The pursuit led you through the lower slums, sheltered from the sky by huge wooden edifices that hugged the sides of the docks. You stole down the walkways puffing short breaths through your nose and moving in a flurry of silent steps, watching your footing amid the sleeping figures that littered the ground. A lantern burned dimly in the middle of the shelter, scratching shadows along the walls and highlighting your [e/c] eyes in a harsh light.
A shaggy-haired man stirred by your foot, and your breath hitched as you dodged nimbly out of his reach, hurrying after the figure you were chasing through the night.
Ignoring the sleepy mumbles of a rousing slumber dweller, you followed the shadowed assailant up a set of stairs. Granite-coloured puddles lapped against your boots as you waded down the alleyway, grazing your fingers along the wall as it guided you back out into the open.
You finally had your advantage. The square you'd broken out into was wide and sparsely populated at this time of night, shadows pooling thickly around the outskirts.
Fool.
"Umbral Disease: Bind," you murmured with a snicker, throwing your hands into the air. The man flew forward with a yelp, pinned to the ground by your stealthy companions.
Covering the distance between you in three long strides, you crouched to his level and secured your fingers around his throat. "See you in hell," you muttered as his neck snapped cleanly in your hands.
Wiping away a bead of sweat from your forehead, you jogged back across the square, drawing your gun out of its holster as your eyes scanned the balconies for an impending ambush.
"All targets have been dispatched," you informed Akutagawa as you approached him on a long, winding sidestreet, sticking your gun back into your belt and pushing your hair away from your face.
Akutagawa gave a clipped nod, his black bangs bouncing forward. "Good. We should head back to base and-"
BANG!
"Ugh."
An explosive force tore through your chest, pinching all the air from your lungs. Blood pooled into your mouth instantly, thick and metallic, as your vision began to deteriorate, crumbling away like dust. Your knees buckled a second later and you crumpled forward with a cry - straight into Akutagawa.
He arms circled loosely around your waist, a curse spitting like venom from his mouth as the hidden perpetrator rained footsteps into the night. For a second, you saw Akutagawa grimace, his eyes torn with conflict as they met yours under the slanted moonlight.
Feet fumbling to keep yourself upright, you clung desperately to Akutagawa's coat, your fingers tugging at the coarse material as blood cascaded freely down your chin and chest. Somewhat clumsily holding you in his arms, the ravenette brought his lips down to your ear and spoke in a soft voice.
"I'm sorry."
Nothing more. Nothing less.
Because that's all you meant to him.
And the pain of that realisation was sharper, more agonising, than the bullet still buried in your chest could ever be.
He pressed his mouth to your hair - so softly, you barely registered it - before his arms left your waist and you hit the ground hard, choking on your own blood.
Your eyes traced Akutagawa's retreating shadow - waning in and out of focus - as you laid there, waiting for death to claim you.
But fate was too cruel to let you die so easily.
You faded in and out of consciousness as time escaped your comprehension, your head rolling back and throwing your vision out of proportion.
You weren't aware of how much time passed as you stayed there, suspended above the darkness, tipping one way and then the other. Hours might have passed. Or was it merely minutes - seconds?
At one point, red filled your vision completely. Blood. Everywhere. So much of it.
Why weren't you dead yet?
Was this how it ended - so slowly, so painfully. Bleeding out. Abandoned by the man you had betrayed. The man you had once confided in, trusted with your life.
After a long period of blackness - of giving into the pain - you finally broke the surface of consciousness. Your body stirred... eyes flickered open... a soft whimper slipped through your mouth.
Your eyes rolled back, and then to the left, dilating. Colour flashed by, incomprehensible. Sounds merged into one, indistinguishable.
You were moving, but not on your own accord.
Someone... was carrying you?
You couldn't see who. Nothing fit together anymore. Nothing made sense.
You had no control.
You had no choice.
Your jumbled thoughts made no sense as you leaked them out into words, your voice fragmented and quiet - so quiet, so fragile.
"Did he leave me?" You whispered, unable to comprehend anything over the agonizing pain in your chest. Was it the bullet or something else? "Did he go? The man in black. Did he leave me again?"
You were delirious. Your words slurred and merged, broken by a whimper every so often. The stranger's arms were cold around your body - or was it you who was cold? Your head was resting against their chest; a heartbeat drummed somewhere below your ear.
"This isn't the... first time he's left... oh-wait... no - I was the one who left... wasn't I?"
You moaned softly, and the stranger pulled you closer to their chest all of a sudden, as if reaching out to the pain you were feeling; as if they didn't want to let you go.
Why did it have to hurt so much?
"He doesn't care, does he?" You doubled over, biting your lip to hinder another cry. Your nails dug into your palms, clenched by your chest.
Red again, pouring into your vision.
So much blood.
Was it all yours?
"I thought I needed him. I thought I... cared for him," you continued between sobs.
You wanted it to stop.
The pain - why wouldn't it stop?
After all this time.
Hadn't you been hurting long enough?
"But he's a heartless bastard. And my heart's reckless."
You choked out another strangled cry, your vision filling with black as you crumpled in their arms.
"I thought... I should've realised... he could- ugh - never love me."
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this chapter tho ;-;
firstly,don't ask how you're not dead yet. this is a story okay ;p
+ the latter part of the chapter is sorta fragmented and weird and confusing to reflect the pain your going through... lolol jk it's bc i'm a lazy ass who couldn't be bothered to write full sentencesor go back and edit it. sowwy ; - ;
+ ugh this story is going so downhill
+ *ugly sobbing* bcthe next chapter is the last one and i think this has ended too quickly/suddenly ugh ;;-;;
