Hunter's Moon

Cowardice

I didn't get very far before Lincoln caught up with me. He grabbed my arm and spun me to face him, my momentum sending me flying into his chest. When I tried to pull away, he wrapped me in a restraining embrace.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked in a low tone.

I pressed my hands to his chest and shoved. He didn't even budge. "Let me go."

"Where are you going?" he repeated, a snarl ripping through his words.

"Where do you think?" I demanded. "You're shot and you don't seem to care so I was heading home so I could call a hospital to get you checked out! You're bleeding out and you're just shrugging it off! What am I supposed to do?"

"Is it really that hard to trust me?"

When his body was sweating from the lack of blood that even now was dripping out of his wound? Yeah, just a little. I sighed and let my body sag. "Let me go, Lincoln."

He hesitated, his breath stopping, before finally dropping his arms from my waist. I took a step back and turned from him. I felt as he took a step closer but didn't hear it. It was truly amazing how silent he was, even in a forest littered with fallen leaves and twigs. I crossed my arms over my chest and gently rubbed away the chill that had seeped in, repressing a shudder.

"Fine," I said finally. "If you won't let me call an ambulance, then you had better drive yourself to a hospital. I'm fairly sure that bullet is still in there and it should be extracted soon to keep from getting infected."

"Liza."

"My mom's probably looking for me right now anyway so I don't have the time to take you myself. Just make sure to call me or whatever when they let you back out so I know you're okay. I would hate to have run out here to try to save you, only to find out you didn't make the extraction of a bullet." I forced a chuckle.

"Liza," he tried again.

I shuffled forward. "Don't follow me."

I only looked back once on my trudge back to the house. Lincoln hadn't followed me, much to my relief. I continued to rub my arms, the chill refusing to leave. Mom would say it was the shock, which I guess it kind of was. I had seen a guy naked and bloody, on the brink of death. If that wasn't something that induced shock I don't know what would. I honestly hoped he would go to the hospital but a little nagging feeling told me he wouldn't.

Back at the house, I went into the kitchen and snagged the car keys. I found a piece of paper and a pen and wrote a hasty to Mom telling her I took the car and promised to have it back before she had to leave for work in the morning. It would have been nicer if I had my own car but I knew I couldn't hope that much. Two cars were enough to have to keep transporting around the country. Three would be a pain.

I drove around idly, not really paying attention to the roads. I soon found myself on Rivertown Parkway and pulled into the Rivertown Crossings mall.

It was insanely busy today. People bustled in and out of stores, cutting off giant masses of crowds and nearly getting their heels stepped on with each step. I kept to the wall, running my arm along the entire length in an attempt to avoid getting too banged up. I ended up getting shoved into Abercrombie and Fitch and had to suck in a deep breath of clean air when I finally managed to get out.

I settled down at one of the several tables in the foot court and focused on cleaning out my lungs. I looked around and my eyes landed on someone who I would have sworn was Lincoln. I blinked and the realized the boy's hair was too dark, his eyes blue instead of brown. He smiled when he saw me watching, revealing his perfectly normal teeth. I felt myself relax, not realizing how tense I had been until that second.