Lockdown

Chapter 12~ Hudson vs. Rosalie

"Rosalie? Rosalie! Deaf much? Freaking hell, Summers, you supposed to tell people when there GLASS in your LEG." Frantically, without any thought for justification, I buttered her pale face with light sharp taps, trying to bring her back into the land of the living.

Kneeled above her unconscious form, with the library's occupants all staring my way, I felt very much like Jesus about to do a healing. However when Jesus was going to go all mystical on the blind man's ass, I don't think his voice would have been aiming for the next octave and his hands would be leaving sweat marks on people's faces.  The hair in eye thing though, may have been a realistic and, let's face it, a complicated problem that was homogenous.

"Hitting her isn't going to help, Romeo. There's nothing wrong with her face." The librarian whose name I really didn't know, shuffled towards me, leaving poor itty bitty Hudson and the other itty bitty of Hudson all on their lonesome.

I ignored her, focusing frantically on reviving Rosalie. "Come on," I muttered, smoothing back her frown lines. "Wake up." My heart gave another suicidal leap, tottering over the buildings edge and plunging into icy blackness.  "C'mon." I whispered, desperation creeping into my voice. "Don't make me give you mouth to mouth."

"Don't she would enjoy it too much." Suddenly, librarian was next to me, eyes crinkled as she looked at Rosalie. "We have to get the glass out." She murmured to herself.

"Is Rachel okay?" I turned towards the voice, Hudson's voice apparently. He was sitting up again on one of the bookshelves, leg stiff in front of him.

"Who the hell is Rachel?" My voice was nearly as high as I was, the adrenaline and panic like my crack. I could feel every single cell buzzing around my body like they had full strength coffee.

"Rachel, you know..." He pointed behind me. I knew it was Rosalie and Librarian lady without turning around and quite frankly, I didn't want to. Because there were some pretty gross fleshy noises coming from behind and Hudson had twisted his ugly mouth into an ugly grimace.

"That's not Rachel, dimwit, it's Rosalie. ROS-A-LIE." I emphasised every syllable, trying to get it through his thick skull.

"I'm not stupid!"

"Really? Could have fooled me."

"At least my dad isn't a drunk."

"Wow, Genius."

"Clever insult, where do you get it? Hand-me-down insult store?"

"Obviously the same place where you get yours because, ouch, that burned." I would have continued slinging my obviously superior social banter but the high pitched scream that rung out the library washed the pettiness from my mind, and with a blinding freaky-out-ed-ness caused my head to snap behind me.

Rosalie was awake; her eyes wide and clear with pain. Her curls were matted to her forehead with sweat and one slender hand clutched her calf, just above the gigantic gash that left her leg looking like she had been trying to finger paint with her shin.

My stomach dropped when my eyes wrested on long slither of glass that rested on the grey library carpet. It was clear and sharp, stained with blood and something white and stringy decorated the tip. I swear my face just got crossed off of the blood supply list.

Librarian lady was getting a bandage from the battered first aid tin beside her, making shushing noises at Rosalie as she whimpered and gritted her teeth. All I could do was stare helplessly at her, motivation not as strong as my surprise. I couldn't move. I was frozen.

Rosalie met my gaze, her murdered leg shielded by the hunched form of library chic. Her eyes were mournful shades of blue, darkened by the screams she was trying so hard to keep inside of her. I gave her a smile. It wasn't a very good smile. It wasn't even a reassuring smile. In fact it was the smile someone gave you just before they had their nervous freaking breakdown.  Nevertheless Rosalie returned my ill-fitting smile with one of her own, the small quirk of her lips removing the tension from her shoulders and smoothed the wrinkles on her forehead. Her eyes even lightened a fraction of a shade.