Hush (Venom Epidemic, #1)

Chapter 07 - Damsel In Distress.

          Fleur was desperate for Katrina to come back to consciousness and tried to awake her by shaking her shoulders, but it wasn't working. Her ears caught something in the air, a noise that she didn't want to get closer any sooner. She looked up at the broken gateway in front of her, to the left, and then at her friend who was slumped against the wall.

          She stood up from her knees and hastily started to drag Katrina up and away – towards the shed – and pulled with all her might. Her grunts of effort were too loud even for her liking and she clamped her mouth shut tightly, in case one of those blood-suckers was nearby. It took her a while to drag her friend into the dim box, however, she scolded at carelessness when she saw Katrina's lower arm.

          Katrina was now soundlessly laid down on the dusty mattress with a scrape on her skin. Her arm had scraped against something sharp when Fleur was busy pulled her through the splintered doorway.

          "Oh, no," Fleur gasped in a whisper and covered her mouth guiltily. She was sure that the scrape wasn't because of the blood-sucker because it wasn't there before, so she had nothing to worry about – minus the epidemic. With a small whimper of dread and a final look – she was praying for her to wake up now rather than later – and scuffled back out. She waited to look at the friend who had saved her today, and closed the door after her.

          Fleur had a mission to fulfill. There wasn't anything thing to hold the door in place from the monsters so she left it close just like that, and inched past the gory mess in that lay in the middle of the yard. She quickly stepped outside and her heart sped up rapidly. Not trying to let her paranoid thoughts get to her, she focused on making her way around the whole block and into Katrina's house.

          The sky was bright and sunny in comparison to what was happening today, with a baby blue background and rich, foamy clouds or whiteness. They reminded her of candy-floss and her mouth watered. That's when she remembered, she hadn't eaten from yesterday morning, and neither had Katrina. And that's when her stomach rumbled, making her self-consciously wrap her arms around herself and quicken her small, yet quick, pace.

          Her eyes darted everywhere that she could get to see as her feet were tapping along the asphalt backstreet quietly, nonetheless, she still wasn't fond of those small sounds. Everything was too loud for her and she was afraid that she would get caught. She couldn't believe that she was actually doing this and felt brave enough. But she was indeed. She had to be strong, just like Katrina was.

          She turned a corner to the left, recalling from her memory that which way they had come from, and met with another backstreet that was elongated behind her. All the time she was checking in all directions whilst she kept on the move. The sooner she got what they needed the sooner she could get back.

          Get back to where? she asked herself bitterly. That wasn't even a safe place for them and they still got caught. That was when she stopped just before the backstreet was going to end. Her feet were only about half a meter away from the end of the wall. Fleur took a deep breath and jumped at the corner and checked if there was anything around it. Nothing. She let out that breath that she was holding in. She turned her head to the left and so the footpath leading up the steep slope. Nothing there as well.

          That was when she dashed around the corner on her right, not caring if her one inch heels were making that echoing noise again, and went round another corner to land on the house that Katrina's abandoned house was sitting for her. She was glad that there were no monsters of her nightmares there anymore and tumbled into the front door. The front broken to pieces door that was hanging off the hinges. A rotting kind of smell overwhelmed her senses and she thought that she might have thrown up, if she didn't have her mission to uphold. She looked around her surroundings and saw that the keys were exactly where they were left, and she grabbed them out of the open purse from the ground after rummaging through it. Now, as she held the bunch of keys in her hands triumphantly, she dashed into the kitchen.