Dance with Death

2

Blinding white lights and screaming voices.

That's all Arabella could see and hear. She laid on a hospital bed, being wheeled through halls into emergency surgery.

Arabella began to look around. She attempted to lifted her head, but screamed in pain. Her head fell back into the table as she sobbed.

She tried to remember what happened to her but all she could think about was the pain.

"Hold on Ella, you're going to be ok!" Finn cried beside her as he walk along side her bed, as she's wheeled through the halls.
Arabella looked around and saw many faces. She turned her head to the side and saw another person being wheeled beside her. She squinted her eyes trying to figure out who it was. Her eyes widened once she realized.
"Micheal?" Arabella weakly asked. Arabella looked up in realization.
"John?" She asked but she already knew the answer. Finn shook his head with tears streaming down his face. Arabella put a bloody hand over her face as she cried.
She was wheeled through a set of doors. Micheal's bed only laid a couple feet away, with nurses surrounding both of the bloody patients beds.
Polly was shouting and Tommy was trying to calm her down. Once he was done, he walked over to Arabella's bed.

His eyes glossed over as he watched his brother cry hysterically, as he held onto the woman he loves. This was his first time seeing them in a long year, and this was how he saw them. How he saw her.

Her skin pale and her breath heavy as she tried to not pass out from the pain. Tommy knew it was his doing that got her into this mess in the first place. If she died on that bed, he would never be able to forgive himself.

He walked over to her bed. Nurses crowded around her bed trying to get Finn to let her go.

"Finn, let go. Let the nurses help her!" Tommy said as he tried to tug his brother back. Finn began to fight back and Tommy began to fumble to get a grip on his younger brother.

"Arthur!" Tommy yelled for the help of his brother. The eldest Shelby came bursting through the door.

"I came as fast as I could!" He said quickly. He paused for a moment when he saw his cousin and the girl he saw as a little sister, bloodied and wounded on hospital tables.

"Hold him!" Tommy shouted, bringing him back to reality. Arthur took one of his brothers arms while Tommy took the other. They then used their strength to pull him away.

"Get him out of here!" Tommy yelled and Arthur took Finn to another room. Tommy sighed and walked over to Arabella's bedside to make sure she's still breathing. Tommy looked frightened as he looked down at the dead looking girl.

"Sir, you're going to have get out of our way." A nurse told him. Tommy's nodded and gulped down the lump in his throat. He began to turn to leave, when a hand shot out and grabbed his wrist. Tommy looked shocked to see Arabella was conscience again.
"I-if I d-ie, t-tell Luca, he k-killed his Bella." Arabella struggled to say. Tommy furrowed his eyebrows at the statement.

"Sir, please. We won't ask again." A nurse sternly said. Tommy nodded and walked off, not before giving Arabella one last glance.

Tommy walked down the halls of the old Shelby parlor. He entered a room with all of the closest family and friends. Everyone looked grim. Especially Polly and Finn. Polly had obviously been drinking.

Finn was a nervous wreck. He sat in a chair, jacket long gone, now only in his white button up and suspenders. He leaned his elbows on his knees, while tapping his foot, his hands red from ringing them out so much.

"John is dead. Esme's gone on the road with the lees. She's taken the kids. Arabella has three bullet holes in her stomach and two cracked ribs, from when John fell on her. Though painful, the bullets all miraculously missed her vital organs. The nurses say we can thank John because his body blocked most of the bullets and slowed down the ones that did hit her....." Everyone grimaced and looked down.