Echo

Chapter 12: Regret

Author's Notes: Hello all, this is another long chapter. I hope you enjoy it :)

Reviews are loved.

- -
Echo

Your finger sank into the squishy jelly of his eye, gouging it, but he pinned your other wrist down and didn't try to pry your hand off.

Instead, the knife you hadn't noticed was what he chose to employ, and although his wrist was cramped and in an awkward position, you felt it. A sharp, intense, burning pain in your abdomen as he sank the blade into your stomach.

You choked, and he tried to pull away, but you grabbed him by the shirt and held him against you tightly. He had a weapon that he might be able to hurt Leonard with, you couldn't allow him to escape. So you clutched him fast to your body despite the consequences, and the knife sank deeper into your flesh. You emitted a guttural grunt of pain as the blood began to flow out of the entry in your stomach, soaking his fingers where he held the blade and pooling across your abdomen like a sock being dipped into a puddle.

Carol emitted a shaking gasp, and you turned your head to the right, still pinned against the floor.

You looked her directly in her tearful blue eyes and wheezed, "Run."

She scrambled backward, her mouth hanging open in terror and then obeyed, climbing to her feet before turning around and sprinting in the opposite direction, the way you had been going before.

Delta knew the score; he had to get the others out of there, which meant there was no time to save you. His voice, and the voices of the others were faint echoes in the distance as you weakened. Still, you knew what you had to do. With all of the strength left in your body, you heaved yourself sideways and rolled on top of him, grabbing him by the neck with both of your hands and squeezing.

It was not your first time strangling somebody, although one of your least favorite forms of killing, and you knew that by eliminating him you were disobeying orders. Still, there was no other way, he had stabbed you and if you merely knocked him out he might get up again and take you down while you were weak. His pulse weakened beneath your palm, and his eyes bulged as he stared up at you, groaning and wheezing as he fruitlessly tried to continue breathing.

He clawed at your hands, but his fingers were slippery from the blood, and he failed even though he scratched your skin roughly enough to draw more blood. You held him to the floor and choked the life out of him, your bodily fluids draining onto his shirt, and you waited for the right signs. The fighting, then the trembling, then the stiffness that would indicate he was dead.

Sadly, you lacked the strength to finish the job, and decided to give up when he lost consciousness.

You exhaled, released his throat and then looked down. The knife was still sticking out of you.

Employing every bit of self-control you had, you grabbed it by the hilt and pulled it out, crying out in agony when the blade left you, as it was just as painful leaving as it had been entering. You dropped the weapon to the side of his body, trembling and placing a shaky hand against your wound. Pain flashed through you again at the sensation of putting pressure there, but it was the only thing that would keep you from bleeding out, at least temporarily.

Your head spun and suddenly the lights seemed much brighter as you perceived a flash of pure white noise before the world came back to you. You would not lose consciousness though. You couldn't. You crawled off of him, leaving blood splattered on the floor as you progressed, and crawled with one elbow until you found the wall. You dragged your body along the length of it, your wound leaking on the ground, and went along until you spotted what you had seen before; a fire extinguisher.