Blood and Claws

You look a bit bloody~~ Chapter 13

Chris gets up walking out of the kitchen and I follow him. “Just don’t want you to get hurt…again.” He says slowly and intertwines his fingers with mine. I sighed. A month ago I was worried about starting school not my life being in danger.  

I took a deep breath. “I am going to get hurt again… As long as the schools are at war… and as long as I remain in the middle of it all… I am going to get hurt again.” He gave my hand a reassuring squeeze but, he doesn’t say anything. We walk around the school silently and aimlessly. Clarisse ran into us in the hall.

 “Hey… Alex can I talk to you?” I nodded and looked up at Chris. He sighed and let go of my hand, telling me to be safe before leaving. We walked down the school hallway in silence. She led me to the roof her wings extending from her back. She looks at me. “Do you think your wing is good enough to fly?”

I opened my own wings slowly. The one that was broken was still sore but, still workable. “I think.”

She smiles and nods. “Just do what I do and follow me.” She says. She ran jumping off the roof and flapped gliding away.

“Where are we going?!” I say following lagging a bit. She doesn’t reply. I caught a current catching up to her. I ask her again.

“Can’t tell you.” I sighed.

“What did you want to talk about?” I ask curious to what exactly is going on.

“What did Marcel say?”

“Who?”  

“The dude who attacked you earlier…” I fell silent. I don’t think he said much.

“Nothing except he seemed pissed that I broke out by throwing him against a stone wall, knocking him out. How do you know him?”  

She shook her head going silent like she usually does. I sighed. My wing started to hurt more with each stroke but, I didn’t share my complaints out loud. She looked up and quickly grabbed my arm yanking me down near the tree tops. My wings jerked up pulled by the air multiplying the pain. I was about to ask her what was wrong but, she quickly shushed me.

I looked up and a human figure with wings flew right over us. It hesitated first but, flew on. I regained the pit in my stomach feeling. “Who is that?” Clarisse shot me a look to be quiet. The sound of a gunshot both made Clarisse and I jerk around. A sharp pain shot through my spine as if a hot iron was pressed against my back, I screamed instead.

My wings gave out and hung loosely against my back. Clarisse grabbed my arm to keep me from free falling and slowly helps me to solid ground. The pain through my spine spread slowly and I collapse to my knees. “Clarisse…what…what is going on?” I say squeezing my eyes shut.

She knelt by me pushing my hair off my back over my shoulder. “They shot you with a bug… it gives you enough pain to feel parlays… I’m trying to find it and get it off you.” Her fingers travel down my spine to the center of my back causing me to cringe. “This is going to hurt…” She mumbles, slowly a sharp pain ripped through me. I clenched my hand my nails digging into my palm causing droplets of blood to fall.