Loser II || WlW

Thirty-Seven

Brittany doesn't say anything, just freezes, holding a fresh piece of gauze between her fingers.

"Brittany?"

She doesn't react, just bites the inside of her cheek.

"Britt, what are you thinking?" My words are urgent now because even though she won't speak, I can read her expression. Can feel her energy shift from angry to compliant as she throws the gauze down and wipes a tear from her cheek.

"If you keep losing blood like this, you could die," she says. "I can't just..." She shakes her head.

"Brittany, stop," I beg. I try to stand, but she clamps a hand against my shoulder and holds me there.

"Jordan, I swear to God." She smiles through the tears. "You need to stop moving."

I take her hand in mine. "Brittany, please just give it time. I... Zachary has the attention span of a squirrel. We can wait him out."

Brittany forces a small smile and kisses me on the forehead. "Try to relax. I'll go talk with Grace and Donna and see if we can come up with something."

I'm about to protest when she holds a finger over my lips. "He knows we're easier targets when we're divided. He's trying to pin us against each other and it's working. Let me fix this."

My eyebrows pull together. I can't keep the smirk from my face. "How, exactly, are you planning on fixing it?"

Brittany shrugs a shoulder. "What? You don't want me to sleep with all your exes?"

We laugh but the movement makes my shoulder throb. I clutch it, hoping to smother some of the burning in my flesh but it only makes it worse and I end up hunched over, grinding my teeth together and trying to breathe through the pain, thinking back to Brittany's running joke about how she wanted to sleep with my ex-manager, Andrew. I never thought I'd be looking back at that time in my life, yearning to go back to it.

Brittany crouches and takes my face in her hands. "I'll be right back," she tells me.

A nod is all I can manage. If I open my mouth to speak I might throw up or worse, pass out again, and then I'd have no way to keep Brittany safe.

I can't remember when I managed to lean back against the wall. The motion makes it feel like my shoulder is ripping in half but the building is swaying so violently, I can't hold my own head up any longer.

I try to say something, call out to Brittany but I can't tell if the words leave my lips or not. The three of them are standing in front of me, speaking amongst themselves but I can't make out what they're saying.

"Brittany, stay away from them." I try to sit forward, grab her hand but I can't see straight, can't keep my balance on my own. The figures blend into one and disappear entirely. Were they in front of me at all?

The door of the shed slams closed, snapping my attention to the space where Brittany, Grace, and Donna were standing before but they're gone. Everyone is gone.

How long have they been gone for?

I push toward the door as fast I can, but I must look like a joke as I stagger out into the snow, clutching my stomach with my good arm as it does summersaults and forces nausea into my throat. I can't force my other arm to cooperate at all and decide to let it dangle by my side as I jog.

Grace has one of Brittany's arms twisted behind her back, and her hand is twisted in Brittany's hair as she pushes her forward, toward Zachary and Roger.

"Brittany!" I scream but I can't keep up with them, can't even walk a straight line anymore.

Donna glances over her shoulder and rushes back to quiet me.

"Let it go," she snaps and grabs my wrist. But even the slightest touch sends a jolt up my arm.

I suck in a sharp breath, hit my knees, nearly blinded by the pain.

"Brittany!" It takes every ounce of strength I have to get the words out. "Brittany, run!"

But she doesn't. From this distance, I can't tell how hard she's fighting back but it looks like she maintains her composure as Grace hands her over to Roger who towers over her and looks like he could snap her in half with ease.

"Why'd you do this?" I cough. I can taste copper on my tongue.

Donna kneels in front of me. "She's trying to save you, babe. Stop fighting it."

"No." I'm crying. I want to scream. Everything I've worked so hard to protect. Gone. In less than a second. "No, please. Get her back. Please."

Zachary's with us before Donna can respond, pushing her to the side.

"What happened? What's wrong with her?" He's shouting, his eyes flicking from my shoulder to my face and back. He pulls a handgun from his belt before Donna can respond and holds it to her head. "What happened?"