Hauntingly Lovely

Chapter 16

Jack's P.O.V.

It's New Year's day and I'm eating canned corn while sitting on the counter in the kitchen, we got some more food not long ago from Max's friend but we're already running out again. We can't start growing food for a while yet so we'll have to go shopping soon. With all the money we spent on supplies to repair this place, we're starting to run lower on money too. When Max walks in I tell him we need food and he agrees. When we finish our meals we grab our coats and leave the house for the first time in a long while. We walk to town and go to some stores buying food that we hope can last us until spring. We're on our way home when we see a group of knights, we stop in our tracks and turn around to walk away from them but then we walk into another group of knights.
"Hey kids, what are you doing out here?" One of them asks.
"Grocery shopping." Max says quickly, keeping his head down.
"Don't you kids ever follow the rules?" The second knight asks.
"What rules?" I ask back, keeping my head down as well.
"There's a curfew for all kids starting as soon as the sun sets until we find the prince and princess not to mention whoever robbed the castles and killed one of our knights, didn't your parents tell you this?" The first knight tells us.
"Take your hoods off, we need to identify you and take you kids home." The second knight says, I panic and shut my eyes as he reaches toward my head, and then... splat. I open my eyes again. There Max stands in front of me, with daggers covered in blood. He shouts at me to run as the knight falls to the ground and the others rush over to see what's happening, I don't want to leave him but there's nothing else I can do. I run as fast as my feet will carry me, into the woods, weaving between trees, I find a den of some kind to hide in and climb into a nearby tree once the knights have passed me. I want to go back and help, but I don't know what to do. So I stay in the tree and hope Max can find me.

Max's P.O.V.

I tell Jack to run, hoping he can get away from the knights that start chasing him, as one of them grabs me I take the dagger and jab it into the knight's heart. I pull it out and stab the other knight in the eye, the dagger goes through his brain. Now I'm running, running from the three murders I just committed. I'm not upset about that, I'm just scared of what might have happened to Jack if he couldn't keep running. I can't let anything bad happen to him again, he's been through enough. I stop and hide behind a tree when I see one of the knights coming back my way, he's probably looking for Jack. When he comes around the tree I slit his neck open like I did with the first knight. I know there was one more, but he's probably gone back to report to the kings by now. I look around and see Jack coming down from one of the trees a few yards away.
"Are you okay?" I ask, worried that he might be hurt.
"Yeah, yeah I'm okay." He says, he looks at me scared.
"Are you?" He asks.
"Yeah, I'm fine." I tell him as I calm down.
"Um, Max, I really don't think you're fine." He says.
"What do you mean?" I ask. He then points at a large gash on my right leg and puts his hand on my cheek, which stings.
"Shit, I guess in the heat of the moment I didn't realize they cut me up so much." I say. Jack still gives me that worried look.
"I'll stitch up your wounds at home, come on. I hope we still have some pain meds left." He states, putting my arm over his shoulder to support me.
When we get home, he sews my wounds closed and gives me a pill. I gladly take it since my cuts are starting to hurt now that I'm not fighting anymore. He wraps up the cuts and gets me some food. We sit by the fire and I eat until eventually the adrenaline crash kicks in and I fall asleep.