Another shot was squeezed off, but missed him thanks to the protection of the whirling wind. Topaz felt the bullet whir through her hair and heard it slam into something in the forest. There was an unearthly howl.
Then, the house was between them.
Law was gasping for breath and staggering. Topaz put her hand to the wound on his chest and he whimpered in agony. His gait faltered and his shoulder smashed into one of the pillars on the porch. He went down on his knees still clutching Topaz protectively to his chest, bent over her, and coughed violently. Blood ran from the corner of his mouth and dripped off his chin onto Topaz's upturned face.
"T-Trafalgar," Topaz whispered and though her voice was stolen by the wind there was endless concern in it.
Law coughed harder and blood oozed beneath her hand where she was pressing on one wound. Blood trailed down the other side of his mouth, dripped off.
Behind them, Bellamy barreled out of the house. His was limping, clutching his knee. Maybe Law had broken it.
"Trafalgar!" She shouted.
Gunmetal grey eyes shot open and stared right into hers. Then, with his last dregs of energy or some form supernatural willpower, he heaved himself to his feet. He set Topaz down, steadied her, and then whirled around to face Bellamy.
"Law," Topaz said and gripped the back of his shirt. She tugged lightly on it. "Don't! Let's go!"
"Miss Topaz," he whispered. His voice was snarled and broken with pain and fear. "You have to go…please." He coughed and wheezed, more blood dripped onto the floor as thick and dark as red wax.
Bellamy was lifting the gun, but aiming past Law to Topaz.
"Go, Topaz!"
Bellamy pulled the trigger and Law slammed into him from the side. The bullet whizzed past Topaz's head and she stumbled backwards into the banister. She might have stayed to fight Bellamy with Law, but her slave suddenly lurched backwards and crashed into Topaz. She fell backwards over the banister and fell into one of the bushes below.
"Go!" Law shouted.
She caught of glimpse of his face and he looked like a dying demon. His mouth was painted shiny and crimson-red with blood, running from either corners of his mouth. His eyes were framed with deep dark blue shadows, making his eyes glow in the dark. His dark hair hung in his eyes and in wisps across his face. His chest and back was a mess of blood and it was dripping off of him in streams.
Bellamy looked pissed off and his brow was drawn with pain. His dark black eyes were molten, sharp and fiery with hatred. His blond hair was plastered to his face with sweat. His face and clothes were smeared with Law's blood. "Topaz, if you go, I'll make this slave feel what I was going to do to you tenfold!" He threatened and grabbed Law by a fistful of his thick hair.
Law let out a snarl of pain.
"No!" Topaz screamed.
Law dug his fingers into Bellamy's wounded knee and the man howled in agony. Law managed to get his foot into Bellamy's gut and kicked him backwards as hard as he could. Bellamy slammed into the house.
Law hacked, gripping the banister tightly to steady himself. He looked down at Topaz. "I can't hold him much longer. You have to get out of here! Please, go!" he gasped. "I can't…" His sentence broke out in heaving coughs.
Tears welled in Topaz's eyes. "No! I'm not-," she whispered.
"Please!" Because he could only ask. he couldn't order her.
"But–"
He coughed into his hands, more blood coming out, and it was alarming her. "Maybe, if you really want, you can come back for me…" He hit his knees again and a pool of blood began to spread out around him. "Come back for me… if you really want to, Miss Topaz. But right now… I need you to… go!"
Topaz bit her lip, staggered to her feet, and ran. The last thing she saw was Bellamy lifting the gun and aiming for her, but Law leaped to his feet. She saw his body buckle with the force of another bullet slamming into him.
Then, Topaz was in the woods and she couldn't see them anymore, but as she ran, she heard more gunfire.
…
It was dark and cold in the woods. Branches lashed at her face, tearing scrapes and scratches in her skin. Her brace caught on brambles and she stumbled, almost falling, every couple steps. Cold rain soaked her to the skin and burned her cuts. Small animals scrambled in the underbrush, fleeing from her as if she was the monster. Thunder crashed as loud as gunfire and lightning lit up the woods.
Finally, Topaz stumbled out onto the road.
Headlights were coming through the darkness of the storm. Topaz waved her arms and screamed for the vehicle to stop and, surprisingly, it did. Most drivers wouldn't stop for a rain-soaked blood-spattered young woman.
"Topaz-chan!"
The door flew open and Marina stepped out. Immediately, her dark locks were plastered to her neck and her clothes soaked through. Ryou was peering at Topaz across the center console, his face white and his green eyes bloodshot.
"Marina-chan?!" Topaz shouted over the wind. There was an unpleasant little sob in her voice.
Marina engulfed her friend in her arms and hauled her into the back seat of the car. "Ryou-kun, take the wheel! Start driving. Get us out of here!"
"No!" Topaz screamed, deafening Ryou as she lunged over the seat. "No! No! Law is still at the house! Bellamy is going to kill him! We can't go! No! No! No!"
Marina dug her fingers into Topaz's shoulders and dragged her back against the seat. "Sit down, Topaz-chan!" She slammed Topaz's seatbelt across the young woman's lap and wrestled her crippled leg into a better position. "Take a breath! Ryou-kun, get my cell phone and call the cops. Head to Topaz-chan's house, but try to stay hidden in case Bellamy-teme is coming around."
"No! Hurry! Step on it!" Topaz shouted and fought Marina trying to restrain her. "Hurry! He's been shot! Bellamy shot him!"
Marina said to Ryou, "Get the paramedics, too, and hurry! Pull right up the driveway!"
Ryou stepped on it, swerving across the wet road. He fetched Marina's cell phone from her purse, punched in 9-1-1, and shouldered it to his ear. "I need police and paramedics to, umm…" He glanced desperately at Marina in the rearview mirror.
She took the phone from him and continued, "1594 Wavecrest Lane."
"Stay on the line with me, please, ma'am. Can you tell me what happened?" The dispatcher asked in a calm and cool voice. "Ma'am?"
Marina glanced at Topaz. The young woman was tearing at her cuticles, peeling back the flesh and pulling on her fingernails as if to rip them out. "I… I don't really know. It's my friend's house. I was on my way to see her and she came running out of the woods into the middle of the road," Marina confessed.
Ryou turned sharply down Topaz's street, squinting through the rain to spot her driveway, jouncing over potholes and a few fallen tree branches. Then, tires squealing on the gravel, the car hydroplaned. It fishtailed, spun, and for a split second a huge tree loomed in the bright headlights. Ryou slammed on the brakes and swerved to the side, but to no avail. Then, the car slammed into it head-on.
Marina didn't have her seatbelt on. Her head cracked against the window, breaking it, and then she crumpled into the space between the seats.
Ryou was stopped by the airbag, lolling like a ragdoll against it.
Topaz, belted securely by Marina to keep her from getting over the seat at Ryou, jerked hard against the seatbelt and bounced her forehead off the seat in front of her. Her hair hung around her face in a caramel colored curtain. She saw ribbons of crimson making its ways through her tresses. Her stomach heaved and pain speared through her head.
Through the heavy rain, Topaz saw her mailbox and bright headlights coming down the driveway.
The last thing she saw were droplets of blood dripping from her hair to her knees and rolling down the side of her leg.
Then, everything went dark around her.
...
Topaz woke up in a white room with hideous wallpaper and a big black television mounted on the wall. Her reflection was a skinny sick-looking little girl on the shiny obsidian screen. She was lying on an elevated bed, propped in a nest of pillows with a white blanket drawn up to her chin. Her face was the same shade at the blanket and her eyes were sunken way back in her head. Her hair was fanned out around her head, greasy and stringy with dark dried blood. A gauzy curtain was separated her bed from the rest of the room. There were no windows.
Hospital.
Hospital.
Hospital.
"Trafalgar?" Topaz whispered.
Then, she lurched up in bed, gripping the side bar tightly with both hands. It was ice-cold. The IV and monitor wires hung off her skinny arms and she quickly unhooked herself from everything. She had had a lot of practice escaping hospital equipment when she was with Bellamy and he put her in the hospital on a weekly basis.
She peered over the side of the bed. Her brace was nowhere in sight, but there was a wheelchair patiently waiting for her. She struggled with the bar for a moment, finally got it down, and then jostled herself into the chair. It was lower and less comfortable than the one she had at home, but it rolled and she wouldn't have to walk.
She reached out and pulled the thin curtain back.
Marina was lying in the other bed. Her dark hair was spread out across the pillows and plastered to her neck with sweat. The entire right side of her face was one black swollen bruise. Her brow, eyebrows drawn tightly together and mouth pressed into a thin line, was wrinkled with troubled dreams or pain.
"Marina-chan," Topaz whispered.
The door to the room opened and Ryou stepped in. He looked pale and there were faint yellow-green bruises on his face and a big bloody split in his lip. He had a slight limp and a few Band-Aids plastered across his hands.
"Topaz-chan," Ryou said and he sounded surprised to see her up.
"Ryou," Topaz whispered and her voice was thick with tears. "Is she going to be okay?"
Ryou looked at the floor. "She has a concussion. It's bad… She's in a coma."
"Will she wake up?" Topaz whispered and gently touched the back of Marina's hand. Her skin was cold to the touch, and the shiver that ran through Topaz was a mix of chill and fear. Everything in her life was a downward spiral…
Ryou shrugged and then his shoulders slumped into a rounded curve of sadness. "They… don't know…"
Topaz sniffled. "Oh God. I'm so sorry, Ryou-kun…"
"I'm alright," he whispered and stepped close to Marina's bedside. He looked down at her troubled expression and gently touched her cheek with the tip of his finger. "I just wish she didn't look like this. She looks like she's suffering."
Topaz put her face in her hands, sniffled, and then found some deeper resolve. "What about…?"
Ryou was already shaking his head.
A lump formed in Topaz's throat. "He's not…?"
Ryou shook his head again.
"He's alive… It's just…"
"He was shot! Where is he? I need to see him!"
Ryou was shaking his head again. "Topaz-chan…"
"Where is he, Ryou-kun?"
"Topaz, they… the police… they couldn't find him…"
"Couldn't find him?" Topaz whispered. "You mean…"
Ryou nodded. "Bellamy took him."
"But he was so hurt…without medical attention…" Topaz choked on her tears and her voice broke. "Oh, God, Ryou-"
Ryou nodded.
Law was…
Law was probably…
Law was probably dead.
X X X
Didn't really alleviate any cliffhangers there, did I? You poor people…
Questions, comments, concerns? Is there anything ya wanna see? Anything I need more of, less of?