The Guild of the Forsaken

CHAPTER 24 - Vodka Is Easier to Swallow

!TW; Blood, violence, alcohol!

Live And Let Die - Wings

September 15th 2024

ENIGMA

Can a heart still beat if broken?

Will your soul still travel over if in pieces?

How does one go about defining good and evil? Who decides where we go once we breathe no longer? Is there more waiting elsewhere or are their mortal souls bound to the earth that birthed them.

Perhaps there is a simple silence once your heart stops, when the blood halts. Once Alya would have written stories about her theories, about what comes after. Now however she hopes to never find out, more importantly she hopes the beaten and bloodied body of the one who holds her heart will never discover the answers either.

Hands tremble as Nino sways in her hold. His arm is looped around her shoulder and her arm has a tight hold around his waist.

Breaths are laboured as Nino heaves and pants for air.

Their footsteps are not in sync as Alya takes powerful strides with Nino's feet dragging behind. There is no harmony in their movements.

Alya cannot afford to allow herself to focus on the tears pooling in her eyes, nor the dread that infests and expands in her stomach. The only thing she can allow herself to acknowledge is the need to get Nino to safety.

"Come on, not much further now," she mutters comfortingly, but who is she trying to comfort more, her own erratic heart or her injured lover.

Daring to spare a glance his way she catches his eyes roll with his head as he groans in pain.

Yet she doesn't stop, she cannot afford to.

Upon finding Nino's bloodied body propped up against the wall her first instinct was to fall to her knees and scream. Luckily, she caught his ragged breathing as his legs twitched.

The other Order member who had cornered them outside lay decapitated on the floor, their head was most likely scorched off by a shield. But Alya didn't have to time to dwell on the details of their death. Quite frankly it didn't matter.

It wouldn't matter until Nino was back to full health.

Pulling up his shirt she caught sight of the stab wound on his side. The wound bled black as inky lines had begun their slow trail along Nino's waist. Cursing she had wasted little time before grabbing him and hauling him with her.

Making contact with Max she had with great difficulty managed to get out the words sending for help. Her rushed words and cracking voice would make little sense to anyone else, but fortunately Max caught the desperation in her tone.

"Stay with me, don't – Don't close your eyes please," she whispers to Nino on repeat, she speaks it over and over like a prayer.

In soft tones she begs him to 'stay' to 'remain awake.'

She hopes that Chloé will be fine without them, she usually was.

Closing in on the door she came through earlier Alya allows a small glimmer of hope to enter her system. She doesn't let it blind her however, she can't. Nino moans in pain from next to her as Alya's steps quicken.

Wincing she pulls him closer making sure to avoid the wound on his side. When she reaches for the door handle, she has to angle her body to avoid her grip loosening on Nino. With every move she carries out she makes sure to whisper to soft words of assurance and praise in his ear.

Holding onto hope she prays to Kwami that Max has the van and makeshift medication prepared until Marinette got to him the healing process would be much slower. The stuff used to heal would be what was left over from when Luka got hit, it was much worse than Nino's current injury which gives Alya some confidence in their ability to get the poisonous shadows out of Nino's system.