No Control (Chris Motionless)

Chapter 45 - Blood Bath

Mackenzie and I exchanged a puzzled glance as he allowed the water to soak through his clothing. I was glad that he had at least had his shoes off, but I knew that I was still going to have to find him something else to wear.

"Kenzie, you don't happen to have any of Cody's clothes in here that he could borrow, do you?"

"I'll go check." She murmured before slipping out and leaving the door only slightly ajar along the way, leaving Chris and me somewhat alone.

Chris was silent as he wrapped his arms around his knees, hugging them to his chest while looking lost and somewhat dazed. The bloodstains on his outfit were now a murky brown and I couldn't see any fresh blood on him. I was still unsure if I should be the one checking to see if he was hurt and not the paramedics, but I couldn't stand the thought of just sitting here and doing nothing. I made a mental note to remind Mackenzie to call them whenever she came back in, but until then I wanted to see what I could find for myself.

"Hey, I need to check to see if I can find where you might still be bleeding from. Can you move your arms for me?" I request in the gentlest voice I can manage.

He was slow to do as I asked and when I had his drenched shirt open, I saw that his tattooed torso was perfectly fine. Our gazes then met and I found him giving me a look of terrified questioning.

I cupped his face in my palms as a tired sort of sadness began swimming in his brown eyes. "I need you to try to remember anything you can about this. Nothing is too small."

He seemed to desperately search his mind for any answers, but then he just shook his head. His expression became so defeated as he questioned, "You don't think I might have actually hurt someone, do you?"

I hastily shook my head as flashbacks of all that I had seen and heard resurfaced in my mind, trying to convince me to say otherwise. I didn't want to believe that he could do something like killing another person, I wanted to fully embrace my hopes that he was an innocent man after all.

So, I told him the only other thing that made sense to me. "This has to be that fucking cult's doing, this might be a part of their plan to frame you."

"Then whose blood is this?" He questioned while gesturing around to all of the blood smears he had managed to get on several places in the bathroom.

I then stole a peek at some of the blood I had gotten on me as well and resisted my urge to shutter as I mumbled, "I wish I knew."

There was a stiff moment of silence between us before I added, "This could still be yours though. We just might've not found the source yet."

"But what if it isn't?" He asked in a small voice. "Aren't you afraid of me now?"

I couldn't stand seeing Chris behave this way. His strong fiery personality was nowhere to be seen and only his fear remained. It felt so wrong to witness him behave like this, to watch him be reduced to something less than himself because of the actions of someone else. I struggled to find it in me at that moment to continue to think that he wasn't a victim in all of this too. These motherfuckers had made him question everything there is about his sanity now and I refused to keep playing along with it.

"No," I tell him in a firm tone. "but I am afraid of what might happen to you. I just found you, I don't want to lose you to this, not after all that we've been through."

At last, a ghost of a smile grazed his lips, somehow making it so tempting to kiss him.

"What the hell is going on in here?" Lea's voice suddenly demands from behind me.

I turned to face her as she gaped at Chris and me with confusion and distress written all over her face.

"Chris got hurt," I say, unable to come up with any other explanation.

"What happened to him?" She questions as she tries to peek around me. "Why is he in the shower like that? Is there something else going on?"

"Lea, listen to me. Mackenzie and I have got it taken care of. You don't need to worry about any of this."

"How can you expect me not to worry? There's blood everywhere and he looks fine!" She cries, throwing her hands in the air. "You need to tell me what the fuck is going on or I'm calling campus security."

I jumped to my feet at that begging, "No, you can't! Please, there's no simple way I can explain this right now, you wouldn't be able to understand. I just need you to trust me."

She stared at me like I had lost my mind and I honestly couldn't blame her, all of this must look like something out of a horror movie.

"Okay." She murmured, speaking to herself. "What is the logical thing to do right now?"

"Nothing about this is logical!" I snapped causing her to instantly fall silent. "If you had any clue what we've been going through you'd understand that! Now just leave this alone."

"Amber, I think you're in too far over your head." Lea points out in a much softer voice.

"You think I don't know that? I'm in too deep to back out now. Those people that attacked Cody, they're after Chris now, I'm sure of it."

"Don't you mean they've been chasing him since the beginning? What happened to our friend was because you got mixed in his problems!" She retorted as she motioned to Chris.

"Believe me when I say that none of this would've happened if it hadn't been for me. That cult has been after me since the minute they figured out that I was onto them, that part is not Chris's fault, it's all my own. They're trying to scare me into stopping my pursuit to put an end to their horrific cause, but I can't let them do that. Not when I'm so close now."

"I think this is starting to make you lose it. There's no way-"

I cut her off at that, "Oh, yes there is! You can ask Kamaria's mother all about the things they've done over the years. Anyone that has challenged them has been attacked for it."

"And what makes you think that all of a sudden you're going to be the one to beat them after all the time they've been at this?"

"I doubt that I will, but I have to try. I couldn't just sit around waiting for the possibility that they'd come to find me and Chris."

"This is all I could find," Mackenzie states as she pokes her head back in the room with a black t-shirt that appeared to actually be mine and a pair of dark gray sweatpants. "I think it's time we all get the hell out of this city for a while. Lea, would you mind getting Cody, Blake, and Kamaria in here?"

Lea gave her a perplexed look as she questioned, "Are you suggesting that we run away?"

"Just for a week."

"Is he coming with us?" She asked, her gaze flickering over to Chris again as she spoke.

"Of course he is," Mackenzie tells her in a matter-of-fact tone that swiftly turns softer. "Now, please, hurry and get them. I don't think we have any time to waste."

It seemed like she was going to argue for a second, and then she let out a small sigh, "If I'm not back in fifteen minutes, call security."

Once she was gone, silence fell back over the room and was only broken when the sound of shampoo bottles clattering in the tub erupted behind us. We both spun around to find that Chris had been attempting to get out of the bath and had fallen over yet again. I hurried over to his side to assist him and noticed that one of the shaving razors that had gotten knocked down had managed to nick one of his toes.

"Here, let's get you out of here before you actually do manage to hurt yourself," I murmured as I motioned for Kenzie to help me.

I couldn't stop myself from repeatedly eyeing the drops of his blood that fell onto the tile from his small cut and suddenly the contents of my pockets felt like they weighed a thousand pounds. There was one way I could find out if this was all real or not and finally put a bit of my worry at ease. I just needed a bit of fire.