Paragon

Chapter 26

"Where are you?!" I bellow, looking around the area frantically.

"By the lake. Hurry! HURRY!"

I almost fall on my face as I jump from the last step onto the makeshift lawn beside the water. Stellan's lying flat on the ground; Viktor beside him, crying hysterically. No.

"STELLAN?!" I shout, running to him. I drop my bag and fall to my knees beside him. He's pale- so pale... and that's when I notice the blood. So much blood. "What happened?"

"I'm sorry- I'm so sorry. I didn't know- I swear, I didn't know! We were just talking. I swear! I swear I didn't do this! Please don't hate me!"

"Grab my phone and call the fucking ambulance!" I shout sternly, tears of fear falling from my eyes onto Stellan's bloodied shirt. I begin unbuttoning it desperately, with shaking fingers. I hear Viktor crying to the police behind me. "Stellan, baby. I'm here... Look at me. Baby, look at me."

I get the last button undone and pull the fabric open, releasing a sob when I find a punctured gash in his abdomen- a stab wound. Oh my god. His eyes flutter open with fear as his chest inflates and deflates rapidly, almost to the point where I'd expect to hear a crack.

"I-Iris..."

My adrenaline must be sky high because I tear the fabric of his shirt as if it were cotton. Curling it up to make it bigger, I press it down onto the wound hard enough for him to groan. "You're going to be fine. Just keep looking at me, baby. You're going to be fine!"

"Iris," he utters thickly.

"Viktor! Give me your goddamn shirt!" I scream wildly as my hands become bloody, the fabric soaked through. Extending my hand, I wait for it. "Viktor!"

Turning my head, my eyes go wide as I notice I'm completely alone.

He's left me here...

I feel as if someone's suddenly stabbed me as well... left me here to die but undeterred, I grab my shirt and remove it, feeling scalding tears drifting down my face. Thankfully, Stellan's eyes are still frantic, a sign that he's still feeling pain.

I rip my blouse into pieces, gasping for breath. "You're going to be okay."

"I- love y-you... Iris," he whispers, closing his eyes as his chest contracts. I shake my head repeatedly. No. No!

"Don't do that! Don't you dare! Open your eyes, Stellan! Open them! The ambulance will be here soon!"

Through the tears, I smile as he forces his eyes open slowly. I press down the fabric of my shirt, hoping to stop the blood flow as much as I can. I, however, am lying in a pool of it.

"S-Stellan," I utter nervously, gutted as his blinks slow and his breaths soften. I sob, shaking my head. "No, God. Please, no. Stay with me... Stay with me!"

I watch the blood drift down the corner of his mouth slowly as he gasps desperately for breath, grimacing. "Tell- her... Tell... her I love..."

"No. No! You'll tell her yourself!"

Opening his eyes as tears drift down the sides of his cheeks into his glorious blonde hair pillowed around his face, he shakes his head, managing a smile. "Promise- me."

I press down harder as I release gutted cries and he grunts in pain at the pressure. "I promise! God, I promise!"

I hear the ambulances sounding loud from a distance and choke through the tears, looking around frantically, "Fight, please, Stellan! Please, they're almost here!"

He shuts his eyes, flickering them together softly and I scream. I will him to live with it. I lift my bloodied hands from his abdomen and grab his face, struggling to breathe. He doesn't stir beneath my hands- he doesn't move. I press my lips to his and hold them there, crying.

"Please, please, please, please... PLEASE!"

"Ma'am? Ma'am? Paramedics! Please, step aside, ma'am!"

Releasing his face, I stare at my hand prints made from his blood coating his cheeks. I fall back onto the floor, in only my bra and bloody maternity jeans as they settle down beside Stellan's still body, three of them at once. Men who look like cops are running down the hill towards the area.

"Please, save him! Please," I whimper, dropping my head into my hands, bellowing into them. "Please."

"He's got a pulse! We've still got a pulse!" One of them shouts, removing their fingers from his neck. Grabbing dressings from their kit, I watch them work over him in a matter of moments as one grabs a stretcher, bringing it down to the ground. While two of the men lift him onto it, one of the men scoots toward me, reaching out his hand defensively.

"Ma'am? Are you hurt?"

"N-No. I have to go with him! That's my husband!"

"We need to leave now." He reaches down and helps me up and we run towards the ambulance together. He shuts the door behind me, leaving me with a silent Stellan and two men, one attaching an IV to his arm, the other applying pressure to the wound over the gauze using surgical gloves.

The one setting up the IV finishes and unbuttons his shirt. I'm shocked when he offers it to me, in his undershirt now. "Ma'am. Do you know this man's name?"

I nod through the tears, swallowing to control my speech as I put the shirt on. "Stellan Reid... my-my husband."

"Age?"

"T-twenty-seven." God, he just had a birthday only a two months ago. He's only twenty-seven.

"Do you know what happened to him? Were you present?"

"No. I came too late," I whisper defeatedly, shaking my head. Heart wild in terror, we all suddenly hear the sound of the machine he's hooked up to- his weak heartbeat declines to a deafening, long beep.

No.

No!

"Shit, he's going into cardiac arrest," one of them utters breathlessly, already grabbing the defibrillator. I shake my head, watching as the man I love lies still- still as someone who's already dead.

His heart has stopped.

A/N: Who's crying? 

Writing as fast I can. WILL double update today!