Children's Games: A Story of Modern Consequence

Chapter 59

~Emilia~

"Fight back!" Anna whispered, her eyes darting back and forth between her opponents' eyes. She was in disbelief, completely conflicted by Emilia's refusal to defend herself. The point of her blade was pressing into Emilia's chest, but barely hard enough to draw blood.

Anna and Emilia had been friends. Despite the things that Emilia now knew about Anna, they had still shared a genuine friendship. Anna had been the one to show her the ropes from the start, and Anna had always looked out for Emilia's best interests, even warning her about Dominik from the very start. Emilia hated that she had to fight Anna, but was relieved that she was too weak, and was therefore forced not to.

Anna's eyes then slowly travelled down, finally noticing the small knife already sticking out of Emilia's abdomen, slowly bleeding her dry.

Emilia had been hit while they were fighting back in the alleyway courtyard. Anna had thrown the knife, then both women had been distracted as Yelena tried to shoot at Joshua... Emilia hadn't realised it until now, though subconsciously, she had known not to look down and alarm herself.

"W-was that... me?" Anna stuttered quietly, keeping her eyes firmly on the wound. The damage was extremely slow, and the only thing stopping Emilia from bleeding out was the fact that the knife was acting as a sealant to its own injury.

The look in Anna's eyes started to cloud over as they flicked back up, and Emilia's head suddenly felt clear, her muscles relaxed underneath Anna's tense body.

Anna quickly sat up, pulling Emilia with her. She was still straddling her legs, busy being careful not to disrupt the knife, and wrapped her arms around her friend. Anna was very long and tall, so she easily enveloped around Emilia, and she was left without air for a few moments before Anna let go. Then in one quick motion, she wiped the tears off of Emilia's face, pocketed her knife, and started backing away.

"I enjoy the hunt more anyway," she whispered so quietly that Emilia almost didn't hear. It was so different from all the rage, all the blind fury that Anna had thrown at her over these last few hours.

Their eye contact only broke when Anna disappeared around the slight curve of the tunnel. Emilia was left dumbfounded as she tried to keep her eyes open, confused on how to feel about the blonde-haired psychopath. Her friend.

Only a few moments passed before Joshua appeared again.

"What're you doing, love? The train's here. We're all... here..."

He kneeled down beside her, then flinched away as he saw the knife for the first time. A lot of the shorter strands of hair around his forehead had escaped from his hair tie and were framing his face. Paired with the stubble around his mouth and jawline, he looked older than he really was. Emilia didn't mind, it made him look wise. Then he flinched back towards her just as quickly, his hands fidgeting around the wound. He didn't know what to do.

Joshua clasped her hand instead, already slightly bloody. He leaned his forehead against hers and she allowed herself a moment of peace to close her eyes.

"Who did this?" he whispered, strained.

"Anna... But we can still make it... Florence is the medic. She'll know what to do."

Joshua took a deep breath, then kissed her hard on her forehead. It was only brief, but it held all the desperation, all the sorrow, and all the tension held between them. Emilia could feel his lips on her skin, and warmth spread faster than a wildfire all over her body, almost like a fever. But he pulled away quickly, the urgency in the air still hanging around them.

He carefully pulled her up, murmuring softly to her, making sure that she was ok until they were both upright. Emilia regained her strength as he helped her forward. He was clasping her hand so tightly that she almost told him to soften his grip... but his eyebrows were knitted together in so much worry that she decided to ignore it.