Armino (Previously: Fighter) (✓)

a l t e r n a t e

continue on from xix

And he plunged the dagger into Caelen's stomach. 

A scream rose in both their throats but only one came through. Only Adrianna's had life in it.

Caelen crashed to the floor and with him, so did Adrianna.

The crowd dispersed, leaving two broken kids together to face the outcomes of something they'd done.

Shock overcame Adrianna as she crawled to Caelen's nearly lifeless body.

"Oh my god." She whispered, her hands shaking as she pressed her fingers onto the stab wound, trying to stop the blood from gushing out. "Caelen, oh my god!"

She shook his shoulders in vain, screaming his name repeatedly, her heart cracking into a million pieces.

"Adrianna..." His voice was soft, almost deathly.

"Don't leave me." She begged, taking his hand in hers and sobbing into it mercilessly. "Please."

"It's okay. I'm okay." He tightened his grip around her fingers with all the power he had left.

He took her in as if she was a drug, one last time. Her blonde hair, her lifeless blue eyes and her infinite beauty.

She took him in as if he was her salvation, one last time. His black hair, tattooed body and his bleeding wounds. 

  And with the last breath he had in him, he whispered, "Adrianna Novak, I could've loved you forever."  

*

Caelen's eyes fluttered shut and suddenly, it was just Adrianna and her silent sobs in those sewers. Her blue skirt was doused with Caelen's blood and tears. It was cold, she'd never felt this cold before. She gently slipped out from under his head and almost walked away. Almost. She glanced at Caelen, her Caelen, lying there, almost dead to the world and as if all the stars had aligned to give rise to just this moment in time, she made a decision. She would not let Dragon take Cobra away from her. She would fight, till her last breath if she had to, for her love. 

 "Caelen," she lowered herself back down and gently shook his shoulder, gulping her tears back in. "Caelen, come back to me."

Her heart sank when he didn't answer and she wiped unruly wisps of her blonde hair off her face with her bloody hands. Hopelessness slowly began to take birth within her but she battled it. She thought, thought of all the ways she could get Caelen out of the sewers and onto dry land. Idea after idea surfaced and drowned in her mind's eye. None of them seemed to work, not one would end in Caelen's safety. 

And so, to ensure Caelen's safety, she decided to make the toughest choice she ever had. She called her mother.

Her fingers shook against her phone as she held it against her ear. It almost slipped out of her grasp multiple times but she held on, knowing that it was the only way to save him. "Ma?" She shuddered when she heard the deep breathing at the other end. 

"Adrianna?" Her mother's voice sounded confused, as if wondering how come her daughter had reached out to her. 

"I need you to come to the manhole," she sucked a brave breath in. "The manhole where we found Sebastian."