Flicker

VII

And boy, did I scream.

In a flash, Jasper was in my room and shoved Greyson off of me. Considering that Jasper was really short and thin, it was pretty impressive.

I laid on the bed gasping for air and I watched as Jasper struggled to keep Greyson away. With one solid punch to the gut, Jasper was on the ground. I sprang to my feet, and almost passed out as soon as I did, but nonetheless I leapt on Greyson. He would not hurt my friends.

Trying to avoid unleashing my own personal blowtorch ability on Greyson, I struggled to shove him away from Jasper, but to no avail. Greyson grabbed my arms and started dragging me to the window.

"Let me go!" I screamed at him, digging my heels into the ground the best I could. Greyson's brown eyes burned with an unholy anger. He could not be stopped.

"Amber!" I heard someone yell my name, and before I could see who it was, I was shoved backward into the bed while the unknown person grappled with Greyson.

I managed to sit up despite the pain in my wrists and the hazy vision I had. I could see the familiar back of a head of dark hair, and even though he was about sixty pounds lighter and a little shorter, Diamond was holding his own against Greyson. He blocked most of the punches Greyson threw at him and managed to get a few in of his own.

I heard a measly groan come from the floor, and I scrambled over the where Jasper still lay in a crumpled pile on the floor. He had some nasty purple bruises developing on his near-translucent skin, and a bloody nose. Other than that, he didn't look too awful, but I grabbed him under his arms and dragged him out into the hall anyways.

As I tried to sit Jasper up against the wall, I heard the sickening crunch of bone breaking. I whipped around, to see Diamond down holding the side of his torso with one hand and Greyson winding up for another hit.

"No!" I yelled, running and latching onto the arm Greyson had raised, but it was too late. Instead of punching Diamond again, he swung his arm backwards, slamming me against the wall. As I sank to the ground, searing pain exploding in the back of my head, I saw Diamond on his feet, his eyes blazing with pure hatred. Right before I hit the ground, I blacked out.

***

When I woke up, I didn't immediately open my eyes. Instead, I laid there. I was scared of what I might see if I opened them.

Resolving myself, I opened them to be blinded by the fluorescent lights. I groaned, then stopped for a second. Where was my pain? I was pretty sure I was supposed to have a massive headache from what happened.

Suddenly, everything overwhelmingly resurfaced on my mind. Greyson beating up my friends. Greyson tried to force me to leave. Greyson's anger.

I sob leaked out of my throat. Across the room, Diamond sat upright on his bed, looking generally pissed off but also not in too good of shape. He had a black eye developing around his striking blue eyes, and he had some other ugly looking bruises on his arms and bare chest. Even though he acted like he was fine, I still noticed the wincing every time he shifted positions.

"You're hurt," I pointed out the obvious. Diamond rubbed his jaw before responding. "Yeah. Pain sucks."

My eyes brows furrowed. "You feel it?"

"I let Opal heal you and Jasper first. It'll take more of her energy to heal myself and him." Disgust was written all over Diamond's face as his vision cut to the bed to the left of mine, where Greyson lay in his back, completely passed out. His tan skin had its own fair share of scratch marks and blue bruises, but what really got me was his face. Greyson used to have a very handsome face: chiseled jaw, straight pearly whites, and all facial features had perfect symmetry. Now, though, he had two black eyes, a crooked nose (probably broken), and he was missing a tooth. My handsome Greyson was now not such a pretty boy.