Beyond Her Final Breath (Book 1- Shadowland Duology) | Wattys2015

.Chapter Twenty-Nine.

The whole world seemed to drop as Evelyn's body hit the ground: Nate fell to his knees beside her, the gun tumbled out of Blake's numb fingers, and Nate's heart plummeted. Nate was numbly aware of Aeron crashing back into the clearing, but he focused instead on Evie. 

Blood seeped out of the hole in her stomach, staining the grass beneath her with a dark red. The blood almost appeared black. Urgency hammered in his veins as he fished the phone out of his pocket. 

No service. 

Of course. They were in the middle of nowhere in the back hills of West Virginia. He threw the phone to the side. 

"Evelyn?" His voice was hoarse.

Her eyes fluttered open. A single tear slipped from the corner of her eye and fell into her hair.

"It hurts," she whispered. 

A lump grew in Nate's throat. "You'll be fine." The words had issues going around the lump. "I'm going to fix you up and then we'll get help."

His hands trembled as he pulled the hem of her shirt up. The cloth stuck to her skin from the blood. His fingers skirted the edges of the wound and she hissed. 

He tried to calm himself. It's no different than hunting, he told himself. He'd seen bullet wounds multiple times. It was part of living in West Virginia, but it had always been in deer flesh, not human. 

Nate heard frantic yelling behind him as he put pressure on her wound to stop the bleeding. 

"I swear- I mean- it was an accident!" Blake's voice was desperate, and Nate could just picture him clinging onto Aeron's arm. 

"We need to get help," Aeron said, voice sounding calm and assured if you didn't know him. But Nate could hear, plain as day, the panic hidden beneath his words. 

A cool hand grasped Nathan's.

"Nathan," she whispered. 

Nate leaned in closer and touched her face gently, like she would break with the slightest pressure. 

"I'm scared."

Nate swallowed hard. "I am, too. But you're going to be okay."

Evelyn closed her eyes and nodded, like his answer pleased her. She opened her eyes and said, "If I'm not going to make it, tell my family I love them."

He shook his head. "Don't talk like that."

She gave a weak, humorless laugh. "Even you know that when you lose so much blood, there's no going back. And you're kneeling in mine. Even I don't have anything in my pockets this time."

She was right. Her pool of blood had grown at an alarming rate, and Nate was covered in it. It streaked up his arms and legs; it was stuck under his fingernails. 

Her eyes wandered from Nate's face to the darkening sky. She inhaled and death rattled her chest. Her pupils became pinpricks in a sea of hazel. 

"I'm sorry."

Her last words panged Nathan's heart. Her hand relaxed on his before falling to her side. Cold. Limp.

Dead. 

Nausea rolled in Nate's stomach and he puked off to the side. Her eyes were empty. She was gone.

Trembles wracked his body. He couldn't tell if it was from fear or horror or sadness or rage. Maybe all of them. 

He shakily got to his feet and spun around. His vision tinted red. 

"You."

His piercing gaze landed on Blake. 

"It's your fault!"

Nate balled his hands into fists and lunged. His fist connected to Blake's jaw with a sickly thud. The tender skin over his knuckles split and stung.

The Nathan before this would've been different. He would've ran off his anger, like he did with all unwanted emotion. But this Nate no longer cared. 

Blake stumbled backwards, and anger flared in his eyes. He threw a punch of his own towards Nate's gut, but he twisted away. 

"You killed her!"

Blake ducked. "It was an accident." 

With an anguished yell, Nate tackled him to the ground. the air left Blake in a pained grunt. Nate kept throwing punches, his split knuckles leaving smears of blood. Good. 

Hands grabbed at Nathan and pulled him off. 

"Nate! Nathan! Stop!"

He stopped his struggling and wiped his hands. 

Blake stood up and spit a wad of red onto the grass. A bruise bloomed on his jaw, and Nate was sure there had to be more under his shirt. 

"Look, Nate, it was an accident."

Nate turned on Aeron. "No it wasn't. You didn't see! How could you say that?"

He shot a glare dripping with poison at Blake. 

"But how could he be a killer, Nate? We've known him for most of our lives."

Nate shrugged away from Aeron's hand on his shoulder. "He killed her, and now she's dead."

Aeron shook his head. "No. I can't believe that. It had to be an accident. Blake is not a killer."

Nate wanted to believe that, desperately. But he cast a glance over at his dead girlfriend, and his resolve hardened. He had to let someone know.

Nate jumped to his feet and dashed to the trees. Bad decision. He may have the stamina to outrun Blake, but Blake was always the best at sprints. 

He grabbed Nate by the back of his shirt and pulled him to the ground. Thump! Hazy gold dots blurred his vision as his head slammed into the ground. His vision cleared and he tried to scramble to his feet. 

A boot came flying at his face, and he barely had time to turn away. Pain exploded behind Nate's eyes. He submerged into a hazy kind of consciousness, where everything felt like he was under water. Distantly he heard arguing and then the sensation of being dragged. 

His head throbbed. The scent of wet leaves surrounded him. He finally slipped into unconsciousness, his dreams filled with gun shots, blood, and two words: I'm sorry. 

So what do you think happened between Blake and Evie? Let me know in the comments below. Please vote and comment!

-Sophia