In The Blood

Rushing Away

(Tim)

Sobs tore at my throat. I may be alive by the grace of God—of Rob—but still, I wanted to curl up in a corner somewhere and just cry, cry, cry like the world was ending because, in my eyes, it was. Rob. My friend, my confidant, my colleague, my brother in so many ways. And who the hell's down now? My left arm, side really—my whole left side was in a lot of pain. Nevertheless, I pressed my right arm to the ground. Had to see. I had to see. Knowing and seeing very little was killing me from the inside out. I started to sit up just a little, ignoring the pain for the moment.

"Tim—," Chance started, a hand on my chest.

"Don't," I warned him. If he pushed me down now, I was pushing back. He seemed to get the message and backed off. Austin and Adam (oh thank God, Adam was out of Linda's grasp. Out of danger by no means, but not in her hands at least) were leaning over Rob. I ducked my head to see out through the space under Adam's chest, squinting at and trying to wave away the haze in front of me. It was like I was trying to look through a sheer curtain—I could see people moving but it was so... hazy. It shimmered at me and very quickly, I saw the outline of a dress before it disappeared. Dress? I—who—her??? I didn't even have time to give it much thought though due to the murder scene I was involved in. Kirstie, Scott, and Avi were just standing there, mouths partially opened in shock, in utter disbelief. Oh God! Mitch—or Kevin—which had Eli shot? I saw the figure lying there motionless on the ground, not registering anything until I saw Mitch a foot away looking like he'd seen a ghost (maybe he had; I was certain one had been here a second ago), hands to his mouth. Oh God. Don't—don't tell me—Kevin, had to be Kevin; they had to have hurt Kevin, Kevin must be down! Had Eli gotten so fed up with his religious talk, with his unbreakable unspoken hope... Fuck, with Kevin down...

"Ohhh my Gooood," Chance breathed in my ear, eyes focused on—wait. The figure—blonde—Eli? Eli was prone on the ground. Not Kevin at all, but Eli was down, seemingly out cold. But—what—where was— A loud shrill scream came to the right, and I jerked my head to follow it.

"Gun!" Kevin, quite alive, shouted as he pressed his knee to Sandy's chest and tried to twist hers out of her hand. "Mitch! Kick it away!"

Kevin was in the middle of it all—Kevin was fighting and by God, he'd knocked Eli out. He had disarmed Eli. Now if Mitch would just come to his senses and kick it away... Yeah, I knew this was beyond shocking and utterly weird, but if he could try to help him help us here. I could barely believe it, that Kevin was fighting, that he'd already had one success. The ten—nine of us really, now that we were down one with Rob being... I couldn't even. The eight of us were standing, sitting, knelt, or lying in stunned silence, the only sounds being Sandy's screams, Kevin's grunts as he tried to pull that thing away from her without shooting the rest of us, and someone's labored and heavy breaths. No one could believe their eyes that—that for one thing, Kevin had made the conscious decision to get physically involved, that he had put himself in a position to do it, that he'd planned it out (no way he hadn't with the way he'd acted so quickly and completely on Eli), that he was following through. Rob's voice, from hours ago... "If we could get him to fight, Kevin has the physical strength to take down Linda on his own, in a heartbeat, without batting an eye. Several Lindas," Rob had said. "Not happening in a million years, but just saying. The man is fucking strong and, without a doubt, the most physically fit of all of us." Well, a million years must have passed, and he was taking out several Lindas. Linda and Eli. On his own. And Mitch had been shocked stupid, the gun still this feet where Eli could easily grab it if he came to.

"Kkk," came from in front of me. 'Kkk'? What's that? I glanced at Adam and Austin confusedly, again seeing the woman in the blue dress just briefly. Who the fuck was she and what was she doing here? I had always chalked her up to either being part of my imagination, as Mom and Dad had always insisted, or maybe to being someone that had lived in our Texas house before us. But what would a prior Texas homeowner be doing out here in California at a murder scene? And was it my imagination or was there a second ghost out here? I could have sworn for a second there I'd seen a young teenager in red leaning over Rob. Linda let loose a blood curdling scream and I let Adam or Austin's 'kkk' go in order to look over at Linda. Kevin was now sitting back on his heels, a single bruise on his cheek. Linda was holding her right hand, the one she'd used to shoot her gun at me but got Rob instead, with her left, shrieking her head off.