"Please don't hit me!" I sobbed as I whispered. My eyes were firmly shut as fear groped my existence.
"Brooke!" I heard Lucas yell. However, I still wasn't convinced. I opened one eye as I peeked to look at his form. He was out of breath, and I knew because he was just as petrified as I was.
"Lucas!" I cried, unable to hold myself together. He was quick to fall by my side as he enveloped my side in his muscular arms.
"Shh, it's okay. I'm here now!" He whispered as he gently stroked my hair.
"L-L-Lucas, I lost Haley and I don't know where she is. I sprained my ankle yesterday and then I got cut by some glass! So I can't get out of here." I tried to utter a comprehensive sentence, desperately attempting for him to understand everything.
"Brooke, it's okay! Everything will be alright!" He said while holding me in his arms and stroking my hair frantically.
"Luke..." I whispered, sobbing harder as I buried my head deeper into his neck.
"Brooke, we've got to get you out of here. Somewhere safe. Come on." He said grabbing my arm and trying to get me to stand up.
"No Luke! I can't walk. I tried!" I told him desperately.
"Okay... we'll just hide." he said while looking around. I knew what what going on in his head. He was worried that the shooter would come in and attack us.
"I'm going to go try to block the entrance, make it more safe. We'll just wait for help to arrive. Okay?" He asked. I nodded my head frantically as pangs of fear and pain groped my body. It was as if I was nodding my head more to convince myself more than him.
"Brooke, don't worry. I am not going to leave you. I am going to Save you this time. I will save you!" He spoke in a desperate attempt to convince me, to make me hope that everything would be alright.
So there we sat, behind the bookshelf, closely huddled waiting and praying for somebody to get us.
"What are you doing?" I asked, lifting my head from Lucas' shoulder as he started taking off his shirt.
He didn't answer, he just unbuttoned his shirt to reveal a plain white tee inside. Before I even had the to welch and groan in pain, he tied it around my ankle as tightly as he could. I was still bleeding profusely. However, I avoided looking that way. I didn't want to know who deep I had wounded myself.
Another eternity had passed by then.
"I'm tired, Luke." I whispered weakly. My head was lolling in a lopsided manner and fatigue was completely overpowering me.
"Yeah, but you gotta stay awake, alright?" He instructed me in a concerned tone. I barely managed to nod my head to answer him. A tingling was making its way around my body and it felt rather comforting to just give into the mystical feeling.
"Talk to me about... tell me about a good day." He made up on the spot in a lame attempt to keep me up.
I slowly inhaled and let out a heavy exhalation.
"We had a snow day... sixth grade. Do you remember?" I asked him. He instantly nodded and smiled as the memory played in his mind as well. "It was like this whole other world just came in overnight and took ours away. And you, came over. Remember the snow fort we made?"
"With a tunnel." He chuckled as the sound of laughter rang through memory lane.
"And we stayed inside there all day. And it seemed so safe; like... everything was okay. Like everything in our world was about to become; maybe we could just stop it. And stay little kids for one more day. But then it got cold... kinda like now." I said in a cranky tone. "They're gonna come now."
"Who?" He asked, completely confused.
"All of them; the reporters... and the psychologists and the analysts and the so-called experts. And they're gonna try to make sense of this. But they're not gonna be able to. And even if we do make it outta here, we're always gonna carry it with us. Just like the baby we both lost. It will be a hole in our lives forever. It's never gonna be the same." I said as a steady stream of tears made its way down my cheeks.
"It's not glass, is it? In my leg." I breathed harshly and focused on him properly for the first time in a while.
cautiously)
"No." He answered cautiously while shaking his head. "It's a bullet."
I took a sharp intake of breath as I mentally prepared myself to die. But how do you even do that?
"Now I may have to get you outta here, okay?" He continued. "But nothing will happen to you. I promise. I am going to save you this time Pretty girl. From everything."
"If I say... I love you, right now; will you hold it against me? Coz I've lost a lotta blood." I said looking away. He gave me a goofy grin which was ironic given the circumstances.
He quickly moved closer as his lips gently touched mine, giving me a new tinkly sensation to add to the one I was already feel prior to the kiss.
"Just in case you can't keep your promise." I smiled.
And thats when I felt my breathing become shallow as the tingles won over me and put me into a sweet and cozy slumber.