"As in an explosion, I would erupt with all the wonderful things I saw and understood in this world."
~Boris Pasternak
———
Our feet pounded against the concrete of the driveway as we made our as fast as we could away from the house. My heart pounded in my chest so hard I thought it might break my rib cage. My bare feet were already becoming covered in thick dust as I clutched onto Tom's hand, trying to keep up with him and the way he hurtled.
I looked back at the house for a moment, struggling a bit as I was being pulled from the other direction. Everything inside was going to be lost and it was far too late to get everything. I had no idea when the explosive was going to detonate but it was soon, and if I went back in there, there was a high chance it would go off and I would die.
We managed to get halfway down the long driveway before the loudest noise I had ever experienced rang through my ears and I could feel my body being thrown across the concrete by the force of the explosion. My hand had slipped out of Toms and I could feel that he had experienced what I had. My eyes shut closed as I felt my entire body crash against the ground, my ears hearing nothing else but painful ringing that seemed to cloud everything else.
The collision of my skull against the ground sent a pounding across my head. It felt like my heartbeat had traveled to my head and had amplified tremendously. I pressed my eyes together tight, trying to brace a slow hand against the side of my scalp, trying to ease the pain that was surging it's way all across my head. My brain felt like it had been reduced to mush with how hard I hit the ground.
I could hear the vacant sound of the house crumbling to bits as the destruction of the detonation took its toll on the building, bringing it down to dust. The thundering effect of large rubble hitting the ground as each part of the architecture found itself breaking away from its design and finding its final moments in demolition.
My eyes tried to focus on the pale gray beneath my fingertips which ached as if they had all been bruised. My vision seemed to bounce back and forth in blurring waves. I let out a deep groan as I laid my head back onto the ground, letting my body rest for a moment as I tried to regain my consciousness. It felt like it took my entire bodies energy just to lift my head up, even a little bit.
So tired.
I opened my eyes a little bit, ignoring the dull ache in my forehead to try and get a look at to where Tom was. I tried scanning my eyes to where I was facing, but I couldn't see him. He had fallen on the other side of me. I wondered if he had been knocked unconscious. I couldn't understand how a bomb small enough to fit into a little gift bag was able to cause such a blast.
Why did Candy give us a bomb?
She was trying to kill us. Just like everyone else.
"Darcy!"
"DARCY!"
Tom's figure kneeled itself in front of me, his hands gently placing themselves all over me in a worried manner as he made quick action to check if I was okay. I couldn't help but stare up at him with heavy eyes that welled with water, feeling relieved that he was alright. I felt my stomach twist at the sight of blood running down his eyebrow, he had been injured.
He tilted my head and placed two gentle fingers to my cheek and pulled away and I could see blood staining his fingers. I frowned and slowly raised a hand to my check, cringing at the stinging pain all cross the side of my face where I had hit the ground. I guessed I had scraped my face against the concrete and now my face was bleeding.
I placed a weak palm against the ground, trying to get myself to stand up. He placed his hands under my forearms, helping me to get up onto my feet. I held onto his shoulders as he scanned my eyes for moment as if trying to see if I was really alright after being thrown across the pavement.
"Are you okay? Hey, look at me." He placed a gentle hand against my unharmed cheek, his hand cold against my skin. It made me want to place his hand against my wound to get some sort of relief from the cold but I knew it would be useless, and he would end up with blood all over his hand. I instead placed my hand over his and nodded, keeping my eyes on his.
"Good, good. Come on, we have to go. Everything's gone, we'll be killed in a second." He said quickly, moving grab my wrist and pull me down the driveway, now covered in dust. He turned to rapid walking into a jog, and then a run, where I found myself trying to keep up with him, even with the aching pain that vibrated through the soles of my bare feet.
I glanced back at the house, it was nothing but dust and rubble.
There was nothing left but a frame of what used to be there. Every memory I had made within that house was now left inside my brain. The day I woke up, Tom helping me shoot a gun, Harrison almost driving into the wall, meeting Robert, the pool, the kiss.
I forced myself to face forward, following Tom in the direction we were going. His hand was strongly gripped on my wrist, trying to pull me as fast as he could away from the streets. I wanted to take a moment to stop, get my head to stop pounding. My feet ached and the tar of the road did nothing but make it worse.
Two cars passed us, both of them filled with concerned passengers who looked towards us as if we had just fallen out of the plane that had become stuck in the sky. Their eyes were wide and assessed our bloodied states with expressions that said, 'I want to help you, but you might hurt me.'
I could see Tom wanted to reach his hand out to try and stop a car, but if he did, there was a chance that the person driving that car would possibly be put into danger, but he knew he had no choice, so he stuck his hand out, his hand slipping to hold mine as he tried to get someone, anyone's attention.
"Hey, hey!" He shouted, waving his hand about, yet cars still seemed to pass by us, ignoring our attempts.
I could hear the distant sounds of police sirens and the horns of fire trucks that seemed to be coming our way, it appeared that someone had already notified the police about the explosions, or they had seen it themselves and were on their way to investigate. Tom seemed to hear the distant sounds just after I did, and he cursed under his breath.
"We can get help from the police." I offered.
He shook his head. "We can't."
I frowned. "Why?"
"We just can't."
I trusted his judgment. At the beginning, I didn't believe him when he told me that he knew more than me, but after everything that's happened, all the gun fights, the blood shed, the bruised knuckles, he's the only person I trust right now. Even getting into the car with someone from the street could he potentially dangerous.
He gripped my wrist, inciting a gasp from me as he suddenly pulled us both in front of an oncoming taxi, sticking his palm out in front of him as he got them to stop, ignoring their angered shouts at him for recklessly stepping in front of a moving car.
"What're ya doin? You psycho!" The Taxi driver yelled, how thick New Yorker accent shining through, loud enough to be heard through the windows.
Tom did not seem to care, he just pulled me to the side window and began furiously explaining that we needed a ride and that he'd be willing to pay how ever much he needed, to which the diver hesitated, his eyebrows furrowed in deep suspicion, trying to decide if this was a good idea. I sent an apologetic wave to the people lining up, hooting angrily at the stopped taxi.
He sighed and nodded, "Fine, fine, get in."
I was confused for a moment, wondering how Tom would be able to get money if the house had just blown up, but I didn't question it. I just stared, unable to say anything as he negotiated with the taxi driver to take us to our needed destination, which he swore wasn't far. My mouth felt dry, I couldn't say anything, even if I wanted to. I stared like a ghost.
Tom pulled me to the back of the taxi, pulling the door open before letting me climb inside and climbing inside himself, shutting the door behind him, glancing around between each of the windows to check if there was anyone outside, trying to harm us. It hurt my heart to watch him. This was a normality for him, he had to be paranoid or else it would cost his life.
"Where do ya need to go?" The taxi driver asked, his tone mixed with annoyance, which I didn't quite understand since he was a taxi driver and he was going to get paid after this. If I were him, i'd be grateful that I was getting a customer. Tom could have just broken the window, pulled him out of the car and taken the taxi, but he didn't.
But to be fair we did just walk down the driveway of a house that just blew up and are covered in smoke. If I were him I would be more concerned than annoyed. Does this sort of thing happen a lot?
"The nearest motel." He answered.
The driver nodded. I had never stayed in a motel before but I definitely wasn't complaining. A place to stay was fortunate. It would be a thousand times safer than staying out on the streets. We would right out in the air for anyone wanting to bring us in cold. Motels at least have walls.
He turned back to me once the car started driving and he cupped his hands under my jaw, his eyes scanning my face and into my eyes as he carefully tilted my head, earning a slight flinch from me as the back of my neck ached. I placed my hands over his, finding comfort in being able to hold onto him. I could see a frown cover his face as he seemed worried.
"You're bleeding." He said faintly.
"I'm fine." I spoke, giving him a small smile as I suddenly became aware of the stinging sensation radiating from the side of my forehead and cheek. The adrenaline had numbed all pain but now, I was becoming aware of the injuries I had sustained.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, it hurts a little, but i'm okay." I reassured. It wasn't completely true, it stung quite bad but we had already had enough problems.
"Do you hurt anywhere else?" He asked.
I nodded slowly, aware of the pain in my neck. I tried to pretend that it didn't hurt to even look in his direction, but it did.
"Where?"
I placed a hand on the side of my head where I had hit the ground, the same side where I had been cut before placing another hand on the back of my neck, trying to stretch it a little but finding futile as pain radiates through my bones and muscles. "My whole head hurts.. It keeps pounding, like there's a heartbeat in my head." I murmured. "And my ears are still ringing."
He frowned, "We'll get to the motel and you can lay down there."
I nodded. "Are you okay?"
He nodded.
I didn't quite believe him. He seemed like the type to cover up his pain for the sake of others. I didn't want to pry, knowing that he would be too stubborn to truly say what he's feeling. It took a little while to crack his shell, so doing it now would be quite the task. I just simply nodded.
"Do you need to lay down?" I asked.
He shook his head. "I can't, I have things I need to do, things that can't wait, especially after this."
"I want to help you." I responded.
He shook his head again. "No, you need to rest. I've delt with shit like this before. You need to lay down, the last thing we need is for your condition to get worse." He reassured, raising his hand to stroke it through my hair.
I was not sure of what else to say, I found myself simply just nodding and giving him a small appreciative side smile. His hand moved to wrap around my shoulders, carefully pulling me against him to press a kiss to my head before reassuringly squeezing my shoulder, letting me know that everything was okay, or that at least he was pretending it was.
I carefully turned my head to the side to look outside the window to look back upon the disaster that was left of the explosive. There was a very large stream of smoke rising into the blue sky which was now fading into grey, plagued by the ghost of the building that once stood there, but was now left as dust and rubble.
I frowned, everything was gone. I had no idea where we would go from now on. I was scared, even more than I had been before. We had almost been killed. If Tom hadn't heard the bomb, we would have been within that rubble, crushed. I could feel my stomach twist and an uncomfortable lump form in my throat that I failed to swallow down.
I had a feeling that from now on, things were going to get a lot worse. That I wasn't prepared for what was about to come. That everything i'd known was going to change. My head echoed thoughts of death, telling me the worst. I found myself pushing away those thoughts, turning my head away from where the house once stood. I could hear a symphony of sirens from multiple emergency vehicles coming closer and I could help but duck down a little bit, pressing myself back into Tom.
Everything will be okay.
Everything will be okay.
💵
HIII!
I finally updated!
I had a shit ton of stuff going on that absolutely drained the life out of me and I found myself unable to produce anything out of my brain.
I tried to get a chapter out as soon as possible, so apologies if this chapter is a little bit short.
How is everyone doing?
Anything exciting? 👁👁
I wrote a song!
I've started getting a little bit into music and it's been quite fun.
A little update on my love life situation 👴🏻
The younger grade guy who nodded at me has not done anything since, he's looked at me a few times but it seems like he's lost interest. He looks a bit like Matt Murdock
Let's call him Murdock
The guy my sister introduced me to didn't really work out, we haven't spoken in a really long while online. I saw him at a party and it doesn't feel like there's anything connection between us and the hope for one feels really forced. It's like we're both trying to like each other but there's no spark and we feel like we have to have something between us because my sister introduced us.
Let's call him Rodeo
The guy i've been friends with for four years, I ignored him for a month because he used to do it to me all the time and he seem unhappy that I ignored him when I was literally just giving him the same energy he gives me 🗿 Every now and then I feel really lonely and get the urge to message him but I know I shouldn't. I got a tarot reading on my For you page on Tik Tok that perfectly described him and said that I should drop him. Let's call him Mort
My friend who i'm pretty sure still likes me, i've grown to quite dislike cause he's quite misogynistic. He had this internal "guys have it harder" mentality and I hate it <3
Let's call him Rome
The guy i've been friends with for a while, (Lets call him Jaundice) I really felt like he liked me and I kept getting videos (like literally every third video on my fyp) that said that someone, which perfectly described him, likes me and such and such. So I had a lot of confidence, and at a party about 3 weeks ago, I asked him out.
He was sitting down on a chair in the backyard and I was standing between his legs and we were like talking and laughing and we kept like placing our hands together.
He got up to like say goodbye to everyone and I stopped him, and kept hesitating to ask him out. He would like fist bump me cause that's what he thought I wanted.
I eventually coughed up the courage to ask him out, it felt like a movie.
He said no 👨🏻
Well, he didn't really say "no" he said, "I don't wanna ruin things, and there's another girl I like, but I want to get to know her, but this isn't my final answer."
He then hugged me and was super nice and even hugged me goodbye.
After he left the party, I sat and cried for a while, and ranted to my friends about how lonely I feel 👵🏻
Later at that party, one of the popular guys came and he sat next to me and asked if I was okay, and he put his arm on the couch behind me and he kept glancing down at my lips and I could tell he wanted to kiss me
but he's quite musty 😭 but he's quite good looking
But hes anti-vax, a flat earther and didn't believe that the bombing in ukraine was actually happening and cheated on his girlfriend
So
Yeah
no
I said I was fine and like tried to avoid his musty mouth and he asked me to come dance with him and this girl but I declined and two seconds later when they were dancing, they started making out and I was glad I didn't accept.
So when I got back to school, Jaundice began ignoring me, and like only spoke to me once in two weeks to give me my test paper which he had to mark 😃
He was like straight up ignoring me.
So I confronted him and said that ignoring each other doesn't solve anything
And you wanna know what he said? 👴🏻
"I'm not ignoring you, we just don't talk."
This mother-
I was like 🧍🏻♂️
Did he develop amnesia?
I walked away and cried 😃
He hasn't said a word to me first in three weeks. He used to literally talk to me everyday and joke with me but now he literally acts as if I don't exist. When I talk in a group in class that he's sitting in, he literally looks away when I talk and like shuts off so he doesn't hear what I say.
It literally doesn't make any sense 🗿
He was like saying that he does like me at the party and then is now completely ignoring me.
The girl he liked kissed two others guys at the party where I asked him out and he was really heartbroken and I was like 👹👹
And that's why i've called him Jaundice <3
I literally caught him starting at me from outside the class and I was like ???
He makes no sense and I think I am done with him 😍
Thanks for listening to my rant <3
Hope you enjoyed this chapter!
Please comment and vote and let me know what you think!
Byeeee <3
💵