Chapter 38: Those Reapers, Awaken

Adrianne's POV

My eyes slowly opened to the bright lights of the hospital room as I stared at the ceiling from the floor. I didn't expect to wake up, let alone with a healed, painless stomach, completely empty of bullets, but I did.

I sat up, wiping the blood off of my lips.

"How… how am I alive?" I asked a silent room.

Blood soaked my clothes, but it wasn't coming out of me anymore. At first, waking up was all a haze, but then I remembered Ellis's attack, which was the very reason why my father was still motionless on the floor next to me.

I gasped, scurrying and slipping across the blood covered floor to his body. His eyes were closed instead of open in shock, and his mouth just barely open. I didn't bother checking for a pulse again. I remembered from before that he was shot in the head and killed.

All I did was just look at his peaceful face. I thought it would forever stay like that, frozen in death. Tears fell from my eyes.

"Dad…"

His eyes opened.

"Yes, Addy?"

I screamed in surprise. My father, apparently alive, was unphased.

"Addy, stop screamin'. You'll scare someone." he said, sitting up. "Really, I thought you'd be happy tha' I'm alive, not just screamin' like yer 'n a horror movie."

"Scare someone? You scared me! You got shot in the head! You died! Ellis shot you, a-and then he shot me again, and he got away and-" I spazzed.

"Addy, slow down. I know wha' yer talkin' about. Ye don't need t' explain 't all again." He pat my shoulder.

"H-how are you alive? I felt for a pulse, I checked for breathing, and there was nothing! I tried to revive you with CPR, but it didn't work!"

I sobbed, tears welling in my eyes.

"You were gone…"

"Oh, Addy…" he stroked my hair. "I'm so sorry that ye were hurt for tha' long… 'e must 'ave shot us wit' human bullets on accident, because th' only holes 'n my head are my eyes, ears, mouth, an' nose. That also must be why there ain't any bullets in yer tummy."

My father pointed to each of the parts of his face he mentioned, and poked me in the stomach. Strangely enough, it didn't hurt that much after getting shot. His nails were still long enough that it hurt a bit, though.

"H-how is that even possible?"

"Well, wounds by human bullets heal 'n moments for reapers, but sometimes 's not until after they lose consciousness or "die"."

"So how did you come back?"

"Well, after the bullet disintegrates, th' reaper body starts to revive itself. First, th' heart starts back up, an' mine probably did right after you checked for a pulse. Then, whichever place tha' was th' source o' th' cause o' death heals itself. For me, it was my brain, and for you, it was your tummy. The brain restarts and begins functioning again, an' after that, ye regain consciousness an' movement within minutes." my father explained.

"I think I get it." I nodded. "So, did you just wake up when I talked to you just a few minutes ago?"

He put his finger to his chin.

"Hmmmm. Actually, I think it was a little bit before that." my father nodded.

"What?!" I yelped. "Why didn't you tell me sooner instead of scaring me?!"

"I thought 't would be sweet for me t' answer when ye called. I thought you'd be relieved and smile again." he pouted. "I… I know that you've gone too long in these circumstances without a bit of laughter."

I couldn't help but smile. My father always meant the best for me in everything he did.

My smile dropped.

"Mara's on her way to the rehab hospital."

"Yes, Addy, she is."

"Ellis is on his way back to that rehab hospital. If she can't get out in time, they'll meet each other. She doesn't even have her death scythe either."

My father frowned.

"Addy, we did all we could t' try an' buy her some more time, and it almost killed you."

"How much did we buy her? A valuable five minutes? He'll kill her! We can't just leave her like this after everything that just happened."

"He doesn' even know 'is bullets are fakes yet, an' maybe what just happened 's a sign that you should leave this fight alone."

"But he'll find out, and there's more ways he can hurt her, and he has someone else there!"

"I know, I know, 'er mother's there, too."

"No, another girl from my class! Her name's Amelia Spears, and she was the girl I was comforting in the classroom! I care about her just as much as Mara, and he has her too! I don't even know what he's already done to her!"

My father's face turned quite grave, even for a former undertaker. He swept his bangs from his face.

"You're right. There's one reason why we would keep Amelia Spears alive, if what I'm thinking is right. He can't be allowed to continue, and he shouldn't have even been alive up to this point. There's no telling what he's already done to those girls, and someone needs to kill him."

"So… what are you going to do?"

"Well, for starters, I'm taking you home."

"But-"

"No. I'm not letting him hurt get the chance to you again."

"Dad, you don't get it. I have to be there." I was desperate. I couldn't stay behind as Ellis was dealt with.

"I can't let him near you again. I saw what he did."

Something about what he said burned every muscle in my body. My eyes squeezed shut and my jaw clenched tight. I wrapped my arms around myself.

"No! No you didn't! Don't tell me that you saw what happened, because you didn't! You can try to protect me as much as you want, but please, don't act like you know what happened when you only came running after a gunshot!" I screamed until my voice was raw.

I had never, ever screamed at my father like that. He had an expression of pure shock, but not like when he was shot. That was simply a bodily reaction in the instant of his death. This time, his expression real and made in a completely conscious mind. It was one tinted with horror and sadness.

"He wouldn't keep his hands off of me for one second. He kept grabbing me and putting his hands under my clothes. The only time he took a hand off me was to move it somewhere else, or to grab a weapon. I told him some lie so he'd stop, and he shot me. I didn't know what to do. I felt so helpless and powerless." I said with a shaking voice. I forced the words out. They didn't want to be said, because saying them meant that it happened.

"Addy…" was all he managed to say. I started to panic. Was he angry with me? Ashamed of me? Oh, who wouldn't be ashamed? I was the daughter of the legendary Adrian Crevan, I promised to be Mara's defense if Ellis came here, but I couldn't even handle a perverted gunman, and it got my father and me shot!

"I'm sorry! I'm not mad at you! You came as fast as you could! I don't blame you, I just…"

My body started trembling as tears welled in my eyes.

"I just…"

I stopped trying and failing to complete my thought when I felt my father's embrace. It was slow coming, as if he was trying to give me time to tell him not to. I leaned onto him to show that I accepted his embrace, not having the energy to hug him back. My body barely moved aside from that.

His embrace was nothing like Ellis's, obviously. Ellis's embrace was like an animal trap or a beast's bite. It made me cry in pain, and the only thing in my mind was getting it to stop, or getting him to let go of me.

My father's embrace was different. It was the opposite, in fact. It was soft and warm, like a blanket of protection. The only thing I felt in his hug was love and understanding. It never made me cry, but it let me feel safe enough to cry, so I did.

Tremulous sobs racked through my body as I cried into my father's clothes until my voice was raw again. My father said nothing, but he soothingly rubbed my back.

"I blame myself!" I screamed, muffled a bit by my father's funeral robes which I was soaking with hot tears. "I told Mara that I could handle Ellis, and I thought I could, but I didn't do anything! All I did was beg, and cry, and just be another victim to him! That's why I have to go there! I can't let what happened to me happen to Mara or Amelia! I love them too much for that!"

"What that monster did to you isn't your fault, and don't believe that it was for a second. You did the best that you could have done against a man who is more demonic than the demons he claims to hate. You aren't just another one of his victims, because his victims have graves. You, my dear, sweet Adrianne, are a survivor, and to spite him and go on living is the greatest way to spite that monster." my father said softly, obviously hiding his fury at Ellis to make me feel safer.

"I shouldn't have let you go out to get those scissors. I should have known Ellis would be there, in Mara's room of all places. I'm so, so unbelievably sorry. I should have protected you, like a father should."

"No, no, you did the best you could. I love you, Dad. I'm so, so happy that you're alive." I smiled through through my tears.

"Aww, don't you remember what I said when you were little? I'd never die and leave my daughter all alone like that, especially not without outliving that scum that calls himself a legend." my father reminded me.

"Now, it's likely that someone at that hospital will have some injuries. I'll have to be less of a doctor in this situation because I want to kill him, so… you can come with me and help any injured there. That's all, and I'll make sure Ellis doesn't go near you. I promise you that."

I had helped heal the injured and save lives many times before, but this time, it would be my friends… no, my girlfriends, people who meant the world to me, whose lives I would possibly have to save. Still, it was the responsibility I had chosen in life to help those who are hurt, and if the people I loved were hurt, then I would help them just I would a normal patient; I would do everything I could. I also wanted to spite Ellis by making sure the people he wanted hurt and dead were alive and well. The thought of his failure at my hands made me feel that much more determined.

…I nodded, wiping away my tears.

"I'll do it." I promised.

My father smiled down at me.

"Good girl."

He took his scythe off the ground and put it away. He didn't need it quite yet. I packed everything I needed for immediate treatment of more severe injuries, especially wounds like that of a gunshot.

My father put one of his layers of funeral cloaks over my clothes, since Ellis had sliced mine partway down the chest with surgical scissors. The cloak draped heavily over me, but it was cozy.

"I jus' got ye back from bein' shot to death. I shan't have ye freezin' to death." he shook his head.

"Thanks, Dad."

With me at my side, my father told the receptionist that he was ending his shift for the night and we went out to the car. He was a rich legend, so of course he had a great car, and it didn't take long for us to park the air-conditioned box of two determined medical experts in front of the rehab hospital.

"This is where Mara probably is?" I asked my father.

"Most likely. Look, there are traces o' 'er father's demon form right here." he referenced a raven feather.

I went to the door, trying to open it only to find it locked.

"Boo. It's locked." I huffed.

"Stand back." My father said, withdrawing his scythe and striking the door down.

"Open sesame." My father giggled. "I'm glad there are so little people aroun' this place. Normally when people notice me, I can't catch a break. Meh, that's not important now, is it?"

"Not really." I stepped in, shrugging.

"Aww."

The floor of the lobby was splattered all over with blood, and the scent of it felt like a punch in the nose. I didn't have much time to take it in when I heard Mara's mother screaming. That wasn't a good sign, and my heart dropped when I heard what she said.

"MARA!"

We hurried down the stairs as fast as we could, and my heart dropped at what I saw. More blood then I had ever seen pooled under Mara's body.

I knew that she had lost enough blood that death was very, very likely.