for their nod of approval. She began to quietly walk around the room, observing their living habits.
Meanwhile, Serah, remained at the door, breathing heavily, her eyes begging to water.
"Hope. Hope please... answer me!" Snow shook the lifeless Hope and realized that he was losing blood. He looked over at his girlfriend.
"Serah. I need you to go to the science lab across the street and get a plastic tube. A long one."
"But why do you-"
"GO!" Serah jumped and sprinted out the door. Snow silently prayed in his head, Lightning watching him then doing the same.
Hope opened his eyes and looked around. Great. I'm dead again, is eyes searching around the white nothingness that surrounded him. He jumped at the sound of a voice echoing through the nonexistent place he was in.
"Hey Hope." He saw her. His eyes widened as he looked at her school uniform perfect and free of dirt, her eyes glistening and casually sitting on the white floor beneath them, a bright smile on her face.
"Vanille…"
"What did you need this for?" Serah handed him the tube and he stood up, running into the kitchen. Picking up a steak knife, Serah gasped as she saw him walk back over to Hope and Lightning. He took the knife and grabbed Hope's arm, and taking a deep breath, the stared at for a moment to find the right location then stabbed the knife through his veins. Hope didn't even flinch. Blood began to seep out. He ignored Lightning's feverish questions and began to quickly slice his own arm, putting the thin tube in an then putting it through Hope's.
I don't think I'm doing this right, but it could work. He waited a minute and saw his blood going from his own arm into the teenager's.
I don't even know my blood type, this isn't going to work. Snow ripped the tube out of his arm and heard Lightning's throat escape a sob. He's just hurting him more.
Snow lifted Hope's arm to take the tube out and noticed that he had no pulse.
"Vanille… what are you doing here?"
"What? Oh, I'm dead." Hope smiled, Why am I smiling? And why can't I stop?
"Yeah, I know. I... saw. So does that mean I'm dead, or... am I gonna come back like last time?"
"Last time?" Vanille asked, cocking her head to the side.
"Yeah, this happened before with me and my mom, like, a couple weeks ago, actually!" He grinned awkwardly and walked over to Vanille, sitting down and putting his arm around her. Why was he so relaxed and happy?
"Cool, really? Normally people can get this once in a lifetime. And that's not common either. Oh, and heck, yeah, Hope, you're gonna come back!" She giggled to herself, seeing relief come on his face.
"Just like last time," she whispered, yanking a pen out of pocket. She ripped off his shoe, Hope laughing confusingly.
"'K. I need you to call this number when you come back," she scribbled something on the inside of his shoe. "and then, I need you to tell whoever answers the phone this..." she wrote this more carefully, taking her time, knowing that she had lots of it.
Snow took in a deep breath and experienced déjà vu, putting his mouth on Hope, blowing in air. I'm so glad I was a lifeguard, even if this didn't work last time. He continued to blow his air into Hope, only stopping to take in more air. He heard the sobs of Lightning and Serah, trying to ignore them as he pressed on. He just wanted to call 911, but he knew he didn't want to risk sending a l'Cie there. One IV in his arm, and they would know. He began to bang on Hope's chest with his fist, his eyes beginning to water again. He wasn't going to let Hope die. Not this time. He already has to life with the guilt of Vanille why must he continue on with another person. A child, to be exact.
"He continued on for what felt like years, listening to Serah's cries become louder and louder; Lightning was doing the same. Snow didn't care if it took days, he was going to bring Hope back.
"You got that? Ok. Here you go! Don't lose it!" Hope laughed and put the shoe back on his foot, retying it to make sure it wouldn't come off. The only thing he worried about is that it wouldn't be on his shoe when he woke up.
"Oh no," Vanille gasped, looking at her watch. "Hope, I've gotta go, and so do you, and if anyone asks you, don't tell them that I'm alive, and I'm coming. But I really am." Hope's eyes widened and he grinned like an idiot, wrapping his arms around Vanille. She smiled and patted down his hair.
"Don't forget!" she cried, standing up. Hope looked like he was going to say his goodbyes, but Vanille quickly put a finger on his mouth.
"Don't worry, Hope! I'll see you tomorrow, jeez," she ruffled his hair back again and started to run, toward nothing. Hope followed, not knowing where else he was going to go. He felt a bright light meet him, and he was excited to yet again, come back to life. He actually found it quite funny that in the past month, he's already pretty much died twice. He waved to Vanille and checked his shoe one last time, suddenly waiting to breathe again, a sad darkness greeting him.
"HOPE! PLEASE!" Snow called, looking at the clock, realizing it had been almost 15 minutes. He knew it wasn't going to work, but he continued to press his hands on Hope's chest, begging for his heart to beat. He placed his mouth on Hope's again, giving all his air to him. He jumped when he felt Hope suck his leftover air and saw his eyes shoot open. Lightning looked up and saw Hope's eyes blinking rapidly, his lungs gasped for air, his throat giving out sounds of struggling, yet relief. Lightning was so ecstatic she felt light headed. Snow smiled when he saw Lightning drop to her knees, a smile growing on her face and her eyes glowing the ocean at sunset.
"I've got you, Snow's got you," Snow said, wrapping his arms around Hope, feeling satisfied when he felt Hope's breathing calm down and gently rested his head on Snow's chest.
Hope felt relief when he realized he was alive. He went to thank Snow, but it tended up coming out as a whimper, making Snow wrap his arms around him tighter. Lightning finally stood up and ran to Hope, shoving her arms around him and letting her tears dry away. Hope felt so much relief when he felt Lightning with him. She was so comforting, just like Vanille...
Vanille! Hope abruptly shot up, everyone looking down at him in confusion. He looked down at his shoe and took his non bloody arm to check if the writing was there. Oh, how he wished it was there...
And it was. Hope grinned and rolled off of Snow's lap. He felt his head begin to throb and ignored it, limping his way to the phone, knocking things over along the way.
"H-Hope? What are you doing ?" Lightning asked walking towards him, Snow beating her to it and starting to walk towards him swifter. It wasn't exactly difficult since he was going so slowly. Snow put his arms under Hope's small waist and turned him around, noticing the determined look on his face. Hope finally came to his senses and realized how much his leg hurt. He let it give out and knew that Snow would catch him, feeling satisfied when he did.
"Hope, what's going on? Look at me Hope, it's me, Snow. Are you okay?" He looked Hope in the eye. Hope nodded skeptically and moved his head over to the phone.
"I have to call someone," he cracked out, realizing his voice sounded a lot worse than he actually felt, which was pretty bad, too.
"Hope, honey, can't that wait?" Lightning called, finally walking over to them again and kneeling down to look at him. Serah continued to watch in disbelief, Fang in front of her, the same expression on her face remaining. Hope frantically shook his head. Snow worryingly grabbed the phone with Hope in his arms, handing it to him. Hope could tell he was shaking. Hope looked down at his shoe again and pressed in the number; Snow set him down on the kitchen counter, all of them waiting to see who he was calling.
"Hello?" Hope jumped when he heard the soft voice of a girl around his age, he guessed answering the phone. He looked at his shoes one more time, memorizing its contents. He still didn't know how he remembered it so easily. It was as if he wrote it himself. He brought in a shaky breath, trying not to take notice of the tension immediately rising in the room.
"She's alive, just in the white room. She'll be here tomorrow. And so am I. I was... there too." Hope smiled, as he continued to talk, everyone looking at him a bit frightened he looked so happy in such a scary situation. "Also, I want to say that it's back, and you should have nothing to fear as long as you believe. I heard the message, so now I have to go, but, do you know what I'm talking about?" He heard a giggle from the behind the phone and jumped again, realizing how familiar it sounded.
"Hope! Awesome, I knew you would call! It's Vanille. I'm alive again, and you're calling on my phone actually. I don't really want you to leave cause of your condition but tomorrow night, meet me at the fountain in the college at midnight, then I'll come back with you to the dorm when I'm done talking to you." Hope closed his eyes and mumbled to himself their meeting location, making sure he wouldn't forget. But it wouldn't be too hard, since it was the place he had to meet Lightning. He shuddered from the memories, and focused back on the phone.
"Ok..." he whispered, starting to shake. Vanille was actually alive. And he was gonna see her again.
"Hope, you're gonna be unconscious for a little while longer, but trust me, you'll be fine, and by the way, Snow did mouth to mouth on you." Hope's eyes widened and then he laughed at Vanille's goofiness in a slightly serious situation.
Everybody stared at Hope in disbelief as they saw him give away strange messages, laugh hysterically and then stare into nothing, then begin to speak again. Snow knew he would probably be mentally unstable when he woke up, but not to this extent. He saw Hope's hand weaken drop the phone after a few silent seconds, the batteries shattering out rolling to the far ends of the room. Snow picked up the falling Hope and set him in his lap.
"Hey Hope, look at me." Hope looked up at Snow, his eyes blurring. He looked up and saw Lightning, finally knowing that she was there, and he was ready to sleep.
"Snow, I'm exhausted..."
"You can sleep now," Lightning said barely above a whisper, her tone sympathetic but full of love. Hope let his eyes close, and he drifted off to sleep.
Lightning stroked Hope's hair as he lay on her shoulder sleeping, both of them lying on the couch, a blanket thrown over them. Hope lied with bandages all over his leg and under his shirt, and also wrapped around his arm from the blood donor attempt. Lightning casually watched TV then stared at Snow, who was concentrated on the ground. She saw him get up and pick up the batteries still lying on the ground, and watched him jam them back in the phone. He began to click on buttons as if he was searching for something. Lightning almost laughed at him. What was he doing? Her expression changed when she saw his eyes grow wide and look down at Hope, who was still sound asleep.
"What?" Serah asked, leaning forward in her chair. Snow squinted in confusion and pressed a button on the phone, waiting for something to pick up. They heard a voice play and watched Snow drop the phone, too, the batteries flying out of sight again. He lost his balance and slammed against the cabinets, causing Serah to stand up.
"The number he called..." everyone tensed up in the room, even Fang, whose fists were clenched and her breathing heavy.
"Was Vanille's." Serah gasped dramatically and mouthed "what?" as she walked over to Snow.
"I need to ask him," Snow said, walking over to Hope; Lightning leaned back nervously. He began to shake Hope, and after a few seconds he finally came to. He fluttered his eyes open and stared at Snow, who was now looking a bit scared of the kid.
"Why... did you call... Vanille?" Hope's eyes widened and looked at Snow, who now knew by this point that it truly was Vanille who he called. He saw Hope visibly shaking. He knew it would be too early to basically interrogate him.
It was impossible. He could've just been leaving a message. He was barely awake when Vanille had been completely dead.
"Were you just leaving a message?" Snow asked skittishly, watching Hope immediately nod. Relief washed over Snow's face. He was such an idiot. Hope's mid was messed up at the moment. He probably didn't even know that Vanille was dead.
Hope let out a breath of relief. He was so glad to let Snow think it was a message. He would have to continue to ask disoriented until tomorrow so he could find Vanille and bring her back to everyone to get to spend time with her. He would have to keep it all a secret and play dumb. He let in a struggled breath, but tried to stop it from sounding so bad. It was too difficult.
"And what would be wrong with calling Vanille? She's... she's just a person..." Hope felt guilty when he saw everyone in the room's face change. Snow looked at Lightning.
"It's too early to tell him," Lightning whispered, thinking Hope couldn't hear it. Snow nodded, then looked back at Hope, trying to grimace a smile on his face.
"Oh, nothing, Hope. You've rested a little bit; let get the blood all cleaned off of you."
Snow stared at Hope's leg for a minute, biting his lip, not knowing where to start. He poured water on his leg and winced at Hope's scream that faded into hissing in disapproval, then finally quieting down.
"I'm so sorry Hope, I just have to make sure this doesn't get infected."
Snow hated having to endure through Hope's screaming and the feeling of his fingernails digging into his shoulders whenever he put alcohol or even water on his leg. It was even worse when he moved to his side. He noticed Hope sort of getting used to the pain, and instead of screaming resorting to wincing and grabbing onto Snow, tears welling up and going away in his eyes.
After what felt like forever, Snow finished putting bandages on Hope and hoisted him up into his arms, walking out and into Hope's room, putting him on the bed and promising to tell Light he would say that he was ok; he stepped out of the room. He noticed Fang looking over a map and saw Lightning and Serah with headphones in their ears. He saw how pained Lightning looked pained. He figured she was trying to block out Hope's screaming.
"Hey." Snow said walking toward Lightning, trying not to laugh at her startled flinch she made.
"Is everything ok?" Lightning asked, concern in her face.
"Yeah, I'm fine-"
"Not YOU, you idiot, Hope. Is Hope okay?" Snow nodded, attempting to put a hand on Lightning's shoulder, watching her scoot away from him. He shook it off by speaking again.
"His wounds definitely aren't going to be infected anymore. A poured alcohol on him, that why he was screaming-" Lightning closed her eyes for a moment, trying to refrain herself from slapping Snow. "So after that, he fell asleep, so now he's in bed now, but if you want to go see him, I'll wake him up." Lightning shook her head, she didn't want him to deal with anything anymore for the rest of the day.
Morning finally came and Hope was awakened by Serah, who was gently shaking him. He went to get out of bed, completely forgetting about his leg as he felt it give out from under him. Serah gasped and grabbed him by the waist, practically beginning to laugh.
"Hope, honey, your leg, remember?" He nodded apologetically then was greeted by Lightning, whi picked him up and walked him over to the table in the kitchen. He looked over at the window and saw his homework lying below it. It completely slipped his mind that he was at school. Realizing it was dark outside, Hope looked at the clock and noticed it was 11:45. Of course. Just when he needed to head out to see Vanille. Go figure.
"I know it's late," Serah said, shuffling through the cabinets, "but I figured you should eat something since it's so late."
"You slept through the whole day!" A voice echoed. He smiled when he recognized it as Lightning, who was surprisingly joyful sounding. He shoveled down the oatmeal Serah gave him and Snow carried him back to his bed, asking him if he wanted to sleep more. Hope nodded, wanting him to leave as soon as possible so he could leave to find Vanille.
"We have a lot to talk about tomorrow, kiddo," Snow said, setting Hope on his bed. Hope figured it would probably be about Vanille, or his l'Cie brand, or his schoolwork, or anything primarily no one really wanted to talk about. He waited until Snow's footsteps disappeared. He grabbed the crutch Snow had bought for him just in case he needed something. Even though it was still hard to use, because he was still weak, he climbed out the window and went to go meet the person who thought he wouldn't see for a long time.
Dayuuummm that was exactly 4,300 words! That is a LOT more than y usual 2,100 lol. I did this all in one sitting! Booya! I just REALLY needed to get this out of my head after sleeping for so long, so here I am! SO yeah, my goal for making longer chapters is slowly progressing! So yeah, I have been resting, and I'm gonna be allowed to leave the hospital later this week as long as I really don't leave the house, cause it wouldn't be good for my health. :) But whatever I get to leave this depression they call a room! XD Thank you for reading and reviewing, it means the world to me *getting teary eyes* I just love this story and I feel like it's starting to make more sense. Speaking of that, I need to say that last chapter was supposed to be VERY confusing on purpose hehe. So don't worry if you didn't get it. I wanted everyone to basically be half asleep and not know what was going on. Ok, so I'm gonna revise this, then go to bed ;) See you guys later this week!Feel free to personal message me! I looooove talking to you all! Lots of love!