Life vs. Death: 2

10. Breathe Again

Never have I been that scared. She faded from my mind like a light bulb going out. So suddenly it scared me how quickly I reacted. My brothers cried out for me as I shot from the barren wasteland we’d been scouring. I ignored the dark shadow that screamed for my return as its fury burned the sky.

She would not join me in this domain, not yet. She would live her life before she joined the souls subjected to my judgment. And as I breached the barrier that separated us, I felt my very essence split. Part of me continued on to her, another went off in a different direction in the same earnest.

And then I got there. The only clear thing I remember from those eight minutes was seeing her: pinned to the wall with a sword through her throat and blood down her front. Her sisters and Guardian held where they were by whisper spirits and her friends behind them struggling with each other.

She wasn’t breathing. Her eyes were draining of color to the brilliant white of death.

And then she moved, fury etched into her face, eyes blazing pure silver as she grabbed the steel, broke it in half, and threw the hilt at the girl. She’d barely gotten the half in her throat out when she was backhanded viciously into the wall.

That was the last thing I remembered. She had just fallen to her knees when I saw red and felt the most carnal feeling of rage:

Wrath.

Pain did not faze me. I know this because when I finally returned to my senses at the first torrent of water, the cuts that littered my body were plentiful and deep. They didn’t hurt, only bled sluggishly. A quick assessment told me that I was slashed deeply on my back. I tried to look over my shoulder and see the damage. Light flashed from the corner of my eye. Cold, merciless steel plunged toward me.

I dodged as a flash of pink shot past me to collide with the one who’d almost taken her. Her! Where was she?! I whirled around to see her, lifelessly limp in the clutching arms of her friends, water from the nearby fire hydrant spraying over them like rain.

I was at her side in an instant, ignoring the continued fight behind me. She wasn’t breathing.

“She stopped!” The girl cried, frantic now and again being held by the boy behind her. “She stopped breathing! She was fine and then she stopped!” The girl lost it then, dissolving into a mess of sobs and tears. The boy clutched her to his chest, her wet hair plastering itself itself to his soaking shirt. Her shoulders fell and lifted. Breathing.

Again, I was angered. Angry that I took so long, angry at the one who’d done this, angry that she still wasn’t breathing. I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her body to my chest as I sobbed, tears of anger dripping onto her shoulder. “Breathe, damn you!” I gripped her shoulders tighter. “Breathe! Just breathe! Please, Bubbles, just breathe.” I cried freely now, holding her tighter.

Her chest rose in my arms and I stopped, disbelief coursing through my body. And then it rose again and I lowered her from my front to look at her face.

Her eyes, gorgeous, sky blue and framed by blond hair and a beautiful face, opened slowly. She smiled at me before closing them again, chest still rising and falling as she slept in my arms.

Breathing again.

fin