Motionless and frozen!
That was the best way to describe the terrified and speechless detective, as she continued to stare, like paralyzed at the worse, than bad state of her friends son...
Frozen, even though she knew that the time on the clock kept on ticking, though just couldn't convince her subconsciousness to take one single move forward, as she just continued to let her narrowed hazel eyes shivery observe the limb figure..
Pale, as the moonlights brace and almost a vampire-white, compare to his black leather jacket and the greyness of the entire broken and decayed furniture's of the factory.
Shallowly breathing, almost not even seeable, if her eyes weren't so sensible to tiny, almost invisible movements, for they could see his flat chest faintly rising and falling.
Almost transparent, but flowing droplets of sweat running down the side of his motionless face and down his with-sweat-soaked ginger - blond hair, while his whole body seemed to be shaking from the cold.
But then, again, there was something else, that caught the very corners of her watchful eye-sight even more, which was the not-overlook able, in-the-sun-gleaming blade of his beloved straight razor, dyed in a sparkling, scarlet and thick liquid and laying only centimetres beside his own bloody right-hand, that had made her whole being just freeze even more.
If not take a horrific step back, whilst her eyes still didn't dare to move away from him.
Paralyzed..
Widdening, narrow eyes..
Frozen and cold, as a shudder ran down her own spine..
Until her own heavy breathing and a flinch of her fingertips seemed to, once more, snap her out of her numb state and with it let the feeling in her legs return, as she immediately used that faithful second to instantly run up to him...
But letting herself collapse not right instantly again, on her buckling, strong knees, as she had reached his paling form and only hesitantly and carefully, as if he was made out of thin, fragile glass, placed her right hand slowly on his terrifying-bony waist, whilst her left hand let itself slip under the side of his wet blond hair and no second later rolled him s l o w l y on his back, so in the same time in a slightly lifted up position, with his head gently placed in her left, already red-dyed palm..
As she could no long later feel its cold, shivering texture already slide down the back of her fingers,..
.. then hands,..
.. then down the bridge of her arms,..
.. until it would fall again and again down on the dirty, icy ground with these sickening, monotonous and naked dropping sound.
Whilst in the very same time the tips of her right-hand' fingers were already about to instinctively reach out for the bare skin of his throat and check for the Killers unknown pulse..
When she nervously followed the movements of her trembling fingers making its way towards it and her middle -, so index-finger landed on his carotid artery to expect..
A pulse....
A pressure against her own fingerprints...
A beat of life..
...., but was at first only welcomed by the killing silence of this life-draining place, which only the naked dripping noises of the scarlet blood still dared to disturb, with its cold and stretching, howling echoes.
Second by second, that passed, like eternal hours, as Valkyrie desperately continued to wait and wait.
5 dangerously-long seconds, until at last a shot of slight relief was able to conquer her entire body, when she finally felt a small, almost unnoticeable pressure pushing against the bare skin of her own finger tips..
That along its relieving beat of live, made her release a heavy, but shaky out breath, that with its first exhaling breeze of air made the Silence all around her crack in this very instant.
Though a breath, that ended in a quivering cut off, as the sudden rush of relief changed, as quickly as it came into a tense seriousness..
For this certain and faithful continuous beating against her blood-dyed, cooled finger tips were too faint, much too weak for a normal person to be normal..
And fading - lightening - disappearing with each and every inaudible, rhythmic pulse .
That along its daring disappearing, made her breath each time cut short and tremble under the cool and dirty air it would breeze through her dry lungs..
But wouldn't stop, it would come and come again, each time it would vanish under the faint force, she kept on holding against his artery...
Though for how long?...
A bare look at the increasing, scarlet pool of blood dyeing the dust on the freezing, metal-floor all around her, was enough to tell, that she had only hesitantly taken, with her tense gaze, so with it slowly removed her pair of blood-dipped fingers away from his paling-cold throat.
Only to slip those, in a smooth movement of her shaking hand, and straight away, without any thought of hesitation, into her small leather pocket, she had carried with her the entire time and which hang loosely attached at her brown, as well leather belt around the waistline of her trouser, to not long later, hastily pull out a small metallic devise or how its called in the rough days of the 21st century, a prepaid handy..
On which her right thumb almost automatically and instantly tipped on the only number, she had once, not long ago, saved on it, and lifted it, right instantly, up to her ear, whilst she kept her eyes stiffly fixed at Sanguine, so the Killers cool, fragile figure held close to her.
As one more time an awfully-stretching waiting time, followed along the echoing beeping sounds of her small, oh.. so metallic-cold.. phone.
Beep.... Beep
Beep.... Be-
Though to her very luck, the uncomfortable silence didn't last long, as already by the fourth gut-wrenching beeping-noise it got cut off and replaced by a velvet, deep, male voice coming from the other side of the phone, „Valkyrie? "
A so familiar, soft and gentle voice, that made her instantly exhale a shaky laboured breath, with the first syllable she heard his comforting tone, so unknowingly slightly tremble even more, as she just now recognized that her teeth had been impatiently chattering, the whole time between the almost four vibrating noises of the phone.
That was until, they had stopped and Valkyrie instantly let her felt-numb mouth speak up, once the other man's voice had dulled down again „ H-Hey... C-could y-you come? .. p-please! .... it's about his son.... I found him... " she desperately tried not to stutter and wasn't even finished, when the other voice, already shrilled through her ear-drums again, though with a pinch of worry, not even he could hide„... Wait you found... You found Billy... - Hell, is he alright!?
.. alright...
Is he alright?..
No words could ever describe the pain, she just felt with these few innocent letters. It was like a truck loaded with thousand of heavy drums, filled with this swallowing, cold darkness rolling mercylessly over her.
For she knew the answer to this single Question, she wished to not know, by the bare touch of her own arms and hands, so well..
Words, thousand of different words could have escaped her mouth, whilst the last fragments of this one question kept on hollowing itself endlessly through her mind..
Over and over again..
... , though non would have escaped her dry lungs, the moment she had opened her mute mouth...
'No.. No he's not..'
'He's everything, but that..'
'He's bleeding, there's blood everywhere..'
With her frozen gaze still anxiously set on the unmoving, lifeless-pale figure in her shock-frozen arms.
Until..
„Valkyrie?! "
... his... his comforting, soft voice snapped her back from her frozen state, and along with it, made the suffocating ball in her throat vanish into thin air, as her mouth finally dared to give out her pained words..
„T-That's what I just wanted to say,... He's hurt,.... pretty hurt" she stuttered fearfully, as if every word was like a dagger piercing directly into her heart and with every pain-filled word pushed the fallen Killers limb body even closer to her own warmth..
Her almond, tear-sparkling Eyes, now moved and fixed at his laboured, shallowly heaving of his flat chest, which she now tensely set her whole attention at, as the unknown man's voice already replied no second later, in a sudden tense and serious tone „He's WHAT!... Valkyrie where are you!!?.. I'll get you two, this instant!? "
This time without another second in between, yet with her eyes still stiffly fixed at the rising and falling of the other, she instantly replied, maybe only in pieces and fragments, but as exact as possible...The exact location
„At the old factory.. 10 km remote side of West Dublin... The last door, right, through the tunnel!..... " she paused, yet only for a second, to collect her shivering mind and, when she still didn't hear her trustful partner reply, added a dry „Please ... Be quick! "
Only to hear his voice hollowing through the bleak phones loudspeaker, instantly after again, promising her so and begging her to do, with his unfamiliar tense and uneasy tone „I will, just STAY where you are and please... Val.. Hold. Him. Alive!! " he pronounced dangerously, each of the last three word with a wave of tension, she could barely miss, as no second later an endless long...
Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.... ppp
.... began to sound up from its speakers, telling her, that he hanged up.
Loyal as he was, already on his way.
Though, once again, the last three words, that came out of her partners mouth, wherever he was, burned themselves, like the pattern of a hot branding iron, in her mixed-up mind, as it just faced her, again, with the unbearable, true facts of her current position...
So the big 'BUT', in his pleading, that she might not even be able to pull him through until he would arrive.
Two Facts, that lay in the future.
Two facts of thousand, that could be changed
Facts that weren't important...
As she only dared to break the anew, sinister silence, from anew, when she laid her prepaid phone roughly, so loudly, but most of all quickly beside the pool of crimson blood, her trousered knees have already long began to soak themselves in....
Thoughts, already banned into the depth of her subconsciousness, as she did.
...and turned her attention - her narrowed, sensitive eyes - back to the others heavily, heaving chest, whilst she let them secretly sharply brush over every tiny centimetre it took them to reach her destination..
Obviously in the desperate lookout for the source of the blood, which could barely be made out in the crimson-red, dipped picture of the ill-lit plant, that opened itself infront of her eyes, and made her no later, use her deep knowledge and long experience to figure out the ticking source, whilst she kept on watching the sun-kissed mans chest, heave and lower - and once more, heave and lower - faint and weak, but with the eagles eyes noticeable.
While with every ticking second, that her steel wrist-watch on her left-wrist kept on painfully and rhythmically clicking through the hollowness of the dim hall,..
the pool of scarlet increased...
his precious time ran out...
, but her wild thoughts and the many evidences, so memories, of what she had already seen, began to puzzle themselves more and more together.
Blood, all of the drums of blood
Alone
No one else
No other footprints, she could sense
The stillness
Alone
A remote place
Alone
ALonE
The weakening expression of his face, each time they tried to find him..
The blood-soaked ra-
One deciding evidence, a memory, that made an aprubt brainstorm pierce through her mind and, before even a cold shudder had time to freeze her entire spine, her hazel eyes made a jump to his blank right-wrist, that was laying limbly in his own cold blood beside him and that had not long ago laid dangerously beside his beloved blade - threatening close and suspiciously worrying.
Already full of the crusted blood on his pale skin or dipped into the flesh, still leeking freely from the unknown wound and her keen eyes couldn't get through its thick texture to see the wound, her mind begged to not be there.
As she knew from painful experience, that it would only be the one missing piece of the puzzle to prove one thing, but was nonetheless aware, that she had to check all possibilities, when her spare right-hand already hesitantly reached out, to carefully grab his limp, scarlet-covered hand, to interlace her fingers carefully with with his', before she fearfully and smoothly, but seemingly in slow-motion turned it around.
Whilst she kept the Texans head still securely and almost motherly placed in her left palm, making sure, by the bare touch and the faint gentle movements of her fingers through his wet, blond hair, that he was still there, that she had him, that she could make sure, help would arrive, during her dot-like eyes sharply followed the slow movements of her left hand.
Until....
.. she could only stare blankly, lost in thoughts and words....
... every limb of her strained body let go...
.. the fear to prove itself right..
.. as her pair of brown orbs fell on the several, diagonal, deep cuts, covering his entire, bloody arm.
The Blood, that was still freely pulsing out of the glistening, torn flesh of his fresh wounds, that made it almost impossible for her to see the swollen and pink scars faintly showing themselves through the foul, crimson red on the few spots of his once again healed skin.
But made her almost choke on her own breath, as the cursed sharp sight of her eyes caught the sliced-open tube of a massively blood-spilling carotid artery showing itself inside the even LoNGeR aNd dEePEr gash directly under his fractured palm.
WilLInGlY
PUrposELy
Precisely placed and smoothly, slowly cut, like a scissor cutting through a piece of thin Paper, with the obvious attention to kill, that made her no sooner pierce the quiet innocence of the abandoned factory with a terrified, strangled gasp, so made her hand almost instantly flinch away from his petite, scarred arm, in fear to make it only worse, than it already was.
Yet, made her raw panic only increase even more, as with every ticking second more fresh and warm blood leaked loosely out of his sliced Artery directly infront of her helpless eyes and a high-pitched, breathy shriek to boil up in her sore throat
That no second later escaped her dry mouth, dulled by her own blood - dripping, shaky hand, she had placed over it, in pure fright, only a blink of an eye after she had drawn it back from his blood-glistening wrist... „N-no.... no, no, no, no, no.... Please.... No..! "
As with each muffled sound, disturbed by her own quivering, fast breathes, she made an automatic twist to Sanguine blood-drained face and in the same time could feel her left, still shock-frozen hand slowly slip away from her clattering, breath-drawing mouth, down to her racing chest.
Too mixed up to have her terror-struck expression check for the appearance of the laboured heaving on his still chest, between her darted, hasty movement and as well, only for a few panicked seconds, that were just enough time for a few more pained words to slip her wound throat „ Oh, God... S-Sanguine.... what have you done!? "
An all-knowing Question, that by the last echoing vocal, leaving the tip of her tongue, she was already about to nervously, but softly lower the for-so-long-disappeared Killer back down on the beautifully red-dyed, deathly cold, metal floor, making sure that his limp head lay softly and securely on the hard ground, stained with his own shimmering Scarlet, before only then, she carefully slid her left palm, with just another tender, faint brush over his sweaty - ginger hair out from under it.
And with just one more pained look at the others pale, motionless, and once so lively and energetic, figure, wasted no more time to holster her blood-drenched knees with her palms pressed against the slippy, cold floor over to his vicious - looking wrist, accompanied by an almost painful bite on her lower lip, as she shakily let her right-hand dive into the little, leather pocket, just another time, filling each second with her own deafening, shallow, deep inhales, as she panicky searched for something inside the small place it offered her.
During her big, terrified eyes stiffly fixated its shivering, hastily movements, the entire time...
.. watching it desperately rummage through its rough insides...
until a unique, lifted deep breathe suddenly disturbed the uncontrolled, bewildered , quick gasps of her lungs and her tensed eyes began to slowly lower and relax themselves, along the inhales heavy out-breathe, as she smoothly, but quickly pulled her hand out of its plain, naked, cold fabric, again.
However with a soft piece of yarn tightly held between her quivering fingers.
A small, thin stripe, which could almost be compared with the long-stretched rough band of a blank-white bandage and could, indeed, be held for one, if it wouldn't be for its tiny size and its torn rags hanging loosely away from both its ends, almost like it had once been part of an old, already long worn-out light Shirt.
Yet, the best material she had in hand and nonetheless with the same, short-termed effect of that doctor-belonging stripe of white fabric, as she immediately lifted her terror-struck gaze back to his wrist and could only watch with her distressed eyes, when both of her shaking hands..
One with the scrap of fabric
The other, for its own support..
.. uneasily moved towards its painful scars and open, red-glistening wounds.
Marked by roughness and lust .
A satisfaction, she had only seen so rarely before.
Before they softly and carefully pressed the piece of fabric on it, dyeing its fine surface, already between only one naked second, in its pure red.
Until she carefully, almost motherly - gentle tied the rest of the rag tightly around each and every single cut it could cover, not once taking the watchful sight of her stiff, sweating, brown eyes off of it.
Not even, as her pair of hands had finally reached the end of the ripped band and securely overlapped it with the dirt-white material under it.
No!
The entire time her keen orbs' frozen attention would only be directed at the precise movements of her hand and really nothing else..
Deaf to every tiniest sounds echoing blankly through every hole in this mischievously, abandoned place.
Deaf to the still rhythmic tics of the sun-glistening scarlet dropping down from the treadmill behind her.
Deaf to the cold breeze of the terrifying whistling wind storming almost violently through the hospital-like, endless hall.
BlinD to all the dangerous, cold Silence of this ill-lit place, as she kept on watching her two bloodied palms slowly and hesitantly withdraw its supporting pressure away from the bandage ...
... And to the very little luck, she still seemed to be in possession of, it worked..
The small, torn piece of her thrown-away Top held the strong blood-flow of his vein back.
Yet, with an ticking prize,..
.. as to her own horror, she had to find out, that the innocent white of her old shirt had already now deeply soaked itself in its ruthless, dark color..
With which its horrific reveal it made her only flinch together in terror, as she almost instantly pulled her hands abruptly near to her racing heart, despite the fact, that she had almost already expected to see the big dark-red.... bloodred... smudge over its entire surface, covering the terrifying sliced - up parts of his scarred wrist, so the bleeding-out carotid artery.
So, had it abruptly made every each of her muscles strain in an almost painful tension and her hazel eyes to nearly cat-like narrow, as they uncontrollably snapped themselves open.
Yet, let go of the extreme tension no second after again, which made her almost hopelessly slump back into herself, as she did so and trailed off with just another defeated and desperate sigh.
While in the same time, she let her upper white teeth clench down on the lower and her tight orbs rest on his scarily still wrist, once more.
Faintly seeing his heavily heaving chest of his serene, motionless figure and the overwhelming blurry red in the corners of its attentiveness.
Gut wrenching, cruel Facts, she could barely ignore.
As, how much it made her heart lierallly tear itself into tiny pieces, she tried to only focuse her entire attention on the reddish 'bandage' tied around his whole lower arm.
For she knew very well, that the only ting she was still able to do for.. him..., now, was helplessly watch, as the small yarn-stripe would slowly be entirely drenched into the continuous flow of the scarlet fluid infront of her own innocent-hazel eyes.
For there was nothing else she could still do, but hold her own palms' pressure, as a support for its own tight seal on it, to help it stop the artery from bleeding out as good as possible, so have her two orbs corners fixed on Sanguines faint breathing, while she could only still wait for her partner to arrive..
Though thoughts speak quicker, than silver words, as she had just been about to place her trembling palm hesitantly on the stained cloth to support its tight halt, when a loud, male yell suddenly broke the swallowing serene, motionless silence all around her and made her almost gasp up in pure shock and surprise at its piercing suddenness , whilst she instinctively pulled her right hand just once more abruptly to her chest..
"Valkyrie!!!"
However, was able to ease her racing heart not a single beat later again, as, along her breathes large, pent-up exhale, her sensitive ears recognized the dark, velvet tone of her partner, in the foreign voice hollowing itself, like an continuous, dull echo through the entire, tenebrous hallway, she had been walking in not half a hour ago.
And to which still faintly echoing core, made her head for once release its watchful stare from Sanguine and almost automatically twist itself around to have its wide-open, tight orbs sharply pierce the blurred sounds morning-like-lit direction.
As once her precious senses made contact with the invisible, large hall behind the the grey-stained picture and the many monstrous, rusty, yet slightly sun-sparkling machines her bare eyes were seeing, an instant loud, tense and anxious shout firmed itself from the depth of her dry throat...
„We're here!! "
... that by the second, it had escaped her trembling lips, its long echo already hollowed itself, like a furious Spear, over the still Wind, faintly breezing itself through the cracks of the broken Windows, through the small, naked aisle, marking this ruinous, large hall, as its only exit; over the heavy, chapped metal-door, up to the very end of the narrow corridor, her partner was standing in.
Whose suddenly loud and urgently-quick footsteps, she has recognized to have abruptly become louder and louder with each time they collided with the solid, resounding metal of the filthy floor, which aimless hollowing noise reached even her in its full terrifying pride and hence, once the last fragment of her strained, desperate scream had left her stinging throat, she spinner her head instantly back to Sanguines badly-bandaged wrist.
Indifferent and deadly still, as two seconds ago.
Or sO sHE wISHeD.
As she, this time, wasted no more breath, to tightly press the scarlet palm of her icy hand immediately, but carefully on the now almost entirely drenched, glistening towel directly over his pulsating artery, whilst, in the terrible time she could already feel the disgusting wetness of the thick liquid pushing against the barrier of her palm, she let her watchful, tense sight quickly slide to his laboured chest, so once more move the index- and middlefinger of her spare left hand to the carotid artery of his lifelessly-pale throat.
Checking for its faint pressure, his weakening heaving chest proved to still have to be there, while,...
.. during Valkyrie forced herself to have her gaze only stiffly fixed at its light movements
.. her ears only concentrated on the nearing bumping noises frequently breaking the Silence
..the strong pressure of her palm trying to desperately hold the blood-flow closed
..a few urged, mumbled words, left her mouth in a begging manner „Come on... Come on Sanguine, hold on.... Help is on the way, just a bit more! " cut-short, by her own shaking breathes in between.
Until an abrupt squeaking noise, like the sudden stop of a shoe-sole sliding shortly, but pressured over a solid floor, appeared behind the and pulled her tense gaze instantly to it.
However only to see...
.... the eye-catching figure of a slender, tall man standing motionless beside the treadmill infront of Valkyrie, suited all black..
.. Black sneakers..
.., so a long mysterious, onyx cloak, hanging loosely down from him, exposing yet only a small gap of his charcoal light Shirt and long trousers, in the front.
Standing upright in a tensed position, as his gleaming, emerald eyes looked terrified down at her...
Mouth slightly opened, from the gasp he hadn't been able to hold back from the venomous sight exposing itself infront of him...
Revealing his clenched teeth and the two sharp fangs hiding themselves innocently in between..
And lastly, but not least his pure charcoal, wild hair, which covered the long, healed scar on his right cheek only by a few thin strands , as it was illuminated by a single bright shine of light.
Before her, in the gleaming of the ill-lit greyness was standing non other than,..
.. the ex-ally of Vengeous...
.. former member of Scarabs Revenge Club and the Maleficent Seven..
..feared Vampire
And
.. now probably best friend and partner..
.. Detective Dusk..