Bloodless

Chapter 2 / Raze

In a blur of motion Raze jumps away from the car. His hands are cuffed behind him so as he falls he aims them for a patch of broken asphalt. Then he's free. Immediately spins around and grabs the knife from the officer by him. He jumps away and goes off into a sprint. He runs into the woods till he hits the next road, just in much worse shape. The asphalt was cracked and broken, the grass around it was deadening. His mind was racing, thinking about what just happened. Raze was so astonished and his mind was filled with questions; where did they take his parents and why, and why was he taken too.

He followed the road till he spots something up by a tree further down the road. Squinting he could see a human-like figure. It was on its side towards the ground. A small feminine body. As it got closer Raze realized it was another human, a girl even, possibly close to his age. Sprinting again he reaches her. He wonders if she's even breathing; should he shake her or just wait. Another alternative comes to his mind and drags her as careful as he can be farther into the trees. Once they were under the cover of the foliage she started moaning.

"Stop, Stop. Leave me alone." She moaned.

"Well, are you okay?" He asked breathlessly

She sat up and said, "I guess, what's your problem? "

"You were just lying on the ground, I thought you were dead! You're covered in scrapes and scratches too." He exclaimed.

"Why do you care? "She said.

"I honestly don't know, but can you calm down so we can fix you?" He asked.

"No really, I'm okay. Just keep going" she said thinking about the word he used, "fix." Maybe she needed fixing; what if she really was broken?

He thought this statement over. He didn't know her but she looked his age and hurt. He couldn't just leave her.

"I'm not going to leave until we patch you up"

"I don't need to be 'patched up.' I am not worn out jeans." she said with a sight quiver in her lip.

"I didn't mean that, sorry. Let's just start over? My name is Raze; what's yours?"

She eyed him suspiciously, why would a random kid be nice to her. Questions started to mill about in her mind. Why isn't he with his family? Why is he being nice? How old is he? Who is he? With an already tired head, she started to think about the pain in her scraped elbows and knees. Thinking he couldn't do more harm, she gave in.

"My name is Cressida."

"Okay Cressida," he says as he sits down beside her, "I don't have anything on me but we could rinse some water on them. Have any? "

"Yeah I do" she groped around the ground until she found the dropped canteen.

He took it from her and screwed the top off. As gently as he could manage he took it and splashed it on her scrapes and scratches to cleanse them of the ground, asphalt, and dried blood. Cressida inhaled in exasperation as the water ran over her fresh wounds.

"Well," Raze said, "better safe than sorry." Cressida's head snapped up at those words. She looked into the faraway trees and tucked her ginger red hair behind her ear as a small sigh escaped her lips. Raze looked at her, confused. This girl was a mystery to him and he was a curious boy. Her lips were on the smaller side and her eyes were a palette of colors. They were green with brown around the pupil and had blue and golden flakes in the outer iris. A bunny nose and slightly rounded face completed her look.

"Did I do something wrong? Do your knees hurt?" He asked

"Huh? Oh, no you didn't. That was just something my parents always said. "Cressida replied with an unidentifiable tone and look in her eyes. Up until this point Raze had never thought about why she was alone. He didn't know what to say. Maybe I shouldn't ask he thought but now he didn't know what to say. So Raze sat there pouring water over some lost girls wounds and Cressida sat there wondering why she was letting this strange boy help her. He seemed focused on her wounds and she glanced up at him every so often. He had untidy brown hair that was evenly cut in the front. His eyes were big and brown with little gold flecks around the iris. His nose had a slight bump in the bridge of his nose and his lips weren't anything special. Her eyes kept roaming around.

"Cressida, I think I got most of the dirt and asphalt out," Raze said to her, which snapped her out of the examining of him.

"Oh, good." After a moment's pause she added "thanks, Raze. "

"No problem," He replied, unsure what to do now.