Hold Me Close | Kellic

Chapter 37

She almost landed an attack on me but I swiftly stepped aside, letting her attack the air next to me.

"Could you at least tell me your name?" I continued to shout over the battle cries I was engulfed in. The annoyance within her seemed to rise even more at that question.

"I'm here to kill you, not make conversation with you," she growled.

"Oh. That's just rude," I said and swung my sword at her although it appeared that her reflexes were just as brilliant as my own.

"I think swinging your sword at someone's head might almost be equally as rude," she said, lunging towards me.

"Look who's talking," I replied, side stepping her and making my way behind her to then haul my sword up and swing it at her from there. I swiped my sword through the air between us then stopped it a split second before it made any contact with her skin.

"I told you, I don't want to fight you. Half of us here do not wish to fight," I said sternly. It was important that I made her believe me, even if she was only one of thousands.

She looked down to the ground then moved the tip of the blade of my sword away from her. How she seemed so calm, I don't think I'll ever understand. She sighed, "Hayley."

I raised an eyebrow at her.

"My name's Hayley," she was back into action as she lifted her own sword up in turn and pointed it towards me, "It's only polite that you now tell me yours."

I smirked, "My name is-"

"-Justin?"

I paid no attention to Hayley anymore, which could have been fatal considering that would've been the perfect opportunity for her to kill me, and turned to face the direction I heard my name from.

Gabe stood there with a woman in front of him, holding her in place with his dagger held to her throat and I knew he would slit it at any moment if need be.

There was no way that I was letting him slit Lindsey's throat. I left Hayley and ran towards Gabe and Lindsey, pushing Gabe away from her which resulted in him landing on the floor due to the surprise of me doing such a thing to him.

"Justin, I wasn't going to kill her. I was trying to tell her that I didn't want to fight but she wasn't listening," he said and I really believed him but still, I got Lindsey to stand behind me as I shielded her from any danger.

"Gabe, this is Lindsey," I told him. He stood up, complete and utter confusion washed over him. It took me a moment before I realised that I had never told him about Lindsey. I looked over my shoulder back at Lindsey who was clinging onto me, she had no idea about what Gabe and I were either.

"Lindsey is my partner. I guess you could say my lover, my wife, my.. I'm with her," I told him and every word I used to describe her felt so wrong now. My lover, my wife, that was Gabe. I didn't even care if he was a man and that we weren't married. He was my damn wife.

"You.." Gabe started. I could hear it in his voice that he felt absolutely disgusted. Betrayed. Hurt. Abandoned. Lied to. "You made me think you were in love with me! Not anyone else, me!"

This really wasn't the time for this but there would be no other time, "I know, I know, I'm sor-"

"- you what?" Lindsey said from where she still stood. I turned around to face her.

"No, I didn't do anything. Gabe and I were-"

"- you and I were what? Nothing? Is that what you're going to tell her?" Gabe hissed and I turned my attention back to him just to promptly be spoken to by Lindsey.

"So you were something?" Lindsey said, she too slowly becoming more and more hateful towards me. How love can change so quickly.

"Yes but no. Not really."

"Not really?" Gabe enquired.

"It's not the time for this!" I screamed at the two of them.

"There won't be any other time either!" Gabe screamed back at me as he ran towards me, dagger aimed at me. I was too shocked at his intentions to even process what he had in mind and just stood there and watched as he ran.

"Watch out!" Someone called from the left of all of us but I don't think they were warning me about Gabe, as fast as he was approaching, rather an attack was being aimed at the both of us and by the time the attack reached us Gabe would be close enough to me that he'd be in range of it too.

I pushed Lindsey away from us to try and assure her safety but that didn't give Gabe and myself enough time to dodge the attack. My mind was racing and my eyes kept darting between Gabe and the many arrows that had been launched at us. I didn't know what to do. I had to save Gabe. He had to somehow get out the way. For whatever reason he hadn't realised what was happening and was still charging at me, either that or he was so intent on killing me himself that he didn't care if he went with me.

"I said watch out!" The same person as before called. The arrows were on us now or at least I thought they would have been but when I shielded myself and Gabe with my own body, no arrows hit me. All I heard was someone's body that had arrows sticking out of it all over, fall to the ground in front of us.

My eyes widened as the realisation of what had just happened finally hit. I didn't know where Hayley was, I didn't know if Lindsey had fled, I didn't know if Gabe was still by my side, all I knew was that Jack's unconscious body lay before me. I collapsed to my knees and stared at my friend who was no longer moving.

I didn't care if someone had tried to kill me whilst I was vulnerable like that. If Gabe still hated me and wanted to hurt me the way I hurt him, then I would have let it be. A friend had just died for me. He died for a very unworthy cause.

It was funny thinking that. We were all dead. All of us. No one here needed oxygen and yet we were all capable of meeting a death, possibly worse than our first encounter with it, for a second time. What it was that awaited you on the other side, who knows. Maybe I wanted to find out.

I looked around for Gabe, to see if he saw what I saw but when my eyes fell upon him I saw that he was focusing on a new opponent. All he did was everything but look in this direction. That was probably the best thing to do.

Jack had fallen with his eyes open, staring into empty space. Ignoring all the fighting and screams around me, I brought him closer and rested his head on my knees as I hovered my hand over his lifeless eyes and closed them. He looked almost peaceful.

For a long while, it felt like I wasn't capable of moving. When Gabe fell from the chains and was left unconscious for those few days, it felt like I had been caught in an abyss of regret, guilt and loneliness but this was different. A dear friend may not even open his eyes again.

I thought all this pain of watching someone you care about depart was meant to have ended once you greeted death.

Staring upwards at the sky, where my home once was, my mind drifted to the two who had the outcome of this war as a burden on their shoulders. Hopefully death wouldn't chose to step forward to them again.