Reflections of Light

Deserving It

"You can't be here. You can't be here! Get out!"

Hearing Luci's increasingly urgent tone, Dec dropped his coat on the hallway floor, leaving the front door wide open as he ran into the kitchen. "Love, what's happened?"
He immediately recognised the pale haired man standing in front of her. "How do you know where I live?!"

Declan's question was ignored as he growled darkly. "Where is she?!"

"What?"

"WHERE IS SHE!"

"Get out of my house!"

In his rage, the blond swiped everything off the worktop, sending it all clattering to the floor as he leapt over the counter to advance on Declan. "Where. Is. She!"

"Do you mean your little girlfriend?" Dec snarked. "She's in hospital. Getting the help she clearly needs. You know she attacked Luci, right?"

He smirked. "What did Rosewater do to deserve it?"

"Nothing!" Luci shrieked. "She just cracked and lashed out!"

He narrowed his eyes at her. "You did something." He said, taking a threatening step towards her.

"Something upset her." Dec cut in. "She was helping Luci unpack, and she saw something and it set her off. She freaked out on Luci and ran off; her family couldn't find her for hours."

"What did she show her?

"I didn't show her anything!" Luci squealed. "She came across it by herself; how was I supposed to know she'd react this way!"

"What did she find?"

"Uh... Uh..." Luci's eyes were wide with alarm as she seemed like a rabbit caught in the headlights. "It was a knife, in my bag. I had all sorts of weapons, it wasn't a weird thing. For some reason, that particular one just... set her off."

"She said she'd been attacked before." Dec cut in again. "It probably triggered some kind of underlying issue from that."

He pointed an accusing finger at Luci. "She has 'issues'. You haven't locked her up."

"She didn't randomly attack someone!"

"That you know of." He said darkly. "But I'm sure this works out just fine for you."

"Get out!" Luci yelled. "You don't know anything!"

"I know more than you think." Reaching into his jacket, he drew out a familiar blade. "It wouldn't happen to have been this knife, would it? Because that would be very interesting."

'He's been looking through our stuff to find that...'

"Give that back." Luci snapped, clenching her fists.

"It's not yours."

"It's Declan's. Give it back."

"Where did you get it?" He snarled, advancing on her threateningly. "I recognise what this is; this is a Morgenstern weapon. Where did you get it?"

Luci snatched at the knife, but was too slow, as he easily held it out of her reach.

"Look at you." He sneered. "Pretending your life is perfect, all the while knowing how little it'd take to send it all crumbling. It's pathetic."

Frustrated, Luci was surprised to feel tears bubbling in her eyes; threatening to spill over even as she blinked them back with ragged breaths. Her heart was clenching again; pounding, racing, echoing in her ears.

A pulse was thumping in someone else's head also; a pulse of rage. "Get out of my house!" Declan growled, drawing the other man's attention back to him.

Taking advantage of his distraction, Luci darted forwards, grabbing for the dagger- she missed; instead knocking it out of his hand and sending it skating away across the floor, unbalancing herself in the process.
In one swift motion, the blond threw his weight against the dark haired man, sending him flying over the counter; before snatching a kitchen knife from the block as he rounded on her. "That was a bad choice."

Luci swallowed anxiously.

"You're pathetic." Declan bit suddenly, standing up behind the counter. He didn't look so good; his usually impeccable appearance in complete disarray. To her it was clear from the way he moved he was in pain, although he was trying to act otherwise. "Throwing a tantrum like a child in an effort to get your way."

Bang! Anger poured from the blond as he slammed the knife deep into the worktop, looking at Declan with dark eyes. Then, rage radiating from his every pore, he leapt over the counter, reaching for the other man with strangling hands.
Declan caught his forearms, stopping his hands in their path even as the force slammed him back against the counter. Using that to lever himself, he pushed back; the two men grappling for the upper hand.

Scrabbling into action, Luci went after the dagger; snatching it up off the hallway floor. As she did so, something inside her twisted; letting out a yelp, she dropped in an almost sickly-comedic fashion onto her backside, clutching at her stomach half in fear, half in disbelief. "Something's wrong."

Dec grunted as his back was slammed against the wall; before gathering himself enough to spit defiantly at his assailant, pushing him off as he recoiled reflexively.
Panting as they sized each other up once more, Dec chuckled sardonically. "If you think I'm letting your little girlfriend out after this, you've got another thing coming. You're not going to see her for a long time."

He laughed,unperturbed. "You think I can't handle that myself? Easy. No, I know what I came here to do."

"Declan!" Luci's panicked cry of alarm cut through the adrenaline fog, sobering him up in an instant. He saw her, sitting on the floor; face screwed up in anguish as she clutched at her abdomen, skin flushed red as her breath came in panicked gasps.

Instinctively, he moved to go to her, only to be driven back. Filled with new determination, he pushed back, forcing his opponent away. Suddenly, the blonds hand closed around the handle of the kitchen knife. "And maybe just one more thing."

He drove the knife into the joint of Declan's shoulder, the blade pining the man to the wall as it forced him back. Declan cried out in pain.

Unable to do anything, Luci let out a, sob; as the incriminating dagger was pried away from her, their assailant absconding with his prize.

"Declan!" Luci shrieked, growing more and more desperate as she recognised exactly what this sensation in her pregnant stomach was. No, it's too soon! It's too soon! They're not ready!

Taking hold of the knife handle, Declan tanked experimentally; yelping loudly as it moved. The action was useless; he didn't have the strength to remove it himself, not with the red stain slowly stretching further and further across his shirt.

Voice cracking, he cried out desperately. "Mina! MINA!"

Phew, it's FINALLY done! This chapter has been torturing me all week; between it being a crucial element of the story that I need to be just so, my current timetable only allowing me to get a few sentences on each day, and the writers block I developed around day 3, it's frankly a miracle I finished it this week at all.

Hope you like!