I See You

40

Nicola’s vision came back in blurs and flashes of color, next to him he could feel Lena touching his forehead and then touching his burning leg, he was surprised that the leg was still attached to his hip. The voices came to him in long stretches of sounds that he could barely make out, but he was sure that Ryan and Lena were arguing and his thoughts were pushing their way back to him in a wave.

Nicola tried to speak but his body was still trying to concentrate on the bleeding leg and on the pain, that had now turned into a burning sensation that felt almost unreal to him. The young man leaned his head to the left and made out the figure of Lena, she was pulling something from his hoodie, the cord of the hood, her mouth was moving fast and words that he could not make out were coming out.

“It’s going to be ok, Nicky, I swear to you” whispered Lena, Nicola could only see her back but he let out a grunt as she took his leg and passed something under it. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry” Lena kept sobbing, she was trying to keep the tears away from her face so she could tie the hoodie cord around his leg to stop the bleeding.

“Move!” barked Ryan’s harsh voice.

“I’m trying to do this correctly!” screamed Lena, she was scared but above all she was incredibly enraged at all of this. “But this won’t help for a long while”

“He won’t need it that long” Ryan’s voice chilled Lena’s skin, she tied the cord around Nicola’s leg as hard as she could and then turned back to Nicola, she gently cleaned the sweat and the blood off his face with a corner of her shirt that had been torn partially during the struggle with Ryan.

“Are you ok?” whispered Nicola, his throat was dry and hurt when he talked, he looked up at Lena as she cleaned his lips off blood.

“I’m fine” she whispered “I’m gonna get you out of here”

“Get him up” said Ryan, Lena’s head snapped towards him, her lips partially opened and her eyes flaring with anger.

“Are you serious?” she barked, despite the fact that Lena was very aware that Nicola had been shot, she had totally forgotten that Ryan was holding a gun in one of his hands. “How do you expect me to pull him up? It could make the wound worse”

“I’m not asking you if you want to pick him up” explained Ryan, “I am telling you to do it and to take him to the kitchen”

“Why is his voice so calm?” thought Lena “He just shot someone” she swallowed hard and the saliva down her throat hurt as it went down “How do you expect me to do that, Ryan?” she cocked her hear to the right, waiting for an answer.

“You won’t do it?” asked Ryan “Fine”

Ryan walked towards Lena and Nicola, the gun dangling in his hand, Lena watched him with anger and as he bent down next to Nicola and went to hold Nicola from the armpit.

“Don’t touch him!” screamed Lena, she reached forward with anger and pushed Ryan away from Nicola “Get away from him”

“Shut up!” screamed Ryan back, he aimed the gun at Lena and Lena turned into a statue as she looked down at the gun, Ryan turned to look down at Nicola.

Nicola grunted and pushed himself up by his elbows, he was panting but the last thing he wanted was for Ryan to shoot Lena there; with a high amount of panting and Lena’s gentle help, Nicola pushed himself to a sitting position and turned his eyes to Ryan.

“This is why I like him so much” smiled Ryan, he passed once more his free arm under Nicola’s arm pit and with one violent yet strong movement, Ryan pulled Nicola and himself up. Nicola grunted loudly and Lena jumped to her feet, and grabbed Nicola by the waist and leaned him over her, he instinctively curled his leg up a bit and the trio of hell started to make its painful walk towards the kitchen.