The Wretched and Divine {Black Veil Brides}

14 - Nobody's Hero

    Waking up and realizing that for once one instant in your life was working out in your favor is a sensation that I would not chalk up to mere butterflies and sweet kisses.  This wasn’t like that, not like the stories I had read in libraries made only for the rich and accessed by me only because I worked for the ones with money.  Our tale was one forged in blood, loyalty and tragedy, a bond that couldn’t be easily broken. 

    His warm chest was slowly rising and falling, eyes still shut while pale skin was marked by bruises and blood.  We hadn’t had anything to clean up with so gore from both him and others, the red dried to a deep brownish black.  I didn’t move, head resting against him and body relaxed for the first time in years.  My hand draped over his hips, fingers dangling lackadaisically while muscles begged me not to move; they were busy repairing, trying to fix the damage done to me last night.  Face was throbbing, but I was numbed by the heat radiating off of…Andy’s flesh.  It was a little difficult to make the name transition, but I liked the word so much that it was hard not to say it.  Shirt was tattered, tattoos that had obviously taken some time peeking through.  His dark hair framed his face, lips slightly open while ebony lashes brushed against his cheekbones.  I wanted to reach up and touch him, somehow wanted his eyes to open so I could see those beautiful baby blues, but knew he needed the rest.

    Nonetheless, I knew I would die fighting for him before I ever gave in and the fire he had stoked in my heart would never go out.  I had never felt such a flame before, such a passion for anyone except for my brother.  I had loved Antonius with all my heart, not in the same way I felt for Andy but still.  Perhaps this fleeting instant was the reason I had lost my little brother, the boy I had cared for like a mother since the day our parents died.  Maybe he knew the revolution would be stoked in part because of my fury, an anger that had no boundaries. 

    Fate has a funny way of doing things.

    I wasn’t the girl from before the battle though, too much death to stay the same and too many lost.  It was headstrong and stupid of me to have done what I did to rescue Andy, but I knew that if I hadn’t, I would’ve regretted it for the rest of my short, miserable life.  Inexplicably, I had started the revolt, the battle and had been the cause of all the dead bodies now stinking outside of the hovel we resided in.  How had I gone from meek sister to avenger and blood drunk fighter? 

    Andy stirred and groaned, obviously starting to wake but feeling the stiffness I had.  His eyelids peeled back to reveal those cerulean stones which glanced down at me.  I smiled.

    “Hey.”  He grinned, white teeth stunning even with all the gore on his face.

    “Hey.”

    It was dumb to find love in the middle of a battlefield, stupid to think that we could make it when there was little hope for any of us.  We knew the army was coming, the rest of it and if we didn’t cut the head off the snake, all of us would be destroyed.  Somehow though, I couldn’t feel like it matter much because at least he was here and I was here and something mattered other than our dead friends. 

    “It’s quiet,” he remarked.  I nodded.

    “Probably not for long.  Something is bound to happen today.”

    He nodded absently, his eyes closing as he sighed and anticipated the hurt that would soon come with moving.  I dreaded it as well, not wanting to stir from the position I sat in now.  My heart was full, my thoughts silent for once and in that instant I could have died from happiness.

    All but for the screaming horse that now interrupted my daydream.

    “Eagle.”

    I was on my feet in an instant, dashing from the hovel with all my might as adrenaline poured into my veins.  Breath rushed out of me in heaves, fingers finding the nearest weapon to me as I continued to search frantically up and down the bloodied cobblestone streets.  Our soldiers littered the area, weak and wounded barely able to hold their own but I knew there had to be others nearby that were not so tattered.  My ears pricked as the sounds of men crying out hit me, breath sucking in as I ran as fast as I could in that direction.  I didn’t know what the hell I was carrying nor did I care.  Something was wrong with my horse, with the friend that had rescued me from the angel of death what seemed like only hours ago.  I could not let anything bad occur, couldn’t let anyone harm him.