Nightingale [ON HOLD TILL FURTHUR NOTICE *SORRY*]

No. 1

"Ri, can you promise me you wont let go of my hand ? I need you to promise." I asked kneeling in front of him. "I promise." he said as I slowly regained my footing. "Okay we're gonna go down to that little house to see if anyone's there okay ?"

"But that's not wha-" 

"I know baby, I know, but I won't make it if these cuts are still bleeding. And I'm always telling you don't trust anyone except me and Jordan but right now I don't have a choice." I replied as I stumbled my way down the hill with Ri behind me and a tight grip around his small hand. Ri should have been in bed hours ago, we shouldn't have been out here at this hour and we most definitely shouldn't have been stumbling through the woods where danger lurked at ever bend of trees. But this was the world we lived in now, it was all work and no time to play.

The bramble cut and swiped at my already hurt leg, and the branches from the trees pulled at my shredded shirt. My right forearm, right calve, and part of my abdomen each had there own 'souvenir' from trying to make a food haul which ended up being an ambush, in which they intended to kill not only me but as many people from my group as possible. 

Luckily it was only me and Ri who went out, and even luckier Ri didn't get a scratch. The loss of blood was making me dizzy and the strong smell of iron was making me feel sick. I tripped a little but caught myself and subconsciously tightened my grip on Ri's hand.

Ever step towards that little house was agonizing. Pain rushed all of my senses,  my arms throbbed, my legs buckled wanting to give way to my body so bad and it felt as if I was reliving the knife going through my stomach.

Then finally we reached the house, in all of its wooden half broken down glory. I clumsily fell up the two steps, then walked towards the door. "Ri stay behind me no mat-" my warning was cut short as I stumbled back in a sudden wave of pain. Crashing into one of the wooden posts I released Ri's hand and cradled my wounds. "Mom !" Ri shouted.

I scrunched my eyes up trying to stop the pain from consuming me. Tired, I'm so tired. I shook my head and opened my eyes seeing Ri's beautiful face. His black hair was sticking up in random places and his brown doe eyes were filled with worry. " Ri.." My eyes drooped, and something inside me said 'sleep, I know your tired just sleep.' I wanted to trust that voice it was so welcoming, so close, so near. 

Ignore, ignore, Ri needs you. You can't leave Ri. I heard a knock it was deafening, then I realized what Ri had done,and that some how my eyes had shut and I quickly snapped them back open  "Ri don't. Come back here." I attempted to get up but was only able to stand for a second before sliding back down against the post.

"Please, help. They, t-they. H-hurt." Ri cried to someone from behind the cracked open door. They held something that jolted me from my position, made me forget all the pain and ignore the blood seeping into my ripped up clothes.

A gun.

"Baby, come here. very quickly." I ordered, limping closer. God this cannot be happening. 

"But he said-"

"Ri, please just come here." He scurried over to me and I put myself between Ri and the gun. "Look we-" 

"That girl out there is bout to bleed out and your goin' around pointin' guns at lil kids ? What the heck is wrong with you Dan. Let them in, before I get Nate in here." A female voice said interrupting me. They fully opened the door and two people came rushing out.

I latched onto Ri with my good hand as the girl and boy came closer. The girl couldn't have been older than thirteen wearing a white dress and no shoes. She was small and skinny but looked healthy with long blonde hair and grey eyes. "Hey ya'll I'm Cassidy but you can call me Cass. Mind if I watch sweet-pea while you get all fixed up missy, promise he'll be fine ?" She seemed like a carefree little kid, I miss that.

"Um..." I was skeptical to say the least but it sounded like a better option then letting a six year old watch me sew myself closed. "sure, just behave baby,  okay ?" Ri knew that actually meant be carful. Just because they're being kind doesn't mean they can be trusted.

Cautiously I let go of Ri's hand and nodded an 'okay' for him to go. Cass grabbed Ri's other hand and skipped inside with him acting as if she was going to some carnival. Then all of a sudden my feet were no longer on the ground and I was being lifted by the muscular boy who walked out with Cass.

He was a foot taller than me, had brown hair and almost black eyes. His arms were placed under my knees and on my back. The process in which he picked me up shot stabs of pain into my body."Watch it !" I hissed as he knocked my legs together.

He completely ignored my complaint and hauled me inside, literally throwing me into a chair. "Damn you." He just stared at me from across the room and paced. "Are you just going to watch me bleed out over here or are you going to give me something to sew myself up with, hmm?" I snarled bitterly as I lay my right leg over my left knee to see how bad the cut was. Raveling up my pant leg I found that the cut ran from my ankle to just below my knee, and it wasn't that  deep so easy fix.

"Shut it, and don't move I'm going to get Nathan. If you move or try anything I'll shoot you." okay so I'm guessing this one is Dan. " Right, cause the girl with a cut leg, arm and abdomen is most definitely going to go around trying to shank people while she's bleeding out, you should just shoot me now before I kill everyone." I muttered sarcastically, Dan glared at me in reply then left the room.

 I lifted up my blood soaked shirt to find a deep large gash going from my belly button to just above my hip on the right side. "Fuck !" Cutting off the shirt would be stupid I might as well just take it off. Carefully I lifted my shirt above my head trying not to irritate the cut on my stomach or the one on my forearm. Once I managed to pull it off I scrunched the tattered shirt up and placed it against my stomach to try and stop the bleeding.

Ultimately my cuts had stopped bleeding, the ones on my leg and arm weren't all that bad but the one on my stomach showed no signs of stopping and all I could do for the time being was hold my ripped up shirt against it as I waited for Dan to bring in this oh so famous Nathan. 

"Damn you Andy, just wait till I get back. There'll be hell to pay." I complained under my breath as my knotted raven hair fell down from its ponytail and the hair tie broke in half. The world hates me that is the only explanation. I let out an annoyed groan as my hair fell in front of my eyes again.

But my annoyed state was short lived as the pain became a little less bearable. A string of profanities left my mouth as I pressed the shirt into my stomach in a sad attempt to stop the pain. I heard shuffling so I pulled my gaze up and saw a guy with grey eyes and blonde hair walk in holding first aid supplies, well that is until he saw me.