𝐅𝐀𝐓𝐀𝐋 𝐃𝐄𝐒𝐈𝐑𝐄𝐒 |

𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘-𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑

LYRA

The ringing was painfully loud. My eyes felt glued shut and every fiber of my body felt as if it was on fire. My throat felt clogged, and it made it hard to breathe. A thumping feeling surrounded my head and I just wanted to lay here, but that's not an option.

Get up. Get up, Lyra.

My eyes slowly fluttered open, blurriness preventing me to see clearly. The ringing started to stop while I worked to get my vision back to normal. I shifted my legs, gasping at the pain that shot through my thigh. Glancing down, a piece of glass stuck out of the flesh with dried up blood surrounding it. 

Rolling on my back, I gasped, feeling shards of glass digging into my skin. The ringing in my ears completely vanished; The fire crackling around me, ashes and broken glass covering the floors, and broken piece of furniture scattered around. I brought a hand to my head, groaning out and coughing harshly, instantly bringing that same hand to my chest.

How much time has passed? I couldn't tell if any had passed at all. Everything moved in slow motion and fast forward at the same time and there was no time to process it. My body felt frozen. Stuck in time.

 I inhaled deeply, looking over and my heart begun to race seeing Mason turned on his side just a few feet from me. He was incredibly still, and it scared the shit out of me. 

"Mason," I rasped, crying out in pain when I turned to crawl towards him. 

Move. You've got to move.

Clenching my jaw, I made another attempt but quickly froze when the front door slammed open, falling onto the floor. I slowly turned my head; my eyes widening when a tall but buff man stepped inside, adjusting his sleeves. 

"This'll be easier than I thought," his rough voice spoke, stomping over to me. 

There wasn't even a chance to react before his hand was around my throat, lifting me off of the ground. I gasped in pain when he slammed me against the wall, his fingers digging into my throat as his grip got tighter. 

I weakly punched at his arm and coughed harshly, as a terrible attempt to get oxygen into my lungs. He simply smirked, pushing me harder against the wall and inching his face closer to mine. 

"Boss will be more than happy to have your head on a silver platter," he assured, his smirk widening. 

I clenched my jaw, his head flinching back when my spit landed on his cheek.

"Fuck you, you cretin." 

Reaching down, I yanked the shard out of my thigh and jammed it into his neck, holding it tightly. His grip instantly loosened, falling backwards and I fell atop of him, biting my lip at an attempt to block out the pain flooding through my leg. 

He started to choke on his blood, and I pushed it farther into his neck, grunting and muttering for him to die faster. Slowly but surely, he exhaled and the life in his eyes faded. I pulled my hand back, crying out in pain and looking at the now blood-soaked hand. The pain in my thigh increased, and I glanced down, wincing at the drops of blood leaking onto the floor. 

"Lyra..."

When Mason hoarsely called my name, I felt my heart fall to my ass. I crawled over to him, ignoring the pain spreading through me. His eyes were still shut closed, but his chest rose and fell with each slow breath he took. I let out a breath of relief, for this small victory. 

"Baby?" I croaked, scanning his body. I was too scared to move him. 

He let out a pained grunt and I moved around to his front, my eyes landing on his hand that was covering his upper right chest. I yanked my shirt off in a rush and gently moved his hand, pressing my shirt onto the wound, flinching when he groaned loudly and placed his hand on top of mine.