Stephen (Tainted Love #1)

Part 2|Chapter 4|STEPHEN

Alessa

Bullets.

There are so many bullets.

The noise is so loud that I'm afraid I'd go deaf.

Tension gathers in my body as we ran. Stephen is holding my hands so tightly and pulling me in the dark place so we can hide from the bullets. I am sweating,I am thirsty. The throbbing pain that branches across my back intensifies. I try to catch my breath, try to think it's just a dream, try to stretch the stress out of my muscles, but it isn't helping.

We trip as we try to hurry on the empty lonely road. The loud gun shot noises are hunting us from behind. We are their open target right now and I don't even know what I did to deserve this night.

Stephen took out a gun out of his pocket and shoot for a little while at them but soon,he ran out of bullets. He managed to shoot one or two guys but that wasn't enough. I'm sure he wasn't expecting this kind of attack in this small town either. He wasn't prepared for this.

I think I might be dying tonight. Those men are so many in numbers and it's just the two of us, me and Stephen. I trip over a stone, almost falling my face first on the road but Stephen catches me tightly,helping me up. I think now I know what it feels like to die, or the thought that there's no way I'm going to survive this gun shots for a long time. They bullets would hit us anytime soon. This is a whole different kind of dying. A whole different kind of pain.

"Are you okay, Princess? Can you run a little more?" Stephen asks in a hurry,his eyes full of fear and desperation for me to talk. I don't think he would be that scared if I wasn't here with him tonight. He would've found a way out of these chaos. But now that I'm with him, it's hard for him to stay behind and fight back.

Though I'm not okay,my knees are most probably bleeding from the fall, I still nod. I'll be here with him. Whatever happens, we face it together. There is no way in hell I can think about me sitting on my bed and Stephen fighting his death in the middle of nowhere.

"I'll be fine." I assure him. Stephen nods. He pulls me close,placing a kiss on my forehead. His kiss lingers for a little longer before he pulls away.

"I'm going to get you out of here. You don't die tonight." He looks me in the eyes as he speaks. Then the next moment,he tugs me harder as we start running again, trying to hide ourselves from the gunshots.

I’m not even sure where to look at. It's so dark around the alley. We are just running blindly when suddenly two more bullets fire in the air,one of them breaking off Stephen's skin,his upper right arm, managing to draw blood. I gasp and Stephen almost trips over but he doesn't stop running. He clutches my hand so tight that it might break but I don't mind. His jaw tightening, sending blinding flashes of pain through his veins. He gasps and stops for a little,his eyes closed as he clutches the hurt arm.

"Oh God, Stephen! We can't do this anymore. You already got shot. We can't keep running -"

"What are we supposed to do, Alessa?" Stephen says under his breathe. "We can't stop. They're going to take you,not me! We are fucking trapped! I have to find a place for you to hide." Blood running down his hand, the torment is so intense I can’t help but wonder if this hurts like hell.

"They would kill us anyway." I cry out, clearly losing hope. I've never experienced this kind of chaos in my entire life and I have no idea what to do.

"Hey,hey," his voice softens, as he touches my cheeks with his bloodied hands. "We are going to be fine, alright? I'm going to find a safe place for you. You'll stay there until everything calms down."

I can feel his breathe over my mouth and at this point, all I want is to feel his lips on mine, to feel the warmth.

"What about you, Stephen? What if they take you? What if they kill you now?" My voice breaks.