Dead Ends: The Awakening

Chapter |6|

* I wrote half of this on my phone, and for some reason the italics aren't working, so anything written inside ' ' is being thought, not said out loud. *

Noah struggled to carry Rose in his arms. He bled heavily from a wound in his chest, the cause of his shortness of breath. Rose was breaching consciousness as she fought against the darkness that called to her.

"Fuck" He cursed aloud. He had to choose between her and James. She would just have to understand that.

James dropped to his knees. He couldn't go any further. The road he had run down to escape the creatures who chased him ended. The tormentous shadows that had been chasing his tired mind seemed to approach faster at his defeated expression. As they neared, the demons haunting his overexerted brain quickly turned into very real, touchable beings of undeniable ferocity.

He let his head roll back, a quiet tear slipping out as he accepted his fate.

To die.

Because of a Dead End.

A shot rang out. Close to him. He heard the bodies drop. With the last ounce of strength the teen boy possessed -

He turned.

And saw his guardian angel.

She stood proudly, strongly. She stood for everything he believed in, wanted, dreamed of.

Everything they fought to live for.

Bloodied, beaten, seemingly broken. But she held her head high, like she had nothing to lose and everything at the same time. The power her blue eyes held as they looked down upon him struck him harshly.

He looked up at her, the sun making her form a silhouette. He stood up, making his way towards her with a limp.

He was close enough to touch her when she took a step back, a flicker of uncertainty crossing her proud eyes.

And with it, a piece of his heart went.

"What do you think you're doing." She was full of uncertainty now, as if she were fighting something internally.

Her entire form that had seemed so impenetrably unshakable now looked cracked with distrusting.

His entire being shattered. "Elizabeth.."

"No. Don- Don't say my name. Go away. I don't know you."

Her voice shook with confusion. The angel he had seen was gone, replaced with a fragile girl. She seemed broken from the inside throughout her entire self.

Away went her unbreakable stance, her guarded, cautious eyes, tears threatened to spill, her invulnerability gone. And everything he thought she stood for crumbled. Everything changed in that instant. He let himself fall to his knees in front of her.

"Elizabeth..." He mumbled, his eyes breaking as hers shone.

Something had changed. She didn't know him, so why was her heart seemingly calling out to his in a desperate cry for help. She couldn't. Being soft was what got you killed. But... The way the boy had looked so broken at her subtle, barely acknowledgable refusal.

She took a step towards him.

It was the most she could give.

But every fiber in her told her to give it.

She looked down, at the tears slowly slipping down his smooth face.

And she knelt down next to him. She felt something. She knew him. From somewhere. But she couldn't figure it out. So she accepted what felt right in the moment and did it.