ELBINA 3

Chapter 25

ELBINA POV

"Ella, get up." He pushes me on the shoulder, my chest heaving trying to get air into my lungs. Sweat clinging to my body from the exertion, my head hurting beyond belief.
"My head's killing me."My shoulders feel cold against the rope, the rough texture grating against my skin too. Even more so when Lucas shakes me a little, my eyes seeing him glance back at my opponent on the other side.
I roll my head forward, chin dropping onto my chest whilst rolling my wrists to examine the bandage neatly and tightly wrapped around my wrists. That hit to the head was unbelievably heavy, I'd only just managed to hold her off until the end of the round. Now, Lucas was trying to get me ready for the next. 
"One more round. You can't give up."His hand pats the side of my head gently, a smile on his face that's serious but really, I know he's a little worried. 

"Ella. We need to get you to a hospital." I snap out of it, glancing down at my hands that are no longer wrapped in bandages. Instead now they're clutching onto his top as he leans over me, lifting my head up to gravitate my eyes to his.
"I don't think I'll make it."
"Get over yourself, you're going to make it." This time when I open up my eyes again, he's pulling me up. Ignoring my painful breaths coming out hard between us, until finally I'm standing on my feet.
"The blood." It comes out quieter, he looks down too and at the trail of blood left behind me.
"It's fine, it's stopping. It didn't hit an artery." He says it like he's trying to convince himself, pulling open the door and moving us out of the noisy outside and into the building's staircase. Each step feels longer than the last, Lucas practically holding me up the entire way as I get used to the numbness in my leg.
My brain gets foggy, reminding of the exact same feeling I'd gotten that night in the alley. When i'd passed out and the next thing I knew I was waking up in a hospital. Now the same pins and needles are beginning to form in extremities again, I hate the familiar feeling.
Eventually we hit the open air outside, which is when I see the state of the building beside us. All that's left is the steel metal framing, the glass obliterated and gone as if it were never there. The inside of the floors bare and empty, smoke billowing from the depths of it as things begin burning further after the initial explosion.
There's no one around anymore, but the further we walk the more people I see who have limped away from the building. Blood covering most of their faces from the unexpected glass exploding out towards them, except they don't have anyone to help them get anywhere.
And we'd have stopped, I would have stopped but all Lucas does is push me on more. Sparing a glance in someone's direction as they scream and cry in pain.
"They're fine."
And maybe they were, they were in pain no doubt but they were still wide eyed and conscious whereas I was struggling to keep my eyes open. I stumble onto the ground again.
"Hey. Come on." I can't help myself, I vomit onto the ground below me. From the sick feeling that ebbs through my gut and the sight of the number of people who had been caught off guard by the sudden explosion. Numerous amounts of them sat on the pavement nursing the blood that trickled from their skin, someone holding their shoulder as if it had been dislocated from a fall.
"Ella. Please, keep moving. You're going to be fine. I just need to get you to a hospital now."
I stop again, leaning over myself in threat of vomiting all over again. "We should wait for an ambulance."
"I can't see you like this any longer."
"Hey, I'll be fine, right?" I manage a small smile, a sarcastic quirk to my lips in hopes it might alleviate the tension but it doesn't do that either.
He glances down at my leg and at the slowly ebbing blood flow, and then he looks at my face. My skin feeling tingly and starting to get a numb sensation.
My ears haven't popped yet though, so at least that's something.
He drags me forwards again and for a while, I can keep my legs under me. Until I stumble again, and I can't get my legs back under me.
Before I can stop him, he lifts me up into his arms and then he's carrying me, occasionally dropping his head down to check I'm still conscious.
Now I feel sick again, breathing heavier.
"Ella?"
I'm jolted more as he starts jogging, the world a rush of colours around me. There's no trees this time, the green replaced with grey on grey buildings and the ever growing number of people that swarm around us.
"We're nearly there, okay? Just keep looking at me." He looks down, catching my eye.
"I am." Closing my eyes inadvertently.
"No you're not! Look at me!"
"I am." It comes from my mouth as a mumble, my head slipping back over his arm as he holds me.
"Fuck." He runs faster, I know that because I'm jostled even more in his arms and his breaths get louder above me.
"Hold the door!" I wince against the loud shout, mumbles of people responding back as he rushes us forwards still.
Suddenly the noisy and bright outside is replaced by a just as noisy waiting room, the light now a mild yellow. It's warmer and less aggressive on my eyes though as I try to open them. They adjust to the change and I'm met with green watery eyes staring right back at me, a slow firm squeeze so he brings me a little closer to him.
There's a wobble of his adam's apple as he swallows. "We're here. You're okay."
My eyes drop to around the room, we're in a waiting room. It seems like hundreds of people are sat around or talking to the people over the desk. Separated from the public by a thick clear glass screen, all tucked away behind computers. Each tapping away quickly, a bustle of staff moving back and forth behind them quickly. The crowded room means people are shouting over each other in a panicked state, pushing against each other but all Lucas does is push past all of them. His eyes leaving mine till we're right up at the window having moved through the crowd and pushed the person in front of the window out of the way. A grumble earned from everyone we pass, not that Lucas seemed to care at all.
"You need to help her!" He shouts to the women across the screen.
"Sir, there's lots of people who need help right now. Take her to the back of the queue  and we can-" She gets cuts off.
Lucas turns partly, so my bloodied leg is in full view and I watch her face drop a little.
"She doesn't have time for queues. So hurry the fuck up!"
As if just the sight of that and my face as she glances at me, she jumps into action. Calling for help as Lucas is guided past the waiting individuals who blatantly stare at us passing them.
Guided through doors and back into a long hallway lined with a multitude of beds. Two identical lines of them opposite each other but on the left is a section cut off from which nurses and doctors bustle around quickly. The entire ward is a rush of noise and action that made it clear why the waiting room was so busy. We keep up with them, hurried footsteps just to keep up.
"What happened?" Someone says to the side of us, a drift of conversation between them as we round another corner.
He hesitates, looking back down at me. "She cut her leg on some metal." My fingers clench harder onto Lucas' top when I feel someone touching my knee, knowing they were looking at the massive tear of flimsy skin.
"Anything else?"
"She got hit in the head pretty hard too." I want to say that Lucas got hurt badly too, but I struggle to say anything . I'm not sure if I open my mouth to speak that I won't just vomit everywhere.
Suddenly Lucas pauses in his step before he's shouting across the hallway.
"Riley!" A sound of relief and panic edged his tone.
Cutting off anything more that the person was saying beside him.
He starts waving to a woman dressed in light blue scrubs down the hallway. Her brown hair tied messily into a bun at the top of her head, frays of hair sticking out in every direction as she runs a hand over the top of it. She looks stressed, flustered but the minute she hears her name shouted through the hallway she pauses in her long step. Her head turned to us, a surprise on her face until her eyes readjust to seeing us. I feel Lucas drop me down to the ground, but I lean inadvertently into him with sweat soaking the back of my neck the more I breathe.
"Lucas?" She walks closer, "Bloody hell, were you near the explosion?"
He nods, pulling me along with him to her.
Her eyes flicker over to me, I can't hold her gaze for very long. Looking too much on one thing is a little hard at the moment.
"Are you alright?" He brushes off her worry, pushing me on further.
"I'm fine, but Ella isn't."
"Is this - ?" She says in almost a whisper, and he nods.
She quickly gets to my other side to help lead me down the hallway. Until she finally drags me into a ward, each bed separated by a thin curtain.
"I'm sorry." He mumbles it into my ear when I hiss from being lifted onto the bed, my wound stinging against the air.
Almost immediately, Riley and other people begin working on me. Lucas pushed back a little, my hand reaching out desperate to know he's still there but all that happens is someone grabs my hand and starts stabbing in a catheter. Hooking me up to fluids that are set up beside the bed to my left.
My heart rate picks up, reminding me of the hospital that I'd sat in for too long. How empty and lonely I'd felt staring at that godforsaken wall. Jab after jab through different parts of my body, and he's still not there. I still can't feel anyone there and it's terrifying.
Eventually, a familiar hand wipes the sweat from my forehead. The callus' in the usual places so his rough hand is perfectly recognisable. It lets me open my eyes again, swallowing the dryness in my throat and looking up at his expression that's screwed into worry looking back at me.
They keep talking around me but I don't care.
"You're okay." I can't smile back though, wincing as the doctor starts messing with my leg. My eyes flick down to her, cleaning the wound and examining it. I have to grab onto Lucas a little more, bile rising in my throat again at them moving the free skin at my knee.
In the corner of my eye, I see Riley stick a needle into a part of the IV line. Her eyes concentrate on it as she injects the clear fluid in, and I watch her fiddle as she pulls it back out again. She's confident in her movements but a thought strikes me the more I look at her and at my surroundings.
I grab hold of her wrist as she pulls away, eyes matching mine suddenly like she didn't expect it. I had to get it out before I fell asleep.
"Has there been anyone in with a stab wound?" Lucas cuts me off and anything that Riley might have said too.
"Stop thinking of that asshole and focus on yourself! You don't need to worry about him anymore." He says angrily but I shake my head at him.
"If he's here. She'll come for him." The minute the words leave my mouth he freezes, realising that I'm right. That he knew if there was a chance that someone out there knew what happened, then she couldn't hide anymore. She'd need to make sure Nero was dead so that he couldn't utter a word.
"Riley. Has there?"
"It's Manchester." She shrugs, "There's probably one or two. Especially with everything going on outside."
"Yes. but within the last hour? I need to see him if he's alive."
"I'll have to go and check."
"I'm coming."  I try to sit up but I'm pushed back down almost immediately by Lucas who just gives me a stern expression.
"No, Ella. You stay here. I'll be back as soon as I can." I would have argued, but again. I don't think I could get up from this bed even if I wanted to.
And so I don't say anything more, I only nod back at him.
Watching him follow Riley away from my bed.
But not before he gives me one last final look until he passes the curtained dividers and he's gone.

LUCAS POV

I follow Riley out, sparing a quick glance behind me to Ella. Her pale face was shining with sweat and a doctor sat there beside the bed, stitching up her leg.
She didn't pay attention though, she had her eyes on me and that was the last thing I saw before I passed the curtain and into the main hallway.
"What happened to you?" Riley says, looking back to check I'm still following her.
I shake my head, "It's complicated."
And I didn't want to explain it either.
"Lucas." She sighs.
Once at the computer she turns to look at me, a hand resting on the desk beside it.
I shake my head at her, standing my ground and knowing that if I could keep her out of anything more then so be it.
"Riley. Thank you for everything you've done for me but you don't need to know. I need your help with this one thing but I don't want you anymore involved then you already are."
I jut in before she could argue with me, "I just need to find this person Riley."
"But I could help." Of course she'd want to, it's her nature.
My experience in all of this has taught me that the people who want to help the most, they're the ones that get hurt the worst. I think it's because they expect people to care back, to share the same values as them and they'll receive a bullet in the head for that.
"You're helping enough, and what you did last night in letting me stay...You saved my life but I'm not letting you risk yourself any more." It's so tense between us I need to break it up, she looks like she's accepting it at least. "I also don't want to be killed by Ben if I let anything happen to you."
A brief smile falls on her face, turning to the computer as I stand behind her.
"I wouldn't put it past him." She mumbles, and I smile myself.
She starts typing quickly, alternating between the keyboard and the mouse in quick succession.
"Right... So there's... three in the building at the moment."
"When did they come in?" I prod, leaning closer to her.
"Give me a second." She mumbles, tapping more as she muddles through it all. My eyes fall on the people looking at us in suspicion as they pass us, until they realise Riley is at the computer at least.
"We won't know his name, will we?" She said, glancing back at me.
"No." Shaking my head.
"That explains the John Doe then." She says, clicking on the screen again until she turns to me in accomplishment.
"Found him, I'll show you where he is." I stop her as she goes to walk on, grabbing her arm till she gives me a raised eyebrow.
"No. You stay with Ella. Just tell me where to go."
She tries to argue, about to defy me until I shake my head cutting off any other words she might try to say. "Do you know if he's conscious?"
All I get back is a shrug of her shoulders, and so I jump past her after she explains where the room is. My strides long and quick across the hallway and before I turn the corner I shout back at her.
Her eyes matching mine, "Look after her for me!" Thankfully I get a smile and a nod back which gives me the comfort to turn away, running through the halls.
Once I've located the room, I almost pause in my step. Staring at the solid edges sealed shut, separating me from him, if it was even him.
And for a brief moment, I don't want to go in because I didn't want him to have survived... which is a terrible thought, but that doesn't change how I feel.
Seeing him murder that guard in cold blood, the way he snuck up behind him and shot him right in the back of the head. It was cold, sickening and I can't believe he was so close to Ella as he did it.
And he'd planned on letting Ella go to Arden, made her trust him and put her life on the line as if she didn't matter anymore. I don't care what they had over him, he put himself before her and that's not something I can forgive, even if he saved her life today on that street.
I know that if he hadn't of taken that knife, then Ella would have been taken at that exact point.
Then again, it's not exactly like we made it much further in the end.
But I won't forgive him.
He's done too many things, out of selfishness more than anything.
And he's tried to kill Ella.
There's no way on earth I'd forgive him after that, It didn't matter what he did from now on.
Eventually I get the courage, pushing down the handle and walking in before I can stop myself.
And as expected, there's Nero laid out on the bed. Hooked up to the machines and an IV line dripping fluids gradually back into his body. Gliding through the plastic line from the bag hanging from the hook above the bed to the catheter placed into the back of his hand.
His eyes widen as he sees me, confusion and relief in his expression.
I let the door shut behind me, thudding into place and closing off the rest of the hospital noise from us.
He stares back like he doesn't know what to say to me, and I grow more angry because he looks normal. I think back to Ella not five minutes ago and how I'd felt her legs drop below her, how her face paled the more she looked back at me.
She didn't deserve that.
And Nero didn't deserve to look okay. I wanted him to suffer, like he deserved to.