Friends Down Low (ONC2022)

Chapter 12 - My Devious Inclusion

I ran for the woods, tearing through the underbrush without care. I had no idea what help I could be in this battle, but I was consumed with anger after losing McGavin and Clancy and it needed to be directed somewhere.

But I couldn't find them. I paused, listening for sounds of battle, but none came. I calmed myself, picked through the woods slower, carefully searching.

A body lay in the leaves ahead.

It was Sil.

She was down.

The battle had turned against her after I lost sight of them. Through a gash in her side, I could see the white of a snapped rib. Further up, a deep chest wound bubbled out blood in sync with each of her struggling breaths. I didn't need any medical training to know these were fatal injuries. I kneeled at her side and reached for her hand.

"No," she snapped and moved her arm away. "I'm bleeding heavily. If you get so much as a drop into a cut or scratch, you'll die."

At her warning I pulled back, then checked her shoulders, thinking I could at least put a reassuring hand there, but there was so much blood. I could stroke her cheek. Nope. I couldn't find a clean spot to touch.

Screw it.

I took her hand and cupped it in both of mine. She let out a gasp. I could see that the pincers on her fingers were broken. "There are worse ways to go," I told her, doing my best to smile. "We gave it a good shot, but the battle is lost. If I go out with you right now, that's fine."

"Are you sure? My poison is incredibly painful."

I chewed my bottom lip at this, but I was already committed. "That's information I could have used about ten seconds ago, but what's a little painfully deadly poison between friends, right?"

She smiled weakly and returned the squeeze to my hand, which, with her above normal strength, proved to be rather uncomfortable as well. "I'm sorry, Finnigan. I nearly had her. Her skin was like stone. I couldn't inject her. Once she deduced my strategy, I didn't have much of a chance."

"Don't apologize. We were up against some terrible odds. I'm so proud and grateful that the three of you stood with me. Without you...well...I would have died much faster, probably with lots of crying and whining."

Sil laughed, which rapidly gurgled into a fit of coughing that brought bloody foam to the corners of her mouth. I pulled a hand free and put it to her face, brushed her hair back, heedless of the blood that smeared my hand. What difference did it make now? Somewhere nearby the Saint waited in her shadows. I was screwed anyway.

"Finnigan," she motioned to her pants pocket. "I have one vial of your uncle's potion left. If you feel my poison take hold, swallow it down. Then run. Leave the house to the Saint. Just get away. Promise me."

"I will." I don't know if meant this as I just didn't have the energy to run. But lying to her seemed more appropriate. I wasn't going to argue with a dying woman.

Her eyes drifted off me to the canopy of nighttime trees above. "I always hoped to die in sunlight. I hate shadows."

"I'm sure wherever you're going it's very bright."

She gasped her way through another laugh. "I don't know about that but at least it'll be hot."

"That's because it'll be beachfront property in the afterlife. You've earned it."