The Anchor [Brallon-ish]

17

There's so much blood, and it's not showing any sign of stopping. I'm fully soaked in it, and the bathtub is still gushing water. The valves must be broken. I can't gather enough strength to stop it. The door is gone, most of the room is gone, my will to get up and take Hayley with me away from danger, has vanished.

Pens and pencils float across the surface and leak ink, the walls break apart as chunks hit the bed frame and the nightstands before flushing out of the room. The water drains but the building creaks violently.

I think this is the end.

But the room fills again when my dad stumbles through it with a small team scrambling behind him. They all head for Hayley first and remove her out from the situation, and he starts sprinting for me and ripping the ceiling away from me.

He's wearing his dumb Council suit, and something about him is different. I wish he'd worn a normal shirt so I could change into it, but beggars can't be choosers. I'm just thankful he's here. I hate him a little less now.

I wish I never met you.

He's panicking, I think, because his eyes keep darting to my chest where it hurts, and there's blood seeping into my eyes too. I don't know how Jake kept fighting, possibly adrenaline, but it's most likely tied to Hayley in some way. "Hey. Dallon's kinda evil."

A forced laugh slips through the worry for just a second. His arm hooks under my legs at the bend of my knees and the other secures behind my back. "I figured. You're alive, though, that's all that matters right now."

I wish I never met you.

I try to point to where Hayley was but I can't lift my arm let alone move my fingers more than a millimeter. My voice is starting to give out, and so is my brain. Everything hurts. Death is approaching. Time is a social construct. "Hayley?"

He gives me a nod, just a nod, I assume means she'll be okay. I don't want to die in an elevator, and I think he could go faster down the stairs. I don't know. I don't think he worked it out.

I wish I never met you.

"She's going to be okay," he clears his throat after the building shudders and starts on a ramble, "they brought a healer, a stronger and fully charged one. She should be fixed right up on her way to the hospital, and they have a halfway-charged one for Jake sitting on the sidelines, so he'll be healed for the most part before he gets transported there too. They don't have anyone else really, I wish they did, but they're setting them aside for Council only. I couldn't even try to reason with them. It's a long recovery for you unless I can pull some strings, but I don't know if I can this time."

"Recovery builds character." The words tumble out of my lips before I even think them. They float in my vision for a moment, red and dripping with my own blood, before they disappear in a little cloud of smoke.

I wish I never met you.

He smiles. I can see the light from sirens flashing down the stairwell. Almost at the ground floor, but not it close enough. "I know, I know, but to get to recovery you have to stay awake until we get to the paramedics. Can you do that?"

I don't think so. The silver on his suit is stained red, probably forever. There's so much red. I don't think it's just my jaw and my chest that's bleeding anymore. "Dunno."

I wish I never met you.

"Alright," he murmurs, "well, we're a few flights away from the first floor, so I guess I'll have to keep talking and you can focus on that. Okay?"

"Fuckin' easy, Dad. Easy. Easy peasy, lemon squeeze-y."

He laughs again, but not as long as the first time. "I didn't think you'd be the one to get caught in the middle of this. I thought Taylor would be the one to set him off, but we couldn't wait for her to do that, not any longer. I feel bad for sending just Jake and Hayley, but they were well equipped. We underestimated what he could do. All of this is my fault."

I wish I never met you.

"Not your fault," I think a pen came for me, which would explain why my lungs ache, and another place on my head has to be bleeding, though I'm not too sure anymore, "nobody's fault."

"It's everyone's fault. Everything could have been handled differently... I should've confronted you about it, and I know that would've backfired because you hate me, but it might've helped."

The lights are brighter. We're closer but still far. "Don't hate you that much. Would've listened."

I wish I never met you.

The ground vibrates and a deafening rumble echoes through the cold air. They're still going at it, and who knows how many more members of Council have joined in, who knows where the noise came from, who knows who's hurt.

"You would have listened in hindsight of all this," he picks up the pace and jolts shoot through my jaw like I got sucker punched all over again, "and I'm so going to kick Jake's ass when I see him again. I'll sock him in the mouth for you."

"How can you tell?"

"Still got ice chips in the cuts. He must've hit you hard."

I smile inwardly. My eyes are so heavy, I can hear my chest rattling and my heart finally resting. Everything is so warm but it's so cold.

I hear the echo of his built in shoes hitting the sticky tile in the lobby, and I can feel people swarming and carefully rolling me on to the most uncomfortable bed I've ever felt in my life.

I wish I never met you.

The bed starts rolling like I'm being dragged over a dirt road, and whatever is stuck in my upper chest digs a little deeper. Something rips through my throat and I can't hear it, but I feel it tearing my vocal cords apart as the pain cuts deeper and deeper until someone has the bright idea to strap me down.

They fuck it up again when they have to lift the bed, but this time I can hear the faint sound of my dad chewing them out and something about blood types and being positive as the mattress shakes and finally slides in like butter across warm bread, which I think is from the help of my dad.

Everything starts to go black by that point, thankfully. It was about time I lost enough blood to die. Someone straps something plastic and suffocating over my face and even though it smells like fresh air imported from the Bahamas, it burns through my nose and down into my chest where the real burning is. It hurts, but it hurts in an acceptable way until that area. It's the most tolerable pain I've felt this whole time.

I wish I never met you.

I push and shove with all my strength because it hurts but because I'm so exhausted and still bleeding, resisting hurts even more but I can't sit still because it hurts, and it's a never ending cycle.

I only feel a sharp prick in my elbow when my dad puts all his pressure down on my bicep and forearm, and I only notice I feel like I'm flying when my dad says to "shut your damn eyes" and "go the fuck to sleep."

I wish I never met you.