The Risks

May: Chapter 54

A/N: I thought, oh, I'll make them wait 24 hours just so they can have a taste of how Claire would feel right now. But if I was a reader, I would absolutely LOATHE the writer right now... so here you are. I can't do that to you all. :) Also, you should totally put on some headphones and crank this song cuz OUCH. I love it. 

"Nobody said it was easy

It's such a shame for us to part

Nobody said it was easy

No one ever said it would be so hard"

-The Scientist, Coldplay

His eyes. God, his eyes.

I didn't even want to look into them, but I had to tear my horrified gaze away from the gruesome sight of his ankle. And where else was there to look?

Dread. That was the primary emotion I saw in them. Not fear, not physical pain, but dread. The eyes of a man who knew he'd met his fate.

And as the dread began to fade, it made room for something else –something worse. Acceptance. And I felt his grasp loosen in my hand.

A single bullet into the brain of the Feral who clung tightly onto him, and it dropped. I holstered my weapon and wrapped my other hand around his wrist.

I wasn't letting him go anywhere.

"Hold on," I demanded, but it sounded almost like a warning.

Don't you dare let go, don't you dare leave me.

I shot a desperate look over my shoulder as I heard Xavier barreling into the room carrying an axe he hadn't had before, while Spencer hovered cautiously behind him.

"Help me pull him up," I called to Xavier, and he lunged into action, dropping the axe.

When we got Parker up onto the second level, he leaned forward to inspect the damage. I fell to my knees beside him, my heart twisting in agony as I stared at the mess of flesh and tendons.

"Fuck," he breathed, pushing both hands into his hair as he laid flat on the ground. He sighed heavily, and then looked at me –looked into me.

It's over, his eyes said. This is it.

No. Absolutely fucking not.

Running purely on adrenaline and the faint hope that I could save him, I formed a quick and crazy plan in my mind. I needed to work fast, surely there wasn't much time. One step at a time, Claire. So I scooted closer to him, unbuckled his belt and ripped it from its loops.

"Can you lift your leg?" I asked him.

Now I could see it. The fear. Right there, right on the surface. He knew exactly what I was thinking.

But he wasn't answering me fast enough, so I put my hands beneath his knee and pulled upward as carefully as I could manage, trying to ignore the way he gasped in pain as I wrapped the belt as tightly as I could around his shin, just below the knee.

Then I turned and looked down at the axe with contempt before picking it up from the cement.

"What are you doing?" Xavier asked, but I ignored him.

I turned back to Parker and was met with terrified eyes. I wondered for a brief second what he saw in mine. Terror? Resolve? Hysteria?

"Don't move."