Scintillate

09 | Alex English

I felt something crash into my chest and I wrapped my arms around it instinctively, only to feel a warm liquid run down my hand. I took my gaze down to see Yuri in front of me, blood steadily flowing from her chest.

No, no, no. No! What had I done?!

"This can't be happening again," I unconsciously blurted out, beginning to shake and panic.

She gripped my sweater with both hands and slowly slid down from my grip. "Y-Yuri, you'll be okay. I'll make it b-b-better," I whispered rapidly, sinking down to the ground with her. I gently laid her on the ground as she partly opened her eyes and mumbled, "I don't mind." Her eyes wandered to mine as I scowled. "You're not going to die on me Yuri, I'm not letting you," I said with more force in my voice than intended.

The next thing that came out of her mouth astonished me. She laughed.

"I'll be fine, Jimin. I'm not that easy to get rid of," She managed to get out as she closed her eyes. I stayed there for a moment, completely perplexed, but her breathing started to become shallower and I felt nothing but rage bubble up inside of me. I was angry, so damn angry I had let her get hurt and at the fact that I could have done more to prevent it.

"How cute. Your little girlfriend took the bullet for you," The man who shot her sniggered as he came closer. "Well, to be honest, I hope she rots," he giggled out and leaned in.

"You fucking bastard!" I yelled, jumping over Yuri and tackling the man to the ground, punching him repeatedly in the face. The feeling of his blood slowly trickling down my fist was exhilarating and nearly distracted me from remembering the injections. The 'predators' as we called them, always carried more than one. He struggled to push me off him several times and landed a punch to the side of my ribs that left me gasping for air, but it didn't matter. I needed to disorient him.

When I felt like I'd punched him enough to impair him, I searched his pockets for the syringes. "What the fuck do you think you're doing you little shi-" He began, but before he could finish I found a syringe and stabbed him right in the chest with the injection. Most of the predators were human, which meant they had no chance of surviving the injections themselves. I had no time to feel remorse as he started to seize right in front of me. I quickly stepped away from him and ran back to Yuri, stumbling with hot tears in my eyes.

"Yuri, can you hear me?" I asked frantically, but she didn't move or answer. "I got to get us out of here..." I whispered, looking down from her face to check her bullet wound.

"What the-" I choked out in confusion as I looked for the wound, only to see a faint scar surrounded by blood that was half dry. "It can't be," I exhaled shakily in disbelief.

I had an inkling something was off about her, but to see that she was a mender with my own two eyes was unbelievable. And even if she was a mender, why was she healing so fast with the injection in her system? Why was she even healing at all?

I glanced around us and saw the man Yuri had kicked repeatedly in the face slowly starting to regain consciousness. "Damnit." I put my hood on, picked her up with a small grunt and carried her away from the alley, running as fast as I could without drawing too much attention. "Where to hide, where to hide..." I mumbled as I ran, looking for anything that could throw them off our trail.

"Where did those mender scums go?!" I heard one of the predators shout not too far behind me.

"Shit. Shit. Shit!" I veered into an alley and saw the door to a warehouse cracked open. I didn't hesitate and opened it further with my foot, quickly running inside, grateful that there was no one else currently there. I spotted a few crates to my left and walked toward them, only to see that they were too small and I could see right through them. "This won't do..."