Garthia: The Forgotten King

Chapter Nineteen

~Chapter Nineteen

Surrounded on both sides, we have no choice but to fight back. Standing by the door, there are only two guards. But behind us, there are twenty, making the hallway even more cramped.

They charge, swords at the ready, without giving us much time to prepare. I have three different people stabbing at me. One aims at my midsection, but I back away just in the nick of time. Under normal circumstances, I would have been skewered, but I guess these aren't normal circumstances.

The second one doesn't give me time to recover before he jabs at my neck. I bend back and it passes harmlessly over my head. Deciding it's time for some offensive action, I punch my fist into the air and the earth under the man follows, slamming him into the ceiling above. He crumples to the floor, and I pray he's not dead.

The third guard wastes no time. He aims at my heart with all of his force. It would've killed me, but I manage to back up about a foot. He stumbles, but still manages to stab me just above my hip.

The pain is almost blinding and I cry out. I don't dare to look at the wound. Instead, I grab the sword by the blade, gritting my teeth as it cuts into my hands, and yank it out, causing the guard to fall flat on his back. I guess I'm stronger than I thought. I ball my hands into fists. The stone beneath the man becomes jagged spike and they shoot upwards, puncturing his body. He screams, and then he's silent. Blood pools around him. I don't send the spikes back into the ground. I'm too scared to see what his body looks like.

Breathing heavily and feeling like I'm about to pass out, I sink down to my knees and stare at my bloody hands.

"Oh God, Hayden." Eve rushes over and kneels beside me. "You're bleeding. You're bleeding a lot."

Everything starts to swim and there's a pounding in my head. "I just killed a man," I whisper in disbelief. "Maybe even two. And I don't even know what I did it for." Pain washes over me and I moan in agony.

"Oh God. She's losing a lot of blood." Eve's voice sounds far away, muffled. I close my eyes against the pain, but it doesn't help. My body feels like it's submerged in acid. "We need to get help."

"No we need to go on with the plan." Fera's voice. She doesn't sound concerned in the least.

"Do you even care!" Eve shrieks, "My best friend is about to die and you just want to go on with the plan! If we don't get help right now, the guards will come and we'll all die! Sometimes you can be such a heartless bitch!" Silence. "Oh Fera. I'm so sorry-" The rest of her words are lost. I feel myself drift into unconsciousness.

When I open my eyes again, I'm almost blinded by white light. It doesn't help my massive headache.

I try to sit up and immediately regret it. The pain from my stab wound has reduced, but it's still almost more than I can handle.

"Woah there, tiger," a familiar voice says as they lay me back down. "You're in no hurry. Take it easy." Now that my eyes have adjusted, I can see clearly where the voice is coming from. In a chair to my left, Cam is smiling down at me kindly, his left sleeve rolled up, revealing a bandage that runs the length of his arm, and neon bandages all over his face. I laugh. I don't know if it's because of the bandages, or the relief that I'm alive to see Cam again.

He laughs too. "You were really out if it. You've been in a coma for three days. The others didn't think you were going to make it. You lost a lot of blood."

Three days. "What about you?" I croak, "Did you think I was going to make it?"

"Oh, I wasn't worried." He glances down at my bandages on my side and hands. Then he reaches out and turns my left hand gently so that my palm is facing up, and starts tracing shapes and lines with the tip of his finger. Just a simple touch like that is enough to send shivers down my spine. Something only Cam can do.

"You're one tough girl, Hayden." he says absently, "Nothing as mundane as a sword is gonna put you out of commission for long." He turns his eyes back to mine and his hand rests against mine. We silently stare at each other for a long time before I realize that no one else is in the room.

"Where is everyone else?" He frowns and pulls his hand back.

"They went to get some flowers." There's some bitterness in his tone now and he looks hurt. Why did I have to say that? "They thought it might help you wake up, for some reason."

"Well I guess they don't have to worry about that now." I smile at him, but he just stares out the window, his jaw tight.

I'm thankful when the door creaks open. Fera, Eve, the nurse, and someone else walk in, but the last person is covering their face with a pot of tulips and orchids so I can't recognize them.

The other three seem glad that I'm awake. Eve even sheds a tear or two. The nurse explains to me the medical side of what happened, but I'm not really listening. I'm too focused on the stranger with the flowers. "Do you understand?" the nurse asks.

"Uh..Yeah. Yeah I do."

"Good." She flashes a smile and walks out.

"We got you some flowers." Eve says. She looks for them, and when she sees them held up in front of the stranger's face, she sighs and rolls her eyes. "You can put them down now, Walker."

The stranger walks over to the bedside table and sets down the flowers, then turns back to face me. I gasp when I recognize him as the boy from the first cell. The boy with blond hair and red eyes that winked at me.

"Hayden Blakely, meet Walker Burnwell," Fera introduces in a bored tone. "Walker Burnwell, meet Hayden Blakely."

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Hey guys. If you're reading this please tell me if you think I should keep writing this story. I already have another chapter well underway and I was thinking about starting a new story, but I'd like to hear for you if I should finish it.