He stood for everything she was against and he wouldn't be caught dead befriending someone like her, but when the worst happens and they find themselves in a similar situation, only then will they realize they need each other to discover the anatomy...
The inside of the apartment complex smelled like a smoker's lung. Even the air looked ashy and I coughed involuntarily, expelling the inevitable smoke that clung to the old, yellowing walls. I climbed the steps towards his apartment cautiously as if they were going to drop from under me and take me to hades.
Apartment B-37 was easy to find on the second floor and when I reached the brown door I just stood there. Should I knock or should I try the knob? I didn't know what was waiting behind this wooden door. Somehow it felt like whatever I found in there, it would be an end. To what, I had no idea, but something was about to end for me and for Santana.
Warily, I knocked on the door. Voices came from inside the room and the chain lock shuddered until the door was finally opened. In front of me was a man in a dirty old t-shirt, but it wasn't Jasper. I'd never seen this guy before. He was tall and thin with a wiry black beard and tattoos that covered his arms and necks. He jutted shrugged his shoulders at me, a silent question of "what the hell do you want?"
I coughed. "Is Santana here?"
"Who wants to know?" He leaned against the doorframe, angling his body so his shirt would lift slightly to reveal a silver gun tucked into his waistband.
"A friend."
"A friend? I don't think old Jazzy would be too happy if he found out a friend like you was visiting his girl here at his place."
He was trying to scare me, but I wouldn't be so easily frightened away. "Listen, man, I just want to talk to her. Make sure she's okay. Her sister is worried."
"Make sure she's okay, huh?" He leaned into me a little and I could smell sour alcohol on his breath. "What if I told you she wasn't?" He smirked.
Over his shoulder, I saw a few other guys counting money on the floor. Their clothes were dirty too, and most of them looked like they'd been in a fight. When I looked back at the man in front of me, I noticed the bruises forming in the white spaces between his tattoos. What I had thought was mud on his shirt was now macabrely black, tinged red at the edges. A lump formed in my throat and my gut tightened.
"What did you do to her?" My voice came out too firmly to be real in the growing terror I felt.
"Leave now or you'll join your girlfriend underground." He pulled out his gun and rested it on his temple, a clear threat, but that wasn't what scared me. My fear revolved around his words. Underground. Could he mean...No, that was impossible. I wouldn't believe she was gone.
My stomach lurched and I was almost sick right there. "You're lying," I practically begged.
He smiled and lifted his eyebrows. "Do you wanna see?" He looked back towards his friends who laughed.
"Where is she?" I yelled and tried to get past him into the room, completely forgetting the gun in his hand until he pushed it into my chest. He was stronger than his skinny arms let on and he whirled me around and pinned me to the doorframe. He smacked me with the end of the gun and I slid to the floor as blood dripped into my eye. The others rushed to his side and grabbed me roughly, an arm apiece. They dragged me into the small living room where their leader stood laughing at me and waving his gun around as if it were only a toy. He pointed it at me and imitated shooting. I could only see through one eye now but I could see that end I had so vividly felt, drawing nearer.
Another blow to my face rattled my teeth so fiercely I was sure they'd fall out if I opened my mouth. I fought to break free of the grip holding me down but only received a kick in the stomach. Winded, I coughed up blood and fought to take in a proper breath. My ears rang and I hadn't noticed that the number of people in the room had suddenly multiplied until I dropped to the floor, finally free. I heard three loud cracks and shouting while more people rushed into the room. Someone stepped on my hand and I felt my fingers crack beneath a black boot.
Even through the mess of voices shouting and the sirens which now wailed through an open window, I heard it. A moan of pain came around the corner of the small space and I knew it was her.
Someone picked me up and I saw it was a policeman. He kept saying something to me, a question on his brow. "Are you okay, son? Are you okay?"
I nodded and shook him off me. I had to get to her. On the floor, I saw a body lying motionless, and around me, the rest of the men were being cuffed by cops talking into radios on their shoulders. None of that mattered. They called out to me, but I was focused on only one thing: the small white door at the end of a narrow hallway. I gripped the doorknob with a bloody hand and yanked the door free. There she lay, floating in a pool of blood.
Santana's eyes grew wide when she saw me and quickly fluttered shut as she passed out. I dropped to my knees and cradled her in my arms, her blood mixing with mine as I desperately tried to cover the wound on her stomach.
"No, no, no," I moaned. "Come back, please, come back."
Her breath fluttered fft fft fft. The quick wings of a butterfly.
It was like watching the death of a star, imploding in my arms and I finally understood the end was here.
Then she gasped out and her arms flew up to meet me. I pulled her closer to my chest breathing in all the air I'd lost when I found her. She shook and choked back a sob but I tried to keep her calm. Her hands clutched at my shirt, her blood soaked through my shirt, but I kept her close to me until they found us tangled together on the floor. She said nothing to me, but she never took her eyes off of me while we lay there.
They took her from me and put her on a gurney and loaded her into an ambulance. I wouldn't leave her. Even while they wrapped my broken hand up, while they stitched my ripped skin, I thought of only her and how I would be with her until the very end.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Song: Shelter by Birdy (a seriously underrated musician)
