The Unexpected

Chapter 27 (Pt 2)

She reached out slowly; I watched her shaking hand, my eyes crossing as it inched closer. And then I realized what she was doing. “Tia, no!” I cried, thrashing around as much as her weight allowed me. “I wonder how long it'll take him to get over you,” she repeated robotically. “Who does fate favor now?”

“No!” I screamed, then gasped as soon as I felt cold fingers wrap around the soft skin of my neck like a frozen vice, but it was too late.

Tia slid one knee to rest in the middle of my chest, pressing my body harder into the dirt. Automatically my free hand pulled at hers, needing to get free. Needing to breathe. My lungs started burning almost immediately, but Icouldn't satisfy the fire. Tia's grip was too tight, and I was quickly becoming too weak. I couldn't breathe.

Details from Aaden's dream flashed through my thoughts. He said he couldn't breathe, that he could feel hands scratching at his throat, just like mine was. But his was only a dream; but I didn't have his ability and I couldn't wake up. Darkness danced along the edge of my vision, and even though I couldn't see his vision, an image of a tombstone flashed before my eyes.

I refused to die like this.

That thought opened a reserve of strength kept hidden somewhere deep inside of my body. Call it instinct, or even anger, but right as my lungs finally gave out and the last of the air escaped from them I curled my fingers into a fist and hit Tia as hard as my position allowed me. She cried out, one hand coming off my neck to try and balance herself. Her weight on my arm teetered off long enough for me to wrench it free and give her another forceful shove, and suddenly I was free.

I rolled over, pausing on my hands and knees long enough to gasp in lungfuls of air that burned cold and wet in my lungs. Raindrops pounded the dirt around me, turning into mud that covered my hands.

Tia was standing now, but couldn't take a step without sliding in the mud. I quickly jumped to my feet, ignoring the overbearing vertigo that coupled with movement, but paused mid-step when I realized Tia wasn't stumbling toward me, but something to my right. I followed her gaze to find the knife laying a few yards away.

Tia reached out, and without hesitating any longer I lunged for the weapon.

One second too late I stood where the knife had lay. One second too late, and Tia had fumbled with the slippery, mud-covered handle. If I had been one second faster, she wouldn't have swung around, holding the blade out.

Only one second too late, but I was falling.

Tia stood frozen, eyes not moving from the blood covered blade, like it held the answers to any questions you had. Questions like, why am I on the ground? Or, who is screaming?

Red dripped off its curved tip, and just like that my questions were answered.

My shrill scream had to have carried half a mile, but Tia merely shifted her gaze from the knife to me. Or, more specifically, to my stomach. And then she was just... gone.

I pathetically attempted to push myself up, but my arms were too wobbly, the mud that was quickly turning red was too slippery. I fell back to the ground, curling into a ball on my side. Another question pounded to the beat of my heart, to the pulsing pain in my head: Why did my stomach hurt so badly?

I pressed a hand to my abdomen and brought it in front of my face. Red. So much red that covered my fist and flowed freely from where blade had pierced flesh.

I bit my lip, trying not to scream, trying not to cry. But the pain was so intense, the thought of death so impossibly horrid that I couldn't hold back the sob that choked from my bruised throat. I don't want to die like this, I thought, and pushed up. This time, my arms held out. I took a shaky breath and tried to stand, but fell back on my elbows.

Baby steps, then.

Gritting my teeth and sending up a silent prayer, I traded on elbow for hand, then another, until both palms were sinking into the ground. As soon as I tried to move the lower half of my body, however, my bleeding torso brushed against the ground. White hot pain flooded my senses; my arms faltered beneath me, and my body came crashing back down.

My defenses broke like a dam, emotions flowing like waterfall, and I screamed. Maybe because of the pain, or the thoughts of regret, or the feeling of helplessness. Maybe it was resent for Tia, who had been the one to thrust the blade into me, or even blame for Zach for being unfaithful to her in the first place.

Whatever the reason, I screamed, loud and long and full of grief. And as soon as my voice grew hoarse and gave out, I cried.

I'm not sure how long it took for me to become silent enough to hear the leaves rustling in a tree close to where I lay, strength fading quickly. My first thought was that Tia was coming back to finish the job, and I held my breath, not wanting to give myself away. But then I saw his face.

Aaden, I thought, because words were too hard to form. Then, something amazing happened- he saw me.

Aaden's eyes met mine and I couldn't help but smile weakly. Even when they were wide and scared his eyes were beautiful. He had run to my side, kneeling in front of me, shaking my limp body lightly, but I just stared, entranced by blue and gold and how his lips moved when he spoke my name.

“Ricki,” he said. The words were whispered, but they were too loud in my ears. I winced, and Aaden's eyes slid over my body, searching for injuries. They lingered on my stomach, but gave away nothing as to what he was thinking. Peeling his hoodie off, Aaden pressed it down on the wound, concentrating intently on every move.

I was going to have to buy him another hoodie later, I thought despite having already calculated the chances of there even being a later. They were slim.

Even though his movements were gentle I couldn't help but gasp when the material touched the bare skin around the rip in my dress. Aaden stopped, watching me. “It's going to hurt, but I need to stop the bleeding,” he said, using one hand to smooth back my hair. Even though it was cold and the rest of my body was shivering sweat beaded on my forehead.

He didn't say anything more, just pressed again. I tried not to make a sound.

My mouth opened to form his name, but it was starting to hurt to even take a breath. The word came out as, “Aid...”

“Shh,” he soothed, adjusting the hoodie. The other hand continued to stroke my hair, pausing to pick a leaf the strawberry blonde mess. Aaden's eyes distractedly stayed on me, but my eyes focused on his hoodie. Blood was already soaking through it.

It wasn't working.

“Aid,” I tried again, “Aad...en.”

He blinked, and then followed my gaze. “It's not stopping,” he said, and for the first time his face showed his fear.

My eyes drooped; I felt my head loll to the side. The movements were beyond my control. “Aaden,” I choked out, and suddenly my state of numbness vanished. My back arched and I cried out as the pain invaded once again.

“Ricki,” Aaden nearly yelled. He slapped my cheek lightly. “Open your eyes.”

And then he was scooping me up in his arms, but my eyelids had slid closed on their own accord. My gut clenched as Aaden ran, but I was slowly becoming numb again. I went completely limp.

“Ricki,” -I tried to open my eyes, to look at him, just in case it was the last time, but my body wouldn't obey- “Baby, stay with me. You're going to be okay. Stay awake, Ricki!”

I'm trying! I wanted to scream, but my mouth was too dry, my breaths too shallow, my throat too sore. I wanted to tell him not to be scared, that everything was going to be okay, that I was just going to take a quick nap. I would wake up the next morning, Tia would be caught, and everything would be okay.

Normal, I repeated to myself. What a nice, relaxing thought.

"We're almost there," Aaden said, but I was already okay. My head lolled to rest against Aaden's chest one last time before I surrendered myself to the release of sleep.