Let Me Hold You //Apply Fic//

//chapter .15//

Corben raced through the edges of the forest, emerging into the fully and shining glory of the sun, it's heat lending to the sweat starting to drip and form on his forehead, the raggedy breath sticking from the thickness of the air.

Maylea clung to his back, small whimpers echoing in his ears each time he turned or jumped, making a part of him shrivel inside with every small noise she uttered.

There was grass, suddenly, leaping up from his calfs to now his chest, shining and whipping against his skin as he ran, voice breaking as he called out again. "Kai? Kai!"

The screaming was still printing through the air, or was it just his mind playing tricks on him? Were these heartbreaking sounds coming from Kai, who Corben had never seen frown, let alone cry, or just a part of this twisted game that had been forced upon them? This had to be the game. This had to be some side quest, something different, something undoubtedly not real, because he couldn't imagine what could possibly be drawing out those shattering sounds from one of these people, these friends.

Could he call them friends? They did not fit the mold of the people he rode with at school, all bad decisions and speaking out, with him as the only voice of reason. But they were also a far cry from his only, his truest friend, the thought catching his breath in his throat, until he was choking on childhood grief and worries, the screaming filtered out into background noise.

Corben was sitting stiffly in a hospital room, the couch too enveloping, too comforting this position. His eyes were trained on a doctor, trying desperately to explain something to his parents.

His mother was wailing, screaming, a wordless sound of utter grief, his father was motionless, stone, the only revelation of emotion was the trembling staring up in his hands, tucked behind his back.

Corben was no longer listening to the doctor, but was instead staring at the empty bed, sheets still wrinkled and bunched in the shape of a nine year old girl, an orchid that he had just picked that morning on the floor, petals splayed out in evidence of its forgetteness.

He was choking on tears, unable to breathe, two words, two terrible words repeating, stuck in his mind. "I'm sorry." There was only reason for an apology in a hospital. Something had gone horribly, dreadfully wrong.

His sister should have been there on that bed, smiling and chatting with him. She should be there, not that girl shaped emptiness.

His mother was still screaming.

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They were dragging her away. She should have expected it, honestly, should have known from the sound of it all that he was not the only one there in the grasses with her.

But seeing him, seeing her brother, blood smeared across the lower half of his face, knocked her defenseless against all of them when they grabbed her. They didn't even both to shut Kai up, and once again, she reminded herself that this was not real, that this could not be real, that she was in no danger at all.

But the thoughts in her head, and the feelings of everything else convicted to harshly, the stinging feel of the grass, the too tight grip of their hands around her arms as the marched her on and on. She didn't know how she was still screaming, but when she tried to stop, the sound continued, but it was not her voice this time.