Short Stories

Forty-Five: Pain

Hazel gripped Kit's hands and cried out in pain as Ashley popped her shoulder back in place. Kit tenderly kissed Hazel's forehead.

"You're doing great Hazel." Kit comforted as Hazel cuddled into her shoulder, trying to rid of the dull ache in her shoulder. Kit looked up at Ashley and Ashley winked at her and gave Kit a thumbs-up before exiting the tent and walking back to the campfire.

"'M sorry, Kit. You should be enjoying the campfire and food instead of being here." Hazel mumbled into Kit's neck. Kit pulled back and gripped Ashley's face gently and stared into her grey eyes.

"I will always be here for you, Hazel. No matter what." Kit firmly said. Hazel blushed and looked away.

"Can we stay here and cuddle....please?" Kit chuckled at Hazel's blush and lay her down on the sleeping bag. She blew out the candle and covered them with a blanket.

"Sure."

Kit lay next to Hazel and snuggled closer to her close friend.

"Kit?"

"Yes?"

"...Do you wanna be more than friends after this?" Hazel turned her head away, but Kit knew a furious blush darkened her caramel skin.

"I would love to be girlfriends, Hazel." Kit wrapped her freckled arms around Hazel's waist and slowly moved her head close to Hazel's. Hazel brought their lips together for a sweet kiss.

Later, when they had fallen asleep, Ashley peeped a look and found them close together. Ashley smiled and looked back at the others and nodded furiously. She looked back at Alice and Linda and pumped her fist into the air before closing the tent flap and practically skipped back to the campfire.

"They got together! YEAH!" Linda cheered, and Alice slapped her arm, making her quiet down. Linda sheepishly looked away before bursting into a fit of giggles. Alice rolled her eyes but a small smile graced her lips as she suppressed a laugh at Linda's giggles.

"Goodness, you're so childlike, Linda." Alice taunted goodnaturedly.

"It simply adds to my charm, Alice." Linda threw back. Ashley clapped her hands, drawing their attention and pointed at their separate places to sleep. Alice nodded and knocked softly on Linda's head to get her to stop laughing. Linda smiled. They all climbed into bed, a smile on their faces.

---A week later---

Kit looked up to find Hazel with a hand wrapped tightly around her throat. Hazel struggled, clawing at the gloved hand with her dirty nails. Hazel flailed her legs about, hitting the villain in the stomach. However, Flame barely flinched only smirked and brought her other hand to blow a flame in Hazel's face. Kit could hear her gasping for air and scream in pain. The scent of melting flesh filled Kit's nostrils. Kit screamed and a shot of adrenaline burst through her. She crawled towards her last friend that was alive. Her broken ribs dug into her flesh but she couldn't feel the pain as she saw her last friend being choked to death.

Memoried of her other friends flashed through her brain. Ashley laying in a pool of her own blood, half-eaten, half-burned. Alice at the bottom of a pit, screaming out as snakes bit into her, poisoning her blood and slithering around her body and squeezing the life out of her. Linda, the top half of her body attached to a tree and the other bottom half ripped off her top half. Kit reached out a hand towards her friend, only for it to fall weakly to the ground, a cry of pain echoing out through the fallen city. The adrenaline was gone. Kit grunted in frustration as she tried to pull herself closer to the villain, to free her friend. Her cracked ribs screamed in pain and her body was burned and bruised from fighting.

"No!" Kit remembered how Hazel wanted to be a doctor. How she had asked shyly asked Kit to be her date to prom. Of how her eyes brightened when she talked about something she liked. Or how she cuddled with Kit whenever they watched a scary movie. She remembered their first kiss. Kit remembered how Hazel promised when the whole ordeal against Flame was over they could properly date, then, maybe, one day marry. Hazel gave one last desperate attempt to escape, weakly hitting Flame's hand before her arms stilled.

Her hand fell to her side and her head lolled to the side. Flame smirked and threw the limp body next to Kit. Hazel's head hit the sharp edges of a broken sidewalk and blood started to pool around her head, staining the speckled concrete.

"No! Hazel!" Kit screamed in agony. She pulled herself up and cradled her friend's body, trying to convince herself that Hazel wasn't actually dead. Kit screamed and screamed at the sky. At the gods. At Flame.

"How could you?!" Kit screamed at Flame, who picked at her nails as if she hadn't just killed someone.

"She's only 16...why?" Kit croaked out her sore throat. Flame stilled, one of her manicured nails cracking.

"...what?" Flame whispered out. Kit looked away and rocked back and forth with Hazel's head in her lap. She whispered as fat tears fell on the marred face. Her upper lip trembled as she stroked the bloody face. She sobbed as she cradled her dead friend in her arms. Flame's hands were starting to shake. Her brown eyes went wide as the realization hit her like a bus. Flame fell to her knees and hands and threw up on the ground in front of her. She couldn't stop throwing up even when there was nothing left in her stomach, she couldn't stop.

"No. No. No! No!" Flame cried out. "I-I-I thought you were all adults! I thought you were all trained for this. No, no, no... I-I-I-I didn't realize. YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE TRAINED. You were supposed to be ready." Kit looked at Flame and sneered at the broken villain.

"You killed Ashley, a 14-year-old; Linda, a 15-year-old; and Linda. Linda was only 13." Kit's voice broke as she recalled all of her friends.

"Flame, I am going to die. Blood is filling my lungs, and I will drown in my blood," Kit snarled, desperate to make Flame feel her despair, "I am only 16. There will be more young blood on your hands." Flame stared at Kit as the young girl coughed up blood and fell, coughing up blood. Kit suffered, drowning in her blood, until she stilled, blood leaking out her mouth and filling the dirt underneath her. Flame looked at Kit's dead body.

And Flame cried.