Short Cuts

How John Watson must have felt after Chasing Sherlock Holmes around.

My heart stopped beating, every emotion that once clung to my quivering body plummeted to the floor beneath me. I had a horrific image in my head rattling around; it was of my brother’s death scene but with Chloe instead.

I didn’t care where I was or what I was doing. I propelled myself into the threating mans stomach tackling him to the ground. I threw hand after hand into his body, I didn’t know what I was doing, I’d never had a real fight before, and I’d never had to before now. He didn’t take my punches lightly; he flung me around with a clean twist and a firm grip on my shirt, my head smashed onto the cold tiled floor. Everything was happening in a massive blur, his fists pounded into my face over and over again, I forced my hands up above me, trying to shield my face from the knuckles. I couldn’t see anything but the growing red that had began to trickle down my numb face; I managed to get a solid grip on his scrawny neck. He medially stopped hammering my dazed face and began choking for air. His face began to lose its once vivid colour, I didn’t want to let go I was too panicked; I just clung for dear life.

Unexpectedly a bizarre stony draining feeling rushed to my left thigh, I released him in an abrupt response. It began to ache, no, tingle, and now burn. It felt like acid had been injected into me and was slowly spreading throughout me, I grasped the area as hard as I could, maybe if I blocked it, the burning would go away, but of course it didn’t. The man collapsed backward gasping for air. Slurred anxious shrieks formed from behind me, my eyes were painted in a blurred red paint that I couldn’t see past, and the burning had gotten more intense by the second. I stumbled to get my footing again, I staggered for balance; I had to toss my hand out in front of me to get any real chance of standing. What looked like coloured shapes scurried all around me rushing towards the now muffled cursing man dragging him away?

“I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you and that little bitch!”

Chloe, I had to get home to Chloe.

I clutched my burning thigh and lobbed myself out the shop with the energy I had left, thrashing into a couple of stakes of food along the way. I slammed into my car door and thrusted it open.

My driving was bad, really bad. If I were in any other position it would be the hospitals direction I would have been heading but I knew that the longer I took the longer she would suffer. 100 miles just going over, I didn’t care that I was speeding or didn’t have clear vision, I didn’t care about others safety, I didn’t care about mine; I had proved that already.

I flew past the outskirts sign. Almost there, almost there, I kept on repeating it to myself. The dirt track was now in sight; I soared up it, violently serving unstably. I brought the car to a sharp halt. I grabbed the firm wooden bat that I had thrown in my cars backseat ever since the robbery at the bookstore, and sneakily crept into the old abounded farmhouse. I rotated my concussed head in every direction possible; I couldn’t see her. I wiped the red from my face to get a better idea of what was happening around me and where I was, I swiftly travelled through the distorted rooms, still nothing. Then like angel, a sweet voice saved me.

“Ed? What the hell happened…”

I cut her off by flinging my shaking bloody arms around her. I stood there in the middle of the distorted room despairingly sobbing into her delicate shoulder, just holding her near as humanly possible to me. I rapidly and extremely bitterly became aware of everything around me, like I was hurled back into reality again. Everything hurt: my head was split and bloody, my face and stomach was bruised swollen and my thigh was spattering out right in front of me.

Chloe retreated away from me but reassuringly still held my neck with one hand. She was very undoubtedly in shock but I didn’t care, it was enough to know she was unharmed and alive. She gently moved her hand down to my left burning thigh to move the tattered and bloody clothing; I trapped her hand with mine, her eyes met mine.

“Don’t.”

She pressed her head into mine for a while, she just held me there, and it gave me a little time to try and recollect my thoughts again and also to regulate my breathing pattern as it was surprisingly bottomless and short. She released herself from me and jogged over to the kitchen, I stumbled slightly trying to rebalance myself. She placed a steaming bowl, white cloth and a clean shirt next to me. She began to tenderly clean my face clear of the blood. I winced.

“Don’t be such a baby Ed.”

Normally I would call her out on that comment but instead I just gave a full-hearted abrupt laugh. She reached for my burning left thigh again and once again I caught her hand.

“Stop.”

She shook her head in disagreement.

“Ed, I have to …”

“Your not going to like what you see.”

I cradled her flawless face with my steady cold hands, looking into her stern watering blue eyes.

“I have to.” She said it like a whisper only meant for my ears to hear as if it would get through and it did. I freed her face and dropped my head to the floor, her hands lowered again to gradually remove the scraps of material in the way of my fresh wound. As I predicted I wasn’t appealing in fact it was quite sickening. Chloe made me pressurised the wound as she rapped a bandage around my thighs, from what I gather to keep it all from spilling out any further.

“Since when did you become a doctor?”

Chloe gave me a cheeky gaze.

“About the same time you became a boxer.”

I returned a half-hearted smile she lost hers.

“What did you do Ed? W-w-why did this happen?”

She looked me in the eyes with anxiety, anger and grief. I wanted to make them all disappear. I cradled her face in my hands again and made our heads gently press together again; she closed her tearing eyes.

“Because I’m utterly in love with you.”

She gave off a tiny wet smile. Our lips crashed together; I knew from that point on I wasn’t letting her out of my sight ever again.

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“Dav! David!”

It had been a month now since the boys had moved into my apartment.

“David! David!”

I twirled around swiftly to be ambushed by Dav’s annoyed face.

“Oh Dav there you are, where’s your brother? I can’t find him.”

Dav stared at me emotionless.

“Ryan’s at school like normal little boys.”

Oh that’s right, it’s Monday. I wiped me face free of worry, Dav could of told me I had been looking around the house franticly all day a little word would be nice.

“So what are you doing then? I thought your meant to be at work?”

Crap work, I had forgotten, Rodgers going to kill me. I started to race franticly around the room again. Dav just stood leaning against the wall watching me.

“Do you know where my coat…”

Dav held out my long brown coat in his hand.

“Thank you.”

I took the coat willingly and headed for the door grabbing my keys on the way.

“Do you know what to do if I’m…”

Dav gave a sarcastic roll of the eyes.

“Yes, I do.”

I shook my head in agreeing way. He walked over to me.

“Just … be carful now.”

He made an irritated face.

“I will. Now … Bye!”

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