BLEED WITH ME [ETHAN LANDRY]

TWENTY TWO - "Lyds, what did you do?"

TWENTY TWO - "LYDS, WHAT DID YOU DO?"

When Ethan Landry woke up in a pool of his own blood he was all alone. His eyes had fluttered open and rather than being greeted by the darkness of death he'd grown familiar with, he found his eyes squinting and adjusting to the dim light of the concessions stand.

The darkness was gone and he was alive.

How the fuck am I alive?

"Lyds?" He forced out, "It didn't work..."

Only silence replied.

"Lyds?"

The boy rolled onto his shoulder, clutching at the wound written into his chest and he reached out for her, but his palms only came back to him with a handful of air; that was the moment he realised his Lyds was gone.

He searched all around him, as if he'd lost something so small, but there was nothing, only him and a dying Chad lay alone in a dark room.

He felt such pain, and he felt so so fucking shitty. He thought about the idea of his love having abandoned him and he cursed himself for conjuring up such a cruel and selfish thought. He'd brought her into his world of bloodshed, he'd taken everything from her that he'd worked so hard to help her heal, and yet he was the one questioning her right to leave him?

He'd taken it all. And he knew, she had every right to run, and yet he still felt sorrow for the world he'd grow to know without her.

He'd saved Mindy for her but he knew that was little reward for the chaos he and his family had ensued upon her. He'd taken Chad and Anika and bid Sam and Tara to die. He was an asshole, the biggest of his name. Perhaps even bigger than Amber had been to her.

But still he yearned for her, as he always had done, but on much more of a spiritual level than when he'd first stalked her; he loved her, and that was the beginning and end of their story.

He had to find her. He had to make sure she was alive. He had to kill his family. If it came to the choice of her or them then he finally had his answer.

It would always be his Lyds, once, ten times, a million times over. It would always be her.

"Chad? You alive?" He called out softly, forcing himself into a sitting position.

The dying Meeks could hardly force out a word through his pain, but somehow he was alive and conscious once more. At the sight Ethan almost felt the old part of him, Chad's best friend, smile from beneath the surface.