Gravity Rises (S3)

CW: Part Eleven

Lee burst from the group and dropped down by Andrew. The fallen minotaur had a bullet hole right through his chest, not far from his heart.

No. No no no—

"Someone get a hamadryad!" Lee shouted, pressing his hands onto the wound to try to stem the bleeding. But so many people had already been hurt, and so many hamadryads had already left to heal them. . . . Would there be any left to help Andrew?

"Lee." Andrew spit out the word through the pain. "Lee, I can't come with you."

"No!" Andrew was supposed to help cast magic to get Bill out of Lee's body. But more than that — Andrew was the one with the knife. The one who had promised to do what nobody else could. "Andrew, you have to be there," Lee said. "I can't — I can't do it. You have to."

Andrew shook his head, though that simple act seemed to hurt him. He was losing a lot of blood — where was that hamadryad? "You'll have to, now," he said. "This will take—" He paused and groaned from a wave of pain. "This will take a long time to heal, even with the hamadryads' help. I can't be with you."

"Andrew—"

But Lee didn't know what else to say. Andrew reached down to his side and, with shaking fingers, tried to untie his belt, from which his sheathed knife hung. "Help me," he said to Lee.

Lee sat there in shock, still pressing down on the wound, somehow less able to move than the person who had been shot in the chest. "Stanley," Andrew said, his voice weak but commanding. "Help me get this off. Take it with you."

So Lee helped untie the belt and took the knife. "Please. Don't leave me with this."

"Tie it around your waist. Hide it under your clothes, just in case."

In case of what? Getting captured by the servants? Lee glanced over his shoulder and noticed that Ford wasn't watching. He was hurrying the other Symbols up the stairs, after a path had been cleared. Maybe hiding the dagger was in case of Ford seeing and trying to take it.

A moment after Lee had secured the knife, two hamadryads ran up. Finally! Where had they been? They lifted Andrew into the air, with one hamadryad wrapping her arms around his chest and under his arms, and the other securing his legs.

"Papa!" cried a voice. Enoch ran up to them.

"Enoch. Stay with the Symbols," Andrew instructed. "Make sure they're safe. I'll be okay." That last word turned into a tortured moan.

And with that, the hamadryads hurried away.

Enoch looked to Lee with anguish in his eyes. Lee wiped his bloody hands on his pants and waved to the young minotaur. "Come on. Let's get to the others."

The two of them hurried up the stairs to get to the other Symbols. A stray gunshot pinged off the banister, but Lee and Enoch made it up safely. They ran into the nearest hallway, where they could see the others Symbols.

"Andrew?" Gideon asked when they had caught up.

"The hamadryads will heal him," Lee said. "But I don't think he'll be back to help us. He. . . has a lot of healing to do."

Enoch let out a high-pitched moan of fear.

Immediately Dipper was by Enoch's side. "He'll be okay," he said, though his voice was shaking a bit. "The hamadryads know what they're doing."

Enoch nodded, swallowed a few times, and managed to speak to the group. "Papa told me to stay with you. I — I'm not nearly as good as magic as he is, but I might be able to help with exorcising Cipher."