Cold Hearts in The Rain

Chapter 21

The man found us again.

His knife was protruding out of Logan's brother's stomach. I trembled at the sight of L.B.'s blood pouring out of him, his life slipping from his eyes. He fell forward towards me and I crawled away.

"Mine," the man whispered, pulling the knife out of L.B.'s stomach while looking at me through his mask. "Not his." The man pointed behind him and I saw Caleb lying on the floor.

"Caleb," I whispered. My heart was pounding so hard it hurt. I couldn't see if he was okay or not. There wasn't enough light.

The blood pooling on the ground made its way towards me and I had to move further away from it.

"Mine," the man growled and made his way toward me, reaching out for me until a car came slowing down to a stop near us.

"Is everyone okay over there?" a woman's voice called. The man bolted in the other direction to get away.

"Hey!" she called. "Hey! Come back!"

I sat there, still trembling. I replayed the knife going through his body over and over as the smell of blood plagued my nose. Going to see if Caleb was okay was in the back of my mind, but I couldn't move. I was scared of seeing him having the same fate as L.B.'s brother.

"Honey, are you... oh my..." she trailed off. A few moments later I heard her talking to the police. She sounded disturbed and panicked. I felt the same way. But I couldn't say anything.

I think the woman tried asking me questions but I couldn't focus. I just stared at the blood pooling on the floor near my feet. The woman hurried over to Caleb. I watched for a moment but then looked back at L.B. and just stared. It's so weird that you could be alive one second and then dead the next.

Arms wrapped around me and pulled me up. I knew it was Caleb. His colors surrounded me in an attempt of comfort, but to no avail. I couldn't take my eyes off L.B. and his blood.

Caleb's lips found mine but I couldn't push myself to kiss back. He kept trying to do various things to break me out of my shock but it wasn't working.

"Doe, please, I'm so scared for you," Caleb begged, "just look at me! Please." The fear in his voice made my eyes slowly meet his. He grabbed my face in his hands and pressed his forehead against mine.

"Doe, it's okay, I'm here, I got ya," he said, holding me. But that only made it worse. I felt like I couldn't breathe. My breaths came out ragged and short. They shook my body.

"Doe, stop," Caleb warned. "You're hyperventilating. You're going to faint." But I couldn't stop. I couldn't think. The blood was getting closer to us. That made my breathing worse.

"Doe!" Caleb begged, and sat me down on the ground, pulling me onto his lap. The blood... it's too close. It's going to soak us...

He began rocking us back and forth and humming. His heart was beating rapidly. I was making him so afraid and I felt bad about it, but there was nothing I could do. He kept rocking as police lights came flooding into my already blurring vision.

"I want you black moon... I want you black moon.... I want you black moon..." he sang, sounding far. I closed my eyes and floated away.

***

"I don't know what to do, officer," my grandma said, sounding beyond worried. "This person has been coming after Doe for some bit of time. How we can stop him?"

I moved slightly and realized I was wrapped in Caleb's arms. I sighed in content. One of his arms moved away from my waist and he pushed some of my hair behind my ear.