Fire and Ice

Denver

After Emmaline left I laid on my bed and strummed on the old guitar Max gave me. Suddenly Emmaline barged in, holding Max in her arms. She was lifeless.

“I found Max on the floor of her room like this. I don’t know if she’s breathing. Oh God Denver, what do we do?”

I set the guitar down and ran over, holding Max in my arms.

“She’s ice cold, what happened?” I felt my hands on her head and got a shock up my spine. I pulled back quickly.

“I don’t know, I heard a thud and I ran in to discover her on the floor unconscious and the window wide open.”

I set her down on the bed and reached under my desk for the medical supplies. I learned to how to use it and to keep it in my room, after all of our many accidents. I ripped it open, tearing through it, trying to find medicine. Emmaline was in my desk chair, her head in her hands, she was muttering something. It sounded like a prayer; I noticed tears running down her face.

“Emmaline, can I have a hand please?”  I uncorked the medicine and tilted Max’s head up, gently pouring the medicine down her throat. Emmaline came over and set an ice pack onto her head and bandaged the cut above her eye.

“Judging from the whole situation, I think she opened the window to get fresh air and slipped and hit her head against her desk.” Emmaline kept bandaging Max, but she shook her head.

“I know what happened now; I don’t know why I didn’t see it before.” She said it, like it was something terrible. There was a moment of complete silence, nothing moved, no one spoke.

“It’s Reuben.” She said, choking back a sob, “he’s gone back to the village, back to defeat The Takers.”

 

 

I dropped the medicine vial, sending shards of glass shooting onto the floor. I felt for a chair and sat down, trying to calm my nerves.

“What, what do you mean?” I asked, trying to sound calm. Max groaned from the bed, Emmaline and I ran over.

“Max? What happened? Are you okay?” I grabbed her hand and used my other one to wipe tears from my face.

“Reuben…” she said it so softly, I could barely hear her. “He was talking about, about going to the village, to take down The Takers. I, I said I wanted to come with him, but he said it was too dangerous. He grabbed the vase on my desk and hit me over the head with it, I don’t know what happened after that.”

Emmaline was about to start crying and I was at a loss for words.

“Max, I’m… I’m so sorry.” I finally managed to get out. She nodded and started shaking, but it wasn’t cold.

“We have to go after him, who knows what will happen.” Emmaline said getting up grabbing her coat.

“Why should we?” I asked, enraged that Emmaline was willing to go after that jerk. “He almost killed Max!”

Max sat up and coughed, then swung her legs over the bed standing up. “I’m coming too.”

My mouth fell open. “I don’t believe it. I just don’t understand. Max, he almost killed you?! Why are you going after him?”

She shrugged on her coat and pulled her hair out of her face. “Because I’m in love, and I can’t get out.”