tightrope ۵ a marvel fanfiction

chapter twenty one

chapter twenty one-

It was maybe a few hours to true sunset, the snow thin on the ground. Winter was ending soon. Chelsea was looking worriedly out the window of the cabin, face unusually solemn. Lucie gave the pot one final stir and turned the heat off, letting it simmer. Most of the meat they ate was from Marl's traps. She'd been apprehensive at first, until she realised one deer could last them weeks and they ate mostly the feral rabbits that were legal to catch and kill. Rabbit meat was just as good as beef once you put enough salt on it.

"He should be back by now," murmured Chelsea, nibbling on her lower lip. Lucie left the pot and went to her side, a hesitant hand resting on her shoulder. She was deathly afraid of touching Chelsea, afraid what she felt would somehow transfer through her fingertips into her hand and Chelsea would freak out. This fear was unfounded, and ridiculous yet she still froze up every time.

"He'll be fine, you said he knows these woods like the back of his hand," she said to the other girl, trying her best to reassure her. The darkening woods suddenly felt malevolent, shadows reaching towards the cabin. A prickle of fear sparked. What if something really was wrong?

"He's never been out this late before," Chelsea insisted, "Not without me. Something's off, I can feel it."

The girls stared towards the dark woods, their shared exhales fogging up the thick glass. This close to the window, you could feel the cold from outside, but it still didn't quite reach you. Chelsea reached out a hand and wiped the condensation away. A flicker of movement caught Lucie's eyes, and she narrowed them, a hand pressing against the freezing glass.

"What is it, Luce?" whispered Chelsea.

A figure burst out of the trees, stumbling, bleeding profusely, and holding the axe. Chelsea gave a short scream and as the figure drew closer, the light from the cabin revealed it to be Marl. Lucie didn't think, didn't wait. She threw herself out the door as fast as she could, running towards the old man now crawling in the snow, the axe lying abandoned behind him.

The creases around his eyes were sharp with pain and he was holding his hand to his chest. With a detached sort of horror, she realised the front of his shirt was dark with blood, and so was his pant leg. She could hear Chelsea crying behind her.

She ripped out the bottom of her shirt, the cold winds immediately snapping at her midriff, and tore it in half, pulling his shaking hand away and tying the makeshift bandages tightly against his wounds. A thin trickle of blood slipped from between his lips. She slid her arms beneath him and with a grunt, hefted him up, carrying him to the cabin like some sort of macabre version of a marriage ceremony. 

She didn't make it to the cabin.

A series of loud pops came from the woods. She ran, stumbling as she felt Marl jerk in her arms, heard Chelsea scream piercingly from behind her. She dove behind the wood heap, the other girl joining her seconds later. The glass of the window shattered above them and they both cried out as they felt shards rain down on them.

"Chel..." coughed the old man lying sprawled in the snow. There were more red splotches in his clothes then before, and she could see blood seeping through the bandages she'd tied seconds before. "Chel...sea.."

"Dad? Oh, god, Dad, you're gonna be fine, it's gonna be okay-" Chelsea crawled over to her father, holding his hand. He stared at her with a fixed, intense stare, and held her hand back. He tried to speak, only coughed, his lips glistening with blood and dark red lumps, and then...

Nothing. His face froze. His hand slackened.

As bullets and broken glass rained down on Lucie, she felt the world fall out from under her feet, and could only stare at the dead man's eyes while his daughter cried in his arms and screamed for him to wake up, move, live.

No.

No.

This couldn't be happening.

There was something hard digging into her lower back, and she reached behind her to feel the smooth handle of the chopping axe she'd used to cut wood with Marl.