Ache

Ch 7

The blood that splashed onto her cheek in a red angry streak jolted her out of her trance.
It was hot.
The thick, coppery smell of it filled her swimming head.
She'd just watched her dear friend get his throat ripped open by a young man who seemed to weigh only a few pounds more than Mika.
And as if that weren't fucked up enough already she'd watched his lover, Reed, bust out a wicked looking gun from God knows where and blow the guy's head off! All within the span of two seconds.
Her ears still rang from the gunshot.  Her nose wrinkled at the mix of gun smoke and blood filling the air around them.
What.
The. 

Fu-

"Mika."
She blinked. Reed had caught Mika before he crumpled to ground after the guy's grip on him had loosened. He held him to his chest tenderly and gently touched fingers, that she noted with an ache in her chest were shaking to his cheek.
"Mika."
His voice was soft, oh so soft and filled with such anguish, pain and unadulterated tenderness. Just hearing all of that in Reed's voice made her eyes sting with tears. And when she shifted her teary gaze to her friend she sucked in a sharp breath.
God... he was deathly pale.
Lips as white as nothing she'd ever seen before. The pink that had stained his cheeks only seconds ago was gone leaving behind an emptiness of color, of life. Dark shadows ringed the bottoms of his eyes.
She swallowed against the dryness in her throat.

The ugly, glistening wound at his neck made her choke back a sob. It was so big and pumping streams of vivid blood onto his chest, staining Reed's own black jacket, soaking everything with no end to it in sight.

"Is he-"
She swallowed against the hard lump in her throat. No. Not Mika. Not. Mika.
She held her breath. Waited. Dug her nails as hard and as deep as she could into her palms. She felt blood pool and well under her nails. Still Reed said nothing.
"For fucks sake Reed is he alive or..."
Reed stared long and hard into his lovers face. Held him delicately in his arms. Leaned down and laid a kiss on his forehead. Then she saw his shoulders sag, his body relax, heard a breath she didn't know he'd been holding slip past his lips.
"He's alive. I can feel him breathing."
Reed's voice was deathly quiet.

She almost cried.

"The fuck was that?!"
"Do you have your car?"
She blinked. Then just as quickly nodded. Reed didn't even turn to look at her to see if she did or not, only nodded.
"We need to get him to a hospital. Now."
She swallowed and nodded in agreement.
"It's still back at the shop though..."
She began.
"R... ee... d?"
Both their eyes shot wide open and quickly turned to stare at Mika, at his too still body, willing him to speak again- to blink and prove to them that he was in fact still alive.
"Re-"
She let out a sigh of relief and noticed Reed did too.
"Mika. Don't speak."
Reed ran a long finger down Mika's cheek gently. He laid the softest of kisses on Mika's bloodless lips and whispered tender words of love and warmth.
"You will live Mika. You can't leave me. Remember. You are strong. Stronger than this. I cannot have you leave me."
He pressed his forehead against Mika's.
"I know it hurts... I know you're cold but be strong Mika. Be strong love."
Then without a second wasted he slipped his arms around Mika and stood to his full height with the limp, bloody boy. He didn't speak to her, simply looked at her and nodded his head. She swallowed and got to her own shaky feet, reached into the bag slung across her chest and held on tight to her car keys.
Only once did she turn to look at the body that lay crumpled between them and at their feet. And her heart stopped the moment she did so.
With jerky movements reminiscent of the typical zombies bombarding tv screens all the time, the boy who'd torn her friend's throat out began to move. Slowly. So very, very slowly. In horror  she watched as it got to shaky hands and knees. Watched wide eyed and open mouthed as the corpse, the dead-but-not-dead-body pushed itself up to its knees where it stayed like that for what seemed like eternity, just staring at Reed's receding back. Her own back shuddered and her legs nearly gave out under her when it spoke.
"It'sss.... beeen... a while... since I've.... been... ssshott..."
It cocked its head and she stared in horror as blood, bits of bone and brain matter gushed out of the fist sized hole on the side of its head. The glistening mass that came out of said hole landed with a wet sound on the sidewalk beside him.
"Hmm... it hurtsss..."
Then with a low, guttural growl from deep in its throat it got to its feet. With every move it made more of the stuff streamed out of it, drenching the white shirt it wore, coating its neck and sleeve. Like a faucet of water just gushing the stuff down his head and body.
So violent and vulgar was the sight that it took every cell in her body not to give in to the impulse to vomit.
When it moved, one step in the direction of Reed, it's arms and clawed hands outstretched before it, she started.
When she blinked and it appeared mere inches behind Reed she screamed.
"Reed!"
One second.
That was all it took.
For Reed to turn around with the same gun suddenly in his hand.
Another second was all it took for a total of ten bullets to fill the walking corpse before him.
Less than a second was how much time passed between the last bullet exploding into its body and the hard wet sound it made when it met with the ground below.
Wide-eyed she watched as its body gave one last twitch before falling completely still. 

The fresh bullet holes riddling its body, oozing blood so dark it was black, gleamed eerily in the harsh orange light of the street lamps above.

Somewhere someone breathed harshly.
The sound of it a harsh wheezing pant rushed in her head, her ears. The sight before her, at her feet was a bloody, unrecognizable mass of human flesh. She breathed through her mouth.
"Nina."
Dazed, she looked up to find Reed watching her. Those dark blue eyes of his reflecting nothing- not a shred of emotion.
She shook her head. Breathed out a shaky breath. Rubbed her arms and tightened the hold on her keys until she was sure they were cutting into her palms.
If he could push everything he was feeling, everything he was thinking away and get what needed to get done, mainly get Mika help, then why couldn't she?
"I'm good."
Reed stared hard at her as if trying to see for himself whether or not she truly was. When his eyes softened, just the tiniest bit, she gave him a small smile.
"Let's go Reed. He needs us... you more than anyone right now."
He nodded and they both made way for her car as fast as they could (without jostling or hurting the shaking Mika in Reed's arms), mindful all the way of the slow stream of people coming out of the buildings around them.
The entire time, neither one of them brought up the mess of a corpse they'd left lying on the ground back there.
It wasn't the time.
Later, much later and only after they got Mika some help would she ask Reed about the gun...
and how it was that he'd seemed so calm and collected after just blowing a guy's brains out.
How it was that he didn't even seem troubled by it. As if it were a normal everyday thing.
Later, much, much later she decided she would ask the young man beside her just who he truly was.