↳ 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐑 ー 𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐘

𝐈 ー 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐨𝐛𝐢𝐚

◉

Cursing under his breath and reaching for his gun, Diego cautiously peers into the house through the open door. Eiza takes one wide-eyed look over his shoulder and rushes past him, crouching beside Kaden who is slumped against the wall.

Streaks of red smeared across the stretch of white behind him. His hand twitches when she searches for his pulse.

A faint, low groan rolls through the air. Grayson huffs and manages to pull himself up enough to lean back against the bookshelves. He pries both of his eyes open when Diego hurries over to him and applies pressure to his side.

"No," he rasps, feebly fighting him off. "Save my brother." Diego sighs when his hands are forced away a second time.

"Sierra," Kaden breathes. "Hope," he partly yells when her cries echo from upstairs. Eiza holds him still when he tries to move.

Diego bunches a towel and presses it to Grayson's wound. "Pressure," he grits before sprinting up the steps with his gun in hand, ready and waiting to be fired. "Sierra?" He rounds the corner. "Shit, Sierra!"

He swiftly lowers to one knee to check her weak pulse. A fragment of a pained moan swims in her throat when he bellows his fiancé's name. His words are lost on her drowning ears. Eyes chained shut; unable to open despite him trying to rouse her.

○ ○ ○

Upon regaining a moment of consciousness, her blurred eyes crack open to view the blinding light shining down from above. Diego and Eiza's raised voices are still muffled in her ringing ears. Their silhouettes moving hastily around her.

Weighted eyelids flutter against her will. Hope's cries fade into the distance as the darkness lures her back into the depths of her mind.

○ ○ ○

His shadow nears in the reflection of the vase. Weapon cocked, patiently waiting to spit another bullet from the chamber. After taking a breath she steps out and they each aim their guns, pulling the triggers in sync. A slug burrows into her body, the force knocking her into the wall where she slides down.

Scorching heat. Slick red pouring from the open wound. Copper migrating across her tongue and drying her mouth, unlike her cheeks which are damp with tears. A shrill cry echoes, startling the woman clutching her shoulder.

Sucking in a sharp breath, Sierra flinches awake.

Shrouded in a suffocating silence until the sound of her heart pounding fills her ears. Dull, throbbing aches wash through her right shoulder like tidal waves. One after the other. Powerful enough to blur her vision when she blinks away the lingering fatigue.

Eiza is by her side in an instant. "No sudden movements. You'll tear your stitches."

Sierra wearily pats the dressing concealing her shoulder, secured tight to keep it in place. Her breaths are still shallow as the room begrudgingly stops spinning.

"It was real," she croaks. "It wasn't a dream."

"No, it wasn't a dream honey." Eiza's voice is filled with the utmost sympathy.

"He wouldn'tー there were so many of them. They came out of nowhere. Oh my godー Kaden. Grayson. They were hurt. I saw them. I saw them fall down. Where are they? Tell me they're okay." The lump forming in her throat causes her voice to wobble.