The Price of Immortality

Chapter 5

Gaige's eyes caught on a reflective chunk of metal on the ground with edges tinted scarlet. Just my luck, it seems that an incompetent gardener left a shovel in the bush. He tentatively pushed his fingers in the gash above his armpit to asses the damage. He winced in pain. Red blossomed inconspicuously against his black t-shirt.

Father always said that there was only one color darker than black: blood on black.

Gaige stumbled out of the bushes, placing pressure on the wound to staunch to bleeding. He looked up and held his arms out, "Jasper, come on!" He whisper-yelled. A body seemed to hurl itself over the edge and he knew it was her. He got directly under her to catch her. She fell into his arms with a soft gasp. "Would you care to explain to me what we are doing and why?" She asked harshly, her voice still in a whisper. "You could have got us killed!" She clenched her teeth.

He chuckled quietly and smirked mischievously, "are you alive?"

She stepped away from him, "well, yeah, I guess I am... Why are you trying to get me out of here so quickly?" She glanced up at the window to make sure no one was there.

"I promise I'll explain on the way, but we have to go. Now." Gaige took her hands, "do you trust me Jasper?"

She bit her lip, "I'm not sure if I should..."

He grinned and began to run, pulling her with him. She gasped softly, running- more like stumbling- behind him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Waiting for them at the train tracks with her usual crossed arms and slightly pursed lips was Gaige's half sister, Imogen. Her short, but curvy frame makes her appear innocent and childish, but the look on her face said anything but. She held the force of a thousand armies in her glare, he felt the waves of anger radiating off of her.

Imogen let her arms fall to her sides as she greeted him with the familiar, "who's hurt and where?"

Gaige groaned in pain, "right shoulder, minor, but it's bleeding a lot."

In response, Imogen made a disapproving sound in the back of her throat and starts toward the waiting train. After all three of them slid into hop onto an empty cargo car and slide the heavy door mostly shut, the train started to glide down the tracks towards home.

Imogen immediately fell to her knees and pulled a first aid kit out of her jacket. "What was the purpose of that?" She growled opening up the handheld box.

Gaige rolls his eyes as she angrily sorts through the medical supplies. "Calm down Imogen, it's not like I'm dying."

Right now, he added in his head.

"Just sit down and shut up" she orders, pushing down on his good shoulder. He collapsed with a heavy sigh against the wooden floor of the dirty train car and he leaned his head back against the metal wall, not caring about the cobwebs tangling in his hair.

Jasper paced in the opposite corner, burying her fingers in her blonde hair tugging at the roots. Her feet finally shuffle to a stop, and her skin took on a paper shade. "Is it-" she swallowed tightly. "-Is it bad?" She asked hesitantly, daring to risk a peek as Gaige pulled his shirt sleeve down some to look at the bloody wound.

As soon as her eyes hit the red gushing forth from his split skin, she swiveled her attention to an unmarked wooden box in the corner. Jasper, who happens to be the most concerned a person can get, is very squeamish. She was okay around blood as long as her mind is focused on nothing else, but as they sat there in near silence with nothing to hold their interest, her mind wandered to dark places.

"You're lucky it's only this deep. You could have punctured something serious." Imogen observes the wound, her eyebrows furrowing. "It's too wide and irregular to be a stab wound... What got you?"

He flinched when she prodded his wound. "A hand shovel," he admitted sheepishly in a quiet voice.

Imogen sighed and started to stitch up his wound, not caring when he drew away a bit. He bit his lip as pain radiated across his nerves, but didn't say a word.

"Swear I didn't know it was there," he added as Imogen finished up the stitches and plastered them in ointment.

"Didn't know his gun was loaded, didn't know she had a knife up her sleeve..." she muttered to herself, biting off tape between her teeth.

"Won't happen again," he lied as she plastered the bandage down with strips of adhesive tape.

It would happen again, it always did.

"Don't touch it," she commands, sanding and brushing off her jeans. She gave him one last hard look before straightening up and pushing her dirty blonde hair over her shoulder. Her eyes and voice softened as she made sure he was listening to her, "I mean it, Gaige..."

Jasper made her way back over to him as he tugged his bloody shirt sleeve back over the bandaged wound. Though her skin was still a bit paler, she wasn't as fidgety as before.

"Good as new," he said in a mock- cheery voice as he stood and met her at the open door of the train car.

They both plopped down onto the rough wooden floor and perched on the edge of the car freely. The crisp air beats against the their cheeks, and she inhales the scent of pine. "So, why exactly did you get me out..?" Jasper asked quietly.