Chapter Twenty-Two
~ Death the Kid ~
Despite the sound of my skateboard roaring through the street, I could still hear Soul calling my name behind me, as he tried to get me to stop for the slightest moment.
But I continued to push my way to the hospital, only daring to stop as I saw it on the other side of the road.
Flashing lights eagerly drawing my attention as the police car that had passed us, rested motionless in front of the building.
I was reminded of her blood. And how it had once stained every single one of my surroundings. Even the walls of the ambulance she was placed in. How red was just - everywhere.
Doctors and nurses stood on the outside of the hospital, looking towards a smashed window in complete terror as well as shock. Glass staining the ground on the outside.
"What…" Soul breathed. "Liz!"
Whilst I stood there frozen, Soul ran on ahead. His arm wrapped tight around his skateboard, and his jumper tugging at his neck with every time the wind tried to pull him back.
I stood there trying to work out my way through the hospital, rethinking the directions I had taken everyday I went to visit her. But every time I did, I remembered how that smashed window was located in her room.
My heart was racing like wildfire inside my chest. But not once did it boil my veins.
"Maka!" I exclaimed as I ran through the entrance.
The ginger haired nurse from before turned abruptly to face me with concern. Her pale freckled hands shaking slightly as she watched me walk deeper down the corridor.
"Where is she?" I asked.
She didn't answer me. Instead she turned away to face the room that was opposite Maka's. Her eyes glistening as if tears had once formed there.
Before I could take another step, my blonde haired friend had stormed from the doorway.
"Soul, what's go-"
His fist cracked hard above my lip. Skin splitting and blood shedding as I stumbled to the ground, dropping my skateboard beside me.
He gritted his teeth. "This is all your fault!"
The ginger haired nurse quickly ran to my aid beside me as blood streamed down my chin. Drips of red staining my grey vest, with every second I remained on the floor.
"What the hell!" I yelled. "What are you talking about?"
His jaw clenched tightly, his eyes bursting wide with fury. Making me somewhat fear - him.
He grabbed my arm. "Get up!"
"Wait!" The nurse shrieked from beside me. "Let go of him!"
The blonde haired boy forcefully pulled me from the ground, quick to tighten his grasp as he dragged me into the room he appeared from.
I struggled to grab the doorframe, staining it with blood as I eventually managed to grasp a hold on it, and remain balanced as I entered the room.
"Look at her," Soul ordered.
Bruises stained Liz's cheeks, blood marking her lipstick smudged lips as well as dying her brown hair. Cuts consuming her tanned body and hand marks forever bound to the skin around her throat.
One side of her hair was longer than the other from the disappearance of her hair extensions. Brown strands tied and torn to suggest how they had been ripped out, and plucked from her head.
Her hands showed struggle. Her pink chipped and broken nails stained with blood and signs of defeat.
And I couldn't help but smile.
She lay there completely breathless. For once she was silent. And it was beautiful. Like the world was free after it struggled to escape the grasp of her.
Soul gripped my arm. "What the hell are you laughing at?"
My lungs were on fire with laughter. Happiness bursting through my veins with every second I remained standing with them in that room. My heart racing with nothing other than hysterics.
"Stop it!"
My arm collided hard with the wall as he shoved me, the edge of the wall clawing at the muscles inside my body. Like everything other than my best friend wanted to destroy my existence.
"Sorry…" I chuckled. "But do you honestly expect to sympathise?"
His fists clenched angrily at his sides, his knuckles pinching white as his nails pierced his palms. Like he was now the one with the anger problems.
I stepped towards him. "You want me to pretend?"
He turned away from me, his eyes fixating themselves on the brown haired girl's motionless body. As if he told himself to look at her once more, and she wouldn't look like that.
I knew because I tried that - all the time.
His face was inches from mine. "If you were really my mate, you would know how much of a dick you're being right now."
~ Maka ~
I held my knees tightly to my chest, clawing at my kneecaps with my blood stained nails as I sat there in silence. Waiting for time to pass faster than it already was.
"Kid…" I sighed. "Death the Kid."
His name tasted sweet against my lips, like the more I'd say it, the more that sweetness would have an effect on me. And attempt to turn me away from the virus I was to this world.
I was unable to tell whether or not the rain was stopping, or if it was pouring faster than before. All I knew was that the sky was crying, and I was trying to survive beneath it.
My wrists had stopped hurting, but occasionally I turned my arms over to check if the wounds were still stained there. And not once had my stupidity seeped itself from my body.
"Kid…" I shivered.
Goosebumps stung at my body, defying my existence with the evidence of my flesh stinging with the cold. But I still remained frozen to the tree I sat against, because I knew if I were to move the slightest, I wouldn't be able to cope with the weight of my own body.
I didn't know where to go. I was stranded within my directionless presence, with no sense of where to go next.
Home hadn't even dared to cross my mind, and I knew that if I were to take a single step back in the hospital, they'd accuse me of being insane, then god knows what would happen.
Everything was drifting. Drifting either away from me, or towards me at an unbelievably slow pace. And what hurt the most was that I couldn't see both of what was coming and going away.
I didn't want Kid to leave me, but I knew that if I got too close to him, I'd end up hurting him as well as myself.
And I couldn't do that to him…
~ Death the Kid ~
The nurse told me everything that happened, and how she practically threw herself through the window, and how she had to be pulled off of Liz's unconscious body.
But despite the fact how everyone thought she was crazy, I still continued to search for her. And there was no way that I was planning to stop. I didn't want to.
My lip throbbed as I rolled back through the town, repeatedly using the back of my hand to wipe away the fresh blood that was streaming down my chin.
I continued to push off of the ground until the tall buildings had vanished into parks and fields. The both being deserted as the rain continued to pour.
Time was drifting away from me, and the thought that she could be anyway was slowly proceeding to take control of my body.
But no.
I didn't dare to stop.