Three Hearts Left Intact

Chapter 94: Savior

"L...Laur...Lauren!" Elias shouted with a crack as the gun seemingly slipped out of his hand hitting the red stained flooring. He jumped from his spot cradling his girl in his arms looking down mortified by the sight he had created.

"Hon I didn't mean it...I swear I didn't mean it..." Mallix never would have guessed the man capable of shooting someone mercilessly in the chest twice was able to produce as many tears as he had. Elias's voice was high and cracked between every other word as his shaky hand applied hard pressure over her large open wound.

Meanwhile, both Mallix and Kaila just stood there staring at them. Kaila could've eaten a bug by how wide her mouth dropped, but she quickly shut it dropping to her knees besides them grabbing one of Lauren's cold hands.

She didn't say anything, instead she just sat there watching as the girl who she had considered an ex friend trying to make right her wrongs die before her eyes.

Elias brushed Lauren's hair from out of her face as he watched the color slowly drain from his daughter. The feelings of dread, disgust, anger, guilt, and sadness all took over him. Something he wasn't used to. Lauren had parted open her mouth slightly to speak but only mere puffs of air came out.

"Hey no, save your strength." Elias sobbed throwing his head down to his chest not able to see his doing.

Lauren's eyes tenderly moved over to Kaila who had been dropping tears left and right. Trying to convey some type of message to her, Lauren applied as much pressure as she could to Kaila's hands, watching carefully as her head raised and met her eyes.

Lauren didn't even have to say anything for Kaila to see the message in her greying eyes. The small girl sniffled away her tears hugging tightly against Lauren's side. Kaila didn't even care that she was close to the chest of the man who tormented her. All Kaila wanted to do was provide some comfort to the one who had been there for her in her time of need.

All the while Mallix stood in the back still stunned by the revolution. As he was stuck in his head finally lose ends began clicking themselves into place. That voice, that distorted voice Lauren had been using, finally he was able to place his finger on where he had heard it before.

'Back in the warehouse...' his thoughts took him away replaying the memories of that dreadful night in the abandoned building with Alex. The night he found out about Lain and Kaila's situation. The night his world began to crumble after it was already broken.

Just after both men had bought the updated map of the facility and were heading back out into the dead of night, there was a moment that struck Mallix's memory in particular.

"Oh wait one last thing before you leave Alex...The Fendly's aren't as naive as you think they are. Don't do anything too early without thinking it through. They've got eyes and ears everywhere. It's hard to find somewhere they aren't spying...".

Finally it all made sense.

Mallix's eyes opened widely before focusing back on the sight to see. He had so many questions he wanted to ask. He needed so many answers to put his wandering mind at ease. But not with Elias around.

Getting down besides Kaila he grabbed Lauren's hand that was holding securely onto his little girls. His larger size hand grabbed Lauren's attention as she looked up at him. A small pool of blood had emptied onto the floor around her, including onto both Elias and Kaila. Her insides felt like they were ignited on a fire that was unquenchable as demons clawed at her every organ, cell, muscle, and bone.

Trying hard to push past the pain she was able to get out two trembling words, "...g-g-get...o-out..." her eyes stayed on Mallix looking at him with a plead. Elias immediately looked up surprised by his own daughters words.

"You can't...the auctions tomorrow...you can't take her." Elias could hold back his tears as he hiccuped every so often looking at Mallix.

But Lauren just looked at him in a protest. Using her index finger that was against her fathers chest, she aimed it at Kaila. "...m-m-mi-mines." She mustered not breaking eye contact with her father.

"It was you..." Mallix reached his arm over Kaila's shoulder bringing her in close. "...you're the one who bought Kaila." The small girl besides him nearly choked on her own tears the second he said that.

Darting her eyes quickly towards Lauren all she got was a confirmation nod as a grunt came out and she shut her eyes tightly from the pain in her chest. "Why...why didn't you tell me?!" Kaila voiced.

"C...cause..." Lauren's voice was finally catching back up with her as the bleeding was finally slowing down, "I...w-wanted...y-you...t-to...b-be...s-surprised..." a tear dropped down her cheek as a small smile appeared with a broken chuckle, "...s-su-surprise..." she tried with as much enthusiasm as she could get.

"Why? Why would you spend your money like this? After everything I've taught you, everything your mother taught you, why are you doing this Laur?" Her father needed an explanation dearly and Mallix didn't mind—he needed this information as well.

"S-she...d-didn't...d-deserve...t-this..." there was a long unsettling pause as Lauren began drifting in and out of consciousness. Her blood loss was getting to an extreme. As her eyes got heavy and dropped down, she got a quick glance at the time on her watch. "L-let...t-them...w-walk...a-away..." were her final words as she shut her eyes, unresponsive to any of the others shouting her name.

When Lauren ceased to move or flinch as Kaila tugged on her friends arm, her crying had become nothing like Mallix had ever witnessed before. She collapsed into his arms scream weeping as she pleaded for her friend to wake.

Still being in complete shock as well, Mallix was at a loss for words to comfort his little girl with. Just wrapping her in his arms tightly he rocked them both side to side as his nervous eyes drifted up towards Elias.

There was a darkness in his eyes that appeared. A mixture of black and red took over as he grabbed his daughters motionless body holding it against his chest screaming her name. The second his eyes even came into contact with Mallix's, he yelled with all his might, "GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT!" until his voice crumbled into endless sobs. Holding Lauren's cold and pale face against his own, he couldn't bare to look away.

Mallix didn't know what came over him. He didn't feel in control of his body as he stood slowly walking backwards towards the exit. Twisting the knob he backed out shutting the endless cries of Elias inside.

Before he knew it his legs had taken off. With Kaila tight in his arms, he was sprinting with everything he had towards the gate of the facility. The air pushing against him made all his surroundings silent. He couldn't hear the sounds from the facility, from nature, or from Kaila. All he could hear was the heavy thudding of his own heart.

He was growing blind to the world around him as he let his legs carry them on their own accord. That was until he could hear the clicking of the exterior lights activating back up. It was only a matter of time before the security logs came back with them.

Dashing through the open courtyard he could finally see the gate in the distance. Quickly he was making ground. The entire world was flying by them as the gate only a few meters away began to shut slowly. "No!" He yelled to himself picking up his pace.

His racing heart had never pounded so fast as he managed to slip both him and Kaila out just in time before the rest of the security feeds went back online.

Mallix fell to his knees collapsing from exhaustion as the gates came to a complete shut. Everything around him was a blur and the noise of gunfire continued ringing through his ears. Almost in an instant as soon as Mallix hit the floor he felt his own head spinning around as stars appeared. Before he knew it, Mallix shut his eyes collapsing onto the paved floor.
—————————————————————————
A/N: Man I just couldn't slip this one past all of you.

Let me know what you think about Lauren's reveal. Thanks Lexx signing off