Imaginary - Book 2 - Chapter 35 - Trauma (Patreon)

WARNING! Although not gratuitous, there are descriptions of serious wounds in this chapter.

“What are you doing? RUN!” Kira yelled as she yanked my arm, trying to pull me away from the approaching madman with one hand while throwing up an ice barrier with the other. 

I’d been so focused on Grey’s relentless approach that I hadn’t even registered that she’d been trapped on this side of the barrier with me, so when she yanked me, I stumbled, nearly smashing face first into Grey’s barrier. Thankfully, I managed to regain my footing, and as soon as I did, I took off after her at a full sprint. 

“What do we do?” Kira shouted over her shoulder.

“We find the next road or alley and try to make it back to the others if we can,” I yelled back. “We need to get off this road and out of Grey’s line of sight if nothing else. If he catches sight of us again, we’re as good as dead!” 

Just as I finished saying that I heard the ominous sound of cracking ice behind me, followed by Frost yelling. “Tammy, watch out!”

“Dodge!” I yelled to Kira as I threw myself sideways, rolling into the street just as a translucent white blade came sailing up the street, ripping up the pavement where I’d been running just a moment before. It missed me by inches; Kira, however, wasn’t so lucky. 

I heard Kira scream, and felt a hot spray of blood splash across the side of my face before I managed to roll to a stop. There was a wet squelch as something landed just inches from my face, and as I glanced up, I saw the familiar pink and white pattern of Kira’s sweater, covered in blood. 

With growing horror, I realized it was her arm, severed at the shoulder. 

As I scrambled to my feet, I desperately scanned the area, trying to find where the rest of her had gone. It didn’t take me long to spot her, lying in the entrance alcove of the building across from me. It looked like she’d heard either my or Frost’s warning and attempted to get out of the way; she’d just been a fraction of a second too slow. 

“Impressive. If you’d dodged just a second earlier I would have been able to curve that blade and hit you, and if you’d dodged just a moment later it would have hit you square in the back,” Grey said as he casually strolled down the street towards us. “Either you kids are exceptionally lucky, or the quality of education at the academy has improved in recent years.”

“Why are you doing this?” I asked through grit teeth as I stumbled backward. My instincts screamed at me to run, sprint down the street and find a place to hide, but I knew if I did that Grey would probably just try to put a blade into my back like last time. Besides, I wasn’t going to leave Kira here, she needed my help.

I just had to figure out what to do about Grey first.

“Because you’re in the way,” he replied, slowly raising a hand and pointing it towards me, an unhinged grin slowly growing across his face.

I skuttled backward, searching for a way out, cover, anything that would keep me alive for just a few seconds longer. There were a couple of cars parked further down the street, and an old mailbox a couple of feet down the sidewalk, but something told me that no matter how hard I tried, I’d never make it before getting cut down.

“So long kid,” Grey grunted.

I winced reflexively jumping to the side in a vain attempt to avoid what was coming. As I did a vine slipped around Grey’s neck and yanked him backwards. 

“Hold him down!” Sprout yelled.

“Screw that, kill him!” Crackle yelled back as the Sparks came shooting down the street and swarming all over the downed man. He swatted at them, and in return waves of fire and bolts of electricity poured down upon him. 

For a moment I hoped they’d manage to deal with Grey. Either hold him in place or cripple him long enough for me to get Kira someplace safe, however, it didn’t take long for that hope to be dashed. 

Between the relentless elemental attacks I caught glimpses of Grey’s body. Every time he was about to get hit, there was a flash of milky white light, and the attack would just roll off of him. I didn’t know if he was reflexively defending himself, or if he had some sort of armor, but it was quickly becoming obvious that I didnt’ have long. 

I sprinted over to where Kira was lying, dropped to my knees and skidded up next to her. “Kira, can you hear me?” I asked as I leaned over her. 

She didn’t respond. From what I could tell she was either in shock or unconscious, not that I could tell the difference. “I really wish we’d they’d scheduled our CPR class earlier in the year,” I muttered, my hands hovering over her wound.

Just looking at it made me feel sick. The cut had been clean, but I was still staring at my friend's severed flesh, and everything was absolutely covered in blood. Rather than panicking I swallowed the bile that was crawling up my throat, took a deep breath in, and focused on the wound. 

“First step, stop the bleeding. Even I know that,” I muttered before pausing. “With what, though?” 

I stuck my hands into my jacket pockets feeling around for a handkerchief, tissue, or anything else I could use to stem the bleeding, but came up completely empty. I briefly considered ducking out to see if anyone had dropped a bag during the run from the van, until I realized how monumentally stupid that was. Grey was only a couple feet away after all. 

Kira moaned, shifting slightly and causing the blood rushing from her wound to splash across my jeans, forcing me to once again focus on the problem at hand. With no other option I shucked my jacket, rolled it up, and shoved it against Kira’s shoulder. The fleecy fabric sucked up the blood, almost instantly becoming sopping wet, but I didn’t dare let go.

“Annoying pests,” I heard Grey grunt. Although I couldn’t hear him moving over the constant crackling of fire and zapping of electricity, I could only imagine it was a matter of time until he got free, so I looped the arms of my jacket around Kira’s neck, pulled the impromptu bandage as tightly as possible, and tied them together. 

It was clumsy, looked terrible, and would probably come loose the instant someone tried to move her, but hopefully it would be enough to keep her alive. 

As I glanced back to check what Grey was doing my blood ran cold. I’d expected him to still be struggling with the Sparks, either pinned to the floor or just getting up, instead I found him standing over me, smirking.

“Not exactly how I’d triage a wound, but then again you looked pretty desperate,” he said. I glanced past him, hoping the Sparks would intervene again, only to find a milky translucent barrier surrounding the storefront. “I don’t know what sort of guardians you have, but I’m done messing around. Now, you have a choice. If you sit here and die with dignity I won’t finish your friend off. With a little luck someone will find her before she bleeds out. However, if you try and escape again I’m going to put a blade through her neck, and then I’m going to find you. Got it?”

“Well, when you put it that way…” I muttered, before glancing at Kira. “It sounds like I don’t have much of a choice, do I?”

“No, you don’t,” he growled. The little alcove darkened as he started to raise his hand. For a moment I thought he’d made his shield a little more opaque for some reason, until I noticed the hulking silhouette. 

Grey’s barrier, the same barrier which had completely shrugged off both the Spark’s numerous attacks and several rounds from Mac’s firearm, shattered like glass as a long, metalic arm seized Grey by the head and slammed him against the wall with enough force to shatter the bricks. 

I saw his armor flare a moment before impact, but considering the fact that he looked dazed and left a fairly large bloodstain on the wall when he was pulled off it again, it hadn’t been enough to completely protect him. 

He struggled feebly as he was torn through the remains of his barrier and thrown bodily across the street. 

I crawled forward, hands shaking. It probably would have been safer to cower in the corner, but I needed to know what had just saved us, so I peeked around the corner of the shattered defense and froze. “Tyberius?” I sputtered. 

He turned towards me, causing metallic plates on his centipede-like body to rattle as they scraped together, and smiled kindly. “Hey kiddo, sorry I’m late.”