HUDSON
I shouted.
A tear rolled down my face. I was paralyzed as I stare down to her bleeding figure. Hands shaking, my fingers slowly reach down to take her pulse.
Nothing was there.
I felt as if someone had opened a black hole in the middle of my heart, and was sucking every emotion out of my body. I was numb--even worthless without her.
"Somebody help!" I cry, my shaky voice echoing off the walls of the desolate throne room. "Please!"
As I held her in my arms, I didn't know what to do. The bond between us was gone. I couldn't feel what she felt, and it scared the shit out of me. I shook her slightly, hoping that her bright blue eyes would reopen in a heartbeat.
"Please..." I whisper softly this time, as I caress her stone cold face, praying that today wouldn't be her day to go.
Her right hip was bleeding out. I wasn't sure what Wes had shot her with. But whatever it was penetrated straight through Mara's forcefield. There wasn't a bullet wedged In her or anything like that. It was one angry-looking burn mark that had scorched her entire side.
Taking off my large top, I wrap the fabric around her softly with my shaky hands. It wasn't sanitary whatsoever. But I was more concerned about keeping her blood in rather than getting the wound infected. We had technology that could take care of that.
I look to the door to see Ryan, Asher, Lucy and a few other soldiers behind them. Their eyes scan the room, as they see Wes and Red both lying unconscious and the rubble everywhere. Then they see Mara lying in my arms unresponsive, as a gasp escapes from their lips.
"Oh my God," Lucy exclaims in horror, running over with Ryan as he slowly shifted from rock to regular human. "What the hell happened? Did Wes shoot her?" She questions, immediately calling for medical assistance over her earpiece.
I tried to respond, but nothing came from my lips but a heartbroken breath. I choked back a sob as another tear fell from my face.
"I don't feel a pulse..." Lucy whispers as the medical troops round the corner.
"No no no..." We all turn to see Asher standing at the door inspecting the gun in Wes' hands. His eyes turn blue, then fade to white as if he were reliving a bad memory. "God damnit!" Asher roars, as Lucy covers her mouth—she seemed to recognize what the weapon was as well. "Hudson, Mara needs to get to a hospital right now," Asher urges. "She's been shot with the Mutant Killer... the same thing they shot Elle with."
All of them must've had experience with this weapon I had never heard of before. It must've taken a toll on them as well, due to the distant looks in their eyes as old memories flood back to them.
"She could survive this," Lucy breathes. "If Elle was able to survive the blast, then Mara should be able to make it with her healing abilities!" She excitedly whispers.
The medical troops take Mara away, as their words seemed pointless to me. I saw her lifeless in the stretcher in another world right now, as I struggled to maintain my sanity.
She was dying.
From my kneeling position, I collapse. My hands were shaking. I didn't know what was happening, as I felt like half of me was crumbling—this time not from emotion.
My other half was dying.
"Hudson?" Ryan asks, placing a hand on my shoulder. His words echoed in my ear as if I were underwater. Instead, I heard the rapid pulsing of my heart through my ears, begging for Mara to come back. I was having a panic attack. "We need more medics!" Ryan shouts as my breathing becomes faster than the speed of sound. "Hudson, you're going to be okay."
Their words were meaningless to me. Mara wasn't here. I wasn't going to be okay.
"Asher." Lucy calls to him softly. Asher seemed to know what Lucy was talking about, as Asher walked over to my position on the ground.
The shaking in my limbs suddenly stopped as I felt an electric zap on the back of my neck. My eyes roll back in my head, and finally the pain I was feeling drowned away as my vision turned black.
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I open my eyes.
As I adapt to my surroundings, I realize I wasn't in the Capitol anymore.
I look down to the ground below me, to see I was standing in a grass field of some kind. I was wearing jeans and a white, short-sleeved shirt. It was sunny outside, as the warm summer breeze blew past my face lightly.
I was in the Adirondacks. Back where my parents' mountain home is located and where the sun seemed to be in unlimited supply.
Then, my heart constricts as I see her. Mara, walking up to me with a massive smile on her face wearing a gorgeous, white summer dress that hung just above her knees. She looked so carefree and innocent, as the wind brushed back the strands of her soft, brunette hair. There wasn't a wound in her hip. Nor was there a look of anguish in her eyes that had just haunted me moments ago.
"Hudson?" Mara asks, her gorgeous voice immediately rendering me speechless. Concern sketched her face as her blue eyes inspect me curiously. "What's wrong?"
The sun made her features stand out, making her skin literally glow with beauty. But even when she was here, standing in front of me, alive, it still wasn't enough to replace the throbbing pain in my chest.
"I..." I croak out. "You're supposed to be..."
The smile drops from her face, as she reaches her hand up to cup my face. But the faint glimmer of something on her finger catches my eye. On her fourth finger, there was a golden ring with a diamond on top.
Were we... engaged?
Her angelic soft hands brushed my cheeks lightly, as the smallest smile makes its way onto my lips. For the first time in what felt like ages, I felt warmth again with her by my side. But at the same time, this lucid dream was breaking me down again. I knew she was gone, and this was just another illusion.
"I love you, Hudson," Mara whispers happily as her blue eyes radiate with joy in front of me. I wanted to say those same words back to her more than ever. But my words couldn't seem to find their way out of my mouth, as I stare at her like a starstruck idiot.
But then, the background of the Adirondack Mountains was suddenly gone. There was no more warmth, and no more sun as the grassy terrain below my feet goes away in an instant.
Now, I was looking down at Mara in my arms. The coldness of the throne room was present once more as the dream suddenly shifted to a nightmare . Blood trickled down her sides in endless streams, and the bright blue in her eyes were gone as they stared up to me in pain.
"I-I love you..." she whispers, before her head goes limp.
And the three-word sentence from her lips was all it took for my eyes to fly open.
Was this all just one nightmare?
I found myself in my bed. Our bed to be specific. I felt around for any source of life next to me, hoping my thought was real. But the one person I held closest to my heart was missing from the spot next to me. The girl I swore on my life to protect wasn't here anymore.
There was even a pivot in the bed where she would usually lay. I brush it lightly with my hands, recalling the almost perfect dream I had with her just moments ago. And only God knows how much I would give to be in that moment right now.
I bury my face in my hands once more, as the feeling of loneliness consumes me like a fresh blanket of snow. And just like that, the tears begin to flow again.
But the problem was, I wasn't sure when they would ever stop.
________________
FOUR DAYS AFTER THE BATTLE ; 13:59
For the past four days, Mara had been in an extensive care unit at a hospital nearby.
I wasn't allowed to visit, and it was eating me from the inside out knowing she was all alone in that hellhole.
She had undergone multiple surgeries already. Some surgeries riskier than others, and some even came with a chance of death.
Yesterday, a surgeon had came to our house and explained her condition. He told us that Mara was lucky to be alive, as the blast had just missed her right kidney and other important organs in the stomach. But following the surgeries and skin grafts, she was most likely going to need physical therapy.
The doctors didn't know she was a mutant, which meant that no physical therapy would be needed for her. She would be able to heal on her own, with plenty of time of course. After Mara's surgeries, she would need to rest. But in time she would be back up again like her normal self would.
Connor and Lucy also explained how the Mutant Killer worked. Before Lucy went into hiding, she was a biology major in college and was going to become a surgeon until their lives took a turn for the worse. Connor just had a high IQ and a good stomach, and for those reasons they were both able to save Elle who had been shot by the same weapon Mara had been.
They said the reason Mara's forcefield didn't work on the blast was because the Mutant Killer is designed to overcome any mutant's defense ability. Meaning not even my powers could've stopped the blast.
Life seemed to be normal in our house. Except hardly a word has came from my mouth ever since the battle ended.
When I felt like part of me was gone on the battle day, little did I know that the feeling was justified. The bond connected us both. We felt each other's pain and emotions like we were the same person. Mara was my literal other half. But since she was in a state of unconsciousness, part of me was missing. Which is why my emotions have become nothing but a void of sadness.
"Hudson!" Priscilla exclaims softly, snapping me out of my daze on my bed. I had been staring at the ceiling for probably hours now, thinking of the past memories Mara and I had together. "You need to get out of this bed, my boy," she urges, shoving my legs in attempt to get me to move. "You're not going to feel any better if you keep laying here!"
I keep my gaze on the ceiling. "I'm not going to feel any better until I see her again, Priscilla," I whisper. "I keep having dreams of her, even nightmares of the day she was shot, but nothing will ever be the same in me. Not until I am able to visit her and know she's okay."
"I swear, Hudson," Priscilla scolds, pulling the sheets off me as I groan. She sits on the mattress near me, as her eyes look right into mine. "You have a beard now, for God's sake! At least get up to shave, shower and take care of yourself."
"You don't understand!" I raise my voice slightly. "Without Mara by me, I can't do anything. I feel weak without her, and the bond between us that once held us together is now gone. I'm stripped of everything."
She sighs, knowing I'm correct. "Hudson, I know. But I also know that Mara protected you for a reason. She loves you and cares for you, so much that she's even willing to take a bullet for you! Do you think she'd be happy if she saw you laying in bed like this, not taking care of yourself?"
I shake my head in defeat, knowing that Mara would have me out of bed in a heartbeat if she were really here.
And Priscilla's words would motivate me only for a few more hours, until I collapsed back into bed again feeling helpless without her.
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I forgot to remind my readers to get some tissues before this...🥺