Darkening Days

Chapter 21: Showdown

"Derrick, let me go", I moaned, my voice a croak. I tried to push myself out of his arms, but he just held on to me tighter.

"Don't strain yourself, honey. Just relax." He said, leaning in to me. His face looks normal again.

His lips got too close to mine for comfort. I pressed my palm against his left cheek, and pushed his face away. I recoiled my hand quickly- and suddenly, a tight, unlooked-for feeling welled up inside my chest. I'm dearly missing the old Derrick- missing the feel of him, not of this monster. I really want to be in his arms right now, not this monster's. I'm longing to run my fingers through his long, scruffy hair...

I couldn't take it any longer. The words just began to spill out of my mouth. "Let me go, I said! Don't treat me like this. Just stop it! You're tormenting me! Stop acting like you care like you used to. You don't! You're just a hollow shell...you're not the one who I want to be with! You're not my friend. You're not Derrick. So stop acting like it!" I gave one more, this time more forceful, push- and I rolled out of his arms, falling hard on the pavement, landing on my right side. My body immediately protested- the right side of my body started to ache right away. My right cheek stung like crazy from being pressed into the asphalt so hard. Nonetheless, I ignored the pain- it'll go away- and immediately pushed myself upright.

I got up to face him. He was silent. "What do you have to say to that?! Huh?!" I screamed at him.

He opened his mouth to say something when the sound of cop car doors flinging open resonated from all around us. "Freeze!", "Hands up where I can see them!" and "No-one shoot!" were being shouted into the air left and right.

Derrick shut his mouth, scooped me right up into his arms again, and began to take off- but then there was a gunshot from a negligent cop, and I was dropped again. The wind in my chest, along with my senses, was knocked out of me for a split second.

After blinking my eyes a few times to get my senses back together, I slowly peeled my cheek off of the pavement and looked up.

He's bleeding- a lot. There's a large red spot growing larger by the second above his right pectoral. "Derrick!" I gasped. I forced myself up, ignored the head-rush rattling my brain, and held on to his arms- all involuntarily.

Then more sounds demanded my attention. I snapped my gaze to a cop car on my left, where a huge crash just came from. A downed cop lay right beside it. "Hhhhh!" I grasped for Derrick.

Wait- wasn't I just holding on to him?

I looked back to Derrick, but he was gone. I looked around, bewildered. How did he slip out of my grasp without me noticing?

As I scanned the area, I saw more downed cops. Then I distinguished the guys among the cops still standing- each of them was wrestling with a cop, taking only a second to rip his throat out. They moved on from cop to cop in such a short amount of time- by the time a few minutes passed, every one of the 15 or so of them was on the floor lying his own pool of blood.

My mouth gaped open. This is a fucking blood bath. I covered my eyes with my hands, as if once I removed them from my face, all the blood and death would be gone. Of course, I'm not expecting this. I just want to block everything out.

Once more I felt myself being swept into someone's arms. No doubt they're Derrick's. I don't even need to look to know that- not just from basic assumption, but from the wetness coming from his chest too. His blood seeping into my shirt. Still, I uncovered my eyes, and saw that I was right.

He ran with me so fast that I became nauseous. I looked to my side and saw the others running equally as fast.

They ran down the road, veered off to the forest where the overgrown path lies, and followed it back to their cave.