𝐋𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐨 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐉𝐮𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐭

𝟑𝟖⎮𝐉𝐮𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐭

["Sometimes, you have to let some things go."]

❦

They say death doesn't hurt. Wrong! It hurts like fucking hell, even though he's not hurt, I don't know how I'd handle it if he got one wound, so it's a good thing it's me. At least I think so.

My hand reaches the edge of the knife while the other hand tries to grab hold of a table, a chair–something! Instead, I fall to the floor but not before hearing Aaron's voice.

"Yi!" And he's here. He takes me in his arms, lifting me as the last man falls around him, neck cut.

I want to take the knife out of me. It hurts like hell and I feel my eyes slowly closing, but I can't.

"Look at me Maria." Aaron commanded softly, lifting my head, holding me against his chest. "It's going to be okay, I'm here, nobody's going to hurt you again."

"Aaron…" I started, but my words were quickly lost as I tried to catch my breath. It's not funny anymore, not like before when I thought death was nothing and something you could avoid. It's real and I'm almost there.

I'm afraid to look down at my bleeding stomach, I'm afraid to accept.

I grab the handle of the knife ready to take it out, but Aaron stops me, nibbling my fingers and placing them on his shirt.

"Not now, you can bleed out even more and we can't have that." He whispers and for the first time I see fear on his face. My bloody fingers begin to tighten his shirt, leaving dark stains.

I feel like my throat is blocked as I try to get the words out. "A-Aaron... a-am I going to d-die?"

He shakes his head as if he wants to make himself believe more than me. "No, no, just… come here." He picks me up off the ground, making me moan in pain as he carries me over to the sofa where Kennedy was sitting a few minutes ago. I can still smell the whiskey.

My head touches the soft material as Aaron lies down and crouches next to me and i close my eyes just for a second.

"I'm going to get this out of you now, okay? Can you be brave for me?" I nod and he quickly kisses my forehead and then my cheek before answering, "Good girl."

I cling to him as his hand slowly grips the knife in my stomach, pulling it out as carefully as possible, but it still doesn't stop the pain and my muffled screams as I try to fight the sharp pain.

"It's okay, you're doing so well love, we're almost there." And then it's gone.  The knife falls to the floor next to Aaron and he quickly gets to his feet picking up something of the table and coming over to me, this time placing my body on his.

My head is still on the sofa, but the rest of my body is on his lap as I scratch and squeeze Aaron's hand, which I unconsciously grabbed.

"This is going to hurt, but I promise you it will be fine after this." Only after that I see that he is holding the whiskey that used to be in Kennedy's hands.