Wither With Me

CHAPTER 11 - RESCUE

When William burst through the doorway, time almost seemed to slow down for him. He knew he wouldn't have any second chances if he messed up. He needed to act quickly and decisively. His eyes dashed through the scene.

An unknown man was holding Nora back, both of her arms were restrained behind her back, and she was hopelessly trying to break free. They were right in front of the door. William didn't waste any time thinking, such a luxury couldn't be afforded. The knife sunk into the man's neck from behind, all the way through. The damn bastard couldn't even process what had just happened, he gurgled and dropped on the spot.

The entire room seemed to freeze for a moment. He could feel everyone's gazes falling on him. This was his golden chance; an instant was enough. In that short fraction of a second, his brain didn't really bother to recognize faces. It wasn't necessary, he knew what he was looking for. His gun only needed to aim for the biggest person in the room. The one crouched over in a corner, knife in hand, about to cut a girl open.

He fired. A pained scream followed.

...

He missed; that son of a bitch wasn't dead. Jacobs charged at him head first, howling like a rabid animal. His arm was bloody. The bullet had inflicted some damage, enough to make his arm jolt with pain and drop the knife, but not enough to incapacitate him. He crashed himself against William and grabbed his waist, before he had the chance to fire the weapon again. The force of the impact ripped the gun away from William's hand, and threw both of them out of the room.

******

Nora's distress turned into shock, which then turned into panic. What was going on? She needed a couple of seconds to comprehend the situation, everything had happened too fast. Claire's moans got her out of her trance, and prompted her to jump into action.

"Ah...! Claire, hold on...!!" she exclaimed.

She frantically looked around the floor and located Jacob's knife. She hurried over to Claire and started cutting through her restraints. She couldn't believe how badly beaten she was. Several bruises on her face and body, small superficial cuts on her arms and legs, one particularly nasty gash on her left thigh...

"Oh god... Claire, can you talk...!?" asked Nora, as she finished cutting free Claire's arms, which fell down like dead weight.

"Nora..." her voice was weak. "I'm... glad you're... okay..."

"Yeah, I'm okay...! It's all going to be okay...!" her eyes filled up with tears. "Hang in there, we'll get you both out of here...!"

She quickly turned around and rushed over to where Lilian was.

"Lilian...! Lilian, sis, I'm here...!!"

Lilian's head slowly moved around, dazed, while Nora freed her hands and feet.

"Oh dear, what happened to your clothes...!?"

"Norie...?" whispered the girl, still visibly confused.

"Yes, I'm here, big sis is here!"

"Mmhm." that kind of mumble was a good sign, Nora knew her sister very well. She didn't seem to be hurt.

She gently grabbed her and pulled her up. Her small feet touched the floor, and Nora let go of her bit by bit. She stayed up by herself.

"Okay, Lilian, you need to stay very, very close to me! Can you do it...!?" she asked, patting Lilian's head.

"Mhm." In response, Lilian pinched Nora's jacket and cuddled beside her.

"Good girl!"

She went back to Claire, with Lilian following very close behind.