TWISTED ꜜ LOUIS PARTRIDGE

⟾ 19 | PHOENIXES

LOUIS🗡

Saturday, 12:24pm

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GETTING SHOT A FOURTH TIME WASN'T SO BAD.

It hit me in the side, right below the ribs, and I felt the sting of pain skyrocket up my skin and towards the nerves in my brain. I never could get used to it. Left you feeling like you were about to lose everything, and the future was turning grey with uncertainty.

But I didn't mind the risk.

What was more important was knowing that I saved her.

Maybe she didn't need my saving—I knew she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself, since I'd seen her strength countless times before—but I felt this was the one thing I needed to do. I didn't see it in an arrogant way. I didn't see myself as a good person for it.

All I hoped was that she'd know she was worth saving.

So as I felt my body falter from the hit, I let my back hit the floor, my eyes blurry with pain. A gunshot wound was worse than a punch. I could feel the bullet searing through the layers of my skin, burning straight into my body and setting my blood aflame.

"Louis!"

She called me by my first name.

I hated it when she did that—especially now, when she said it in front of two of the most dangerous criminals in the eyes of the SIS. I hated the way my name rolled so effortlessly off her tongue, as if she'd been saying it every day of her life. I hated it. It made me feel like she knew everything about me when she didn't.

But it brought me a sense of peace, for some odd reason.

Hearing her whisper my name over, and over, and over, and over again, hovering over my limp body as she willed me not to fall asleep. It was enough to make me forget about the pain for just a second.

"Louis..."

Ash.

I wanted to open my mouth and tell her I wouldn't leave her, but before I could muster the strength to form my words, a hand grabbed the back of her shirt, and she was wrenched off of me.

There was a scream, followed by the flash of a dagger's blade, and suddenly chaos reigned. The girl suppressed by her parents was gone now, and the Ash I knew was back. Even though it was getting hard to see through the fog of my eyes, I recognized the fire she brought with her, constantly begging for a fight.

I had to help her.

We were a team, now.

Groaning, I slowly lifted myself off the floor, my hand pressed onto the wound of my gunshot in an attempt to stop the blood from draining out. Hell. I need to suck it up. I can let myself die later, I just have to make sure she lives first.

"Ash," I called out, holding out my hand.

She flipped around, her hair messily strewn over her eyes as she blocked a punch from her mother. She looked surprised that I was able to stand, but knew what I was asking. Ducking another blow, she slid the dagger out of her hand and sent it skidding across the stone floor towards me.

"Thanks," I said, picking it up, "shall we?"

While Martha was off battling her daughter, Robert seemed to have noticed that I had resurrected from my wounds and was prepared to obliterate him out of pure malice.

Charging at me, he aimed for my face, but I swiftly dodged to the side, digging my elbow into his backbone. Did I want to stab him? Yes. But I wasn't going to do anything reckless without Ash, so I suppose the dagger would have to serve with other uses.